Pasadena Preschool Academy

Most Recent Comments

• May 2024 by MarcosyNerea
  Both our kids went to Pasadena Preschool Academy, and we couldn't be happier! Ms. Lisa and Ms. Arlene are fantastic, caring & loving, and extremely devoted to the kids. The facilities, playgrounds, and classrooms are clean, updated, and well stocked. The teachers and caregivers there are devoted to keep your kids safe, happy, entertained, and engaged, ensuring that they learn and develop to become their best selves. I wish I could give them 10 stars!!! If you are on the fence, do not hesitate to ring their door and talk to them; we did just that, and did not hesitate to enroll our kids right there and then.
• April 2024 by Ashley Nguyen
  After enrolling my daughter, I noticed the classrooms also did not have much for books and toys for the kids. This was sad for me to see, so I voluntarily from time to time donated jumbo crayons, construction paper, air clay, and Melissa and Doug toys as well as books so the children could have more to play with. The kids are usually there for long periods of time, I can't even imagine how bored I would be to have next to nothing for arts and crafts let alone books.Teachers - My daughter went through 4 teachers in a year and a half. This school has a high turn over rate of teachers and families enrolling and then leaving. I had gone through several issues with the teachers either being dismissive, passive, or extremely unprofessional sharing personal detail about other families and their child being "a menace".I won't mention names but the one that has stuck with me from the beginning was when my daughters first pre primary teacher cautioned us which kids were autistic and not to have play dates with them in the case the child's parents would reach out to us. The drama between staff is also very apparent, and was openly shared amongst myself and other parents whom I have met during our time at PPA.My 3 year old daughter was also accused of "telling stories" by her teacher when she had come home to tell us that her teacher told her to be quiet when she got accidentally hurt at this preschool facility. I had asked the teacher about the incident and the teacher, in front of me, asked my daughter why she was lying. I could not believe this teacher has been one of the few longest standing teachers yet she shamed and blamed my daughter out in the open the way she did. How humiliating and discouraging for a toddler!Another two incidents that was extremely alarming was when I picked up my daughter early during lunch and I overheard a floater tell a child not to spill his water or he wouldn't be given anymore and another time was when I watched another floater let a child scream and cry during nap time and not tend to the child. I brought this up to the director because:Why are children not allowed to have water after accidentally spilling. Why is this type of communication towards these children normalized? I am still mind blown. They are here to learn about the world we live in.Why is a "trained" employee who works at a preschool, watching children nap, able to sit back in a chair and let a child wail for her mom and not seem to have any sign of empathy towards the child? (I brought this up and the director said she was still new and training). Trained or not, this was extremely unacceptable and grounds for neglect. How this floater was hired is beyond me.Overall care - My daughter was neglected here, on all fronts and I find myself to be responsible to have waited this long to take her out of PPA. I take responsibility for choosing this school for her because I was desperate to go back to work and help give her some form of socialization and education after her first two years of life cooped up at home from the pandemic. Because of the high turn over rate and how she was poorly treated, she now displays behavioral issues. This is after being bit many times, scratched, and verbally bullied by other children and it not being corrected in the very beginning even after I emailed multiple times, have had many meetings, and changed teachers. What's strange is that many of the times she was injured, her teachers did not see how it happened. But when she retaliated, it was documented in full detail.After she started retaliating after growing tired of being constantly picked on, (she is very small, the smallest in her age group). I picked up on their lack of wanting to help us as the year has gone by whenever we would drop her off and pick her up. They branded my child as the child no one wanted to be around, and that they couldn't help us. Side eyed glances, annoyed smiles are all details I pick up on as an extremely intuitive individual.TRUST your gut when touring this pre
• September 2023 by Eden M.
  I just started my daughter in this school and she absolutely loves it. They require the child to be potty trained and my daughter wasn't at the time, so we practiced for 3 weeks and she was potty trained when she started She tells me how much fun she's had dancing and coloring and playing with other children. The drop off and pick up process is really simple and effective. They have an awesome playground that she loves to run around on! Even during pick up time. I'm really happy with the school and the staff!
• July 2023 by Nutter B.
  I had 2 kids go through PPA and had a wonderful experience. While over the years we had several amazing teachers I wanted to mention 2 in particular. Ms. Flora taught my children between the ages on 1 and 3. She had the difficult task of seeing them through the difficult pandemic years, she kept them safe, engaged and loved. To this day, my kids ask to visit her just to give her a hug. Ms. Teresa, who taught both my children in the AP/TK class was always warm, open, communicative and supportive. My daughter decided she wanted to write stories and Ms. Teresa encouraged and supported her, even inviting her stories to be read at circle time to her classmates. This gave my daughter a lot of confidence and a sense that she was important. I cannot stress how special that is. Thank you to the entire staff at PPA for a safe and enriching preschool experience.
• January 2023 by Amber R.
  The teachers who have been working with my daughter have been soooo amazing! Her teacher Ms. ViVi is the most patient, sweetest, caring teacher for my daughter. A literal match made in heaven. Between her and Ms. Teresa, my daughter is truly thriving. Ms. Teresa always reassures me every morning that my daughter is okay as mornings are rough for us both. She is always a breath of fresh air in the morning and never fails to make me smile after a rough morning drop off. Everyday they make me so proud with news about my daughter and her successes. I know that when she goes to kindergarten 23-24 she is definitely going to be ready. Still 5 stars for me! Also, Ms. Danni! She was AMAZING and very observant!
