Kettle Hill Early Learning cares for 31 children, 6 weeks to 3 years, in three small rooms in Andover. Both answers are on the board below, copied from the one by our front door, with the date each next place opens. I update it on Mondays.
Updated Monday, October 5, 2026, by me, Renee, the director.
3 places open this autumn
In rooms of 9, 12 and 10, yes. Each room keeps its own teachers across two overlapping shifts, so the adult who took your baby in the morning is still there after lunch. Children move up when they are ready, never on a birthday and never mid-week.
Babies sleep, eat and play on their own clock, the one you write down at drop-off. A separate sleep room, nine bare cribs, a check every ten minutes, and the check is written down.
New walkers, low shelves, a padded climbing corner. One nap after lunch, a cup instead of a bottle by about 15 months, and much practice with spoons. Most of lunch still lands on the floor.
Paint, songs, the sandbox, and a first go at the potty when your child is ready. We start potty learning with you and in your week, never in ours.
$255 to $315 full time, $175 to $215 part time, by room. Billed weekly, drawn every Friday for the week after. Tuition stays the same through holidays, sick days and your vacations, since it holds the place and the teacher for your child.
| Room | Full time, 5 days | Part time, 3 days |
|---|---|---|
Nest | $315 | $215 |
Burrow | $290 | $195 |
Meadow | $255 | $175 |
Part time is Monday, Wednesday and Friday, or Tuesday and Thursday plus Friday.
Give us four weeks' notice in the app, for either. Tuition runs to the end of the notice, and we offer your place to the next family on the waitlist.
For Nest, places go five to seven months ahead, and most families join while still pregnant. Joining is free and takes three minutes.
Name, due date or birthday, the month you want, full or part time. No fee and no deposit.
Your place in each room shows in the app, and it moves whenever a family ahead of you starts or drops off.
When a place opens, the next family gets a text and has 48 hours to answer. After that, I offer it to the family behind them.
The $125 registration holds it. We book two short settling-in visits the week before day one. The visits are for the parent as well as the child.
KDHE inspects us every year. The last visit was August 18, 2026, and the report hangs in the front hall beside this list. Ask at the desk to read it.
Babies on their backs in a bare crib, no blankets or bumpers. Checked every ten minutes and the check is logged.
Each family has its own door code. Anyone new on your pickup list shows photo ID, every time, until we know them.
Every adult is fingerprinted and cleared through KBI and FBI checks before their first shift, and rechecked every five years.
All eleven staff hold infant and child CPR and first aid, renewed every two years. Two certified adults on site at all times.
No peanuts or tree nuts in the building. Every allergy is on a card at the table and in the teacher's app.
A fever of 100.4 goes home. Back after 24 hours without a fever and without fever medicine.
Eleven of us work here. These four run the building and the rooms. All four started here as an assistant or a room teacher.
BS in early childhood education. Eighteen years in infant care, and the person who answers the phone.
CDA credential, infant and toddler. Nine years in Nest. “No blankets in my cribs. Ask me why, not again.”
AA in child development. Six years with new walkers, and the one who plans the yard.
BS in elementary education. Four years in Meadow, runs potty learning with each family.
Times move by ten minutes either way, and further on a rough morning. We go out in the fenced back yard whenever it is above 20 degrees and below a heat index of 95.
Quiet play in Meadow until each room fills
Oatmeal or eggs, fruit, milk
Sandbox, trikes, the low slide
Painting, blocks, songs, picture books
Cooked here; this week's menu is in the app
Until about 2:30; early wakers get quiet books on their cot
Crackers, cheese, fruit
Or the gym room in bad weather
Pickup any time from here on
Late pickup is $1 a minute; at 6:15 we call your contacts
Every family gets the parent app. Teachers log as they go, so you know she slept before your 2 o'clock meeting ends.
Lunch: ate the sweet potato, tried grapes
Yard is dry. Out at 3:15.
Week of Oct 12, drawn Friday Oct 9 from checking ending 4417. Sibling discount applied.
Expected start: January 2027. We text you the day a place opens, and you have 48 hours to say yes.
These are the five I answer most on the phone, with the answers I give.
A temperature of 100.4 or higher, vomiting, or diarrhoea more than once means a call to come within the hour. Your child can come back after 24 hours without symptoms and without fever medicine. We give prescribed medicine with a signed form in the app.
Yes. Tuition holds your child's place and their teachers' hours, so it stays the same through your vacations, sick days and our 11 closed days. Families who give four weeks' notice can take two weeks a year at half tuition.
We close at 6:00. After that it is $1 a minute, paid with the next tuition draw. If we have not heard from you by 6:15, we call your emergency contacts in the order you listed them.
Biting is common between one and two. We shadow a child who bites, tell both families the same day, and never name the other child. Any bump gets an incident note in the app within the hour and a signature at pickup.
Yes, any time we are open. Your door code works all day. We ask that you skip the Nest sleep room between 12:00 and 2:30 so the other babies stay asleep.
Yes. Visits are 20 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:00 or 3:30, when the rooms are busy and you see the day as it runs. Bring the baby if you like.
Tuesday or Thursday, 10:00 or 3:30. Three fields, below.
I text within two working hours to confirm and ask anything I need to know.
See the rooms running and meet the lead teacher. Ask me anything about ratios.
I email the tuition sheet and a waitlist link. Nobody here will ring to chase you.
Can't make those times? Call me on (316) 555-0108 and we will find another.