I want to write this review while my child is still there! He will soon begin a public school…read moreMontessori with his big sister...
I have now had a combined 7 years of experience with Tender Care, Shadyside - my daughter attended this daycare from 2009-2012 (infant room to preK), then my son attended from 2015-present (infant room to just now starting preK). So, this might be a long review.
Overall, the daycare has been an absolutely great experience. My children have been safe and treated with respect, but I think most importantly, the daycare is run with the intention to teach children to respect each other and care for each other. These ages for young children are difficult, because they are learning so much from each other and, more importantly, from role models like their teachers. I have never seen a teacher shame a child, I have never seen a teacher yell at a child - they deal with the emotional outbursts that children inevitably have with a commendable amount of patience and caring. Children learn when they need to take a minute and how to express boundaries (my 3yo son's favorite expression to his big sister harassing him is currently "I don't like that, no thank you!" hahaha). This socialization and healthy respect of each other is something that I value a lot, and Tender Care has an amazing investment in supporting this from the leadership down.
In terms of education, which goes beyond the basic needs of needing my child to be safe and around positive role models, Tender Care also has impressed me a lot. Most weeks, a lesson plan is sent out via email to let me know what they are trying to focus on during the week. This is great, because then I can ask my child "did you work with such-and-such" rather than (or in addition to) "what did you do today?" The latter question almost always yields a "I don't know" or something completely random, whereas the former question gets them excited to talk about whatever it was. The plans are widespread in terms of skills - from fine and gross motor skills to sounds/letters to quantity to weather to creativity to social/emotional development, plus more. When my daughter moved to the public school Montessori program, her transition was effortless - a lot of the "work" in a Montessori school was similar to the things she did at Tender Care. Additionally, she was very well socially adjusted when entering public school.
I read some comment about communication being not good, and in my experience, I have to disagree. I have been given "boo-boo" slips when anything has happened physically to my child (not very often, and more often than not, it was a normal kind of thing - I think my daughter was bit once, which is completely normal in a group of very small children and is no fault of the staff at all, but it was not a recurrent issue and was discussed in a manner both respectful of my daughter and respecting the privacy of the other child). Every day, we get a list of things that happened in the day - what was discussed during circle time, what they ate, when they slept, when they went to the bathroom, any other notes. In the past year, they have transitioned to a paperless system that is AMAZING - it sends the daily stuff either by text or email or both, and can also send pictures of what happened in the week from time to time - these pictures are completely adorable.
The director is Allison - she came to Shadyside when my daughter had been there already for 6 months, and the changes she made were amazing. She is a highly professional individual that somehow is, at the same time, a genuinely kind and nice person. My 9yo daughter still likes to come in and say hi to her, and to the current assistant director Vicky, who was my daughter's last teacher there! Allison has been able to hire staff in a field that overall has high turnover, but the staff she hires tends to stay for many years. In the 3 years between my daughter leaving and my son starting, we were surprised to return and see many of the same faces. The staff tend to be younger professionals, with a lot of positive energy. Many of them are working on degrees in the field of early education or psychology, and you can definitely tell that they are there not just to earn a paycheck, but because they really are interested in helping small children develop. I have come to rely on their experience with both my children and other children to help navigate and address things as a parent!
I could go on and on - the preK has a little indoor greenhouse that the children have been helping to plant things in! The music and lighting during nap time even makes me want to sleep! The things that are on the shelves in the different areas of the classroom encourages exploration. The outside area is small, but my children get enough exercise that it has been fine, and when they add sprinklers in the summer for "water play," it is a highlight of their week.
So - yes, I definitely recommend Tender Care Shadyside. :)