• December 2022 by Tia Robinson
  We absolutely LOVE PPA and are so happy with the learning and care our daughter received there! She started in the toddler class with she was 2.5. She had a hard time at first (as most kids do) but as soon as Ms. Teresa would take her she would stop crying and let us leave. About 6 months later, Covid hit and the school closed down for about 5 months. When they reopened, with many Covid protocols in place (smaller, separated classes, individual supplies so there was no sharing, a check in and out system which included symptom checking, etc.), I thought she'd have a hard time going back, especially because she was going to be in a different class with a different teacher but she thrived.She is very intelligent to begin with (knew all her shapes, colors, numbers to 10, and could sight read the alphabet and some words by age 2) and they were able to continue to advance her skills. She would come home reciting her numbers and colors in Spanish, plus they have a dance teacher come in twice a week (which she loved) and a music teacher once a week. They also have a soccer coach come in and my daughter is very competitive and loves playing soccer so that was another positive for us.She made so many amazing friends at that school that I hope will always be in her life. The teachers are lovely, caring and fun. The staff is positive and easy with whom to communicate. They serve nutritional food for breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack and all this at an extremely reasonable tuition. We can't say enough great things about this school and we are so lucky that we found it.She has now started Kindergarten and though she is learning French at her new school, she will occasional still speak Spanish at home. We continue to have play dates with her friends from PPA because they are all so close and the families are just as lovely. We definitely loved our time at PPA and recommend it wholeheartedly!
• December 2022 by Michael Lee
  We have been coming here since the pre-pandemic days and so far it has been great. My older son went through PPA until kindergarten and my younger one now is in PPA in the toddler class. The teachers seem like they really care and both my sons love it there. Even my older one goes back and shows the teachers his toys since he remembers all of them. My younger one continually talks about Ms. Ashley and Ms. Flora. He loves them. Today one of the teachers called my son the heart of the class and just the other day one teacher gave my son a Spiderman toy for his birthday. Man... they care. I love it. I can't praise them enough.
• August 2022 by T R.
  We absolutely LOVE PPA and are so happy with the learning and care our daughter received there! She started in the toddler class with she was 2.5. She had a hard time at first (as most kids do) but as soon as Ms. Teresa would take her she would stop crying and let us leave. About 6 months later, Covid hit and the school closed down for about 5 months. When they reopened, with many Covid protocols in place (smaller, separated classes, individual supplies so there was no sharing, a check in and out system which included symptom checking, etc.), I thought she'd have a hard time going back, especially because she was going to be in a different class with a different teacher but she thrived. She is very intelligent to begin with (knew all her shapes, colors, numbers to 10, and could sight read the alphabet and some words by age 2) and they were able to continue to advance her skills. She would come home reciting her numbers and colors in Spanish, plus they have a dance teacher come in twice a week (which she loved) and a music teacher once a week. They also have a soccer coach come in and my daughter is very competitive and loves playing soccer so that was another positive for us.She made so many amazing friends at that school that I hope will always be in her life. The teachers are lovely, caring and fun. The staff is positive and easy with whom to communicate. They serve nutritional food for breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack and all this at an extremely reasonable tuition. We can't say enough great things about this school and we are so lucky that we found it. She has now started Kindergarten and though she is learning French at her new school, she will occasional still speak Spanish at home. We continue to have play dates with her friends from PPA because they are all so close and the families are just as lovely. We definitely loved our time at PPA and recommend it wholeheartedly!
• May 2022 by Amy H.
  We recently moved to the Pasadena area and I relied on yelp to help me find good, reliable daycare for my one and a half year old son. I generally do not write reviews, especially negative ones but I felt obligated as this is how I found out about PPA (Pasadena Preschool Academy). His primary care provider was amazing and the only reason we stayed there as long as we did (approx. 8 months), the other workers were not so kind.Overall my son attended PCC less than 50% of the time, I actually started keeping track on a spreadsheet because I couldn't believe how many times they called to have me pick him up, take him to a doctor and keep him home for 1 to 2 days. On several occasions when I called his pediatricians office to make an appointment, they would not let me come in because they said a runny nose is not a reason to have your son come in. I ended up needing to use teladoc so they could write notes for him to come back. One of the times he was sick (with a cold), I kept him home for almost 2 weeks and the day he returned, I received a phone call a few hours after dropping him off, saying one of the workers hear him cough and I had to come get him and go through the whole gamete again. I absolutely understand not wanting sick kids to be in a daycare setting, I feel like they took advantage of their "covid" policy and of parents. I am a single working mother and was at risk of loosing my job. There were a few other concerning incidents that I feel compelled to mention:I witnessed on several occasions one of the workers snatching things out of other kids hands in an aggressive manner, my sons behavior started to change at home as a result. I had to find an alternative daycare (which took time with waiting lists) but he eventually got into a fantastic daycare and we are so happy. Several months after my son was no longer at PCC, I received a phone call saying that my son had a little diarrhea and that I had to come and pick him up right away. Apparently they didn't realize that we were no longer attending, YIKES!!
• May 2022 by Peter L.
  My younger son goes here now and loves it. He has loved all this teachers Maria, Sylvia, Teresa, Tilly and Elizabeth. Everyone is so kind and help create a great learning environment. You can tell how happy most of the kids are when at the end of the day a lot of kids want to stay and keep playing in the yard. In 2020, when everything was in lockdown, he was asking every day for months when school was going to reopen. The first day it did, he bolted out of the car and ran right up to the front door so excited to be in school again!
• December 2018 by M Flanders
  Our son has gone here for about seven months and we are very happy with it overall. The teachers are loving and attentive.