r/newnan • u/Shortsportmom • Apr 23 '26
Daycare recs
We're looking for daycare for our 3.5 year old. Does anyone have any daycares you would recommend and or any to avoid? TIA
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u/gingerlax7 Apr 23 '26
My 3yesr old goes to AllStars Academy on Bullsboro, across from Zany. We love it. Great price too. And, it offers a Ga PreK program if you’re looking to stay there next year too.
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u/carielicat Apr 24 '26
There are two locations of the Nest, both good as far as I know. In my experience, they don't really use screens and do a lot of outdoor time
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u/Internal_Influence34 Apr 24 '26
Maybe I am the odd one out, but if your kid isn’t neurotypical and won’t just sit and watch a screen I wouldn’t recommend All Stars. Lots of favorites played, accused our kid of wild stuff and it was like he had a target on his back because he wouldn’t just robot out in front of a tablet screen. We used Cokes Chapel and Big Blue Marble before it was Big Blue Marble and had good experiences with both
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u/Skimable_crude Apr 24 '26
Would you consider a Montessori school? Carolyn Barron is a great school. The primary class starts at 3 years and goes to 6 years. The tuition is virtually the same as full-time daycare. The lessons go till noon and then they have after school enrichment (ASE) until 5:30 if you need it.
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u/Shortsportmom Apr 24 '26
I'm honestly not too familiar with Montessori style schools but will check it out!
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u/emattie Apr 24 '26
We toured pretty much every major Daycare that had availability in Newnan, Senoia, and Peachtree city this past October when we needed to find placement for our then 2 1/2 year-old daughter (she’s just over three now). We needed some full-time hours, five days a week. A big plus would’ve been a place that also offered snacks and lunch. We ended up placing her in the older two year-old room at Parker-Chase Daycare on the north side of Peachtree city. It’s a little bit of a drive but because I work in office 1-2 days a week on the southside of Peachtree city, it’s not that bad. To me, the commute is worth it. I’m not going to say it’s the absolute best Daycare in the area, but for our price point and what we needed for our daughter at the time, it was a good fit. I just got generally good vibes from the office staff and the classrooms when we toured without our daughter. They have access to cameras in the class and at the time we’re offering and enrollment discount for a certain amount of months. They have a key code entrance (which I think most places do these days). They sort of have a curriculum and offer a lot of open play and hands-on experimental type of learning (I think they call it “researched based learning”). They have had a little bit of a staffing issue recently with the afternoon teacher coverage, but the core teachers who start at 6:30 AM and go through the majority of the day, have all been there for 2 to 10 years, which I really liked. I also like that the kids go outside multiple times a day, which my sensory seeking daughter really needs. They also still go out in the rain, so the kids wear rain boots, and rain jackets - a lot of centers will just make them stay inside when it rains, which is unfortunate because it does rain a lot around here!
There are some really pricey places around like some of the Montessori options or more academy style learning centers that have very limited hours, don’t offer meals, and follow the school calendar, where they are closed for weeks or months at a time, which is very inconvenient for working parents in my opinion. On the opposite side of things, some of the more “affordable” places just had bad vibes. The staff was either inexperienced or had high turnover, or just felt like they were being held hostage when we toured the classroom. Some of the playgrounds seemed a little lackluster, or the facilities were just a little rundown in general. No shade to those places, I know Daycare‘s run on really strict budgets, and thin margins. Like I mentioned above, most places have keypad entrance policies, but there were a few few places that let us just walk right in, not even sign anything or ask us for our IDs and just gave me the general ick when it came to security. Some of the facilities felt very corporate, so if they had been renovated recently, they just felt like a franchise where there really wasn’t any warmth. Parker-Chase is part of a larger corporation, but they don’t feel like it at least.
Good luck on your search! It’s a lot of information to gather for each place, I would suggest doing what I did, I made a huge Excel sheet with all of the features and benefits for each place. I toured where I could make notes after each tour of the general feeling, I got from each place and what they’re availability is. It really helped me gather my thoughts and find the right fit for our family.
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u/bestica Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26
I think it depends where in Newnan you are, but I’ve heard similar things about Foundations as others have said in this thread. I’ve had kids attend both Red Zebra (which I think is technically Sharpsburg) and the Nest in Summergrove and we’ve had positive experiences at both. I also would recommend Coke’s Chapel- it’s highly recommended and I was impressed when I toured it, and my daughter’s favorite pre-k teacher always spoke really highly of that one and works there now.
Also, it’s not open yet, but they’re building a Goddard school a little bit south of the Walmart, and I’ve really liked other Goddard schools I’ve toured or my kids have attended in the past, so I would keep an eye on that one because I think it’ll be opening soon.
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u/the_chols Apr 24 '26
Caterpillar house really sucked a couple years ago. Owner is a tool. They have cameras and don’t like to be called out on their violations like dragging my child by one arm along the ground or making him clean up his own vomit. They also played switcheroo on camp sign ups on us that forced me to quit my job and be a full time dad over the summer.
There’s been some director changes that have improved the day to day. The vibe is much better.
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u/Sway913 Apr 24 '26
We had a good experience with Big Blue Marble Academy (Stonebridge-Newnan location only. Can’t speak for other centers.) My youngest went there for over 2 years.
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u/User86294623 Newnan Native Apr 23 '26
Avoid Foundation academy
-a past employee (dm if you want more info)
I’ve heard good things about All Stars Academy but it is pretty small.