Phoenix Children's Academy Private Preschool, Forney at 929 S FM 741, Forney

Reviews

• RONALD NORRIS

  Jan 05, 2018
  ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
  We had been on the waitlist for almost a year and a half before I received a call that they had an opening. I was excited because I had read so many great reviews and their activities and curriculum seemed wonderful! He gradually worked his way up to the pre-k room, named "Bookworms" and that's when I noticed some changes. Of course, pre-k is preparation for kindergarten, and my expectations were that they would be having the children do less play, and more learning, which I was totally on board with. And that's exactly what was delivered. However, my 4 year old was obviously not ready for that yet. Again, totally okay. I get that too. They sent home progress reports about once a month and repeatedly reported that they had trouble getting my son to sit still and follow direction when it came to writing. They showed me the pages and pages of letters that they had asked him to trace, all blank except for a few scribbles here and there. Okay, further confirmation that he's not ready. About 2 months ago, I received notification that they would be incorporating what they called K-club into their curriculum, which meant that one day a week, the class would participate with the next level Kinder Prep class to get them more acclimated with writing, a classroom setting, etc. I had already expressed to his teachers that I was planning on waiting a year before sending my son to Kindergarten because I just didn't think he was ready. Once he started in the K-club program, he started receiving homework. I was so dissapointed. The homework included writing out full words, writing numbers up to 100, site word practice and several work sheets which involved tracing and writing letters. I was told by his teachers that he didn't want to sit for the writing. Well, I'm sorry, but what 4 year old would? Apparently other kids in that class had no problems with the assignments, but in my experience, I just don't think this is age appropriate. On Tuesday, I received a call from the assistant director about my son's disruptive behavior. This was the first call from the assistant director I had ever received, actually the first conversation I had ever had with her about my son's behavior in class. I met with her that afternoon and we talked about an action plan - she assured me that they don't believe in "throw away kids". The plan was to move him back to the class he was in prior to the pre-k class. I was okay with this, thought it was a great idea in fact! I was so concerned by her call, that I even contacted my pediatrician to make an appointment. I made drastic diet changes after doing a lot of research and sent him to school on Wednesday. Everything seemed fine, no bad reports. On Thursday morning at around 10:30am I received another call from the assistant director. She said that my son would not sit down at circle time and was running around the classroom playing instead of listening to his teacher. They asked me to pick him up. I was told by the director that my son's behavior was so bad that she had teachers wanting to quit and not show up for work. The communication I experienced between parent and teacher/director at this school was virtually non existent. To go from a phone call on Tuesday, to an action plan that afternoon, to trying said action plan for one day and getting asked not to come back by Thursday morning is shocking to say the least. To be told that teachers wanted to quit because of my son was heartbreaking. Completely unprofessional. I was assured again, this time by the Director, that they do not believe in throw away kids. But they gave my son one day with a new action plan. I would not recommend this daycare center if you have a child that's all boy, that is independent or strong willed, because he or she, will not fit into their mold. The last thing I want is for my son to be discouraged about the learning process and I believbelieve forcing it on youngsters too early sets them up for failure.

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