Hand In Hand Preschool and Early Development Center

Esther K. _{on Yelp}

Mar 1st, 2023

My son went to this school from ten months old until he was three years old. All teachers in his newborn class, toddler class, and another three-year-old class teachers were friendly and patient. We had no issue with the teachers until he moved to the three-year-old class. Although now he is six years old and he goes to public school, he often mentions how badly he was treated by one particular teacher, Ms. J. It is such a traumatic memory for him; he still remembers her name, although he was only three at that time.He said he had to stand at the corner of the classroom at lunch because he talked to his friend sitting next to him. Since it was before the pandemic, there was no issue with talking during lunchtime. The teacher was so nice to other kids, but she always yelled at him and disrespected him. I also witnessed multiple times the teacher yelling at my kid and pushing/pulling him so hard, making my son lost his balance and fall. I addressed this issue with the director, who moved him to another class. While he was there, he was loved and cared for by other teachers. It seemed the issue was resolved at that time. But my son keeps mentioning the teacher who was not nice to him and how miserable his preschool life was. It is just heartbreaking to me.

Rae _{on Google}

Feb 8th, 2023

Nice

Chandra S. _{on Yelp}

Oct 9th, 2022

We've been attending Hand in Hand for a short time now and I'm already seeing great improvements in my son! He is 2.5 and we decided to place him in school for social learning benefits. We travel often for our work and found he does better with this structured environment when we are home. We have tried one other school prior to this and pulled him out almost immediately because of how terrible it was, I placed us on the wait list here as it's close to our home and have heard wonderful things from other women in our community here. I was very nervous starting a new school but it was so worth the wait! I have to say as a parent and a person who also has previous childcare experience I am extremely impressed with the cleanliness of Hand in Hand as well as the efficiency of their staff.  The front desk receptionist seems very meticulous and on top of things. She has answered any questions we have had and helped guide us through our enrollment process and since with ease. My son has recently struggled with listening (he's 2 after all) and I can already see improvements. His teachers are amazing and honest with how his days are- good or bad, and offer us suggestions on how we can improve. I LOVE that. Open dialog is extremely important to us as a family and as parents we have to be receptive on how we can improve to help our children improve. (Working Hand in hand ;) ha!)  I really feel like I can trust his teachers and that has made my experience very comfortable.Anyways, I am very pleased with the level of care offered here. There doesn't seem to be a high turn around and anyone I've interacted with has shown my family kindness. Their classrooms are large enough for the children and they appear to adhere very well to child to teacher ratios. Another big plus in this city!If I HAD to critique anything I wish there was way more art but im an artsy person and im not sure if my son just misses that time because I pick him up early. So this could be a fault of my own. I also wish they either sent photos throughout the day or allowed the cameras they have to be shared securely with families. However- it's not a deal breaker like I once thought it was. They want the teachers to focus on the children not the phone apps and I can appreciate that. *If you are indegenious & an enrolled Tribal member they do accept the MBOP Tribal ChildCare. This is extremely sliding scale acceptance/not low income but a program to encourage native children to socialize safely locally* huge plus!!

Katrina L. _{on Yelp}

Apr 5th, 2022

My son went to this day care for 3 years and a half. He started from he was 1 yr old til 4 1/2. Im  definitely giving 5 star to this school. My son always came home very clean and very happy. He learned so much while he was here. I'm not even exaggerating he comes home and literally knows alphabet numbers  shapes colors write his name and a lot lot more. They even taught my son potty training and I just followed thru! I didn't really need to teach him when he gets Home because he knows alot already!! I just get surprised whenever  he comes home he knows a lot of things ! I am very thankful for all his teachers!! I Hope they see this post!  My son now goes to private catholic school because we moved further away but I'm already planning to enroll him here for summer School but  the one in Henderson due to distance. I'm hoping we have the same great experience we had here but I kinda expect that already!! Lastly if there were bad reviews here from Other parents .. read them and you'll Know why they gave the bad reviews  .. it's usually has nothing to do with school.... Just saying! Anyway This school is amazing!!! My son still Talks about his teachers and classmates here :)

