Kiddie Academy of Cupertino

Excellent daycare for little kids. My daughter has been going there for a couple of months now and we see a distinct change in her. She learns new words every day. Academically, this daycare seems like an excellent choice. The facilities are great and always kept clean and hygenic. The teachers are friendly and take good care of the kids. They also have a CAM from where you can watch your child from your office or home and keep an eye on her.
The only reason I didn’t give them a 5-​star rating is this: I feel they don’t really cater to the emotional needs of the child. Past daycare we had our daughter at would brush her hair, but hairbands on them. There was a lot more of the caring than I see here. I may be wrong entirely because I’ve only seen them for a couple of months. Even the crafts are not as good or as much.
Another improvement that they could do is to have a good payment portal. Right now, they have a bland payment website that has very little info. Nowadays it doesn’t cost a whole lot to have a really nice website made up. Definitely needs improvement.

I love all the activities and enrichment my child receives. I also love how even teachers from other classes make an effort to say hi to my son. Everyone is so friendly, caring, and nurturing, I know that my child is left in the best of care. I also LOVE the Tadpoles app, receiving pictures of what he did at school, the video access, and the Facebook updates of my son’s class. It was hard to leave him at the beginning of the school year, but all of these traits of Kiddie Academy make it easier. Thank you!

Best day care ever! Thank you Ms. Angie, Ms. Vani and especially the infant and teacher classes that helped raise my kids! This is seriously an amazing place that is so clean!

Mary C. RN
Review of the «Kiddie Academy of Cupertino» –5 stars
After recommending the Kiddie Academy (KA) of Cupertino to yet another parent, we were very surprised to read some of the negative Unilocal reviews. Upon closer inspection, at least two of those reviews were from parents whose children had only attended KA for 2 days or less. One wonders what their experiences would have been if they had let their child attend KA a little bit longer. KA is a cheerful, clean, and well thought out environment. In addition, it far exceeds the student to teacher ratios that the State requires.
As anxious first-​time parents, we have only positive things to report about KA. We base our opinions on our child attending KA at three different class levels: Infant, Toddler, and Young Twos.
Our child began attending KA at the age of 11 months in the Infant room. Although we were somewhat anxious to have our child cared for outside of our home, we knew that she needed to start «socializing with her peers.» The Infant room is a very soothing environment where routines are maintained, and the teachers at KA were very attentive to our needs. For example, our child was described by our pediatrician as a «difficult feed» and the teachers at KA (Ms. Gina and Ms. Veronica), went above and beyond to make sure our child drank her warmed milk each day, and they took the time to feed our child the many entrees and snacks we prepared each day. The staff keeps detailed records of all of the children’s intake and output, which (as a nurse) is very important to me. We are also especially grateful to Ms. Veronica for noticing that our little girl was not walking correctly, which was subsequently confirmed and treated by a pediatric neurologist. We are very grateful for these teachers who attended to every aspect of our child’s health and growth.
Later, at around the age of 15 months, our little girl transitioned into the Toddler Room. This was a process that took several weeks of careful attention by the staff (including Ms. Angie, the Director) as our child acclimated to her new routines and surroundings. Each child’s transition starts with visiting and/​or having lunch in the new classroom. Our child eventually adjusted, thanks to the careful attention provided by the staff. We especially thank Ms. Erin and Ms. Lita for their cheerful demeanors, and the extra time they spent holding our child until she calmed down and began playing and exploring. While in the Toddler room, our child began learning very important «pre-​execution skills,» which will help her later in kindergarten (sitting at a table with others, listening whilst a book is being read etc.). As a person who has studied pediatric developmental milestones, the crafts, books, and teaching tools utilized by the teachers at KA are very age appropriate. The books they use for story time are very highly rated.
Finally, at the age of 24 months, our little girl transitioned successfully into the «Young Twos classroom.» Her transition went very smoothly, and she was excited about all the new crafts, interactive toys and routines. She still regularly visits her previous two classrooms to say «hello» and hug her former teachers. She understands how caring and nurturing her teachers have been towards her, and her growth has blossomed.
Each day, the students at KA are read to, they create art, and they exercise/​play outside. Whenever we have had questions for the staff at KA (including the Director, Ms. Angie), we have always received an answer promptly. Ms. Angie and Ms. Vani closely monitor all of the classrooms, and they personally know all of the students. Ms. Angie has provided information to us with humor, gentleness, and patience. After researching many daycare facilities, we feel very grateful that we were able to enroll our child at the Kiddie Academy of Cupertino. It is truly far superior to the others!

