I know this is long, but if you are looking for childcare for your children I would take the time…read moreto read it. Our boys were enrolled in Best Friends for three weeks and I am beyond relieved to have them removed and in another daycare. Prior to becoming an educator, I worked in an excellent childcare facility for ten years. I believe that a parent who has no experience in childcare may not notice issues or know any better, or may think some things are "normal" that are not. First, let me start by speaking to what I feel is the integrity of the child care director. After reading on their website that they have been given five stars in Great Start to Quality, and are the "highest ranked" program in Oakland County, I looked them up on the site to find they do not have any stars. After contacting GSTQ to ask why, I found that her in home daycare had been given five stars but her center has not been rated yet. Using her in home rating in order to get more parents into her child care center, which is currently not rated, is dishonest. They updated their site to state they were in their new location so certainly they could have edited the information about their star rating at the same time. If you browse the Google reviews of this childcare facility, you will see that, in response to a poor review, the director Tori violates parent/caregiver privacy by publicly stating discipline issues with the parent's child. This is highly unprofessional and demonstrates a lack of respect for the privacy of past clients. Publicly sharing discipline issues also violates FERPA which i believe extends to state licensed child care facilities. I would expect a professional to remain respectful of a child's privacy even when they receive a negative review, particularly on a public forum. The program director, Tori, is expected to facilitate learning for young people, particularly those in early literacy. However, when students are doing activities with directions on the white board, words are often misspelled and in speaking, poor grammar skills are used. This is an issue in parent communications as well, which concerns me when my children are learning how to speak properly from the adults they are around all day. In our three weeks at the facility, the daycare closed on several occasions. Two were the result of snow days, which I understood completely. However, two were due to it being cold outside. The director stated that the building furnace was unable to keep the building warm. This is not a weather issue, it is a building issue that needs to be remedied as we live in Michigan and it gets cold. However, she still charged parents for those days as if it were a weather issue or "act of god." Parents still have to work when it is cold, so buildings need to be capable of staying warm. If the building can not stay warm then the onus should fall on the director to bear the financial responsibility of closing. The infant room, where my two year old was, was very damp and smelled strongly of something like wet paint. Every day at pickup the smell would hit me as soon as I opened the door to that room. Also, I was told that they would assist my son in potty training by taking him to the bathroom every 15 minutes. This did not happen. My four year old was in the big kids room. The activities seemed developmentally appropriate for the younger kids; however I told them when we registered that my son was working on reading and kindergarten prep. They told me they would work with him and instead had him doing activities that were not scaffolded to his current ability level and were therefore too easy. The culmination of our frustration was in our final week there, when I arrived to find my son and another child standing in separate corners facing the wall, with their backs to their peers, apparently because they were not cleaning up. This consequence is not only archaic but also highly inappropriate. It shames the child, confines them and excludes them from the learning activities being completed. It is punishment, not a consequence, and I would expect individuals who are trained in child development to know how incredibly inappropriate this is. We began looking for new childcare immediately when this happened, but then were given a termination notice without reason. This, again, demonstrates the lack of professionalism of the owner, as a good program director would sit down with a parent to explain their reasoning. They would not just leave an envelope up front and hide from the parent at pickup. When I asked via email for her reason, she deflected and would not provide one. I suspect that her reason has to do with the fact that I know enough about daycare to know that they are not good at their jobs, whereas a typical parent may not know any better. I was fine with the termination as we were leaving anyway, but the lack of professionalism in how it was done is very unfortunate and indicative of how this facility is run.

My experience with tori was very stressful. I was going through a divorce and at the time my ex and…read moreI used tori as childcare. Ms. Tori was very biased towards my ex wife that, although my ex wife registered my son I, his legal/biological father am supposed to have full access to any and everything that is relative to my child. Ms. Tori refused me access to these documents stating that they belonged to my ex wife. I was consulting an attorney about this behavior by Ms. Tori and only because I snapped on this lady during pick up of my child, she covered herself by deleting/kicking my child out of her daycare. If I could give Ms. Tori negative numbers I would. VERY BIASED AND VERY ARROGANT. I just wanted to make sure people know what and who they're dealing with when you select this business. This is my repost!!!

