Kika's House Family Daycare

Kika's house has been an amazing experience for our son. Akiva was recommended to us by a family who attended Kika's House a few years ago, and I will always be grateful for that recommendation. If you are lucky enough to inquire and find there is a spot open, it is my turn to highly recommend it too. My son can be slow to warm, and was unsure about what he was getting himself into at the start, but Kika was a steady and warm presence and pretty soon, he could relax, start being himself and have fun. Akiva was also very helpful to me throughout that early process, updating me about how he was doing and sending pictures and videos. I feel grateful that it's a small program, so that he could learn to be with other kids in a relaxed and fun setting. Daily he asks me to "tell me about my school" and we recount all the wonderful things he does, like going to the nearby playground, art, playing on the climbing dome and with the fun toys at Kika's house, eating the delicious lunch that is provided, music class. He sings so many songs at home that he hears at Kika's house and it is so adorable to hear him sing them! Akiva also helped him learn to take a nap on his own (he previously only napped in the stroller) which is a true miracle. Akiva sends photos and videos that show them all having a great time and are just lovely time capsules of this precious period. She is very attuned to him, and gives full reports on his day at pickup, as well as updates throughout the day if needed. We are so appreciative that he gets to have this wonderful introduction to the broader world of school  - Akiva has provided him with a secure base for the journey forward. I can only hope that his teachers will continue to be this wonderful.  

If you are lucky enough to find a spot for your child at Kika's house I urge you to take it! Akiva will offer the best quality of care you can possibly find for your tot, hands down. Our daughter can't wait to go to Kika's each morning, and when we arrive she wriggles out of my arms to run to Akiva and give her a hug. Akiva creates a fair, loving, and safe environment for the kiddos to play and explore what it means to be part of a community. Her individual attention toward each child is apparent with how much detail she shares about my kiddo each day during pick-up. She provides snack and lunch and somehow gets our daughter to eat all the things she is not interested in at home. They spend most of their time outdoors and Akiva offers age appropriate learning opportunities for the group to share and explore. Our daughter particularly loves the weekly movement and music classes. Akiva also makes each day interesting by exploring all the playgrounds and cool features our neighborhood has to offer. Overall, and most importantly, we know Akiva deeply loves our daughter and each child at Kika's House. The feeling is mutual. We love you Akiva & thank you for adding so much joy and comfort to our family's life. 

I totally agree with the previous review: "Kika’s is the best of all worlds."

I cannot overstate how much we have loved Kika’s House. My partner and I are both K-8 teachers. We have a combined 40+ years of experience working with children, which only makes us appreciate Kika even more.

After 2+ rough months at our son's first daycare, we were searching for a better fit. Praise for Kika’s House kept popping up from all kinds of people: our next door neighbor, a friend of a friend, a random mom at the playground, our nanny-share family, my sister-in-law. 

Meeting Kika for the first time, I was immediately put at ease. It was so different than our previous experience, in the best possible ways. She was down-to-earth, present, easy to communicate with, calm, validating, a good listener, and attentive with our son. We knew right away this was the person we wanted caring him. But I still didn't know how he would respond.

Starting our son at Kika’s House was like night and day. I had prepared myself for another drawn-out months-long transition to what I knew would eventually be better for our little dude. But there was none of that. The experience of the first week was already a dramatic improvement. A few times per day, Kika texted us photos, videos, and brief comments of our son smiling, laughing, participating, engaging, talking, and being the happy little guy we know! Each morning, he happily hopped up into his car seat, ready to go! I couldn’t believe it. I really appreciated the way Kika made sure we knew what was going on with our kid, especially at the beginning.

Kika has always been so "tuned-in" to our son. He has beeen obsessed with playing with you cars, trains and construction vehicles. He gets to do that at Kika’s House. Kika knows how to connect with kids on their terms and build on that. The focus on social-emotional learning at Kika's House is key. It is integrated into every part of the day. Kika makes our child feel so secure, seen, and appreciated. She meets him where he's at and then supports him to grow his social-emotional and communication skills.

Kika is a great communicator and she remembers everything that is going ok with your kid! Each day at drop-off, she quickly checks in about the basics (sleep, breakfast, diaper/potty etc) and then at the end of each day at pickup she gave us a brief but thorough report on how the day was for our son.

There are many awesome experiences at KH. The kids spend most of their time outdoors in the yard, at San Pablo Park or other playgrounds, and on neighborhood walks. They also have a weekly Movement class and a weekly bilingual Spanish music class with "Miss Mariela". 

