For all you parents looking for a preschool that suits your kids, we’re hoping to add a little something to aid in your search. Parents of children who attend various preschools on island have filled out a series of questions about the schools for the benefit of the rest of us. We welcome more than one voice on each school since everyone has a different experience, so please feel free to add in your two cents in the comments.
If your child attends a school that has not been reviewed on this site, please contact our Submissions Manager for the template.
CONTRIBUTED BY KATHERINE MOORE
Name of the school: Kids Place 24 Rush
Address: 1-1-6 Mihama, Chatan-chō, Nakagami-gun
Phone: 098-926-0393
Email: info@kids24.jp
Ages Accepted: 3 months and up
Ages of Your Kid(s) in this School: 0-3years old (older siblings are welcome)
Admissions/Enrollment:
What is the maximum number of students that your school has? 25
What is the current number of students? 20
Is enrollment open/year-round enrollment or per semester? Open year-round
Does my child have to be potty-trained to attend? No
Can I bring my child in for a pre-enrollment visit? Can do hourly care first before enrolling full-time
Days and hours:
What are the school’s hours? Monthly care: Monday-Friday 7:00am to 7:00pm, Saturday 7:00am-2:00pm, Hourly care: Monday-Thursday 6:30am-9:00pm, Friday to Saturday 24hours, Closed on Sundays.
Is the school on a Japanese or American schedule? On a Japanese schedule
How flexible is the school with pickup and drop-off times? Very flexible
Costs:
What are the registration fees? Monthly care is 20,000yen, no registration fee for hourly care
What are the tuition fees? Monthly care: 0-6 months = 38,500yen, 7-12 months = 35,500yen, 1 year = 32,500, 2 year = 30,500, 3 year = 28,500. Hourly care is 700yen per hour (500yen per hour for full-time students).
If any, what are the assessment and school supplies fees? 100yen a month for supplies, 1000yen per month for air conditioning fees (usually from July to October), lunch and snacks are included for monthly care and 300yen per meal for hourly care, shower is also available for 300yen.
Are any discounts offered for referrals, siblings, volunteering, working there, etc.? Registration fee is per family, siblings can be registered for 20,000yen (one time 20,000yen no matter how many siblings there are). No referrals or volunteer discount.
Is there a late-pickup fee? Hourly care is 700yen per hour anytime, while monthly care is 500yen per hour after the regular hours.
How and when does the school require payment (in yen, dollars, etc.)? They accept yen and dollars.
Parent Involvement and Interaction:
Does the school encourage spontaneous visits from parents? They recommend doing whatever will make parents more comfortable. Visiting is always welcome, anytime.
How do you communicate with parents? For monthly care, daily reports are given to the parents. For hourly care, a report can be requested at the time of drop-off.
Are there parent/teacher conferences? No
Classroom Structure and Size:
How are the kids grouped? Mixed ages / grouped by age? Everybody is grouped together
What’s the teacher-child ratio in each group? 1:3 for 0-1 year olds, and 4 teachers for the rest of the class (they have 20 at the moment, so 4 teachers for the 17 children).
How many full-time teachers do you have? How many assistants? All teachers are full-time, except 1 part-time.
What is the school’s educational philosophy? Is the school program developmentally-based or does it have an academic focus? Since everybody is in one room, children are encouraged to learn and play with other children.
Is there a playground for the children to play on? They do not have a playground outdoors, but do go out to the park twice a week.
What do the children do on any given day? Mostly learn and play with other children.
Are there extracurricular activities or field trips? How does the school discipline children? Field trips are only walking distance, picnic kind of field trips. They discipline children by talking to them and letting them know what they did was wrong.
How does the school comfort children? They make every effort to make children feel as comfortable as possible. The teachers are very children friendly.
Final Comments or Observations about the School: Very good childcare, especially for those who just want to have a night out with their spouse. I have taken our daughter to this facility using their hourly care. My husband and I usually hang out around Jusco, American Village, and Araha beach, so it’s nice knowing that our daughter is just nearby. They also have a webcam that is online the whole time the facility is open. We were able to check on our daughter at any time. The staff even told us that we can give the grandparents back in the states the website, so that they may see their granddaughter as well. They will even put your child closer to the webcam , per request, at certain time if you know for sure that somebody wants to see him or her. Altogether, I recommend this place for hourly care. I have no experience with their monthly care, but do know that they are friendly and flexible. Very good place to have for those “I need a sitter right now” moment.
