Ponpon Daycare / Garderie Ponpon

All three of my children have been at Ponpon over the last 7 years and i would highly recommend to parents to check it out. Your child will not be happy just anywhere but i see Ponpon management and staff go above and beyond to make everyone happy, when realistically that is impossible. As an educator i can see the hard work that is put into the daycare as a whole on a continuous basis

My son attended Ponpon for a couple of years, starting in the baby room. At first, the quality of the daycare seemed really good! I was happy, especially for the first year or so. The staff were really good. But then I noticed the quality of the daycare began to decline very noticeably. A few things stand out in my experience.First, there was one day where the fire alarm went off. The staff evacuated the children, except for my son, who decided it was wise to cower and hide in the corner. They had to go back inside for him. If there was a serious issue, would they have been able to get back to him? They were very focused on the number of minutes and seconds to evacuate the building, but this is useless if you leave a child behind. I don't blame the educator, I blame management for setting up a framework of time pressure rather than a quality pressure.Second, I chaperoned a walk to a local park to the north of the daycare (across a busy road which I believe was Allumettieres). There were not enough staff to safely conduct the children to the park. If I had not been there, I seriously doubt the safety of the children would have been assured, given their age and the number of staff bringing them to the park (crossing roads, walking on very narrow sidewalks, etc.) This made me nervous for safety and I never trusted the daycare again after that. I recall some management driving instead of walking with us, but I can't say for certain if this was the owners, it's been too long.Third, there was a problem where my son cut his leg on the loose and sharp underside of a fence on the playground (west side). Despite reporting this safety hazard several times, nothing was done. The fence was off the ground far enough for a child to escape (given enough motivation), but this was not addressed before I left the daycare. It would have been an easy fix and a daycare that cared about safety would have addressed it right away.Fourth, I personally believe that the daycare owners cared more about their image than managing their business. It seemed strange that they had a lot of fundraisers (often half-baked ideas) that were geared towards being charitable towards the community (#ponpongivesback I think was the hashtag used). But I felt these were a form of virtue-signalling and they should have instead focused their efforts on their numerous business problems. In addition to these giving back efforts, they also fund-raised towards their own business improvements, which I found bizarre. Charge the price you want for the service you want to deliver instead of having confusing arrangements.Fifth, the quality of the staff badly declined over the years, and management was never in sight. If you want your business to thrive, you need to lead by example and I never saw many efforts in that regard.I ended up putting my son in another daycare. I didn't feel comfortable at this one anymore. Although I have to admit I did not move him solely for Ponpon reasons, my commute was also a factor. But Ponpon was the primary factor. Like others say, the old Ponpon seemed great, but maybe they checked out" or something. I can't recommend it to anyone now. But I will give two stars

As a former Ponpon parent I can’t say enough about how much we loved Ponpon. My daughter was excited to go in everyday and I never had a doubt that she wasn’t well taken care of or safe. The staff runs a great program and goes above and beyond for every child.

As an educator who works at Ponpon I am very happy with how management treats their staff, I find them very accommodating and professional. My child also attends the daycare and I am very blessed for her teachers and I know that I can leave her in their care with confidence that she will be taken care of properly. They are trained properly with their first aid and cpr so if anything ever happens I also know that she will be taken care of in that way as well.

My son attended Ponpon for 2 years and we never encountered any issues regarding the staff. The educators were really great with him especially when he was picky during lunch time. Terry-Lynn, Dana, Kaileigh and Zoe always made him feel welcomed and at home. He was always excited to go.My only suggestion would be to include e-transfers as payment method. It would make things a lot easier for some parents.

Both my kids have attended Ponpon Daycare, and I loved their experience. They cherished their teachers, made friends, and had stories to tell every day they came home from daycare… The service provided was above and beyond, teachers loved my kids like they were their own and the owners made sure they had incredible experiences and made memories. Ponpon daycare was like a second family.

I’m a former Educator and I have read through All the comments.Ponpon is not what it used to be. Yes about the first 5 years it was amazing. Had the best Educators who made ponpon what it was, Although management always had issues, the team stuck together regardless of some of the awful treatment staff would receive from management. Within the years staff started leaving and Ponpon began to have a hard time finding quality staff, and now they have lost all the experience staff. They are very short with the amount of ECCE staff currently working. I have heard over this past year and a bit they have lost about 25 staff, this rotation of staff is not normal in any other daycare.There is a few recent comments from former parents saying how wonderful Ponpon is, again this is from the past not what it is now. So yes although those comments look great the staff that cared for those children and made that experience all what it was I can promise is no longer there.My experience as a former educator was a horrible experience. As an employee if you spoke up about serious issues that would make management have to work, or if they didn’t like you (which was an issue at Ponpon they had a “in crowd “) you would receive the silent treatment from management, totally unprofessional. I always felt they just didn’t care about their business, fooling around in the office. There is one management directly on the floor with staff and is allowed to treat staff however she wants. She would often speak awful to staff as well as yelling at staff. Also management would talk about staff’s personal life behind their backs with other employees. All stuff inappropriate in a work place especially a daycare.I wanted to share this because I feel as though the recent comments of past parents will give the wrong impression of Ponpon currently. My suggestion to anyone looking into Ponpon do your research ask around.

Overall good experience. Our daughter loved her educators and was always happy when she arrived in the morning. We have had issues with the food in the beginning, but it got better after. The security management is good. There is also various social activities done with the older children, which we find was interesting for them to learn values in a community. We did find that some educators were maybe lacking some experience and/or education, but we were satisfied with the curriculum. Also, there was some minor security issues that were all resolved within the time our child was frequenting the daycare. We always felt our daughter was in good hands and would recommend parents to check it out when looking for a daycare.

Finding a daycare is hard, leaving the most precious thing in the world to you in the hands of a stranger is one of the scariest things you’ll ever do as a parent. Ponpon treats you as family, they’re involved in the community and they truly care about the wellbeing of your little one. I was a stay at home mom, but was able to use they’re daycare as a drop in when I was stuck for my youngest and was really happy with the experience. My daughter was only 2 and was always a shy baby, but she was always happy to be there, which right away is a sign that she was in good hands.My son is older and attended their summer camp and said he had a blast! They keep the kids busy and do lots of outdoor activities.I’ve read through the comments and reviews and honestly, I don’t think that they’re a fair assessment of the establishment, it seems more like someone with a vendetta trying to sabotage a perfectly respectable business.If you’re looking for childcare, do your research and go with what feels right for you, but for me, I am someone who recommends Ponpon!