Lately, a highlight of picking up my son after Kika's House is him begging to pick and eat the snap peas growing in Kika's front yard (she teaches them how to  carefully snap each pod off the plant).

Though we accept that it's time for our child to move on to preschool, we are sad he will be leaving Kika. The next kids who come to Kika's House will be so fortunate, as we have been!

I want to preface this review with saying that  my kids have experienced a range of childcare scenarios -from a high end corporate daycare, to outdoor preschool and nanny share. Among those experiences, I feel Kika’s is the best of all worlds as Kika has the knowledge and expertise while providing a small setting where kids feel at home. They do a lot of fun excursions and are engaged in different ways like going to a gym to play, music lessons with different teachers and walks to learn about the seasons. Kika is gentle, caring and observant with the little and big changes that happen in toddlerhood. She communicates quickly and effectively if I have a question. While kika is a small daycare, there is a community of families and graduates who connect to each other through the lovely shared experience. My son always has a great time and always looks forward to going, and misses “Kika!” every weekend. This place is truly a gem!

I cannot say enough wonderful things about Kika's house! This was our first daycare experience, and we were so impressed that we plan on sending our next child to Kika's! Akiva and her team provided a safe, loving and fun space for our son. Every day we picked him up, he had a smile, so I knew without a doubt that we were leaving him in capable hands. During the year they helped us as we navigated new transitions, including welcoming a new sibling and potty training. Akiva was incredibly helpful, asked questions about how she could best support our son during these times. And both she and her staff were so understanding whenever he hit a bumpy/grumpy patch. During his time at Kika's House our son's communication skills blossomed, and he has grown so much. Speaking of communication, Akiva's is outstanding. Every day I felt connected to my son's wellbeing through her check-ins at drop-off/pick-up and through texts and emails. You can't ask for a better daycare provider than Kika's House. You can really feel the love there!

I feel so incredibly lucky that we landed a spot at Kika’s House. For the past year, our son has flourished under the care of Akiva and her wonderful team. They really make an effort to attend to the individual needs and interests of the children. When my son recently became obsessed with ultrasounds (weird one, I know), Akiva said she was doing research at night to be able to answer more of his questions. When it was time to potty train, she was incredibly accommodating, asking us really specific questions about how we were handling things at home to help his transition be as smooth as possible. Her communication around all things having to do with the kids is outstanding: Akiva really takes the concerns and preferences of parents to heart. This has been really helpful during the pandemic especially— to have policies be clearly stated and questions around illness answered quickly.  I think above all else, Kika’s house has been an emotionally safe space for our family during really hard times. The staff is steady and loving, and they embrace the wonky and whacky ways of toddlers with acceptance and grace.  They do so much to keep the kids engaged— music classes, trips to the park, lots of art projects. We also loved the intimacy of a smaller program, which made it made it easier to get to know some of the other families. 

Kika is wonderful. My son loves Kika House so much. He was 2 year old when he went to Kika House. We speak Chinese at home and at the beginning my son couldn't undersand English at all. But even that, he had a very smooth transition from home to school thanks for Kika and her staffs. I could feel my son learn a lot in Kika house and became much happier and made a lot of friends there. There's nothing better than seeing her son's big smile for a mom. It happened everyday when my son went to Kika House. Now my son goes to a new preschool. Sometime when I aked him where he went to school, he still anwer Kika House without a pause. I know he would remember Kika House for a long time.

My daughter was at Kika’s House from age 2 to 3. For the first 2 years of her life, she was at home with me. By the time she reached 2, we wanted to make sure she was prepared for the big “home to preschool” transition that typically occurs around age 3 by sending her to daycare first.

Well, our daughter certainly had a smooth, successful transition from home to daycare, and eventually daycare to preschool. We truly believe this was due to her experience at Kika’s House and being in Akiva and her assistants’ (Alexandra and Anisah) care. It is such a loving, supportive, and fun environment. The best way to describe Kika’s House for me would be a mix of play-based, Montessori (various activity “stations” so that kids have options to choose from), and respectful parenting (RIE) principles. The kids have lots of enriching activities such art-making, music & dance, reading books, movement classes, trips to the community garden, trips to nearby parks, and healthy snacks and vegetarian lunch every day. Our daughter developed her social and language skills at Kika’s, and Akiva and her assistants greatly helped with potty training support. Kika’s House was also a great fit for us because it was part-time, which is very rare to find. Another highlight is how diverse the group of kids and adults were, in terms of race, ethnicity and language.  

