Sugar Plum Tree Day Care Center

Sugar Plum Tree School has been a blessing for our family. My son started when he was a little over 2 years old and now my daughter is attending school/​daycare there as well. Every since my son started he has thrived! One day we were driving and he pointed at the stop sign and yelled, «Octogan!» — I could hardly believe my ears– he was barely 3 years old! The teachers and staff are very caring. I believe all are certified teachers or studying to be teacher — either way, they are patient and kind and love what they do. They are always taking the time to tell us about my son’s day and how he is doing.
The kids are active every day — either in the gym, out back in the fenced in private yard, or going on walks. In the summer, the kids can go to the local pool and park with the teachers and have a blast. My son is always excited to go to Sugar Plum — he is going to miss it so much when he goes to kindergarten in fall. My daughter just started this week and I would not have put her in this school if I did not think this little school was the best. It is. We had other childcare (grandma) for my little one that was great (and free) but we chose to have her start at Sugar Plum now that she’s 20 months. She will thrive just as my son has in the Sugar Plum Tree School environment — I have no doubt.
The school also has family nights for parents, siblings, grandparents etc to meet together and make friends. They have Mom’s Day in spring which is a special time for mom and child to spend some time with eachother and its so sweet! There’s also Dad’s day in fall. Every year the school puts on a circus with the older kids– it is adorable and the children have a blast! We have made a lot of friends with the other parents — Sugar Plum provides a nice community for its families.
Not only have my children gone to sugar plum but so has my sister in law and cousin in law who grew up in Park Ridge. Mrs. Waters remembers them as well! This school has been a part of the community for upwards of 35+years. They must be doing something right!
I also love the location of the school. It is on a side street. No one can just walk in the school without having the code or ringing the bell so I feel extremely safe with my children there. The feeling that your children are in a safe and loving place is priceless. And speaking of price, the school is very reasonable for the amount of time and care they spend with the children, I shopped around — as most people do because, lets face it, childcare costs are equivilant to paying another mortgage when they are young. Sugar Plum Tree is worth every penny! and the value is there. I was lucky to have gotten my children in because they had openings at the time but they fill up fast. There are four classrooms and they want each child to recieve the care they deserve. All the parents we are friends with from Sugar Plum agree with us that this little school/​daycare has been perfect for their family and could not be happier!

I want to start by prefacing that I am a full time working mother of 2 young kids and I know how difficult it is to find a good childcare provider. I am a fan of Unilocal and rely on others’ personal experiences for guidance. So, with much consideration and after 6 years of being at Sugar Plum Tree (SPT), I have decided to write this review. As a bit of background, my first son had attended this preschool for all 4 years and my second (with our reluctance) for 3 years but we recently decided to enroll him into another preschool. One reason we stayed at SPT for 6 years was out of convenience, we live a block away and did not want to uproot our children after all these years, they made friends and became comfortable with the teachers, unfortunately, the convenience only delayed the process of finding a better preschool.
We feel the practices and overall environment at SPT are outdated and fall short of our expectations. Our biggest issue was with billing; receipts and statements are provided in a way that could only be explained as outdated and hard to track. Over the years we have had numerous billing issues and feel that the process is very confusing. We kept all receipts, invoices and statements only to find it hard to follow. Another issue to be aware of is in regards to technology. As an integral part of our daily lives, technology is here to stay and is a big influence on how our children learn, like it or not, we feel the sooner we could incorporate it in to their learning career the better. We certainly could not ignore the fact that SPT is far from reaching a technological environment and over the past years, SPT has lacked the time and money to invest back into its facility, not only in technological advancement but in other areas such as the need for a proper outdoor environment, updated toys, play materials and newer equipment in the gym area. We’ve participated in many fundraisers, but we weren’t provided information regarding the distribution of the funds. Lastly, we’ve reluctantly paid additional fees for activities such as music and gymnastics. When asked if these were mandatory activities we were told that our child would be the only one not participating and would feel left out. Even knowing that was not the case we opted in. The classes take place during the normal SPT day and considering the premium tuition we were paying, we parents felt these activities should be provided with the original curriculum. At one point, all the parents complained and with much hesitation on the part of SPT, the activities were made part of the curriculum. Ironically, a few short months later, our tuition went up. I guess we can only speculate why…
We had hoped that during the course of 6 years we would see some progress and improvements but unfortunately, that has not been the case. In my opinion, I believe SPT is past it’s prime and has the lost the motivation and desire to stay relevant.

