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April 2023 by Agnes Martinez
My daughter has been attending stepping stone school for about a month now. She is delayed in speech and socially withdrawn from children her age. She receives speech and occupational therapy. Her therapist do provide their services there with her at the school. Since enrolling her at Stepping Stone Hyde Park she is now finally saying 2 word sentences and playing with other children! She is no longer withdrawn and no longer just pointing at what she wants she is finally talking! Thank you ms. Akayla, Ms. Alicia and Ms. Diane for working with her and teaching her how to count and how to initiate conversation with her friends! She has grown so much both in her speech and socially! Thank you Ms Robyn for always being so helpful! ❤️
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December 2022 by Christen Lucas
We are so happy with our choice in sending our daughter to school here. My husband and I both work full time, and it was really difficult to drop her off at around 3 months old when I returned to work from maternity leave. This school has been a dream come true. Our daughter has been attending for nearly a year and a half, and all of her teachers have been great. Promoting Jessica to a leader of the school was an excellent choice. While all of the teachers have been great, I know our daughter is well taken care with Jessica close by. We really like all of the teachers and have seen our daughter develop real life skills from her school. Food is also included, which is very convenient. Would definitely recommend.
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December 2022 by Sam and Sanka Fernando
We've had some ups and downs over the years, but ultimately our daughter loves her teachers, and the curriculum has been great. Reading another review that was negative talked about issues with putting them in other diapers not provided by the parents which is true, and everything that review mentioned has unfortunately happened to us but I genuinely feel it's due to a lack of staffing which I fear every daycare is facing. An example would be the inaccurate reports in the parent app where they report 3oz offered, 3 oz given when we're bringing 5oz bottles. I figured it's probably better they're focusing on watching the kids rather than updating an app, but I would love if there was time for them to improve their daily reports. They have always loved my girls and tell me stories about their day at pickup. The older classrooms don't have the problem with the app as much.The lack of staffing leads to having classes that many times combined in order to meet daycare ratio guidelines and that means my child may not be in in a classroom with their own diapers readily available. I feel this campus does the best they can with the resources they have. We've gone through at least 5 principals in the 3 years we've been there. The current principal, Robin has been the most genuine and helpful so far. Alicia is my daughter's teacher and she provides great updates when I'm able to see catch her at drop off/pickup. We get multiple pictures sent daily which we love. Overall there's room for improvement but my girls are fed and taken care of so I will continue to keep my girls there. My daughter is also extremely bright, loves singing, has developed strong friendships and I feel like a lot of her personal growth is due to the work and curriculum at Stepping Stone.
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December 2022 by Derek K
Our two year old daughter has been enrolled at Stepping Stone Hyde Park since she was about 3 months old. We have been very pleased with their staff and programming. Teachers seem very interactive and seem to care about their work. Several of the teachers have worked at this location since our daughter was an infant. Staff are communicative and easy to get in contact with. We get daily written, and photo / video updates. We are expecting another baby and plan to enroll our soon to arrive child at stepping stone as well. Highly recommended!
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December 2022 by Doohyung Lee
It has been 4 months since sending our daughter to this place. Overall, I feel like she loves her teachers and the school. We can also see she has a good time in the activity they provided in the pics and videos they sent us on the app. It is also great to hear from the teachers how my daughter’s day was when we pick her up. They also provide empirical advice for us from their experience, which is really helpful for us as a first-time parent.
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December 2022 by Clay Holberg
Big fan. Every morning the staff greets us and takes my update on feeds. Every evening they give me an update on how things went with my kiddo - and I know they’re paying attention because we talk about her personality quirks and her progress. I get snapshots of experiences she’s having, and there’s an email/app update on my way home every day. The school population health updates and protocols have been helpful, and are delivered personally so that I can ask questions - which is huge as a new parent. For any full school issues, they send out emails as well. Most importantly, my little beast is happy.
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December 2022 by Jamie Garza
We've been sending our son to "school" since he was 3 months old and now 6 months later he is flourishing. Stepping Stone gives us confidence and peace of mind knowing he is actively learning, engaging with peers, and genuinely cared for while having the freedom to just be an explorative pre-toddler. The teachers are honest and caring and Robyn, the principal, is fully present. We want to continue to give our son the gift of private, personalized, education and Stepping Stone can provide that for years to come - thank you for all you do!
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December 2022 by Lisa Lee
We started our son at Stepping Stone Hyde Park this spring at 18 months and have been very happy there. I know it's an enormous task for the teachers to keep up, but the daily reports, photos, and videos through the Tadpoles app are awesome (assures us he's having a good time) and helpful when we settle into our evening routine at home. Another big selling point for us was that they provide snacks and lunch -- a godsend for working parents. It's so fun to notice all the new things he's learned every day (words, motor skills, holiday customs, life skills) because of being there.
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December 2022 by Andrew Salazar
We absolutely love this place! It’s amazing to see our son grow mentally, socially and emotionally by having such a wonderful daycare to keep him stimulated!
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November 2022 by Shannon M.
