Growing Tree Academy Preschool & Childcare Center

I cannot say enough about Growing Tree. My eldest son went through Growing Tree and when he finished Kindergarten he knew all 50 states and the capitals. He has since moved on and my youngest has been there for 2 years now and he is thriving. His primary teacher is Mrs. David and she truly loves her job. He respect her and learns so much. All the teachers are great you can tell they all love their jobs. You walk in and the classes are filled with happy children and teachers great everyone by first names and say good morning to the children. I feel safe and content when I leave my child in the teachers hands for 8 hours a day.
I highly recommend Growing Tree for your children. I looked all over Vista for a preschool when we first had our children and I’m so glad I went with Growing Tree. It feels like my sons home away from home.

I am confused about the previous review about the toddler room and transition from infant room to toddler option; our experience has been entirely different. My daughter is thriving in the toddler room with the hard-​working caregivers there.
My daughter has been going to this daycare since she was 12 weeks old and loves all her caregivers there. She also started transitioning to the toddler room this past fall (I think about a month after that previous review was posted?), but she made the transition quicker than we expected in part because they do have teachers from each room work in different rooms on occasion (so that the kids are familiar with them).
They have not forced potty training on my daughter; I have dropped by multiple times during the day unannounced and NEVER once seen lines of kids being forced to try the potty. Our experience: they did let us know when my daughter started asking for the potty and asked for our permission to let her start trying to use the potty. She doesn’t ask to use it every day, but they do make a note of the days she tries /​celebrate when she does use it successfully (with a sticker that she proudly wears all the rest of the day/​evening). Which is pretty much how I’d expect it to be.
The daycare has also been exceedingly easy to work with us on our choice of using cloth diapers, which I am not sure every daycare would have been. One added bonus with cloth diapers is we can see every day how many changes my daughter has had. It is always at least every two hours, but was often more when she was younger (where she’d have 6 – 7 changes in 9 hours).
My daughter has never had her lunch or snack not offered to her for a day. In the toddler room especially, they have a regular schedule of snack times and lunch time, and if you drop by during that time, you can see all the kids sitting in or around the table. The caregivers will make a note and mention it at pick-​up anytime my daughter seems less/​more hungry than usual, which tells me that they really do pay attention to each kid in the room every day.
They have fun, educational themes every week with tons of activities — we come home with a load of artwork every couple days. Just last week they had ponies for the kids to ride, which my horse-​obsessed toddler LOVED. At just 2 years old, my daughter can name all the colors, so many animals, some of the letters, some of the numbers, and how many years old she is – among other things. (Her pediatrician says she is right on track developmentally.)
On the whole, she has her share of tantrums (because, well, SHE IS A TODDLER!), but she is also incredibly sweet and loving and active — and she showed no signs of behavioral changes this fall or anytime before /​after that would signal any level of neglect or abuse (?) that the previous reviewer alluded to in either the infant or toddler rooms.
We did have some difficultly in the first few months there with expectations of bottles sizes for a breastfeeding baby /​pumping mom (and I may have cried frustrated tears in the parking lot a few times after finding out that they unnecessarily dumped an unused bottle of pumped milk or gave my daughter an extra bottle only minutes before I arrived to pick her up), but I think it is mostly because it is rare for babies to be exclusively breastfed /​given pumped milk when going to full-​time daycare. But otherwise, our experience has been positive.
Additionally, webcams would be nice to be able to see a peek of my daughter on the days when I need a pick me up at work. All of my coworkers have their kids in daycare facilities that have them so I am not really sure why Growing Tree doesn’t.

Our son has been in the baby class for almost a year now. He loves all the teachers, and its easy to see they love him too. He always brings home fun crafts, and is happy when we drop him off in the mornings when he sees his friends. The school is rarely closed, the office communicates quickly and thoroughly via email, never had any billing problems. We highly recommend this great school!

Had you asked me three weeks ago, I would have raved about this daycare. My son has been here since January 2013; he was 9 months old. He loved going to daycare and he would excitedly yell his teacher’s name. His teachers, Ms. Angelica and Ms. Yasmin, were loving, caring, prepared for the day, and professional. I didn’t not worry for one second while my son was in their care.
Three weeks ago (on a Monday), the school had several «staffing changes.» The owner, who I had never met in 10 months, began «teaching» in the infant and toddler rooms. Since he was almost 18 months old, he began visiting the toddler room. While in the toddler room for the second time ever, my son was not fed for an entire day. When I asked about why none of his food was gone, I was told it was «an oversight» on their part, and that my son was «active». The owner also told me that she personally fed him 4 small slices of banana that day, so she knew he ate something. My son’s diaper was only changed twice in 9 hours. He was not given anything to drink. I was asked what his allergies were because his new teachers didnt know.
I immediately started searching for a new daycare, and on Wednesday morning asked that I be let out of my contract with Growing Tree. When I picked my son up on Thursday, he was sitting alone in a play pen while the other kids in the infant room were playing with the teacher. I asked about it, and was told that he was jumping and playing on the play structure and they didnt want him to step on the babies who were laying on the floor next to the play structure. When I looked at his daily report, it showed that he hadn’t eaten much. When I unpacked his lunch, it became clear why: They had mixed his turkey, cheese and crackers with pears and peanut butter snack crackers. He wouldn’t eat that combination of food (WHO WOULD?!) so he just didn’t eat for another day. They basically treated him like a dog, and dumped all of his food in a bowl together.
I have since found out that they were forcing toddlers to potty train. The toddlers were lined up on the wall and could not go play until they tried to use the toilet, whether or not they were ready, needed to, or wanted to.
Do NOT send your child here. The people you want working with your children are few and far between. The staff moves between rooms, so you never know who will be caring for your child. You will be lucky to have your child make if through this daycare without being neglected, disciplined for ridiculous «offenses» or verbally abused.
My sweet, loving, gentle son has turned into an angry, frustrated little boy who screams gibberish and speaks with such venom that it is shocking. He is not the only child from the center whose personality has changed drastically in the last month. I know of at least two other families who have pulled their kids in the last few days due to the neglect and down-​right abuse their kids have faced since the owner started getting more and more involved.
Ms. Rita, Ms. Angelica, and Ms. Yasmin were the three amazing people at Growing Tree who seemed to really love my son and treated him like a person. Besides those three, I would not trust my child with anyone from Growing Tree.