Michelle V. _{on Yelp}

Sep 13th, 2022

Beginning with drop offs, let me tell you it is absolutely chaotic! So many kids at this age level, no way every single child can actually be taken care of the right way as well as be present to see what it is they're doing. My girl cried her eyes out every time we did the drop off, ( I was then told "oh yea since pandemic a lot of kids do this," no I drop my girl other places no problem. In the small amount of time I left my girl, I managed to see a little boy Chuck a toy across the room almost hitting a little girl, no one did anything bc they weren't even watching. Then I see another kid snatch a toy in such a rude way from another, & again no one watching. It looked like a mess on seeing this many kids, during drop off & pick up. A few days in, my daughter comes home and though she has trouble using her words, she managed to tap her head and say "momma baby hit head" I asked her if she was hit, she said yes. Mind you, this is a child that is constantly getting hurt, doesn't cry (she's child #2) she's a champ, she has fallen, got bruises & never expresses pain. So when she does, I know it's legit. I simply let the director know what my daughter told me so she can just check in. No big deal. During pick up my daughters actual teachers were just shoving her out with no words, I had to say "did they not share what my daughter told me?" 1st thing the teacher did, reacted so rude, says "as you can see there's no babies here!" I said "my daughter refers every child as baby, she's talking about a child, that's common sense she's 2." She reacted again, "well that didn't happen ok bc I would've wrote an incident report." That same day I called the director & shared exactly what happened & how disappointing it is bc the reality is, the simplicity of saying hey I didn't see it but it might have happened, that would have been good enough! On top of that I told the teacher, they have names on the window of all the kids & my daughters is misspelled. I asked The teacher to please correct her name... 3 weeks In never done! Ridiculous it's Peyton! I come to a pick up & boom, an incident report handed to me, that a child was swinging her water bottle &hit my daughter in the head & caused Her to cry, signed that and just sighed w/annoyance. The very next day! Another incident report, now I'm fed up! A child bit her on the leg & made her cry, what was told to me? "Oh she cried a little but was so good after, this age does that." What in the world!!!! Yea bc my kid is a champ that doesn't make it ok, I don't care if it's the age, my kids will not ever hit or bite anyone that's disgusting &shouldn't be tolerated! But no that wasn't told to me, instead "well it happens." Her actual teacher, again nothing said to me, her name still misspelled on window, &just sending her out. I had to tell the teacher how in the world she could have been bit&hit yesterday?! Teacher reacted offensively, saying "well it happens this is the age you can chat with the front desk." Ridiculous! I have the photo of her bite as her leg got worse. I chatted w/ the director on the disappointment & how overwhelmed these teachers look, this is too many kids and it's impossible for them to actually be watched properly, one is changing a pull-up, another taking one to the toilet, &the other kids being too much to one another. At the same time before I pick up, I watched in the windows how gross those ladies talk to the kids, one yanked a water bottle with a high rude voice saying "that's not yours" then I look into the 4 year old class just to see if their was potential as they get bigger, nope same thing. Teacher on both rooms the 2 yr old and 4-5 is busy writing for each kid w/ backs to them, while chaos is happening. So this school as I asked before doesn't believe they should have the camera app to share live viewing or photos of the kids, they said it's bc it takes away from the teacher being present. So wait, they rather write on a piece of paper all day for each child (more than 10 of them) when they eat, when they don't eat, when they go to the bathroom... again makes no sense. I saw it with my own eyes, that paper is worthless to me. Taking a photo of a child is actually a teacher being more present bc they're actually staring at the kids, not having their back to them. Lastly, I finally made the very hard decision to say no more. I asked for my money back since my daughter didn't even do 2 months, yet alone even a full 1 month & has been miserable since day 1. What I got in return, is my $150 registration & one week worth that my daughter was not even at the school due to medical reasons. So I didn't even get my entire amount back, the experience was foul, horrible, no accountability. Good luck to those that are leaving their kids at the place, I have nothing good to say about them anymore. I just would never make that mistake again!