Beginner Steps Daycare LLC

Beginner Steps is great! My daughter thoroughly enjoys her time with Debbie and all the friends she has made there. The facilities, both indoor and outdoor, are superb, fostering a great environment for playing and learning. Every week, Debbie introduces new projects that my daughter can’t wait to bring home and show us. Debbie's projects are remarkably creative, demonstrating her dedication to creating fun and educational experiences for the kids. I’m continually impressed by the new words and concepts my daughter learns here. Debbie is very communicative, providing daily photos and updates. You can tell that she really loves what she does and all the kids she cares for.

I started my son at Beginner Steps when he was 3 months old, and we have entrusted her for the last 20 months. I feel completely comfortable leaving him in Debbie’s care. As an early childhood teacher myself, I really respected Debbie’s background in education, her extensive experience in daycare, and her communication. I wanted a place where my son was under the care of only 1 or 2 adults- i didn’t want him being passed off to many teachers. I also love the small, family-like feel between the children and their families. My son has developed beautifully under Debbie’s care!

I can't say enough good things about my son's previous daycare! Debbie, who runs the program, is absolutely fantastic. She is meticulous in her approach, ensuring that every detail is attended to and that the children are in a safe and nurturing environment. What I appreciate most is her easygoing nature; she creates a warm and welcoming atmosphere that both kids and parents love.

Where do I start!? My daughter has been attending Debbie's daycare since January when she was 16 months old. The first several months were a difficult transition that was exacerbated by the fact that our family had to move several times since my daughter was born. This constant moving caused insecurity and instability in her life that deeply affected her, and she was too young to effectively communicate and process her ever-changing environment, so she struggled. She refused naps, she wouldn't play with other children, she would kick and hit other children, and at times she would scratch herself in frustration. During this difficult time, Debbie provided continuous communication and support about how she was doing and always made time in the evenings to talk to me about my daughter's struggles, progress, and how we could work together to help my daughter. Debbie always - always - prioritizes the well-being of the child, and makes (well-educated and informed) suggestions when she feels compelled to do so. Sometimes, that feedback is hard to hear (and hard for her to give), but it's important and necessary. Despite how hard things were for those first few months, Debbie never showed any signs whatsoever of resentment or frustration towards my daughter. I could tell that she deeply cared for her, despite the turbulence. While this was happening, Debbie also suggested that we contact the Birth to 3 program and apply for Early Intervention services for my girl. I took her suggestion, and we assessed and enrolled my daughter to help identify her triggers, teach her coping strategies, and implement suggestions for us to improve her environment. She has now been doing EI for several months where the specialist visits my daughter at Debbie's facility, and Debbie always makes time to learn from the specialist and implement the strategies on her own throughout the week. Of note - many daycares will not allow EI or others to provide services at their facility, but Debbie is more than happy to open her doors to anyone and learn strategies to help her kids. My daughter is now thriving in all areas, and I have her to thank. Her openness, flexibility, patience, and dedication to helping my daughter through this time has been more than I could ever ask for in a childcare provider. Importantly, Debbie's facility is a place for parents and Debbie to work together, side-by-side. This is not a "drop your kid and forget it" daycare. This is a woman who is absolutely dedicated to your child's happiness and success, and with that comes the necessity that parents are willing to listen and accept feedback, implement suggestions, get necessary professional support when needed, be communicative, and work together. Now for the good stuff - Debbie is a fantastic teacher that my daughter loves. My EI services specialist has raved about her and how much she loves to watch her work with the kids. Every day my daughter comes home with a new art project, and she spends a TON of time outdoors, year-round, because Debbie has a beautiful outdoor patio and backyard for them to run around in. They play with water and get wet (we keep a swimsuit there!), they grow butterflies from caterpillars, they feed the birds, they learn their colors, letters, and numbers and solve puzzles. Debbie is also completely up on her child development knowledge and skills and practices "time-in" vs "time-out" (supportive processing of a behavior or emotion rather than isolating a child to process on their own). They read many books, and best of all - no screen time! Most importantly, Debbie is a trustworthy and safe space for my daughter. I know every day that when I drop her off, I don't have to worry, and I look forward to being there for years to come!

So my 2 years old son who is speech delayed kid went to this daycare and Debbie told us that she has experience with kids who are speech delayed and needed special attention when we asked her as specifically. But when our son started going there he couldn’t cope with other kids and Debbie couldn’t do any thing to make our son comfortable and from day 1 she started texting us that she can’t handle the kid all after taking month worth of fee from us. We understand that every kid is different and need to be treated differently and we didn’t see Debbie putting an effort to do that. In fact my son stayed there only for 2 hours crying at her daycare and we were asked pick him up in the noon. I believe this day care is for kids who can easily fit in Debbie’s schedule and routine. We didn’t find Debbie motivated enough to take care of our kid who has developmental delay even though she told us that she has experience in managing such kids. Also we never got any refund of the money that we gave her for 4 weeks even when our kid stayed there only 2 hours crying for 3 weeks and for that reason I wanna give 1 star to this day care. I would highly recommend anyone sending their kids to this day care to pay weekly rather than monthly so that you don’t incur losses if Debbie is not able to manage your kid.