Love this establishment, community gem, been coming here since I was a child , now my children come here , very knowledgeable staff , I love this place read more

My 2 year old son went to Childrens Learning Center in Bellwood, IL from February to September of this year. My son's Father and I had a very stressful experience with this place to say the least. It's fair to say that some of the staff are uneducated, and have no experience in child development. I want to say a couple of weeks after my son started attending they were complaining about him throwing tantrums. 3 staff members in particular Ms Sue, Ms Sharon, and Ms Tomika. Ms Sue is over the 2 year old class along with Ms Tomika. Every other day Ms Sharon would greet me sitting at the front door with the question of how do you discipline him because his tantrums are going to get worse if you don't nip this in the bud. My son never did anything out of the normal two year old behavior. I told her we discipline him at home, and he's fine at home. Ms Sue would tell me he's the worst in the class on multiple occasions. I was subjected to go on field trips with them because "they couldn't handle him". The first field trip I went on was to a museum for older kids in Elmhurst. There were no other chaperone's on this trip. They told us to bring car seats or booster seats to put on the bus which to me wasn't safe for 2 yr olds as they did not have enough chaperones to begin with. The second field trip my sister attended as they went to a water park. She informed me they had some high school students help chaperone because there were no other parents. Ms Sharon proceeds to ask my sister "Do you know how to handle him" while Ms Tomika then asks how is his potty training going. Ms Tomika would ask me this every time she sees me reason being so they could move him to the 3 year old class room. Ms Sue always seemed like she was overwhelmed and couldn't handle him. It got to the point to where she would call me at work every time he threw a tantrum. My son came home with deep wound scratches under his right eye on TWO separate occasions and neither time not one staff member knew how he got it and would say things like oh he came here with that. The second time Ms Sharon had an attitude stating we can't see everything these kids do and your son plays wild! They had a talent show that according to the note ms sue sent home said my son couldn't participate and if he throws another tantrum she will call us to pick him up. Once I received that note I asked her what was her experience in child development and she couldn't answer she just stood there, then the director ms smith interrupted and said she's not picking on him she just can't control him. Fast forward to a few weeks later we decide to have our son evaluated for behavioral therapy. We had the therapists go up to the daycare and Ms Sharon had a distasteful attitude towards all 3 therapists that were there. Even the therapist themselves recommend we find a better learning environment for him. Immediately following the next day while I was putting my son stuff away Ms Sharon, Ms Sue, and Ms Tomika came to the back. Ms Sharon was more like the spokesperson for these two since Ms Sue could never effectively communicate with me. Ms Sharon states we need to have a meeting and I agreed. Fast Forward to the meeting Ms Sharon tried to defend her actions in which she did apologize for the way she acted towards the therapist. As the meeting progressed, they kept mentioning the same thing that they have been saying for months now we can't control his tantrums. Ms Tomika stated my son listens to her but doesn't listen to Ms Sue, but I guess that was interfering with her break since they also complained he never took naps. Ms Sharon then proceeds to say we have people paying their money for kids to learn as if his father and I wasn't giving them $200 a week in which I'm sure we payed more than some. Once I said that she came back with "well we don't know what to do with him" . So in conclusion I never took him back to that daycare after that meeting because clearly they are not trained to deal with toddlers of all kinds. I've never dealt with such poor bottom of the barrel childcare services in my life. I filed a complaint and hope they tighten up on their discipline and guideline procedures and get some educated staff who have the childrens best interest at heart. My son knows his abc's, how to count, recognize shapes, objects, colors, and sing nursery rhymes, but yet when I asked them does he talk there, they kept saying no and Ms Tomika stated he doesn't know his colors which was a lie. They continuously sent home bad letters of all he did even after I requested them to write down the good things he did as well. I truly believe they gave up on my son and counted him out, and I wish I would've interviewed them before we enrolled him because the money we spent there was not worth it. I can't speak on any experience with the other staff members or classrooms as my child was mainly with the three mentioned since they were the main ones complaining about him. read more