The second half of our daughter’s year at Kika’s intersected with the beginning of the covid pandemic. Akiva and her assistants truly faced the pandemic emergency head-on by adjusting daily routines to minimize close physical interactions; mask wearing; implementing even more frequent hand-washing and placed more hand-washing stations around the daycare spaces; parents were not allowed to enter the main play space any longer and the kids were brought out to the sidewalk when the parent arrived for pick-up to maintain a safe space; daily temp checks; and safety and health rules were always posted and followed. Lots of covid safety practices that are now common sense (and now practiced in schools), were new and being implemented daily by Akiva way back in April. No child or adult ever got sick. We are so grateful that our daughter and family had this incredible early childhood experience at Kika's!

Kika’s house is the best daycare you will ever find. Akiva’s experience in childcare is remarkable and her knowledge matched with her warmth and kindness are just the perfect combination. Her teachers are the sweetest and they all form such a great team. Art and music are definitely a high priority and so are all learning activities.

My daughter Milla spent two wonderful years there, having the best time playing outdoors, eating super healthy meals, painting, singing and always learning new ways to interact with her peers. She always came back home so excited about her day and she made amazing friends!

I cannot recommend Kika’s house enough, in fact I am looking forward to sending my son Luca there in a few months time.

If you are fortunate enough to find an available space for your child at Kika’s house, consider yourself blessed. We had nothing but wonderful experiences here. Kika and her staff are so warm and loving towards every child in the program. The days are filled with outdoor play, music and arts and crafts! I highly recommend this daycare to any other family. 

If you are looking for a daycare for your first child for the first time Kika House would the right place to be in.

My daughter went to Kika house for a year and she loved the place and Akiva(the owner), of course the other teachers too.

Kika house was a perfect fit for my daughter. The transition completed in 3days of the first week with Akiva's expert skills. I think my daughter got so used to getting hugs from Akiva in the morning as soon as she entered the gate and she still misses it..

She is always hard to get up early in the morning but if I say, do you wanna go to Kika? then she will get up right away to get ready. I can tell she enjoyed going to Kika indeed.

My daughter is at a new preschool right now and I can see she still misses Kika's routine.

I reminisce about her Kika life as grateful memories since she achieved so many developments at Kika.
She became socialized with kids(loving playing with other kids at any places) and so cheerful(loving singing and dancing since Kika's music and movement classes).

I wouldn't do any better than what Kika house had done for my daughter. Everyone was so helpful and generous with kids.

Oh, my daughter got fully trained for a potty from Kika as well.

I could say Kika House was my life saver and I still wish my daughter could go to Kika longer than that!

Best wishes!

Our two kids have thrived at Kika's House. Akiva (owner of Kika's House) is the most loving, caring, patient person I have ever met. She has an amazing space (/everything/ a pre-preschooler would want to do) and hires amazing helpers (we feel like they're all a part of our family).

Akiva has so much talent for dealing with the littles. She creates an amazing environment for them. The kids have so much variety and can bounce between the art project of the day, pretend play, chickens, bugs, climbing, sand toys, reading, games tailored to them, indoors and out. Throughout the week there's movement class, music class, and tons of park time as well.  Lunch and snack are provided.

Some things my kids got from Kika's House: a love of fresh vegetables, skills for navigating interpersonal relationships, and fight-free sunscreen/hat application at home.

Kids (now 6 and almost 3) say: "They have fun toys. And they're so kind." "They're fun to play with."

Kika's House has been perfect for us. 

Thank you Akiva, Alexandra and Katie! We had just moved to Berkeley and you all made it such a special time for us. 

Reuben my son attended from approx age 2-3 and loved everyday. There is a great routine every week including movement class, singing, visits to the local garden and park time. I loved that Reuben was outside and playing everyday. His manners and communication with other kids has improved due to the fantastic teaching techniques. 

The food - Amazing!! Reuben was eating lentil soup, vegetables, salmon and helping to make home made pizzas and apple sauce. Reuben would come home and talk about the topics he learnt during morning meeting (letters, numbers animals, space etc). 

We found it really hard to find a daycare that did half days. This was perfect as we could pick Reuben up after lunch so that he could have his naps at home. Reuben couldn't talk when he started and the team were patient, caring, encouraging and took their time with him. 

If you get offered a place at Kika's House, TAKE IT. It was the best start for Reuben's school life and I wish we never had to leave. 