We enrolled our son here but after only one day took him out. He is an extrovert and very social, but came home begging us not to bring him back. We tried calling the director Angie several times over the next few days but she never returned our calls. When my son didn’t show up that week, they didn’t express concern or call us. I understand that some children have a harder time adjusting to a new daycare and I’m sure our son would have been fine after a week or two, but the issue we had was lack of communication from Angie and how she didn’t return our phone calls. We called her at least ten times, then finally showed up to her office the following week where she pretended to be all sweet but was firm in how we would not get our first month’s tuition back after sending our son there for only one day (and I had picked him up at noon that day so he was only there a half day). Angie even wrote us an email later saying it was our fault things didn’t work out. We would have been willing to try it out and bring our son back if she gave us the courtesy of returning our calls.
We placed our son in a different daycare in Mountain View and he loves going there. They are caring, engaging, and fun for him.

We only lasted 2 days with this daycare. The director seemed completely disigenuine. She talks a good talk (i.e. she’s good sales person for the school) when she’s getting you to sign paperwork and pay the deposit. But, after that, she is hard to get in touch with, flippant and even condescending. Not what you want when you are leaving your most precious people in the world under her care. The teachers seem immature and disinterested — you get the feeling that this is just like any other job to them, rather than their careers. I have more specific examples if anyone would like to contact me. Trust me… you can do way better than this place for your child… both price wise, and quality of care wise. We moved our child to a different daycare and the difference is enormous. Very happy that we got out of this place quickly.

Horrible !!.
I will not recommend anyone to put their child in this kinder Garten.
I was new to U.S. and had not checked the rating of this school and that was my biggest mistake.
Everything experienced same by me and my child as mentioned by other parents on Unilocal.This school is only aim to earn good money from parents and not at all take care kids.
Food: All Frozen junk food from Costco. At time of admission, we opted Pure Veg food and unfortunately we have seen our child is having chicken in her meal. Lucky we are, we reached ontime and observed this.
We instructed teachers to provide our child, warm milk as per Doctor recommendation but they simply ignored our request and start giving her cold milk. This incidence happened couple of time.
Teacher: Few teachers are not at all good and having very rude Attitude, specially one who only takes care her child. My wife even seen one teacher’s daughter to slap other kids and no action by them. We even observed our kid getting scared from teachers.
There are lot of such incidences and which I don’t want to repeat as lot of parents already mentioned in Unilocal.My child’s health had become worse and then finally we decided to quit.
**Suggestion to Director: Instead of arguing with parents, take feedbacks as positive node and try to improve.

I recently moved from the East coast. I had done a ton of research on daycares from Palo Alto down to Cupertino and visited over 10 facilities. Both my children are enrolled at Kiddie Academy. I could not be happier with the teachers and the program they offer. My children have always been daycare babies and I can confidently say that Kiddie Academy is one of the cleanest and well organized daycares out there. I still continue to visit daycares to confirm that my decision was correct and I haven’t doubted my choice. Every day care has its issues. Turnover happens and there are sometimes communication breakdowns. That is not unique to any institution. @Kalle W. For someone to doubt the school purely based on the fact that they have good reviews without visiting the school and making an educated decision makes me question the validity of your statement. Look at my history and you will see that I do not write reviews. Don’t honestly have the time, but her comment was so asinine I felt the need to respond. The decision to be a working mother is a difficult one. To add to that pressure, you then have to find caretakers that you feel are providing your children with the attention and care that you would or wish to provide. It’s not easy. Don’t take shortcuts in the decision making process. Visit facilities, ask questions. Do not base the decision on where to leave your child for almost 10 hours a day on a Unilocal review, but use these reviews to help narrow down the list.