Coming back to provide an update now that we have been in attendance here over a year. I must say that this business has been quite responsive to my prior review. I was personally e-​mailed and have been approached on a number of occasions to discuss my current thoughts and anything they could do to make our experience more positive. I can genuinely say that I believe these instances of them reaching out to me were truly out of concern for our experience as well as honest interest into feedback about what is or isn’t working. I did not get the impression that these instances were motivated solely to get me to better my previous review.
Since my previous review my child has gone through their summer session and has gone on to transition to a new classroom. In addition we have had a new addition to our family. As in my last review, I remain extremely PLEASED with the staff and activities both recreational and educational, that my child is able to be involved with. In the new classroom they also assist with potty training. I am not familiar with whether or not other facilities do this, but we (and I think many other parents) are quite excited about this aspect of learning and truly appreciate the efforts and patience of the staff related to this issue. Communication in this new classroom is a little different than in the last, but still effective. We were also given a schedule for the entire year of what they will be focusing on each week, which was nice.
The «negatives» in my last review that I have noticed changes in. — The snow policy has been written down and clearly communicated to us. Yeah! Not that it was a huge mystery before, but I did not like that we received inconsistent information from multiple sources. — We have been receiving a lot more communication through e-​mail! This is a huge plus! Updates on the class are received this way from teachers within the classroom. We are also receiving general updates, forms and invoices (yippee!) from the administrative side. These are not yet 100% consistent, but I definitely see effort and improvement which I sincerely appreciate. Since my last review we have had NO issues as far as record-​keeping on payments. I’m not sure if this is related to a change in procedure or if we just had a couple «off» times in our first 6 months there; either way, I still double check everything and save receipts, but don’t stress about it nearly as much.
Some new things to talk about — positives! Time away — our child has spent 2 periods of time away from school upwards of a month at a time. The school has been wonderful in working with us as far as payment during these absences and have made these periods seamless as far as taking him out and bringing him back. Changes at home — we recently had a new addition to our family which our child was less than thrilled about. As a result, he started to have a few more issues at school (and at home) in dealing with his emotions. The staff has been wonderful as far as being aware of outside factors that are affecting our little one in class and being firm yet understanding when he needs guidance and/​or redirection. Renovations! — Updates have taken place to the main bathrooms and other areas of the space they use. All welcome improvements to the environment.
Overall I think our experience has been quite good and continues to get better. I commend Ms. Waters on being proactive in reaching out to us initially upon reading my previous review as well as her continued contact. I also acknowledge that I am probably not the easiest person to approach about potentially sensitive topics, but all has been handled very professionally. I think there have definitely been marked improvements toward communicating electronically which, personally, I prefer. I think there are some things that are still being addressed but they are definitely approachable and want to listen and learn to be responsive to their customers and make improvements as needed/​requested administratively.
I want to end by re-​iterating again, as I did in my very first review and above… I am 100% PLEASED with my child’s experience here. If I wasn’t he would not longer be attending.

We have just moved to Chicago from Florida and am looking for a preschool for my daughter. I called and left 2 messages at Sugar Plum and never received a call back from the Director. When I called a third time, the person that answered was willing to give me info, but because I needed something immediate, she just said «We don’t have anything available immediately.» She had no desire to give me information or tell me we could go on a waiting list, etc. This has been my experience so far with the people in Chicago.