Kiddie Academy of Port St. Lucie

I’ve thought about this review for some time. My grandson went to this school and it was an awful experience for him as well as the entire family. He cried and begged not to be dropped off. We picked him up early everyday because he was not interacting with teachers and cried a lot. The owner said “he was immature and had to stop sucking his thumb” he was 2 and I agree the thumb was an issue but he has since stopped. She said if we tried another child care it wouldn’t be any better. She said he needed to learn separation. I knew she was wrong about all this and of course she was. My grandson and his younger brother subsequently started another day care and the difference was night and day. From day one he was playing singing coloring building blocks playing with puppets and doing crafts and science activities. He now goes to Apple Tree in Jensen beach the staff is hands on the place is full of toys and enrichment toys. The playground is more than awesome. It would be great for Angie to visit Apple tree herself and see what a difference there is in the two child care centers. My grandson was sad and miserable but only stayed 2 weeks as that was more than enough chance and time. Was not a good experience The Kiddie Academy center off Darwin is clean or appears to be but lacks toys lacks enrichment and lacks qualified interactive teachers. Crying toddlers is a red flag

The staff was very friendly, and the director was as well. I loved my son’s 3 year old teacher Ms. Tiffany I felt that she really wanted work on the development of my child one on one but unfortunately she had too many kids in her class with the assistance of one other teacher. In my opinion the ratio was horrible for his age range but the director would say otherwise. I watched the cameras often and saw that the kids ran around mostly with a teacher taking a few kids to the side for activities at times. My son just turned 3 and I felt that he needed some work with tantrums but they expected him to be reacting as a 5 year old to certain things. No child is perfect but the director was quick on her feet about removing him instead of working with us as the parents to implement some type of structure within his classroom as we do at home. She smiled, she called him cute, she acted like she knew what she was talking about but had very little solutions to help me keep him under their care comfortably. The numbers meant more to her than the development of the kids. It is all understood that biting, pushing, and tantrums are hard to work with but he was 3..........that’s what they do and they have to be taught otherwise along with the parents at home. The teachers were not able to work with my child due to the number of children in his class and that’s bottom line. The director has 30 years of experience but i surely couldn’t tell. My parents also agreed. I would not recommend this daycare to anyone unless they have a child for VPK.

I had my daughter in this school for about two months she never learned anything in this school. And after going she had nightmares And the director said it was from separation. When I know that was a lie because she goes to my family and stay the night and never had that happen ever. They don’t use the proper writing tools for pre k they use skinny pencils and not fat. I’m sorry but I’m by the book they’re not gonna learn or learn to write with out the right tools. They make rules and cannot even enforce them… They didn’t even have open house or meet and greet the teacher to make parents comfortable… because of Covid “get over it” that isn’t a good enough excuse anymore. I don’t recommend this school because also I bought each student a small pumpkin and wasn’t even thanked for and along with my school supplies I wasn’t thanked. As a parent you wanna be connected with your child’s school and I felt very unconnected with them. They say the director has been doing this for 30 years I find that hard to believe when the school isn’t properly ran. Lots of parents have issues and she says the same thing to all them “I never had an issues in my school” when I know four other parents having issues. Not really honest with parents. I wouldn’t have even given this school one star. I’m sorry but also my child was sick her last week not one time did anyone ask me is she okay or something happened. Nothing but the second the director knew I was withdrawing my child out the school. Phone calls and text messages were coming In. They don’t care about the children they only care about money. And it really truly speaks for it self

Every year I call for summer camp info… and every year they tell me they will have the director give me a call back with info & availability. It’s funny, really. If the director does not do well with getting back to prospective enrollments, or does not have the time - train & provide the information to another staff member who can assist in answering basic questions.

Reviews are a serious things. Therefore this is my honest opinion and not a mad rant. I believe this school may be great for some people, it is clean and organized and some of the teachers are very nice and caring. However I, unfortunately, had a very poor experience. I did not feel my kids were given appropriate attention and supervision by some of the staff. I also never felt like my kids connected with some of the them and seemed like they just were not comfortable at school. I am a very relaxed mom and very understanding, kids fall, they get hurt, etc. No big deal, so I'm not one to make a scene, after all, life happens. However this was more careless behavior from their part than simply life. (Again some teachers really cared and are very nice, yet...) My girl has recently learned to use the toilet, so I do expect her to have her accidents and get dirty. So when she came home smelling like pee, I did not make much of it. However this continued on day after day. Pants and shoes with a real strong smell of pee yet dry. She had clothes available at school for changing, so if she got dirty I expect her to be changed and not to be sitting all day on peed clothes. After the benefit of the doubt and two weeks later, I brought it to the attention of the management. Yes they did understand that it was not appropriate and tried to fix the problem, but the explanations just never seemed to make sense. Plus the problem was never why she was peeing herself, it was why she was not getting changed. It all just left a sense of insecurity that was just not fixable and so I decided it was best for my kids to go to a different school.