GIGAGLEE IS WAY MORE THAN A DAYCARE

We Finding Inspiration in Every Turn

"Daycare" is a word about time. It only says that a business watches your child while you're away. It may describe where your child spends the day, but to us, it could never describe everything that happens within it.

It doesn't say anything about the morning a two-year-old finally used a word instead of relying on body language. Or the afternoon a whole classroom sat on the floor to figure out why the ice melted faster near the window. Or the Tuesday a mother cried in the parking lot because it was her first day back at work, and someone walked out to sit with her.

That's the part the word leaves out. So we built a place that fills it in.

We started with a question, not a business plan...

GigaGlee began with our GigaCreators asking something simple after 15 years in early childhood education: why do families have to choose?

Choose between a center that felt warm and one that took learning seriously. Between teachers who knew your child's name and a program that could tell you how she was actually growing. Between a place that was kind and a place that was organized.

We saw families making this choice every day, and we kept coming back to the same thought: why should they have to choose at all? We believed children deserved a place that felt warm and joyful, while giving their learning and development the attention they deserve. So we decided to bring both together.

What we found when we looked closely

Our two GigaCreators came to this from very different rooms: one from fifteen years in classrooms and a doctorate in educational leadership, the other from more than a decade running early childhood programs in Connecticut, and from raising three children of her own, including a daughter on the autism spectrum. That last part taught her something no training does: what it feels like to be the parent hoping someone will take the time to understand your child.

When they met here, they discovered they had both spent their careers noticing the same gap: children who were being taught well and still not being seen.

We also noticed something quieter. Parents kept apologizing, for asking questions, for arriving with a hard morning, for working a Saturday shift, for not speaking English at home. As if needing care were something to be sorry about.

Nobody should have to apologize for going to work!

So we built it differently!

We opened at 800 Main Street South in 2025 with a few decisions already made, and we haven't moved off them since.

Joy is the method, not the decoration. Children here learn by playing, freely, with guidance, and in games with real rules. Underneath every activity is a Connecticut Early Learning and Development Standard, but a four-year-old shouldn't be able to feel the scaffolding. She should just feel like today was a good day.

Every child gets seen. Not watched...seen. Our teachers stay within arm's reach of infants, count faces at every transition, and position themselves so there are no blind corners in this building. That's a safety practice. It's also how you notice a child before she has to ask.

We say the hard things out loud. We publish our policies. We tell you about the bad morning, not just the good one. We don't use time-outs, and we'll explain exactly why.

We'll be open on Saturdays soon. Because a family's week doesn't end on Friday, and we got tired of hearing that it should.

Who we are now?

Today GigaGlee is 5 classrooms, 10 educators, and more than 40 families across Southbury, Woodbury, Middlebury, Oxford, Danbury, Bethel and Newtown (some of whom drive past three other centers to get here).

Our GigaCreators are still in the building every day. That's not a slogan; it's just what happens when the person who writes the policy is the same person holding the door open at 6:30 AM.

We're still a daycare, in the sense that we're here while you work.

We're just a great deal more than that too.

Come see for yourself:

OUR GIGACREATORS

GigaGlee was built by an educator, not an investor.

GigaFounder & GigaDirector

Denise Cavalcante

Before any title, I am someone whose life has been shaped by caring for others. I am a mother of three and a grandmother. So I understand childhood not only through a professional lens, but through the deeply personal one...the stages.the stages, the challenges, the discoveries, and the joys that come with raising a family.

GigaFounder & GigaDirector

Luciana Ogando

As a Doctor in Educational Leadership and an educator with over 15 years of experience, I have had the privilege of shaping minds and inspiring hearts. Throughout my career, I've learned that education is not just about imparting knowledge-it's about fostering growth, nurturing potential, and instilling confidence in every learner.

What being family-owned actually means: The person who sets the policy is the person who greets you at the door. When something needs to change, it changes that week... not after a regional call.