Mini-Skool Early Learning Centers – Dupont

I love how challenging this school have made my munchkin Ariane Price. She hates to leave the school because she is so happy and comfortable which makes it easy for me not to worry all day at work over her. Mini Skool showed my husband And I how easy it is to potty train a 2 year old which was a challenge. I am so blessed we found a school and not just some daycare. I love that my child is learning new things everyday. Thanks Mini Skool You Rock!

Let me start off by saying, I searched for quality childcare for my son for an entire year. I toured facility after facility and could not find one that lived up to my expectations of care.
The second I walked into DuPont Mini Skool, I knew I had found it and now, later, I am still confident that my son (almost 3 yrs old) is in one of the best childcare facilities in the area.
Aside from the compassion and attention my son receives, the overall organization of this place is amazing. They know what they’re doing. I am so impressed by the daily emails that detail what my son ate, how long he napped, what he read, sang, played. It helps that on the way home, I can ask him specific questions about his day. Just the other day, I randomly received a call from his teacher while the kids napped. She was just «checking in» to update me on how he has adjusted and allow me to ask questions about him and his day.
My son has a heart condition and spent a large portion of his time as a baby in the hospital. Due to this, he has a weakened immune system so sanitary conditions are very important to me. The classrooms are CLEAN. They smell like home. Not like harsh cleaning chemicals, not like dirty diapers, but just like a home. I know that germs from friends will come with the territory of being in a daycare setting, but it’s obvious that the teachers take necessary precautions to prevent it from happening.
The curriculum is age appropriate and my son has grown so much in the short period he has been here. His speech has improved and you can tell that he is excited about learning!
I would recommend this place to anybody and I am willing to bet, they would thank me for it.

I like the location and the building. It is in a quiet and safe neighborhood. The rooms are on the larger side compared with several other daycare centers we saw in the south sound area. Their teachers are nice and friendly. They are willing to work with parents on the education of their children. The communication is always timely. The front desk is friendly, flexible, and responsive. They use apps to provide real time report to parents, which I like the most.

It’s almost 2016 and our recommendation stays. Hands down best early education center around. It is a clean warm and loving environment with teachers who truly put their all into their work. The education portion is fun and top notch. My daughter has been with the center for 3 years now and our son for 2 years. We absolutely love this center and highly recommend it.

I highly disagree with any negative reviews on here for DuPont Mini Skool.
I am EXTREMELY critical of childcare centers… I’m not kidding. I am extremely picky, and I do not settle for subpar childcare because the safety, wellbeing, and growth of my children are so important to me.
This school does not disappoint.
The amount my kids have learned just blows my mind. My daughter learns a new song several times a week, they make fun projects and have curriculum «theme weeks» every week, they potty trained my daughter (from exclusively in diapers) in less than 2 weeks when it had taken us a year with no progress, and taught my son how to walk when he was struggling with it at home. My daughter is 3 and is able to explain to me how volcanos work and draw detailed people.
Always so clean. I have never seen signs of uncleanliness, ever.
Staff is great… there is NOT a lot of turnover. What they previous Unilocaler forgot to mention is that several of the teachers here are military spouses, so when duty calls, they have to move. Currently, my son’s infant room teacher put in her notice because she is going back to school to pursue her Master’s and will work part time, if possible, in the future. I would take all of that over lazy, uneducated, careless teachers any day. I think they really put effort into hiring great people, and it shows.
If there are minor accidents/​injuries with the kids, which happen at every single school, you will get a detailed report every single time. If it’s something more than just a minor accident, they are on the phone letting you know as soon as it happens, which I seriously appreciate.
Their hours are great — open early (5 or 5:30 I think?) and close at 6pm.
Location is AWESOME! It’s tucked into a residential neighborhood, so it feels more secure than somewhere out in the open, but it’s not too far from I-​5 and the main roads. Takes me just 2 – 3 minutes from the freeway to get to the school. I currently work at JBLM, so the location is amazing.
Heather and Jody, the ladies up front, work hard and really care about all Mini Skool families.
If it weren’t for relocation for work, my kids would be in this school as long as possible.
WE LOVE MINI SKOOL IN DUPONT!