I found Kiddie Academy on a whirlwind one day visit to Cupertino from LA. I was moving to the area and looking at most of the day cares up and down Stevens Creek Blvd. My son ended up there in their infant room and toddler room. This is not only the cleanest and newest place I visited with a wonderful outdoor play area, but with experienced care takers. Director Angie is professional and friendly, caring, and personally checked/​held my son often.
The infant room had teachers who were loving and have been working in the childcare industry for years. They are so loving that I felt at ease leaving my son there most of the day while I was at work. They did a lot of arts and crafts, sang, trained him to nap well, and talked to the children all the time.
During my first visit, I was touched that the toddlers girls were getting their hair combed into fun hairdos before heading out to playtime. The toddler room was also wonderful. They taught my son how to sit still and eat. Read to him often and he loved going there.
The school also had a video camera in each room so you may check on your child from work. I often times saw my boy napping or playing.
I was very sad when we moved again and had to leave the school. I miss all the teachers and Angie the director dearly and still keep in touch with them. They wrote us letters when we left and months after we have left, Angie mailed us photos of my son they found when they cleaned up. How thoughtful. We were not out of sight out of mind. They really care.

I want to update my review because I think Angie the director is a professional and nice person. She called me to clear the air about my experience and offer her apologizes to what turned out to be a confusing communication breakdown on their part. I appreciate her call and customer service.

My son attended Pre-​K class with Ms. Kathy here and his experience was amazing. Before Kiddie Academy he was attending another pre-​school and our experience there was pretty bad so, we were bit skeptical joining any other preschool. But, Ms. Kathy is truly loving, kind and excellent teacher and she helped my son a lot. She taught him good manners, how to interact with other kids and follow discipline. After starting there his academic as well art interests increased. He graduated from there with flying colors and had superb graduation ceremony. He was sad to leave Kiddie Academy and still remembers his old good friends and teachers.
He is attending KG now at Public school and we just had first parents to teacher meet, his teacher said he is one of the brightest student in the class. Thanks to Ms. Kathy !!!
All teachers there are amazing especially Ms. Brenda and Ms Vani
Ms. Angie is dedicated, loving, hardworking and very sweet talker. Her desire to care for kids and love is exceptional. She has best management skills and expert director here.
I think Kiddie Academy set KG foundation for my son and I would certainly recommend to others.
–Manoj M.

My son currently attends Kiddie Academy, and was one of the very first children enrolled, so we’ve seen the progress that Angie and the staff have made over the last couple years. We’ve checked out a number of other daycare centers, and Kiddie Academy was definitely the right choice, and we still stand by that decision!
When we first enrolled we were worried that the transition would be tough, and that my son — an infant at the time — would not warm up to the staff or environment. Boy were we wrong! His first teacher, Ms Erin, was the most loving teacher we could have asked for, and she made sure he was not only engaged with the very interactive environment, but she read to the students, sang with them, made sure they were all well fed, and overall just made sure they were happy.
We both tuned into the school cameras and drop in from time to time, and it warms our hearts to see our son playing, eating, and napping with other students so naturally — it reflected the level of comfort he has with the staff, students, and facilities.
Speaking of facilities, they’re incredibly clean! Our tours of other daycare facilities weren’t nearly as clean, nor did they smell as nice as Kiddie Academy. The teachers clean everything as they go, and if there’s a spill, it’s immediately dealt with. They also teach the kids how to eat and drink, which is always fun to watch :) On that note, I’ve never seen/​heard of any issues rationing food — Kiddie Academy has their own kitchen, accommodates multiple dietary restrictions/​preferences, and keeps my son well fed on a well rounded diet of meat, fruit, veggies, and dairy, so I have no concerns over quantity/​quality of food being served.
2 years into the school and our son is very well behaved (e.g. shares his toys, doesn’t throw things, puts his hands on his lap when his food is too hot), has incredible manners (which he takes home and insists on sharing with my wife/​I), and has developed an amazing vocabulary! Probably the best testament to the school is that my son doesn’t want to leave every day — he asks for «5 more minutes to play with his friends… pleeeease!»

