You know the old saying, "You can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time"? That comes to mind when reading the negative review about Gardendale Preschool. My son is 6 years old and has been at this daycare/preschool since he was 3 months old. My husband and I are also both full-time working parents and have relied on this daycare to help care for our son. There was a point in time where the owner could tell that Matthew was getting a bit bored and starting to act out (around 4yrs old). I too received a few texts concerning this, but I always want to know when my child is not behaving and when there might be a problem. The last thing I would want is my son to be a distraction or worse yet, harmful to another child. I applaud Ms. Sarah for keeping me posted on his behavior. Together, we worked out a plan to have him attend ATLC preschool part time so he was with more children of his own age for part of the week (at the time, he was one of two preschool children with Sarah and the rest were babies of varying ages). Might I add here that ATLC is a wonderful preschool with many, many happy families both past and present. So, they must be doing something right! :o) Anyway, thanks to Ms. Sarah, Matthew completely blossomed having the balance between ATLC and Gardendale Preschool and I owe that to Sarah. Because of her and ATLC, my son was at 1st grade reading level at the beginning of Kindergarten and excelling in many other ways!!
I was never, ever, in all the 6 yrs my son has been attending Gardendale Preschool, blindsided by schedule. Sarah keeps everyone well informed of dates and upcoming events. Which, by the way, reminds me . . . this school has so many fun activities for the kids! They celebrate holidays and go on age appropriate field trips and have so much fun! As I was saying, the daycare is great at communicating schedules. Sometimes they are closed when you'd like them to be open, but such is life. Good luck finding a school or daycare that can take your child every time your needs change. That is just completely unrealistic. Wait until you get to elementary school when they have what seems like endless amounts of teacher inservices! Hahaha - you gotta be able to roll with the punches, ya know?!
I'd also like to add that we get receipts for every month we pay. We also have a FSA account we use for child care and this has never been an issue.
In closing, I would like to say, that it's really too bad that people use YELP as a forum for airing their personal issues. Remember, there are two sides to every story and we all have choices. If you are not satisfied with the services you are receiving or feel the child care/preschool is not up to your personal set of standards, you have the right to remove your child. Although, it does make one wonder that when people have to do this more than once, perhaps it is not the school with the issue?
Sarah, I will forever be grateful that you were here for my child and have loved him like your own. Thank you for taking such good care of my baby when I couldn't be there with him. It truly takes a special person to surround herself with other people's children, to show them love like they were her own and keep things special for them .... and still be able to smile at the end of the day! Keep your head up - you're doing great! read more