Make sure to park where it is marked (as shown on picture), or else you will be towed. The easiest way to remember this sign is that it is the same yellow and blue color as the daycare’s “24” sign. They are the only one who used colors for their parking signs. Everybody else is just plain black and white.
Address: 1-1-6 Mihama, Chatan-chō, Nakagami-gun
GPS Coordinates: 26.3098978, 127.76213430000007
Directions: 
From Kadena Gate 1, turn left on 58 towards Chatan (Jusco). You will pass on your right side a Starbucks, Autobacs, Honda car dealer, and Suzuki car dealer. Turn right on the next light where Toyota car dealer (there is also an overpass on this light)is.
Turn left on the light and the daycare will be immediately on your left side. Look for a blue, yellow and red sign with the number 24 on it (see pictures). Their parking is located under the building (turn left on the blue P sign that says “dessert” on it, as shown on the pictures). The brown door shown on the picture is the entrance to the daycare. They are located on the second floor.
I wonder if it is a culture thing? I have tried to figure out why it is that they do not seem to believe in stimulating babies. My first tour here my son was born and they did not have a place for him at the CDC so I was forced to go off base and I went to a big blue building on 23, can’t remember the name of it, but I had the same problem. No matter what time I went to get him he was always in the exact same spot I had dropped him off. Always in the same swing-all day! I hated that! I was happy to move him and did the first minute I could. He is three now.
Hi Karen – for hourly care there is no registration fee you just fill out some paperwork and they make a copy of your ID’s. I wouldn’t worry about the hourly care. The kids seem to have fun there – they just run around and play. I was upset b/c babies need more than laying in a crib all day. I think they are more concerned with earning a quick buck than anything else. (hence no requirements for hourly care)
Go check it out and just go with your gut. I felt uncomfortable from the start but thought it was me being a first time parent and new to the whole daycare thing. I should have went with my gut!
my husband and I are plannin on takin our son there tonite for an hourly care… after reading the reviews, im kinda iffy to do it… he’s 4 years old and im hoping that we wont have the same problem as sarah did… also, do we need to register? or call ahead before dropping him off?
@Sarah, where do you work? cuz i know that if you work on base, then they can actually give you priority for child care.
My wife and I put our daughter in there when she was about a year old. We had a bad experience to. They did not have the ratio they said and the assitant manager was not too good. The owner (lady) is excellent. The husband made a lot of excuses for our complaints. I did like the Camera but yeah the kids don’t do much all day. Worst part was that my daughter has diaper rash almost all the time because the ratio was usually 2 adults for about 20 kids and they never changed it in time.
We moved to an awesome spot right by our house. They only take 16 kids. A kid must disenroll to open a spot. They take great care of the kids and my daughter is so happy everyday at 1.5 years old. They even give all the kids showers after lunch time.
Which daycare is this?
Kristine – Thanks for the info! I hope that other people take the time to read my comments and then see your comment for an alternative to this daycare!! We read the review on Santa Monica International Kids School and decided to go there. It is outside of Gate 1 as well. We toured the place – very clean and organized. Seems like a place where our daughter can grow! We will be here for 2 more years and she is only 7 months old right now.
The Rush 24 was the ONLY place that we had been to out in town and jst assumed that this must just be what daycare is like. Then we went to the Santa Monica school and realized that we were in the “ghetto” of daycares w/ Rush. Now looking with a comparative eye I can see just how messy, sad and dysfunctional it is. The kids bedding is piled in a crib by the entrance. The toy bins are kept in the kitchen area and the little ones have to carry it as a group to the play area everyday and then carry it back when they are done. I found out yesterday when we showed up during “naptime” (when the webcam was off) that it’s really just movie time. And they kept telling me that my baby wasn’t drinking any formula when she was there (all day) and I told them that was sooo out of character for her b/c she is a really good eater. Well I found out why she wasn’t eating and that is b/c when we arrived they were giving all the babies the bottles in their cribs so that they could hold the bottle and feed themselves. My baby has never fed herself, we always hold her and bottle feed her. So that is why she wasn’t eating for 5-6 hours in a day b/c they weren’t taking the time to do for her what is only common sense for a baby that age.