It is the best daycare and early learning center in the area. Providers are very qualified and…read morenice who really care and are doing their best for children. Beautiful surroundings, convenient location, safe environment!

Truely an amazing day care. All 3 of my kids go there and I have had nothing but good experiences…read moreall around. They enjoy going there, doing the activities, learning, and even made friends they see outside of school. The facilit is nice, the food is good (that is made there), and the staff are friendly. WSPT is highly recommended for anyone looking for childcare. Thank you for all that you do for the children there.

Best Daycare i ever had my daughter to . staff and mr Bill and mrs judy are very respectful and…read morethey do alot for the children . mr bill makes the best food around ! my child is very picky with food but always eats at daycare . homemade meals and snacks .

My daughter participated in the Summer Camp, on a part time basis! She loved it, i loved it! From…read morethe projects and baking and walks to the library, i love the skill sets they were focusing on! The application and registration were an easy process and the staff always seemed attentive for any of my questions! Definitely a great center conveniently located in town!

My son went here for kindergarten. There were a lot of positives, clean space, nice staff, good…read morelocation. He learned a lot. He enjoyed it. I liked the director. She was friendly and cared for the kids. But I found her to lack organization. Communication was all over the place. Sometimes it was timely, Other times it was nearly after the fact. On one occasion, my son was released to a relative without their ID being checked. This immediately made me lack confidence in them. The director seemingly handled it well, and the issue did not occur again.

My daughter has been attending U-Gro for about a year. We have been absolutely blown away by the…read moreteachers and directors at U-Gro. My daughter has grown by leaps and bounds during the past year. We get such a kick out of the things she learns at school. Out of nowhere, she will start using a totally new word or singing a new song and then she'll tell us she learned it at school. As she has grown, the curriculum has grown with her! Can't wait to see what more she learns in the future! The facility is always clean. We love the cameras and I find myself checking in to see what cool thing she's doing many times a day. Thanks U-Gro!

Amazing staff and professional. Truly care about your kids and the grounds are very secure. Have…read morehad no issues dropping our little one off.

Lolo's Angels is a wonderful daycare for any child. Miss Lolo is so warm and caring! She loves all…read morethe children she watches like they are her own. My children loved going there and still talk about being there to this day. She makes her home a place where the children have fun through toys and fun experiences. She also prepares children academically for preschool and kindergarten. Going to Lolo's Angels was like a second home for my kids because they were so loved and cared for there. I would highly recommend Lolo's Angels.

Anyone looking for full-time in home childcare should contact Lori (LoLo) of LoLo's Angels! She…read morehas been caring for my infant daughter for 6 months. I cannot say enough good things about Lori, she helped us as a caregiver by treating our daughter as one of her own and becoming a friend. We are sad to leave but needed to merge care with my oldest for convenience. I highly recommend her!

Tender Years Mechanicsburg has been our daughter's "school" for over 4 years now. We could not have…read morefound a better place for her to learn and grow. She built deep relationships with each teacher, every year- and they always treated her with love and respect. The leadership shines here with communication and availability- I don't know if they ever take a day off! We toured multiple daycares in the area and felt very confident that Tender Years was the best environment we could find for our little one- and that continued to prove to be the case every year. Our daughter has thrived and learned so much during her time here and I highly recommend Tender Years.

Ms. Vanessa has been an exceptional teacher for my child. Her ability to create a fun and engaging…read morelearning environment is truly remarkable. She has a unique way of making complex subjects accessible, which has led to incredible growth in my child's learning. In just two months, my child has mastered 22 sight words, learned basic math concepts, and even started picking up sentences and greetings in other languages! Her patience, creativity and genuine love for children are evident in everything she does. We are incredibly grateful for her positive impact in my kiddo's development and consider ourselves fortunate to have her as a teacher. Tender Years is truly lucky to have her!

I absolutely love this daycare. The director and staff are very involved and it's great to see the…read morestaff actually care not just for my children but about them. The down side is they have a large turn around rate which is why I gave 4 stars, but then again working with kids isn't for everyone. Unless all the teachers they have now leave, I'll never consider another daycare.