We were happy to find this place because it seemed like more than a day care, and I admit that it was. It was better than our other day care which was just a glorified babysitter, and she was getting to the age that she needed more stimulation. We were impressed at the low turnover here. One of the teachers has been there nearly 20 years. The rooms are large and there were very few to no broken toys. There were working computers and lots of books. They have stations that only a few kids can use at a time, it was a system all the kids seemed to get the hang of. They also have a water playground for summer use behind the regular playground. Everything looked good in theory. But it was clear pretty early on that either nobody was watching my child on the playground or the teacher just really had something against my kid. All these accidents and incidents happened outside but *nobody* ever saw them. She would come home with large, dark marks on her body that nobody could explain, it got to be ridiculous. At 3 and a half I can get part of a story but it can change, it's an age thing. I rely on teachers to give me a report if something happened. There are too many hiding places on the playground for one thing, including a play house. I'm sure it's fun for the kids, but I always saw kids jumping out the windows or playing behind the house with nobody noticing and that bothered me. My 3 1/2 year old daughter started repeating things at home of a close to sexual nature that I can only imagine she heard at school because we never watch that sort of thing or talk like that at home. It made me wonder what was going on in or behind that house when nobody was looking since in the afternoon there were multi-aged kids out there. So between that and the marks and incidents I pulled her out after just a few months.
I said under ""cons"" that there was reverse racism going on because the only reports we DID get were ones saying our child was a trouble maker and in time-out a lot. We have several children and we know that this one is not a trouble maker, far from it. But we kept hearing these stories about her that didn't sound like her, like she was instigating things and lying. I feel bad for ever believing the stories because when we first started hearing them I would get mad at her and she would just cry and say it wasn't true. The children that were accusing her of these things were all minority children, as was the teacher, and the teacher always took their side in these ""incidents."" She also seemed to pay more attention to them and mostly hang their artwork on the walls, etc. Maybe there is more to it or I got the wrong idea, but that is certainly how it came off. We just never got the feeling there that our child was LOVED and cared for. She learned some things and got structure, but I rarely saw any caring or tenderness going on in the classrooms, I can't quite explain it. It was very sterile (the teachers all wore scrubs?!). And it got to be where she didn't want to go to school anymore, one day she even tried to fake sick. She had only just turned 4 years old for petes sake. Now that she's in a new school things are back to normal. Her new teacher has almost entirely positive things to say about her behavior, as did previous teachers before Children's Network, and the new teacher has assured me she is not an instigator nor a liar and is everyone's best friend. No more unknown bodily marks or weird playground incidents either. She cries on the weekend when she CAN'T go to school now, such a change lol. I am so happy we moved. The place has a lot of potential but there definitely needs to be more watching, understanding, and caring from the staff, even if that means replacing like half of them.
Pros: Low staff turnover, children do get structure, some learning
Cons: Reverse racism by some teachers, not enough eyes on the kids
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