Sunshine Academy Child Care

My son was a perfectly happy little guy before we came here. When we left a year later, we left with a small person who had a sensory disorder and gnashed his teeth, acted out frequently, cried often, refused to go to preschool. After one summer in camp and a few months in a very different setting (a preschool with plenty of structure but also freedom to run around and be out in the fresh air, and to play), he is a different person — happy and excited to go to preschool, easy to manage. His speech development, which was going slowly, is through the roof. The OT just lifted his sensory disorder diagnosis, and I feel compelled to tell others what happened to us.
They do feed the kids (though often with mushy boiled vegetables) and take care of them. Several of the teachers are nice and they are all dedicated to their work. But they seem extremely overworked and overtired.
The big issue is that Sunshine has an extremely rigid curricular model, oriented to preparing kids for school. This also entails a lot of sitting still at ages 3 and 4. Furthermore, it’s compounded by unrealistic expectations for what they can learn at their age. I am quoting. Keep your body to yourself, do not violate other children’s personal boundaries. Your son consistently violates it. (When a psychologist observed him in that setting, she noted that it is a small room, 20 kids crammed into a small circle, constantly reminded to sit criss-​cross applesauce.) What is 15 minus 10? (The kids were 3. No one in the group knows. Why are they doing this? To impress parents that they are studying subtraction?) We have just learned about building materials, who can list 4 building materials? Now we will all draw building materials. You have to draw them and not a dinosaur. (OK, study drawing materials, but account for different students’ learning styles, please? And engage the student?) This week we are listing all the planets of the solar system. We will list them every day. (For a while, my son whispered religiously, «Mars… Jupiter…», etc. whenever he saw a ball. He had no idea of what a planet was or where a planet could be found.
A book is read and then has to be retold. Regurgitation, no open-​ended questions. I was the head of a university program at the time and it was disheartening to see it. I should have pulled my kid out earlier but things were tough otherwise.
I’ve seen a teacher yell at a child several times. Another grumbled at a child often and seemed exhausted in parent-​teacher meetings. My child asked me so many times, «When do get get to say goodbye to [one teacher’s name]?». He actually tried to run away from there (!) several times.
Parents are talked down-​to at meetings. These are not meant to be bi-​directional, but are designed for the teachers to tell the parents what to do.
They need to rethink the basic premises of what they do there. I am so glad to have my kid back, with his character and his giddy, happy self.

Too much teacher turnover. Staff are treated with disrespect. The owners are in it for the money and do not care about the well being of the children. Stay away!

Wow, it is quite interesting to see how Unilocal only «recommends» a five-​star review. The rest poor reviews are hidden. I wonder how Unilocal’s algorithm works. Anyway, I am giving a try to see whether my review will be presented.
I had my son there for 3 months and had to run for my dear life for the terrible services they are providing. As one of the reviewers mentioned, if you call the Brookline Department of Health, Sunshine Academy was so well known at the department it was uncanny.
Key issues — they have been cited by Brookline Department of Health for many violations in how they run their child care. Too little space, too many kids, to fewer teachers. We were horrified to see how disorganized the place is. Moreover, we are even more surprised by how disinterest the owner Andrew was. He has two kids of his own. You would think he knows how other parents feel. Anyways, just want to warn other parents. Watch out.

Feel compelled to offer an alternate perspective to previous reviewer. Our experience w SA has been nothing but positive. Have had our daughter there since she was 4 mo old (she’s now 3). Teachers have been consistently quality/​caring/​motivated and she’s learned/​developed in great ways in her time there per the strong curriculum and teaching that takes place. Have never felt that she was unsafe in any way. Has she gotten bumps/​bruises here and there in her 3 yrs at the school? Of course – But pretty sure this is par for the course for any toddler in daycare or not – and any time something like this happened, the school follows protocol, informs parents, takes proper course of action. Of the many families that we have gotten to know over the past few years, all have v good things to say about the school. guessing that had previous reviewer had more than 3 hours experience w/​the school, they’d probably feel differently, and share the opinion of the majority of parents (a diverse group of working professionals) who have one or multiple kids there – namely that SA provides a quality product in a warm/​welcoming environment in which our child has thrived. While it’s the only daycare we know, I can’t imagine her having a better experience from infant to pre-​school than she’s had at SA – and would highly recommend the school to any parent looking at daycare in brookline.