Kiddie Academy of Irvine

My daughter started in the toddler room at the end of August so we have about 4 months here. When we moved from Newport Beach to Irvine I was nervous about transitioning daycare. I’m very pleased with Kiddie Academy. We paid way more for fewer days in Newport and my daughter constantly was getting sick and had diaper rashes (and they even had a smaller teacher to child ratio). My daughter loves her 4 teachers and the new friends she’s made. She’s constantly bringing home art projects and the teachers have lesson themes that are changed up through the month. Her vocabulary has exploded– they are counting, singing, abc’s, learning manners and more. Considering she’s not yet 2, I’m very happy w the decision to move here. She’s flourishing in ways I’m not sure she could if she was just at home with me (being honest here!).

My son has been attending this daycare for a little over a year. He started in the older infant room and instantly fell in love with all the teachers (especially Ms. Caroline!). All the teachers in that room are amazing and really made him feel comfortable. He’s moved up to the toddler level now, and the teachers have taught him so much. He comes home talking up a storm, singing his abc’s, and is happy to go back every morning.
I visited a lot of other facilities before deciding to enroll him at KA, and trust me, what i saw (and smelled) was terrible. Sure he gets sick every so often, but its daycare. C’mon people, what do you expect?! Some of the reviews below are totally over dramatic. And the people complaining about the food, give me a break! I’m happy if my child is eating — costco food or whatever, i could care less. He likes whatever they’re feeding him, and that’s good enough for me.
We love KA and have been very satisfied with their care of our child. There isn’t one daycare out there that is perfect, so the one star reviews are ridiculous. No one is going to be able to care for your child like you are, and if you’re going to complain, then maybe you should just stay home and watch your own child.

Absolutely shocked at some of the reviews on here about Kiddie Academy! Thankfully I went with my gut feel about the place and ignored some of the unfair reviews!
The only thing this place lacks is a decent video monitoring system (important for me as we have moved here from overseas and want the grandparents to have access to view the kids).
If you are looking for a sterile, lifeless boarding school type complex, then this certainly isn’t the place for you or your children. I have an 18 month old and a 4 year old attending here and I am extremely grateful they attend Kiddie Academy! The moment you walk in, you are greeted by two of the warmest, friendliest and caring people in Amy & Laura. Both are so lovely and jovial but more importantly, they genuine care about the well being of my boys.
However, it’s the teachers (carers) who are the genuine superstars — if the interaction and reactions from my kids is anything to go by! You can’t ask kids to fake affection towards their teachers — but the moment I drop them off, I become chop liver and become but an afterthought! From Ms. Amber & Ms. Lena (infants) to Ms. Ally (toddlers) and Ms. Flavia (4s) I couldn’t ask for a better of group of teachers to look after my most important possession!
Do not kid yourself, you will be hard pressed to find a better venue in terms of value for money and overall care for your child’s well being and development than Kiddie Academy of Irvine. Do ME a favor and sign them up here! and then request better video monitoring systems so my parents can get off my back!
To borrow a line from the movie ‘Big Hero 6′ — «I am satisfied with my care!»

My daughter has been attending this school since she was 2 years old, she is now 10. This is the school that taught my daughter her abc’s and 123’s, they helped me with potty training her, which I thought seemed impossible at the time. This school prepared her for her first day of kindergarten, and continues to help her with homework as she is now in 4^th grade. She has developed many long lasting friendships at this school. Kiddie academy makes every child feel special. They do a wonderful job of keeping a sense of order in their classrooms and are great at tending to each child’s personal development. They discipline in a positive constructive way (positive reinforcement) that sets a good bar of what is acceptable behavior while at school. I love the open line of communication between the teachers and parents. It’s been a wonderful school for my daughter and I’m thankful for all the loving people at kiddie academy for creating such a welcoming, and nurturing environment every day. I 100% recommend this school.

My wife and I must have called & toured what seemed to be every daycare center in Orange County. We were discouraged until we visited Kiddie Academy of Irvine. Needless to say, we found the best possible place to care for our daughter. From the beginning fell in love with facility, amenities, schedule & price! The facility is top notch, very clean and offers indoor & out door play area for those cold rainy and blistering hot days. They also offer a away to view your child’s class room from your own home/​office through their system, now that’s peace of mind! After seeing all this, I figured it was going to cost a fortune, however it was the BEST value by far! Kiddie Academy was open the earliest & stayed open the latest. It offered all food for the day and is prepared by their in house chef. Most of all, their scheduling is second to none, most day cares close 2 weeks during Christmas break and still charge you. However, Kiddie Academy is open during Christmas and this was a big selling point for us because we don’t have to take time away from work. Last but not least, the staff is simply amazing, from the front desk staff to our daughters teachers. We feel they truly care and love our daughter. There is no better feeling knowing our daughter is safe and well taken care at Kiddie Academy of Irvine. Last but not least, the management team are truly a blessing, they care about you and are willing to help!

