First, I would like to comment on some of the negative feedback that has been posted by some parents. I understand that everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I also believe that those negative reviews were written by people who are never satisfied with anything in this world no matter what anyone does to try and please them. So if you are considering sending your child to Goddard, please do not give too much consideration to these remarks.
My daughter attended Goddard for almost 4 years before going to kindergarten and my son has been enrolled since he was 10 weeks old. Nothing I write in this review will do this daycare justice, but I'm going to do my best to put into words how happy we are that we chose this center. As I said, my daughter started there right after she turned 2 and has thrived both academically and socially. The teachers she had were highly skilled and did lots of educational lessons, projects, and games with the children. My daughter was able to identify letters/numbers, colors, and shapes (she told her pediatrician to draw an octogon at one of her check-up appts) at 2 1/2, write her name at 3 years old, knew phonics by age 4, and numerous other things like graphing, identifying patterns, etc. In addition, she learned sign language and would often teach me the signs for several words. We had parent/teacher conference 2 times a year and each teacher would document countless areas that she either excelled at or areas to work on at home. I can't tell you how many times she would tell me something and I would think to myself, she must have learned that at daycare and a wave of pride would come over me. It was amazing to me some of the stuff she knew thanks to the wonderful staff at Goddard. I never had any doubt that she would be well prepared for kindergarten. My only concern was that she would be so advanced she would be bored in school.
My son has thrived as well. Although he hasn't reached an age where there is alot of structured learning, I see his cognitive skills advancing daily. And at such a young age, my main concern right now is the amount of nurturing and comfort he receives. The teachers who have cared for him since infancy have done a tremendous job. He was a fussy baby who did not like to sleep, but his teachers never gave up until they found a way to sooth him and get him to take a good nap. I would often times try to take his teachers home with me so they could show me how they got him to sleep so soundly for an extended period of time. In regards to safety issues, Goddard is diligent about documenting and communicating to parents any bump or scrape a child my receive during the day. There were times when they would bring to my attention a scratch on my son that he received at home, but they wanted to ensure that it did not happen at the center. They would document this on an incident report for me to sign. While I'm not a parent who freaks out over every little bump and bruise, I was impressed with the level of attention to my child's well being. I have truly been pleased with the level of care my children have received and I would highly recommend this center. I firmly believe that if you send your child to Goddard you will agree that this school is by far the best and you will realize that I'm completely right about my thoughts on those individuals who wrote negative reviews :) read more