Sequoia's Treehouse Children's Center — Local services in Olympia

Absolutely none of the camp counselors tried help keep my daughter at their facility when I tried dropping her off on the first day of summer camp. After me trying 5 times to stop, comfort her, explain she needs to stay, and trying to walk away I finally asked one of the adults standing around if they work there and can help. I was told they are not allowed to pick her up, hug her, comfort her in any way. I was very uncomfortable none of the staff was doing anything to keep children in the field where they were supposed to be.

I ended up walking all the way back across the field to my car with my child following me and no staff doing anything to help. I went to talk to Duana near the front office to see what to do next and she told me she will get Sequoia, the owner. Sequoia came out, I explained I am trying to go but can’t because my daughter needs some comfort or distraction so I can leave. I mentioned even while we were waiting for her she had to go potty and the outhouses were in direct view of the front gate that was wide open to the street with no adults nearby. I explained I’m concerned about her just walking out there especially when none of the staff was trying to keep her there.

Sequoia responded very angrily that she took offense to that comment, as if I was attacking her staff for not watching the children. Sequoia then said it was “not their responsibility to restrain my child” and my child “needs to be mature enough to be able to be dropped off”. Sequoia then tells me again with an angry attitude that she finds it very offensive I would say her staff would just let her walk out (which they literally did right in front of my eyes) I told her I did not mean to offend her and I am saying I am concerned that none of the staff would prevent that from happening based off our experience so far. She also said “You can have her go to the Y day camp if you want a bunch of 18 year-olds watching your child” as if her staff were more competent than them. I was told children need to stay with the group on their own because that is not the staff’s responsibility (so they will not do anything to try to prevent your child from walking off). My child has never had a problem staying with the group after I leave, but usually staff at other facilities would do SOMETHING to help so me the parent can leave and my child & staff would be able to go on with their day.

I explained my daughter has been having ear problems for the past 3 weeks so might need a little compassion from the staff. Sequoia did not change her defensive, mean attitude, and said “it’s not a good fit”….. leaving us parents, with full time working jobs, suddenly without a summer care program for our child. I asked if we can at least get a refund and suddenly Sequoia was happy and said “I’ll write you a check now”. Well, we ended up being ignored by every staff member we asked an update for the next 35 minutes because Sequoia disappeared and did not come back. One of the staff members with purple hair literally threw her hands up (as if to stop an attack) yelling “I just got here” when I asked where Duana and Sequoia went since we had been waiting so long. Every staff member said they would check and then walked away without ever coming back. We eventually got our check from Duana after 35 minutes. I hope others can be warned ahead of time about this place. Not a safe place to leave you child, so in the end I am happy this experienced happened so my child wouldn’t be...

Our daughter attended farm school for two years, ending last summer. Overall, the school and experience were fantastic. Our daughter had a great time in the mud, forest and shelters all year! I often told her that I wanted to be a student there. The teachers were creative, kind and inspired our daughters young mind.

We pulled her out of farm school because of a interaction with Sequoia. Over the summer, she had forgotten her water bottle, it was a hot day. I was contacted by the teacher who kindly informed me that we either had to bring her one or they would charge us 15 dollars for a borrow bottle (used to be no charge). Although this was in the contract, I did not read it. I told the teacher that Sequoia should know her policy is expletive-crazy (not the best thing to say, I admit) but they cannot deny access to water to children, especially on a hot day. Water must be available at all time according to state laws governing child care. When we talked to Sequoia about it, she lost it. Lots of screaming at both myself and my partner, lied repeatedly about her policy and access to water and was extremely dismissive of our concern. She repeatedly told us that they had to charge this excessive amount because kids were using little paper cups all over the place and she didn't like that. She insisted that these cups were available to students for no charge. Both my partner and I looked, and asked our daughter, she was never offered a cup and we did not see any.

It was a hot day, mid summer. Both my partner and I work with children and cannot fathom a scenario that a child in our care, asks for water and we tell them they either need to pay or make their parents bring it to them.

After Sequoias outrageous response, we pulled her and will never put our children in Sequoia's care again. She exercised poor judgment that day and did not put the needs of her students over her own personal wants. She does not deserve to be a professional child care provider. Her inability to have a constructive conversation with a concerned parent should raise red flags for everyone. I would not trust her to be honest if something bad were to happen. After this event, we could not justify keeping our daughter in her care. Please insist on meeting Seqouia before signing your kids up and see for yourself if you find her trustworthy.

One more note, the farm staff/hands were also amazing! Really enjoyed those guys!

Good school, questionable...

I am shocked that this school is still open and running. I worked there back a few years back and was appalled at the true conditions and lack of safety. The safety standards were far better at the doggy daycare I worked at. There were large gaps under the fence outdoors, large enough for a small child to crawl under and out onto the busy road (which one did!). When sequoia installed a sunshade in the back with large metal poles I personally offered to go buy pool floaties to wrap the poles with for safety, she declined and within two days a child cracked his head on the pole because he was wearing a helmet far too big for him as sequoia would not buy adequate equipment with multiple sizes for ages 2-5. I also saw large bookshelves fall on children because they were not anchored to the wall in a room with two year olds. My main concern is that seqouoias response to these events was to blame teachers instead of taking responsibility for the safety conditions of the school she ran. She actually said “teachers need to be watching the large gaps in the fence”, and would not remedy the unsafe fence.

She hired individuals who had to be told many many times to not leave a wet diaper before nap time. Several teachers thought that it was perfectly fine to put a child down to nap in a soaking wet diaper and I would constantly have to tell them no - how did they get hired?

One particular child often came without a lunch and I was even scolded for making him lunch to eat from our kitchen so he could eat with the other children. I did not feel that sequoia cared for the well-being of every child.

I left for these reasons because I did not feel the school was safe and my concerns were largely ignored.

Would not recommend this school and now that I have a child I feel obligated to share the conditions so parents can be aware.

Two stars because some of the teachers and Joe were great and really cared...