My son has been attending this school since he was 5 months old. Now he is in the three year old class and I have been a very happy dad. He comes home with all these happy stories of what his day consisted of. They do curriculum– I have had friends take their kids to preschools that really don’t– so that was important to me. As a baby I felt he was well taken care of. Never had an incident that my wife or I can remember. The front staff is always attentive if I have a question, and they always seem to know what they are doing even though they may look young! My wife feels she can trust them, and the school, which is very important to me. We are having our second child and that promoted me to write a review because I know where we will be signing up at!

My son went to this daycare for about a month until we decided to pull him out and send him to another one.
This daycare was horrible for us! My son lost his voice the first two weeks from constantly crying. Almost every time I went to visit, he was left alone crying. He would either be in the bumbo crying alone, or on the floor crying. The teachers always had some sort of excuse as to why he was left alone. It seriously broke my heart and I cried so much seeing my son alone.
Every time I dropped him off, I would write on the sheet to feed him every 2.5 to 3 hours. However, they would not go by this and would feed him every time he got fussy! One time, they fed him 3 bottles within 4 hours. I was so fed up about that and they used the excuse «he was so hungry!» or «he must be going through a growth spurt!» when in fact they feed him when he cries and then he just knocks out to sleep from being so full. They don’t even write down the correct times for when they feed/​change or put them to sleep. I dropped my son off at 8:45 AM and when I came to pick him up, they wrote that they fed him his first bottle at 8:30 AM! How does that make any sense?
Also, another day that I dropped off my son, I walked into the room and one of the teachers was on the floor clipping her toenails with the baby clippers that I saw another teacher use on a baby the previous week! When she caught sight of me, she sort of just stopped what she was doing and acted like she was just sitting on the floor. Then she casually walked up to the trashcan and threw her toenails away. Another time, another teacher was getting fed up because one of the babies kept crawling towards her and the other babies and kept trying to take a toy. She got mad and picked up the toy, and threw it across the room and yelled «GO GET IT». I was so shocked…
This place tries to «attract» parents by saying they have cameras and we can log online to watch our babies, but the camera quality is horrible, it lags and the screen switches to different cameras randomly. My husband and I visited our son every day during lunch just to make sure he was okay.
Their changing table is in the same room as the infants and they always spray down the pad with this chemical after every change. Because of that my son came home smelling like that chemical every single day.
Last thing that I REALLY do not like about this place is that they have a sign in front of the infant room door telling all parents not to bring in older siblings or toddlers. This makes perfect sense since toddlers tend to carry more germs and can get the infants sick. However, toward the end of the day, when the teacher ratio is off, they bring in the remaining toddlers and their teachers into the infant room. This is how my son got sick! One of the toddlers was sick and playing near my son and then my son got really sick. He had a fever that lasted a week long and kept coming back and now he’s been sick for over 2 months. We had to take him to the ER twice and he has had his blood and urine drawn 3 times now. We now have to see a hematologist to draw his blood for a 4^th time!
I am so glad that we took him out as soon as we could. Now he’s in a more loving daycare and I have never felt so relieved and reassured. I seriously hated Kiddie Academy and will never recommend this place to any parent!

Just as any new mom, I was worried about leaving my child with strangers.
When I scheduled my tour, I questioned the owner, director, and teachers. I wanted to make sure that this was the right place for my child.
I was happy with the staff, but thrilled with the teachers!
My daughter loved spending her preschool years at Kiddie Academy! Toddlers are going to be toddlers, from bickering with other kids, to having a hard time adjusting to change, but the teachers made my child, and myself comfortable.
The front office has their hands pretty full trying to make sure everything in every classroom runs smoothly. They don’t have a «nurses office», if a kid gets sick or hurt the staff makes sure to take excellent care of those kids! From putting ice on playground injuries, to trying to comfort a sick baby, they do it all!
When I had my second child, I wanted to see what other centers offered.
I interviewed many other daycare providers, and I personally didn’t find a good fit for my family. I called Kiddie Academy once again, because I knew I would be happy with the quality of care my child would receive. I was right once again!
My son has now been here for 4 years, and we really are happy with the level of care!

