The Little Red Barn is a Terrific Choice for Daycare

The first thing I noticed when I walked through the front door of the Little Red Barn Preschool in Seguin was the clean look and smell of the school. Alot of times, you walk into a daycare and it smells like a daycare, but this was definately different. I felt as if I was walking into someone’s home. It was clean and fresh and looked as if it had just been completely sanitized even though I came in unannounced in the middle of the day. The wood flooring in the front entrance was clean and spotless and the walls were white and bright with children’s drawings neatly placed. The layout of the particular building where our daughter is cared for is open and airy. Apparently, the building had at one time been someone’s home but was converted to a school. This particular house, as well as the two on either side (all owned by Little Red Barn), are older Victorian type houses in the Historical District of Seguin. I believe that the house on one side of my daughter’s building houses the main office and all of the business aspects of LRB. The other house is for the older, school aged kids to go before and after school – yes, LRB picks up from all local schools. At any rate, the layout for each individual room is so cheery and colorful and always decorated with the work of future Picasso’s and Renoir’s! There is a TV in one of the rooms, but the time spent watching it is limited to early in the mornings before breakfast and late in the afternoons when parents start arriving. In between those times, it is not uncommon to see one group of kids sitting in “circle time” listening to a story or singing a song while another group is in the room across the hall doing art work or outside on the expansive and age appropriate play areas. Safety is key to any daycare and Little Red Barn exceeds this aspect. The areas in the play yards are fenced off for different age groups and the children have careful eyes trained on them at all times.

As for the staff, well I cannot say enough good things about them. Kathy Houston is the Assistant Director and extremely well adapted for this role. A mom herself, she is not a behind-the-desk-administrator type. Many times Scott & I have gone in to retrieve Maddy only to find Kathy on the floor with the kids either drawing or singing songs or outside swinging a child or 2 or 3!!! Her right hand lady is Miss Sophie, a remarkable, competant lady who is as sweet and kind as the day is long. I am impressed that the turnover rate at LRB is not high as is the norm in this business. Most of the same teachers that Madison had when she started there a year ago are still her teachers today. That says everything about the people who run LRB as well as the other employees.

The meals served are very nutrious and very well prepared and presented. Our daughter is a vegetarian, as are a couple of other kids in LRB, and the staff is always conscientious about this and has never fed her anything outside of the diet that we prescribed. If there has ever been any question about whether or not a food is within Madison’s diet, they call one of us and ask – they never, ever guess. It is important to us, as vegetarian parents, to know that the school we send our daughter to will respect our lifestyle and not try to deviate from that. We feel very comfortable that Little Red Barn has always adhered to her dietary needs.

As for price, we are very satisfied that we are getting the most “bang for our buck”, as it were. We pay $80 a week for her to go there all day. The hours are 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and we feel that the price we pay is well worth the peace of mind we get sending her there. Most importantly, Madison loves it there. She attended 2 other daycare situations prior to LRB that were not really something we could write home about like we can with LRB. We are very grateful to have found this place and I hope that my review of this awesome place will convince other parents in the area to also consider taking their children there.

As a footnote, Little Red Barn does accept child care subsidies (CCMS) through the state of Texas. More information on this can be obtained by calling your local office of Texas Worksource which is listed in the phone book or on Google.