Tierra Encantada - Ford

My son has been at Tierra Encantada for 8 months, and has loved it! He has the biggest smile on his face at drop off and pick up and adores the teachers in YPA. He says every animal he sees in Spanish, and is learning more every day to the point where he’s teaching me Spanish! We've referred a family friend and would definitely recommend Tierra Encantada to more families!

Our daughter started at Tierra Encantada about six months ago, and she LOVES it. I was pretty nervous for her to start daycare because she had been bottle hesitant, but the teachers are amazing. Somehow, they got her to take her bottle, and within a week, she happily too a bottle with no issue at each feeding. So glad we decided to go with Tierra Encantada!

Tierra Encantada is our son’s second home! Nicolas feels loved, has lots of fun, eats healthy food, and learns every day! He not only loves his teachers, Ms. Macarena and Ms. Maria, but also the entire TE community and his friends! He started 6 months ago at TE only speaking Portuguese, but now he also speaks Spanish and English! We, as parents, really appreciate the school’s curriculum and the fun, warm, clean, and beautiful environment. Our son is always happy to go to school, and that means everything to us! Gracias, Tierra Encantada!

Tierra Encantada is a truly special place where you feel like you can trust each and every person to truly care for your child. We have an infant who is in a small class room and receives a ton of attention all day long! The food is excellent for our child, too! The best thing about Tierra Encantada are the people. The teachers are thoughtful, attentive, and give the little ones so much love; and the staff is always extremely supportive and responsive. We feel like our baby is in an extension of our home

I am the grandparent of a little boy treated callously by people both at Tierra Encantada’s Alexandria Ford franchise and the Minnesota corporate office. With direct knowledge of a situation that our family found to be painful and frightening, I am compelled to address the response to the review by the child’s mother, “Integrity Matters.” First, the reviewer did not allege maltreatment. Rather, she became seriously concerned when school personnel seemed to be hiding something from her that was captured on a video. Second, it was the child’s parent, not the business, who contacted the state licensing agency. Third, after viewing camera footage (a clear video, not a grainy, distorted version as the parent had been shown), the inspector cited Tierra Encantada for safety violations. She describes observing multiple children (specifying that the reviewer’s child was not one of them) engaged in unsafe behavior in the indoor gym, while four staff members present did nothing to intervene. The inspector’s report is public information. It is available on the Virginia Department of Social Services website, where Tierra Encantada Ford is listed under its business name, Alexandria Day Care LLC. Meanwhile, when the three-year-old asked his mother repeatedly why he could no longer go to his school, she tried to explain what had transpired in a way he could understand and would cause him the least additional hurt. He told her, “No, no, Mommy. I wasn’t hitting my head. I was pretending to be a pachycephalosaurus.” The little boy loves dinosaurs and knows their different traits. He had been imitating a “Baby Pachy” cartoon toddler song on YouTube. Tierra Encantada could have been the kind of place the company’s marketing, and a response to Integrity Matters’ review months later, profess it to be. The actions of people in charge, however, both at this franchise and in the Minnesota corporate office, speak louder than their words.