I don’t normally write Unilocal reviews (who really has time when you have a toddler?), but I have had a totally different experience than a previous reviewer so I hope this review offers a different perspective.
Our now 23 month old daughter has absolutely loved the Kiddie Academy since the first time we visited when she was 3 months old. She gave the director, Angie, the biggest smile and we knew that the Kiddie Academy was the right place for her.
Here is what I know to be true since my daughter has been at the Kiddie Academy since she was 4 months old:
1. There have been several children who have transitioned to the toddler room without knowing how to walk. I have personally witnessed Angie and her teachers go out of their way to help those children have a smooth transition over whatever periods of time they are comfortable with. If a child isn’t walking and is 1 yr old (generally the age they move to the toddler room), the teachers give that child time in both the infant and toddler rooms so that they are comfortable but can also be exposed to the new environment. I have never been pressured to move my daughter into a room or go through a transition she wasn’t ready for.
2. I have never, never seen a teacher do a single dish in their classroom except for quickly rinse out a bottle or container that has been brought in by a parent. Curdled milk smells pretty awful so I always appreciated the quick rinse. All other dishes are done in the kitchen.
3. Both milk and food (non-​organic) are provided by the school for toddlers. Sippy cups are also provided. We provide a water bottle and I am unaware of any size requirement.
4. The #1 reason we chose to put our daughter in the Kiddie Academy (and continue to keep her enrolled there) is the caring, loving, stimulating environment they have created. She is always singing songs she’s learned (usually accompanied by a fair bit of dancing), talking about books they read and showing us art projects she does there.
We love Kiddie Academy and have highly recommended it to friends!

Kiddie Academy of Cupertino is the Cream of the Crop! My child has been attending about a year and a half, since she was 5 months old. She absolutely loves going to school every single day.
The care that she received in the infant classroom was amazing; Ms. Gina and Ms. Veronica gave so much love daily, and that’s one of the most important things you want when you have to leave your infant child in the hands of a daycare. You want teachers that genuinely love and care for your children. The school is equipped with web cams in each classroom, so you can check on them whenever your heart desires. Which, in the beginning, is all the time! Every time I would check the web cam, I was immediately reassured that I made the right decision. Ms. Veronica and Ms. Gina were by my child’s side as she learned to roll, eat solids, crawl, talk, and walk. Everything I would be doing with my child if I was a stay at home mom, I saw these wonderful teachers doing with my child and all of the children.
The transition to the toddler classroom was as smooth as can be. Ms. Angie, the Director, informed me when it was time to have her start visiting the toddler classroom and together we developed a plan to have her visit for a few weeks and then move her over permanently. My daughter was still using one bottle, but the staff worked with us in transitioning her from the bottle to a sippy cup after she moved over to that classroom. I have never brought a sippy cup of milk for my child since she started the toddler classroom nor was I ever asked to. There are two full time primary care givers: Ms. Erin and Ms. Jessica. To say my child has blossomed in this classroom is an understatement. She knows easily more than 100 words, can sing songs, dance, knows some of her letters and colors; my husband and I are amazed by her every day. And she is not the only one. Many of the children in the classroom have advanced language for their age. We’re talking 1 year olds here! It is easy to see how committed Ms. Erin and Ms. Jessica are to the children’s development. They plan numerous activities in the classroom that encourage the children’s fine motor, large motor and language skills. My office is covered with projects my child has done, and it warms my heart knowing she is having such a great experience at her school. In addition, all meals and snacks, including milk, is included in the tuition.
It is very disheartening to read the review of the parent whose child did not even attend the school. However, I will try to address some of the negative comments that were written. 1) I have seen non-​walking babies in the toddler classroom who were older aged and they learned how to walk while being with the walking toddlers. There is not a requirement for the child to be walking, but it is preferred for their own safety, so as not to be trampled by wobbly toddlers. 2) The sippy cup complaint is untrue. I brought in my own sippy cup for my child’s water for a long time, just because she was picky. It was 5 ounces. I was never once told it needed to be 10 ounces. 3) The infant and toddler program is full, hence why people register months and even a year in advance to hold their spot. When you tell the school you are planning on attending, and pay your registration fee and security deposit, you are considered enrolled. If a school turns away children because they are expecting your child to attend, and you don’t attend, you are forfeiting your 2 weeks notice. 4) The teachers do not wash any dishes in the classroom; they send everything back in a bucket for the kitchen staff to clean once they are done with their meals. The teachers are 100% focused on the children at all times.
I understand that reviewer is upset about his situation, but it is not right to criticize Kiddie Academy when his child never even attended the school; his review is completely invalid and is upsetting to me, as a parent who loves this school.
Just a last thought, when I watch my child on the web cams, I am always pleased. I see Ms. Erin and Ms. Jessica hugging the children, doing art projects, eating like a family at the table, and my daughter playing with friends. In addition, the director, Ms. Angie, is very engaging with the children as well. She is often in the classroom, helping if extra hands are needed during nap time, soothing a sick child, or just giving love to the children. If you are luckily enough to get in, this school is where you want your child to be each day.