They are so crammed into that ONE room they use for 25 kids that I am sure under all the piles of supplies around the walls and shelves it is filthy. The owner said she didn’t want any trouble and that is why she was refunding the money but the only english speaking employee kept telling me “good luck with finding a better place and in the states they have way more kids to only one person.”
I’m just really glad to have my daughter out of there. This new place doesn’t have a webcam but it is a million times better and just not even comparable to the levels of differences between the places. Rush 24 shouldn’t even accept children under 15 months.
*sorry I meant Gate 1
@ Sarah – Sorry your experience didn’t work out for you. If it helps, my son’s daycare, Baby123, takes infants and they’re right outside of Gate 2. He’s been there from when he turned 1 until now and he loves it. He is now 2 and they take great care of him. This is an in home day care so they get a lot of personalized attention. Here’s the website if you’d like more info:
http://www.okinawadaycare.com/
And here’s an article about them as well.
http://www.japanupdate.com/?id=7889
**UPDATE**
After watching the webcam all morning while I was calling around to find a daycare with an opening in the infant age range (took me 4 hours and a billion calls). Our baby girl was left in her crib from the time my husband dropped her off at 9am until they fed her at 12pm. I found a place by the seawall with 1 opening for her age range and we ran up there to check it out! looks great, super clean really hands on. So we rushed down to Kids Place and got out little one out of there.
We requested the $200 registration fee back and they refused. (the owner doesn’t speak english but 1 Philippino employee does). We explained that our daughter had only been there for 7 days and we had complaints from day 1 that have never been resolved even after I provided toys (which you would think a daycare would have). She translated to the owner who then offered us half… I wasn’t leaving until we got a full refund. We talked some more – more translating – and we got a full refund. ;o)
>>Nicole – no CDC on island has any openings in the infant age range – I have called them all. We live on Camp Lester so we applied for the waiting list on Foster and the employee basically laughed and said we’d be lucky to get in before our tour was up here. (there are over 50 people on the list)
@Sarah,
The CDC is always available, as is family child care. You might have a bit of a wait, but can try for hourly care.
I personally think the only “good” place kids under about 2 (and possibly under 3) is the CDC. (And I’m kind of an anti-CDC person, believe it or not!)
Hi Katherine,
Not much has changed. I took in toys but they rarely use them. The babies still stay in the cribs most of the day. The webcam still goes off for 3 hours in the afternoon – if they even remember to turn it back on again. We’ve already paid the $200 registration fee and we don’t know about any other day cares for kids under 12 months or we would take our daughter out of there. My husband is leaving next week for 3 months so I needed to find somewhere for her before this deployment and the 7 month deployment in October.
If you or anyone you know hears of a better place please email me.
Thanks.
Hi Sarah,
I’m so sorry to hear about your experience with this daycare. As I mentioned on my post, I have only used this daycare as an hourly care. They were nice to me and to my 2 year old daughter, but didn’t realize that they don’t pay as much attention to babies. I have only posted what I’ve experienced in hope that others will also post their experience. Thank you for sharing and I hope they try and work with you.
****BE WARE******
After reading the post I decided to check this place out. I paid and enrolled my 7 month old baby girl. They have a webcam so I watch it. For the babies under 1 they really don’t do much with them. They spend almost all day in the cribs. I complained and offered to bring them some jumperoos and such off of OYS. They said that would be fine. They DO NOT keep the ratio that is promised on this review. There are only ever TWO women with the children all day. Most of the time there are 4 babies and 13 kids. For about an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon the owner and her husband come and help out. That is it. So if you are looking for a place that gives your baby lots of attention this is not the place to go. I will be taking the toys tomorrow and will report back if they are used. I let them know that if the babies are not out of the cribs more and in the walkers and jumpers I am taking my baby out of there and expect a full refund.
Also – during the nap time they turn the webcam off – not sure why – I asked why I wasn’t able to view the webcam in the afternoon and they said it was off to not disturb the nap time. But I told her that the kids have no idea if the cam is on or not??? Didn’t make sense to me. I let them know that I want it to be on at all times. We’ll see if that changes today or not!
I checked this place out today and LOVE it!!! Meredith is right when she says it is a great place for hourly care. Now that I am pregnant with my second child it is so easy for me to drop her off here when I head to my doctors apt. They are all very friendly and super sweet. I have never used the cdc and I never plan on since I have found this place. I have passed this building a million times never thought I was a daycare!