I read a lot of positive reviews online and have a friend whose niece has gone here for years, so…read moremaybe I had too high expectations. The tour was lovely. Staff seemed nice, positive, and upbeat. The price was right and they had a flexible schedule. It seemed like an organized place with daily routines, activities, and meal plans, and a daily log that would tell us what our LO did all day. However, in practice, we were sorely disappointed. We were signed up for 2 days/week and our LO had extreme separation anxiety, but that's to be expected. It seemed at first glance like they were handling him well, coddling him, giving us updates (no streaming video). But by the end of each day he would still be screaming would run to us crying, and just exhausted and in a bad mood each night after daycare. We'd hear things from teachers like complaints that they "had" to pick him up all day because he kept crying, and next door in the older room he won't get that; or how he got upset every time a teacher took his comfort stuffy away (that he brought in to hug while adjusting), because in the real world, like high school, he can't walk around with a stuffed animal... If it was just the comments and a rough adjustment though, we might have persevered. But it was also what felt to us like a complete lack of communication between morning teachers and afternoon teachers, even though there was a written daily log. For example, the log would say "no nap," but we'd be told oh no, he napped. We'd ask questions about his day in the afternoon and they couldn't be answered. We sent diapers in, size 3 at the time, and one of the first days he came home in someone else's loose fitting size 6 - I could understand a diaper mixup in a busy daycare, but this was 3 sizes too big and so obviously so! Or the time we were told we need to bring in a sheet for his crib, and asked if the sheet we brought needed to be laundered, and the teacher didn't realize he had a cubby (as all the kids do) and hadn't looked in his bag. Or the time they ran out of milk. Or the time my husband caught them letting the little ones (18+ months) watch Ms. Rachel on a tablet in a side room to calm them down... I'm not against Ms. Rachel, but I can do that at home... they weren't using it as a teaching tool or interactive, but just to distract the kids. Also, we were promised well rounded nutritious meals with fruit, etc., and I don't know if something more was given after we dropped him, but each time I dropped him it seemed like the breakfast was just one carb - an english muffin, some cheerios, etc., and nothing else. After 4 days over two weeks (2 days/week) of issues like this each day, we spoke to two Directors and were very pleased with their response - they were apologetic, said much of what we saw was unacceptable, and they would work to make it better. They did try - I believe they really did. The next week we came in and they had an extra teacher in the class to make sure our LO had special attention while adjusting. It should have been great. Should have been perfect really, after we had so many issues. So, Day 5, new week, Monday. As I drop LO off, he loses a shoe. I point it out to the teachers and I have to run. 9+ hours later I return for pickup, and LO is still wearing one shoe. I ask the afternoon teachers did he have one shoe on all day (as a toddler who just learned to walk and is already wobbly...), and they couldn't tell me for sure. Since they arrived, yes, he had one shoe and they thought it was strange... but no one thought to call his parents or check his cubby/bag or talk to the morning teachers. They didn't know that there was another shoe or where it could be. They called the morning teachers who said the shoe was in a bag in the cubby... no explanation as to why one shoe was put away and one shoe was left on and why this information wasn't passed onto the afternoon teachers. One of the Directors said she was in the room and definitely saw LO with both shoes on, but the afternoon teachers said differently... the mixup could not be explained. That evening, as we prepared his bag for the next day, I broke down crying because I was so nervous to send my LO back again. I felt he wasn't being looked after attentively and with care. We decided not to send him back. Again, the Directors were very understanding as to our abrupt departure, and perhaps this was just a fluke. People in the area love this place. I guess see for yourself? (PS - A few weeks later, we enrolled him elsewhere and while he still has separation anxiety and cries when we drop him, he always comes home smiling and happy, waving at the director and reaching for her, and his vocabulary has exploded too! He comes home like himself, not like a tired tantrum baby that we didn't recognize...).