Bottom line up front: We highly recommend MiniSkool!
Our son has been in the infant room since JUN2013, and we could not be happier with our experience. The staff is caring and knowledgeable, and they have earned our trust completely. Our son is nearing the age where he will need to move to a new room, and this comes as a sadness to us because of how well he is taken care of in the infant room.
I cannot speak to the experience of the first reviewer; my family’s experience has been completely different, and we highly recommend MiniSkool!

I came here while I was still pregnant and on the waiting list for JBLM daycare, this was to be my back up or possible full time daycare for my daughter. I came for the tour and left my name on their wait list for around the month my daughter was to be born. The front desk employee made it known that they were a high demand daycare and that it would be in my best interest to leave a nonrefundable deposit to make sure I was called as soon as an opening came up. Well I decided not too, and regardless a month after my daughter was born I received a call that they had an opening. Well at the time I declined and they let me know that they would have to go down the list and I would lose my chance, and I was fine with that. So another 3 weeks go by and my leave was coming to an end and the on post daycare still didn’t have an opening. So just on a whim I called this place to see if they still had that opening, and sure enough they did. I didn’t make it known that I was called 3 weeks prior, all I said was that I had received a call about an open slot for the newborn room and that I was wondering if they still had it available. This is where I should have ran! She told me that yes there was an opening still available and that I must act quick and put a deposit asap because she had other interested people who were going to take it if I didn’t. I’m sorry but by that lie alone, I should have known how sales targeted they were, and that is NOT a place you want to take your loved one to receive care. It shows how poor their ethics are. Little did she know that I knew for a fact that they were waiting to fill that spot for at least almost a month, yet she was thinking I had no clue that they were looking for people for that long.
So it gets worse from here… I started my daughter off in their newborn room at 8 weeks, mind you that as soon as she had her 8 week shots at 6 weeks she had already been to Oregon, Cali, Vegas and in the plane for 2 round-​trips and never once got sick or anything. well unfortunately that changed. Her first week she got sick followed by pink eye! I called the daycare to let them know we had just came from the hospital and that she had in fact pink eye, well the receptionist said she knew that there was already a reported case the day before and that they sterilized the room. I was upset that we weren’t given a heads up about it since they knew my daughter hadn’t been in the day that it was discovered. With a daycare that has only one infant room with only 8 infants, you would think it wouldn’t be a problem to just notify a parent to look out for the symptoms etc. I almost felt as if they wanted to keep it hush hush, and sure enough the next week when we finally brought her back I finally saw the supposed sign posted up for all to see. The sign that was posted was a white dry erase sign that blended in with other papers that were posted which was down below at knee level at where you sign your baby into the room. It listed only 1 reported case, which was a straight out another lie since I told them my daughter had it as well which would have made 2! But I guess they didn’t count it because maybe the didn’t see it themselves and as long as one was listed it covered them legally. idk?
Also the employee turnover rate in the infant room is RIDICULOUS!!! It is very vital that at such an early age your baby builds trust. Imagine how hard that is for a dual military family to have to sacrifice leaving their child with a stranger that spends more time with them than their own parents. But imagine if this baby has to see a total of 9 DIFFERENT caregivers in one month! Yes, you read that right, 9 different people within ONE month! That’s how long I had my daughter here before pulling her out. She was here a total of 2 weeks before I gave my mandatory 2 weeks notice. On that third week she got pink eye again and that’s when I just straight pulled her out of that daycare!
I flew my mother in from Cali just to care for my daughter until she finally got an available slot on post. From just taking my daughter on post I can see such a huge difference. Not only are they much more sanitary, they have the same females that work with the baby’s all the time. My daughter has been going to daycare on post for the last 3 month and has yet to get a cold or a case of pink eye.
Don’t get me wrong, the ladies that work at Mini Skool are very nice and I really wanted to like this place since it was so close to us. I also hate to be writing such a negative review. However, they are not an establishment that I would recommend for infant care. I can’t speak for any of the other rooms since I don’t have any experience with them.