My daughter was in Kiddie Academy for one year, from 8 months to 20 months. She spent half the time in the Infant Room and then transitioned to the Toddler Room once she started walking.
We had to move her to a daycare closer to home after we moved away from Cupertino, and we were so distraught about having to leave.
The staff at Kiddie Academy is fantastic. I would recommend the center without reservation. They know their kids as and really care about them as individuals. The teacher to student ratio in practice (on a daily basis) is lower than the publicized ratios, and there is an extra teacher and Associate Director who lend a helping hand across the rooms, in addition to the Director.
The core teachers in both the infant and toddler room are caring, loving and create a wonderful environment for the children. My daughter was quite attached to her teachers in both the infant and toddler room. In the infant room, Miss Gina and Miss Veronica helped us transition her to solids, cuddled and gave our daughter lots of 1:1 attention, and worked with her gross motor skills in encouraging crawling, cruising, and walking. In the toddler room, Miss Erin and Miss Jessica would plan fun toddler art projects, daily sensory activities, singing/​dance in the mornings, circle time for book reading, and would go outside for playtime twice per day.
Often it’s the people that make a difference, and this is definitely true at Kiddie Academy. The staff, leaders, parents, and other children are what make the center special.
It would be very difficult to assess a center without your child actually attending the school. I’m sorry to hear about the previous reviewer’s experiences at Kiddie Academy but it doesn’t accurately reflect my experiences with Kiddie Academy over the last year in the same rooms.

I have a daughter 22 moths old and she goes 3 days a week to this daycare, she started when she was 14 moths old and she did not walk at that time but she started in toddler class and she learned there, the teacher are really good with the kids (babies) and they help them all the time. My daugther was trained to do many things, that thanks to the dedication of her teachers. My experience is completely positive and I am very happy with the teachers, utilities, meals, activities and of course with the center. 5 start daycare.

My daughter is currently in the older two year old class. She started at this daycare in the toddler class. We could not be more pleased with her growth and maturity over the last year and half.
She has learned so much more than her letters and numbers; she is learning how to be a good person. She makes friends easily and impresses other parents (those not from Kiddie Academy) with how well she shares and plays with their children.
We started off feeling elated with our daughters growing vocabulary when she was in the toddler room. Our daughter did not speak for what seemed like a very long time. After starting at Kiddie Academy, she first learned some sign language from her teachers to help her communicate. Now a year later, she speaks so well that most people think she is older than she is.
After meeting the staff, we are excited for our daughters continued growth and transition in the coming years.
We would recommend Kiddie Academy to any family in the Cupertino area.