My 4.5 year old went to Kika's House, and still wishes he does, and my 3 year old will be finishing up in August. I'm not sure I have the adequate words to describe what Kika's house has meant to our family.

Akiva Anders leads the most wonderful team, Katie and Alexandra, to provide a socially and emotionally supportive environment for children AND their families. The teachers are kind, engaged, patient, and genuinely care about providing developmentally appropriate experiences that build confidence and independence. One of the elements of Akiva's program that I find most impressive is how she utilizes the relationships she has built in her neighborhood: movement class at the near by Akido studio, ecology exposure at Spiral Gardens, and yoga and music classes.

We consider Akiva, Alexandra and Katie part of our extended family and know our relationships will continue beyond our youngest's enrollment. I wish every child and their family could have this experience.

My four year old went to Kika's House and now my 21 month old does and we feel like we won the lottery. Akiva and her awesome staff are warm, engaged, patient, and genuinely love the kids. Akiva also is informed and passionate about early childhood development and handles toddlers' big emotions in a way that inspires the parents. And somehow in one morning, they manage to feed chickens, go to movement class, play at the park, eat organic veggies, plant things in her garden, sing, make art, all while being almost entirely outside. At pick up kids are happy and dirty and often not wanting to leave!

Kika's House is the most fantastic daycare ever--we were so lucky to find her when we moved back to Berkeley with our 16-month old daughter and attended for 2 and a half years. It has all the essential elements: love, learning, experimental play, creative art projects, visits to the local community garden, a garden on site, farm chickens, movement classes, music classes, visits to the parks, lots of outdoor play, lunches, daily reports and the list goes on. 

Kika of course is key of Kika's House, she is a special person who knew she wanted to go into childcare at a very young age, starting as a nanny and has done all the right things over the last decade or so to bring her to her own successful daycare. You can tell she loves every one of her kiddos and encourages them in all their pursuits. She gives parents individual verbal daily reports on what each of the kids had for lunch (homemade meals!) and what spectacular things they did that day. She also let us know when our daughter was having normal milestone struggles and was instrumental in helping us be the best first time parents we could be!

In addition to Kika, Katie and Alexandra have been with her for years and are phenomenal, we even have had them sit for us on non-Kika days (and we are very particular). Katie brings critters and science projects to class and Alexandra teaches the kids Spanish, my daughter even taught me a few words. We've had stints at other daycares where the assistants were "assistants", that is not how it is a Kika's house, they engage with the kiddos so they all get direct and interactive attention. We are so glad Kika found both of them while we were there as it is hard to find people that love the kids as much as Kika does (we've tried!).

Kika's House also creates a community--we are great friends with many of the families that have graduated Kika's House and get together for play dates and birthdays. The topic of conversation that always comes up is no matter how great the pre-schools are that are kiddos are going to now, Kika's House is superior and how much we all wish she could keep our young ones until kindergarten (or beyond!).

We feel so lucky to have stumbled upon Kika's House Family Daycare! We have had two children pass through Kika's House now and we definitely plan on sending our soon-to-be third there as well. Akiva Anders (Kika) fosters a nurturing, safe, fun, and loving environment for her whole community- from the children to the parents to the teachers. The kids are constantly immersed in art projects, group play, music, movement, cooking, nature, books. Here they learn to be social with an amazing balance of structure and free play. As a parent, I have learned so much from Kika's kind and patient demeanor. When we pick our kids up after lunch, they are well fed, happy, and tired from a full morning of outdoor play and good old FUN.

As our children graduate from Kika's House, we know that while we may not see Akiva 4 days a week anymore, she will be part of our FAMILY for the rest of our lives. It is not just a daycare, it is a home away from home. What more could you ask for?

Kikas House is a truly idyllic place for little ones to grow, learn, and thrive. We sent both our kids for their magic toddler years, and I could not have dreamed up a better place for them. They are engaged all day in activities that light up their little brains, ignite their imaginations, and build friendships. They go from the garden, to the farm, to the playground, to their home base at Kika's. They are so comfortable and engaged with nature. They eat healthy meals, they learn how to assert their needs with kindness and compassion for others, how to be good listeners, be patient, and how to process their emotions. The kids become a little family. There is so much joy around. They have an amazing balance of structure (routines that they master and make them feel safe) and open free play.

I have learned so much from Kika, I try to parent with her as my model - firm and gentle, consistent and fun. 

At Kika's house the kids build strong foundations of self-confidence, communication, compassion, love of outdoors and joy of learning. It's the best way to start life. Check in with Kika about the schedule and hopefully she has a spot for you.