If you don’t have time to read more: we love the Orange House! Our daughter started there when she was about 18 months old. She always seems excited to go, and typically runs into the main room not even waving good bye to me. She learned a lot of skills, the biggest one for me is how to behave in a group. Helen is very insightful, she tells me every day how my daughter’s day went (mostly fine), what behavior she sees developing, and even shares her own experience of a mother -- she is a mother of 3. Yes, the kids are sick sometimes, but that’s just unavoidable in a daycare, but every time it happened she sent text messages and useful information about dealing with the illness. The place is clean, tidy, and toddler-friendly. The kids have a lot of activities during the day, they dance, sing, look at books, play LEGO, do yoga, etc. They also have a schedule of moving in and out of the house, so they get to be outside as well quite a bit. Helen has several helpers, she always introduced them to me when they came for the first time. They are all very nice as well. There are some rules you have to stick to as a parent, but they are all understandable given it’s a daycare with about a dozen children, but frankly doesn’t require much adjustment. I highly recommend the place to everyone who is looking for a safe, fun, educational, and loving place for their small children!

Helen cared for my kids (now 7 and 3) for 3.5 years. Though my son loves his preschool, he still loves talking about The Orange House and says Helen is his favorite teacher. Ever since my daughter started going to The Orange House in 2014, Helen’s house has seemed like home. We are so glad that we found such an amazing place where our kids could make friends, learn, play, laugh, and bond with truly caring adults. My kids have been both the youngest (14 months) and oldest (48 months) kids at The Orange House. No matter their age, they were always happy, safe, engaged, and attached to Helen and her wonderful assistants. To my daughter, who went to Helen’s from 25 months to 48 months, Helen’s home felt like a continuous playdate with her 10 best friends. But it also prepared her extremely well for pre-school. As she became older, she enjoyed helping the younger kids, which taught her both patience and compassion. It was also great training for her future role of big sister. When it was my son’s turn to start at The Orange House (at 14 months), my daughter counted down the days. She was bursting with excitement for many reasons. She wanted to see Helen. She wanted to see Helen’s own children and her husband, because they were also like family to her. Finally, she wanted to see one of her favorite assistants, Emily, who had been working at The Orange House before we even started in 2014.  To me, Emily’s longevity at The Orange House epitomizes so much of what is wonderful about this daycare. Helen and her assistants truly care about the children and love interacting with them, and also seem to enjoy working with each other. Given the longevity of many of the assistants, Helen appears to be a great manager and The Orange House, a great place to work. Helen’s management skills extend to the many aspects of running The Orange House. Helen makes the whole operation seem painless and fun, while most parents have, on occasion, been secretly excited on a Sunday night to know that their little terrors will be in someone else’s care in the morning. When I count my blessings, I often think of the positive starts my kids have had. Positive starts that are due in large part to the experiences both of them have had at The Orange House. While my kids have moved on to school, Helen and the rest of the OH team will always be family and we’ll forever be grateful. Lizzie

We were so lucky to have found the Orange House during our Sabbatical in Berkeley in 2017! Our daughter Eleanor (now four) still speaks fondly of Helen, reminiscing of her time there. We found all of the staff to be super professional and caring. They welcomed us into their home, which was always clean and orderly, with lovely play corners and activities. We especially loved the outdoor garden, and the circle-time songs, which Eleanor still sings even as we live abroad. Helen’s advice was great on many things, especially potty training! We have only the kindest and warmest words for this excellent daycare. Highly recommend by us ❤️

We had an awful experience at The Orange House. Our 20 month old daughter was enrolled there for a month, beginning August 2019. The owner sold us on quality of care and that she hired teachers from the Berkeley School of Education. In fact, one of her teachers had been there for 5 years. She also told us she brought in part time people during the transition of new students so there would be extra laps to sit on. The house and play area outdoors are small but she assured us they switched up activities a lot so the kids would have active play. Fast forward to our experience... - The long term teacher quit as we started and there was no replacement. I asked several times and there was no transition plan. Around 7-9 kids were transitioning as older kids went to preschool and we saw a slew of subs and the owner’s (Helen Alvarez) family members subbing. On many occasions, the only other adult there was her teenage son. This is not the kind of care we were sold and definitely not worth the premium in price we paid. On top of everything, the owner has all administrative responsibilities so she was busy with tours and other administrative tasks during the day. - The Orange House is not a play based daycare, despite what it advertises. I never once observed the kids in active play. I went to pick up at different times to make sure I wasn’t just observing downtime. The kids looked extremely bored and, even outside, moved in circles robotically (you can only go around the circle in one direction per the rules) rather than freely. My daughter was having a hard time going to sleep at night which is usually a sign she did not get enough activity during the day. When I would ask about what the kids did during the day, I never got an answer. I asked if they painted. “Paint is too messy”. The outdoor area is downstairs and requires a major transition. So the kids don’t have freedom of movement to go play outside when they want. - Overall, even as an adult, I found Helen to have countless rules about even the smallest minutia. But the second you ask a question to understand why or what she means, she gets frazzled and rushed you off. She over communicates yet at the same time doesn’t communicate or is flaky about important details. When I questioned her about the teachers, she said she never committed to it. She would revert to legalese mode in defense rather than address our true concerns. She would literally bark at me for coming ‘late’ because I showed up at 4:15 instead of 4 (although actual pick up time was 5:30pm). On our last day there, Helen told me our daughter woke up early. When I asked what she did until other kids got up (about 45 min later), Helen said she was sitting at the computer table as Helen did some emails. I said I was not ok with that and she got frazzled and defensive. “When they sleep, is our two hour break” was her response. Again, I was not okay with her using nap time as a break instead of caring for kids who are awake during that time. We left agreeing to a conference call later that night to discuss the issue. The call never came. Instead, Helen sent a termination email effective immediately. My husband and I are both working parents so it was extremely disruptive to find care for our daughter on no notice. And worst, Helen did not tell us about an outbreak of Hand foot and mouth that our daughter caught at the daycare. So she infected several other kids outside of daycare. Awful experience. Awful communication. I regret my child was in Helen’s care for as long as she was.