Juana’s Home Daycare

What an amazing wonderful place to take my 18 month old son. From the moment you step in it is clear that the children here are treated like family. The love, care and attention he receives on a daily basis has made the dread I felt having to put him in daycare full time turn into joy. My son absolutely loves it here, he never cries when being dropped off and is usually off playing with toys before I even have a chance to say goodbye. Juan and his father, along with the rest of the staff have been very accomodating to any needs we have (they adjusted to our cloth diaper routine without any problem) and run this daycare the right way. Looking at the photos on the walls of the decades of children who have come to Juana’s before (not to mention the grown up children who come back to visit) it is clear that this place is more than a job for the caretakers, but a lifelong passion. The individual attention, family style atmosphere (not like a daycare center using rotation of caregivers who may not be the same people you saw in the morning), and enthusiasm my son receives every day is a joy to behold. The weekly rate they charge is a fraction of what other daycares in the area are charging. I could not be happier with our decision to bring my son here, and consider myself extremely lucky to have found this wonderful home daycare.

I called this daycare and the woman who answered the phone, possibly Juana didn’t speak English and said that she couldn’t understand me. She then passed the phone off to a man who dismissed my call saying he’s bust he’ll have to call me back. In the meantime I heard children crying and screaming in the background. When the man called me back about 20 minutes later he was extremely rude. I asked him what kind of schedule their daycare offered and he talked back to me like I was an idiot! I would never bring my child to that daycare and think the rest of these reviews are fake. How do you own a business and be that rude to people? Makes no sense to me, I could only imagine how they treat the children. Forget it!

Juana’s Home Daycare is truly top notch. We too feel so lucky to have found them! Our daughter has been going since she was 11 weeks old and she gets nothing but love there! It is truly a family atmosphere and they treat all the kids as if they were their own. They do lots of activities with the children daily and even do special events for the holidays! The walls are lined with pictures of happy kids who have attended or currently attend Juana’s Day Care. I couldn’t possibly recommend them highly enough!

This daycare did not work out for us. We brought our 3.5 month old baby and they kept asking us to give him cereal, when we had been explicit about only breastmilk until 6 mos. They said that the government mandated cereal feeding once our baby turned 4 mos, and refused to read or do further research even after I told them that the AAP recommends not starting solids until 6 months. After arguing about this everyday for 3 weeks, the last straw is when Juana’s son told me that my baby could be a singer, because «that kid can cry, he has some lungs». What kind of people tell that to a parent? Needless to say that’s the very last day we took our son there, and we have since found a wonderful home daycare that respects our preferences.

This is an absolutely wonderful little home daycare (family owned and operated). I feel so lucky to have found this place! We’ve been bringing our son to Juana’s Home Daycare since he turned 3 months old (he’s 7 months old now). Juana has been the primary caregiver at her daycare for over 50 years. Her husband (aka, ‘Grandpa’) and son are also there everyday to help manage the business, play with, and take care of the kids. The daycare is located near the west UIC campus (close to Rush Hosp.) where I teach — super convenient. Juana is especially great with babies (even newborns). My son is thriving there. He gets lots of love and attention. The other kids are fun, bright, and well behaved. The Tovars have a thing for toys and they create really special, magical events for holidays, birthdays, etc. Their max capacity is 8 kids.
Update, April 2012:
I feel compelled to write in a response to the negative review that I recently noticed here. In contrast to that person’s account, here’s my experience of 1.5 years at this daycare (as opposed to their 3 weeks): Juana Tovar is very respectful of families who wish that their infant be fed exclusively on breast milk. In fact, I also fed my son exclusively on breast milk when we started at Juana’s Daycare. Juana + the daycare staff are not naïve or contrary to keeping up with current research on infant nutrition and on the benefits of breast milk. (She has over 50 years of experience in infant care and is quite knowledgeable!) This is a licensed daycare and they maintain their credentials + expertise consistently.
All I will say about the reviewer (who I do remember) is that it was tough watching Juana and her staff bend over backwards to comply with this first-time-mom’s laundry list of special requests. In return, the mom did not seem to respect or listen to the daycare’s concerns. (There were issues there that became clear even to us busy parents swooping in at the end of the day.)
My son is still at Juana’s Home daycare and is doing great. At 20 months he’s singing ABC’s, counting 1 – 15 in Spanish and English, and has a pretty good overhand throw. We remain very happy there!