First Discoveries Academy 1311 Brooker Road, Brandon, FL 33511

"Absolutely a money hungry school and SCAM!! DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT let this school (Ms. Cindy) trick you into putting your child here! This school cares about nothing but money! The director convinced me to put my son there for kindergarten and she had him in VPK for majority of the day. Then she goes on to tell me that he may need to repeat kindergarten (she was basically trying to keep him there longer to get more money out of me and his tuition). She kept insisting that he needed ABA therapy, OT therapy, and speech therapy. I made the smart decision in switching him to public school and now HE IS EXCELLING! She is a LAZY teacher and only helps “certain polished” kids. Not to mention he would ALWAYS cry when I would enter the parking lot. I also had my youngest daughter here, and allegedly she became very aggressive with the teachers and the students and according to them, she was just having “big feelings.” I switched her to another daycare and she LOVES IT! She is as happy as can be and the director there has said she’s an absolute delight to have and she is NOT aggressive as Ms. Cindy would say. Ms. Cindy also thought she was a doctor as she would always tell me that my children needed to be seen by a neurologist because they showed symptoms of being autistic. I brought this to my children’s pediatrician and he was baffled. THE CHERRY on top; the director had CPS investigate my family! She put in a ridiculous claim about worrying for the safety of my kids ( the case was dismissed within less than a week)! That was such a stressful and traumatic experience we went through! It took me 2 months to finally make this review after I pulled my kids from this school because I wanted to see if everything Ms. Cindy said about my kids were in fact true. Time has passed and my kids are AMAZING and have PROGRESSED EXTREMELY after I put this horrible experience in the past. I can’t emphasize enough on how horrible our experience was with this daycare (hence the long review) but if I can save a child and the family from the stress that this school will bring on you, I hope this did it for you! ❤️"

"Both my 3 and 5 year old are attending preschool and Kindergarten here. We are very happy with the overall environment and community. The kids were very comfortable from day one. My daughter has not complained about mean kids like she did at her former VPK location because it's run like a family here and it's small enough to manage in that sense. It's definitely not the high stress or one size fits all environment of public school. As a former public school teacher, I can appreciate everything that FDA represents from an academic and social emotional learning perspective. I highly recommend First Discoveries Academy as an excellent alternative to public school! Thank you!"

"If you have a child w special needs this is not the place . They didn’t accept my child and they told me that I needed to get him a Aba therapist first which I did I got on a priority list did everything as they told me so they would accept my child but they still gave me the round around and kept saying will give you a call never got a call last time they told me the boss was out for vacation and they’d call me back it’s been almost a month not one email or call."

"The staff here are absolute gems! My children attended a Waldorf school in Palm Harbor Florida and when we moved to the Brandon area we were looking for another play based learning program. I loved them spending a good deal of time outside in their beautiful play yard everyday compared to the public school they are in now. Play based learning is how children are supposed to learn. It honors where they are developmentally and I was so grateful to have found a school in this area who knows this. I love love love all of the teachers at this school. They are well educated and truly love the work that they do. It felt very much like being apart of a family. Because this school accepts children with delays and disabilities I felt that they were so much more educated on how to honor childrens feelings and guide them in a gentle and loving way. They were always taking new classes and teaching me new things to help support my kiddos. One of my children is hyperactive and was treated so well here. He would come home and practice the communication skills they were working on with him at school. First discoveries was a wonderful introduction to big school for my family. I plan to send me 2 year old when she is old enough."

"My son has gone to this school for just over a year now. My husband and I have discovered the staff do a wonderful job at guiding the child to becoming a thoughtful and skilled problem solvers. We have fully appreciated the hard work that is put in by the, staff, family and children."