The initial connection you make with the parent and child makes all the difference. The experience they walk away with from that initial contact determines if they’ can trust you with their most precious possession. If you do build a great experience, they’ll tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.
I called this Irvine location looking for information, so I could enroll my daughter for the following year. I was told I could come in for an visit in the early mornings to see how the drop process worked. I told the young lady I would let her know, to set up a time. I forgot about it, so she called me a month later and invited me to come the next day for a walk-​thru and tour of the facility. When I arrived at the scheduled time, she acted as though I was a casual walk in. She didn’t remember my name, or inviting me for the walk-​thru. She was preoccupied and I had to ask questions about the facility and the teachers repeatedly for her to answer me. She was holding two conversations at the same time; one with me and other with the ladies at the front desk. She handed me some pamphlets and I never heard from her or them and she’ll never hear from me. Customer service or attention to the customer was not shown her. I don’t want to leave my child in that kind of environment.

Fact — no one will take care of your child like you can, so is it safe to agree we have our own opinion how a day care should be?
My son has been going here since 2, going on 2 years and had moments with other children like you would expect any child to behave. Rather then going on a rant about pros and cons, my rating will speak for itself. I agree, there could be days where things can improve but there are weeks where I am pleased with my son’s progress. I think we’re human and when you have a 1:4, 1:6 or more ratio of the same age group — we should all think to ourselves if we can do their jobs.
I’m hard pressed to find another day care like KA after observing multiple locations between Cypress and Irvine that serves fresh food every day and keep kids articulate without a single electronic device or TV 99% of the time.
Passing judgement at the interview stage is unwarranted. I’ve met parents going here for years, I recommend others to give it a try. Last I overheard, there is a reservation list — so what value would you place on a 1 star review?

my child was in this place for a year and a half. i put her in here since their tuition fits into my budget. first thing i didn’t like was that they have very quick turn around time. teachers come in and out and quit all the time. my daughter never had same teacher for more than 6 months here.
another thing is all the teachers are very young (except the infant room). they look like they don’t have much experience and are under paid. you look around the wall or board… or even the school letter, there are bunch of misspelling all over.
they offer kid’s breakfast, lunch, and two snack a day. great deal… but their menu is awful and not healthy. they claim everything is fresh made from their kitchen. but everything they offer is frozen food from costco. chicken nuggest and pancakes… don’t expect your kid to grow much from here…
one of the main reasons i decided to take my child out of this daycare is because of biting issues. she kept getting bite marks daily. not a small one. major big ones with clear teeth mark that would last few days to go away. once or twice incident is acceptable since a lot of kids bite. if they know that my daughter keeps getting bite, the teacher should keep an eye and watch out through out the day. well, that never happened. she kept getting bites over and over and one day some kid pulled her hair out that she had a tiny area on the head with absolutely no hair. why do i pay $ 1000 a month to them when my child comes home with like this?

My son was 4 months old when he started at Kiddie Academy. Like another reviewer mentioned, I thought that being able to see the infant room on video would make me more comfortable. I was wrong. What I saw was an extremely large 1 year old hitting my infant, and children left on the floor to fend for themselves. If they’re quiet children, they get very little attention while the adults sit in rockers with the noisy children. It was THE WORST experience and after one month of him not taking naps, being put on the floor to fend for himself and my having to go to the facility during every lunch hour to make sure that my son would eat and be held, I had ENOUGH. The Irvine Child Development Center had an opening and we couldn’t get out of Kiddie Academy fast enough. The staff in the infant room isn’t trained and the owner is friendly, but lazy. I would frequently seeing grandparents and parents sitting in the infant room to care for their babies. It’s just so wrong. I’m sad that I put my child there for even one month, and don’t want others to make the same mistake.

I would not recommend Kiddie Academy. My child started at 4 months old and we loved the infant room. However, there is a tiny, filthy older infant room that my child was moved to that was a nightmare. The caregivers were flaky and neglectful. They do not always abide by state guidelines of ratios. My chid had an allergy that was not paid attention to and caused me so much stress. I felt physically ill having to take my child there until other childcare was arranged. I have heard many stories from other former Kiddie Academy parents that feel the same way I do. Protect your children, do not go to Kiddie Academy.