A happy 5-year-old plays at Tutor Time in Agoura Hills. “It’s ME!” she said, when asked what she was drawing.

Last week I took a tour of Tutor Time on Clareton in Agoura Hills (on the way to the Post Office) to see what this childcare center and preschool has to offer parents and children. It’s been a while since my own kids were in preschool and I know this is a big concern for parents of young children, whether you need childcare while you’re at work, socialization for your littles, or transition to school in preparation for Kindergarten.

Front desk and main hallway

My first impression of Tutor Time was that it’s big, spacious, and COLORFUL! From the moment you walk in you are greeted with bright primary colors wherever you look, and all of the areas of the center – the front desk, the hallway, and each of the rooms – have so much space that it’s easy to imagine a group of little kids enjoying themselves without being crowded. It’s a bright, clean, facility with smiling faces on all of the teachers and staff.

But especially, the kids.

I saw plenty of children on my tour, infants up to 6-year-olds, and they were smiling and happy. They greeted assistant director Morgan whenever we walked into a room with love, joy, and hugs. To me, that says it all. The kids seemed happy to be there, delighted by their friends and teachers, and eager to launch into whatever activity was at hand.

Tutor Time has a Grow Fit^® program that introduces healthy habits by encouraging balanced nutrition and physical activity in school. They provide a variety of healthy choices during meals and snacks and encourage children to try new foods. Parents are also welcome to sample the meals and snacks! The Agoura Hills Tutor Time also has a super cool app called PreciouStatus, which gives parents updates all day long about what their children are doing, eating, and experiencing at school. It’s a great resource to help parents feel connected with their children throughout the day.

Tutor Time accepts children from infants all the way to Junior Kindergarten. Programs at Tutor Time follow the School Readiness Pathway, which was designed to address the specific needs of children based on their age and individual pace of development. Tutor Time strongly believes that education is not a one-size-fits-all experience and the School Readiness Pathway allows parents to create the most fitting path for their children. The baby room is a special place where each child has her own crib, people must wear shoe covers when entering, and children older than 23 months are not allowed – to keep the germs away! The Agoura Hills location sees children from infancy through to graduation, complete with cap and gown, and they track the children’s progress with a special binder full of their artwork and pictures of them. The director told me that since people tend to stay in Agoura Hills, the center has a family feel to it because the children who grow up there really do become part of their family.

Educational activities, meals, and rest time are planned appropriately for each age level. In concert with parents, the staff helps ease babies off of pacifiers and bottles, potty train when they get older, and all children get naps and rest time. Tutor Time maximizes the full development of each individual child and recognizes how they learn different subjects in different ways. There are individualized lesson plans in each classroom, based on the specific abilities and readiness to learn of those students. Ultimately, the kids get a customized early education designed to work perfectly for them! Their activities and artwork are displayed prominently on the walls for the children to show off to their parents and visitors, and parents can repeat and practice some of them at home, too.

One nook of the pre-K room at Tutor Time in Agoura Hills

Safety is taken very seriously at Tutor Time. When I visited, as a guest I didn’t have a passcode to the padlock on the front door, so I had to be let in by the director at the front desk. Whenever a teacher goes from one part of the center to another, she logs her presence on a time sheet so that there is a record of where she is every moment of the day. The same with the children. The teachers do a headcount whenever the kids transition from outside to in, and from one place to another. This location will soon be getting special real-time cameras that parents can use to check in on their kids during the day (password-protected!) as an extra level of security and to help parents feel in touch.

The Village, where Spanish class was held

On top of the awesome playtime and instruction the kids get, parents can opt for special enrichment activities available for an extra fee, including cooking, karate, soccer, music, and Spanish class, which was in session during my visit. The students – who were so little and excited – seemed very engaged. The class took place in a special room at Tutor Time called The Village – a mock town with crawl spaces and a “road” where classes come to play indoors.

Tutor Time is open year-round, Monday through Friday from 6:30 AM to 6:30 PM. (Summer instruction is called “summer camp” – what fun!) Parents can drop in during the day to visit, and they even have a special “Nursing Nook” for nursing mothers. Pricing info varies, so call the school for more information. Children can attend for full weeks, partial weeks, and partial days, too. Tutor Time Agoura Hills also offers after-school care to Kindergarteners (up to 6 years old) and many parents choose to pick their kids up during their lunch break and drop them off here since there is no transportation service (plus this comes in handy for early Kinder dismissal and those random days off that LVUSD always has).

Tutor Time
5108 Clareton Drive
Agoura Hills, 91301
818-865-0049 (if you get voice mail – don’t worry – this is the right number!)
tutortime.com

Thanks to Learning Care Group for sponsoring this post. All opinions, and my very brief wish to have another baby, are my own.