"In the two years we’ve gone through 4-5 directors and a huge turnover in a lot of staff. In the first year we had classrooms close day of without warning and had a rotating list of classrooms closures. This was solved under the new director (whom we LOVED), but she is now randomly and eerily leaving the same time as our assistant director. We’re losing faith in this daycare and are tired of the stress of constantly fearing the center will close classrooms again due to staffing. The teachers have been wonderful and our children have grown tremendously but staff constantly leaving makes it so hard to fully love this place."

"Overall, I've had a good experience with a few rough patches here and there. I understand that everyone struggles to find reliable, good staff. My husband and I have been patient and understanding through that. We spend $835/week at Gilden Woods. We expect top notch care for our kids. We expect thorough communication from their teachers and from the PD. We expect professionalism in all this as well. Professionalism in appearance is probably the biggest thing that's missing right now. I don't expect teachers in uniform, but cover yourself up please! Be comfortable, but cover up."

"Teachers are great and extremely caring. Management is poor."

"The consistent teachers are amazing. We’ve never had a problem with the teachers or their care for our children. The constant turnover at the director level is concerning. Renee was one of the best we’ve had - her ability to engage the kids and she was really on top of the admin duties and I’m sad to see her go."

"Cannot recommend. Unsafe/teachers unaware of chronic health conditions of children. Director seems more worried about administrative duties, firing staff, blaming parents/being defensive, and running a military operation that now closes at 5 with 3 working days’ notice than listening to parents’ concerns and caring that children have safe care."

"Extremely inconsistent staffing, constantly closing classrooms and now semi closing the school agers room. Unhappy staff that don’t stick around. The entire “vibe” of the center is negative. We plan to pull our kids out asap, the stress and worry of not knowing if our kids will have care on a weekly basis and the amount of money we are paying just doesn’t make sense anymore. It’s disheartening that a center of this size is soooo poorly managed."

"Our experience has had its ups and downs. I appreciate the older age classes seeming to have the appropriate staffing and providing the necessary care. It was hard to go from the 2-1/2 to 3 yo class as the size of the classes changed dramatically. Going from 8 students with a teacher who seemed extremely organized and had duties for the children to a class of 18-20 where it is a more free environment was a shock for both us (the parents) and our daughter."

"The teachers are great. The new management needs to find ways to take care of their valuable employees, which will ensure good quality care of my child. Too many times I've seen and heard the staff complain about being under staffed and unable to take breaks. You can see it in the atmosphere when you walk in and out."

"We've been with Appletree/Gilden Woods since our first child was enrolled in 2013. We since enrolled our two other children, one of which is still attending in Pre-k and had been at the same school for almost 5 years. We love the dedicated teachers and staff. Our kids have built lasting relationships with the teachers and our school agers still give them hugs when they accompany us on drop-offs and pickups. Thank you for more than ten great years of care!"

"Overall, great experience. Pros: Caring teachers, safety of my child and wonderful opportunities for the kids to learn and grow. Cons: Extremely high prices nearly making unaffordable to enroll your children. Limited flexibility with scheduling and a significant enough price break to drop to part time too"

"When Gilden Woods was under its original owner, it was a wonderful school. My children loved attending, staff seemed happy and full of life, and there was very little turnover. My kids also ate the meals provided. This is not the case since Learning Care Group took over."

"My general exp has been fine. The operations need sone work. Communication needs to be better"

"I liked it better when it was only Gilden Woods. Though the staff seems to be trying to make the best of it, Learning Care seems to have brought many negative changes to the center."

"As I mentioned , we had a poor experience at another school on my daughters first day. They had left her sitting alone for 20 minutes with no toys , and she at the time was not crawling so she couldn’t get to any of the toys that were over 4’ away. She was not engaged with at all by any teacher. And of course It left a terrible taste in my mouth for wanting to return to daycare elsewhere. The first visit at gilden woods when we toured with Kami (?) the former director , I felt reassured about enrolling/ attending GW. Abby has also confirmed that decision and has made me feel comfortable and confident leaving Millie in her care."

"Caledonia location is great. Great staff. They work too many long hours and not enough breaks due to staffing shortages. Since the company was bought out, we can’t seem to keep a director and additional staff are leaving. This causes concerns at what is happening, or not happening, at the corporate level. Sad to see good teachers leave due to the politics and poor leadership at the top level."