Update:
Within a few days of my review, there is a sudden influx of (6 total so far) 5 stars reviews of Kiddie Academy questioning or doubting my experience. 4 of them has no friend and 1 review. Is this unusual and abnormal? You be the judge.
When I write an update review to address the «doubts» in these reviews, within a day it got flagged for violating Unilocal’s policy of no duplicate and get it deleted. Very interesting.
Also all the 5 star ratings are «rated» as Useful, and these are all from dormant accounts that have not been writing reviews for 1 – 2 years. Very interesting.
Email me if you want my deleted update due to the lack of space here.
How should I begin? A daycare center that requires your child to be walking, self feeding, taking one nap only, and drinking from sippy cup as a requirement to their toddler class, telling you that your child should be ready at the time when you sign the contract and pay the registration /​security deposit.
1 month before the contracted start date, they call you on the phone and you tell them your kid is not yet ready. They say no worry because there’s still 2 weeks left and things could magically happen and they suddenly started walking. They ask you to bring in your kid for a few hours here and there to give your kid some peer pressure to encourage walking, sippy cup, and self feeding. The kid is just not yet ready and is still not yet walking.
Then by the time your kid is not able to met any of their requirement, haven’t started entering, and they offer your kid to go into the infant class instead. You declined letting your kid go into their infant class and decided to go elsewhere, and boom, you failed to give them a 2 week notice and you now lost your security deposit (although your registration fee is not refundable regardless), and they call you «still shopping around».
You argue with them about the insanity of 2 week notice from the contract start date because you and them haven’t even decided a start date (because your kid is not yet meeting their requirement). They start saying they did offer you the option of dropping back into an infant program, and they have accepted developmentally challenged students and have no problem. That they have rejected 7 other families for no space because they though you are attending (no, they didn’t ask you, they just say they are sure your kid will be ready), and then in the end they still say your kid isn’t ready and have to drop to an infant class.
And now it is your fault for not standing firm and tell them your kid is not ready, because they couldn’t do to you as they are not the parents, you need to stand up for the kid and tell them the kid is not ready. In the end they try to tell you to leave as the decision of whether to refund you or not is at the owner’s hand, not the center director (Angie), and she’ll be on vacation the next day and will let you know when she’s back in 2 weeks of the owner’s decision.
Rant off, let’s talk about the center, as objective as possible (I know, I’m still angry, but I’ll give you as fair of an opinion as I can).
The center is in a convenient location, it includes food (non organic), it has no sand box (which is great for avoiding the mess or kid eating sand), it has tight security, and a video system so you can watch how the kid is doing in school (and to deter child abuses), they open early and close late (6:30pm) and they don’t charge you by how many hours you drop your kid off, these are the pluses.
The center has tight staff number compare to the one my child is going to. Instead of a dedicated resource teacher that go around to help out, the center director is the resource teacher, so the teachers are always busy. Great way to save head counts, but when the care giver is stressed, they pass on some of the stress to the kid (my wife saw that with her own eye). Nothing physical or mentally abusing, just a stressed parent yelling at kids being kids kind of attitude, if you know what I mean.
They optimize their requirement to reduce workload of the teachers (to save money from hiring more people). They ask you to bring in 10oz sippy cup so they do not have to refill the liquid as often (but 10oz is heavy for a 1 year old kid, remember that), the classroom is just big enough to meet regulation, the teachers have to do all the dishes and cups between handling the kids. It may be good enough, it may be not, depends on how much attention your kid need (i.e. cry easily? tantrum? a bully in the class? etc).
That’s as much info as I can get without actually putting my kid there. In a way I’m glad that my kid didn’t qualify, because I’m sure I’d be not satisfied just by the way they handle the refund, and how it is your kid’s fault for not meeting their «requirement» (which is just a way to save them labor so they can maximize profit) to enter their