I love Stepping Stone Hyde park. I have two little girls who have been going there now for 19 months. They take such good care of my girls there. My girls love their teachers too, I. In fact they refuse to leave school before they have gotten hugs from their teachers. Jessica and Robyn are always very helpful if I need to track down a tuition statement or even a missing coat or beloved stuff animal. My oldest daughter comes home and tells me about all the things they learned each week, whether it's how to count to 20 or the days of the week in Spanish or even how we all have skin and bones. Every day I leave my girls there I know they will get the care and stimulation that they need.
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November 2022 by Daniel M.
We started our oldest son at Stepping Stone in March 2020. And then pulled him out a week later while the entire world shut down. But, incredibly, Stepping Stone stayed open, and they clearly did so with a plan, because it took until about 18 months into the pandemic before we heard anything about a case there. And so after a few months we sent our oldest back, and then sent his brother there when he was born a couple of years later.I've been continually impressed by Stepping Stone: like their materials say, they have a clear strategy for curricular progression, but more importantly in my mind both of my kids love going there, have fun, and talk fondly (and frequently) about their teachers and the friends they've made there. Like others have mentioned, there's been some turnover in the past three years (especially at the director level), but if anything the lack of disruption to day-to-day operation speaks to a level of professionalization throughout the organization.
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November 2022 by Reed H.
Stepping Stone in Hyde Park is fantastic. Our daughter has been attending for a year now and we have nothing but glowing reviews. She started in the infant class and has been in the toddlers for a few months. Every time we drop her off, she runs to another child or teacher and gives them a big hug. Very heart warming and comforting when dropping them off. When picking her up, we are met with excitement followed by an exhausted nap in the car from her long day of playing and interacting.In addition to her enjoying daycare, we can tell there is an actual curriculum followed by the teachers that has been advancing her periodically, if it's sign language to help communicate, social skills, motor skills, or her obsession with books.Stepping Stone in Hyde Park is a great safe place for your kiddo accompanied by a staff that actually cares for each children and want's them to develop into the best person they can be.
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November 2022 by Joshua B.
We've had both our children attend this campus for years, been very happy with the staff and trusting overall of their care and accommodations.
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August 2022 by Jada Kennen
Unfortunately, I would not recommend this daycare to anyone. As first time parents who work, we really wanted a daycare where we felt our little boy wouldn't be just a number. We toured/paid a hefty fee to hold a spot months ahead of our due date because of the potential of many daycares not having availability for a 6-8 wks old infant. We felt it was a really tiny crowded place but my coworker at the time had raved about when her son had gone there a couple years prior and it was close to the hospital I worked at. We believed everything we were told by the Director of the daycare at the time and it was the best place we had been to. Little did we know that the Director/staff at the time would not be there months later when we started. Yet we hoped for the best. At our tour, we were told we could communicate all day with the teachers through the app they use, but that was false. The Tadpole app, which was extremely glitchy, could only be accessed to communicate with staff before drop off and then you would have to call the daycare for any other thing. Problem is they hardly ever answered the phone....many times we could not get anyone on the phone at all at any time of the day. The staff also actually admitted that they barely even looked at the Tadpole app. I even resorted to email but could never get a response that way either. We were promised photos/videos/updates everyday since they didn't have cameras and received barely anything the whole almost 5 months my son was enrolled. They barely gave us daily reports through the app. We were lucky to know how many diaper changes he had or how often he was fed in a day. When we would try to get a full report/pics/updates, it would always be an excuse or felt as though we were inconveniencing them. Then we started noticing that he would be completely dirty ( crusted eye/nose boogers, crusted food on him and clothes) when we picked him up. He would come home in diapers that weren't ours that we provided. We would always ask if they needed more supplies (i.e. clothes, diapers) and provided them, just for them not to use them. We also wondered if he just stayed in the bouncer all day as well. The teachers even told us that they will never pay attention to how many ounces are in his bottles or in which order they should feed the bottles as indicated (oldest breast milk first to the newest). Maybe they were lazy, overwhelmed, or all the above. There was ONE teacher who was with them for a couple of months who gave us hope in their capability to care for our son. She gave us daily updates etc., everything that we were told initially we would get out of their daycare experience. When she left, we knew we were going back to the same. They literally told us they forgot to feed him his baby food/bottles. We felt helpless/hopeless since we had done an extensive search/tours of daycares in the city and could not find an affordable daycare that wasn't wait-listed. We felt duped, told one thing and constantly given the bare minimum, if that. We wanted to tell corporate but didn't want our son to get treated badly due to us speaking out against the location. We were new parents who didn't know what was normal for daycare practices to begin with. Looking back, we should have taken our son out sooner. I'm hoping this review will either change how this daycare operates or warns parents about what really happens when you leave your child in their care. My advice to other new working parents is to just stay away from this place. It's not worth the headache and worry you will feel, wondering if your child is being taken care of. The only redeeming quality this place had is that they did stop our automatic payments after my spouse was abruptly laid off from work and we gave our notice 3 days short of a 2 week notice. FYI: We moved to another city and have been in awe of the amazing daycare service provided.
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September 2021 by Lee Roy C.
Our son had a great time during his 4 months at Stepping Stone. It's in a good location, and we liked that it was a smaller school. Everyone knew his name and genuinely cared about him. He learned so much during his time there and we are thankful for the time and attention his teachers gave him everyday. They also implemented several COVID precautions, which helped us feel more at ease about sending him to school. As with most child care places, there was a bit of turnover, but every principal and teacher we met was kind and caring.
