As a new parent having a COVID baby, I thought putting my little one in daycare would be beneficial…read morefor everyone. Hindsight is 20/20 and I wish I could take back all the time, patience and effort I put in to try and make it a good experience for her.
This place not only has high turnover, high student to teacher ratio, it seems like it also sells you this false belief of superior education from the Montessori brand. So maybe you think that justifies a large monthly fee (nevermind their holidays and staff days), and well it's the best of the best it must be worth it. Wrong. Surely the staff must go through more than your typical cpr/first aid 24 hour training? No. Nothing special here. It's all branding.
I tried being patient and understanding, but ultimately my reasons for pulling my child was her safety and well being. They don't have their furniture anchored on walls and so they have bookshelves in the middle of class. Well, you probably assumed some kid got hurt. Yep. Another kiddo pushed the bookcase on to my child, falling over on her fingers. Even after that they didn't want to prevent that from happening again because they technically didn't have to, is what they said, but it wasn't enough seeing a kid actually get hurt to make them think otherwise. I had to really complain to make them do something.
Another incident was a child attacking my child outside and not responding to teachers telling them to stop. Did my kid's teacher see this incident? No. Another teacher did. They had the parents pick that kid up.
Another time, I go to pick up my kid and once I buckle her in the car I notice she had a busted lip, and they didn't have me sign the usual incident report. Teacher didn't see it or even notice it. (You'll see this as a pattern.). The culmination was the same kid attacking my kid again, this time on her face, and did her teacher see it? No. Another teacher did. Let me mention that this incident would not have happened had they followed their own policy, (which is not having more than one classroom outside at a time) and had competent staff (there were 4 kids to 2 teachers in her class that day and it took a teacher from a different class to see it and stop it.) They had the parents come and cut the other kids nails but didn't separate them from my kid.
All this goes without mentioning my kid constantly being sick and them doing a poor job cleaning and changing her diaper. I had spoken to the director and staff about my daughter's health condition, which requires frequent diaper changes or she is at risk of an infection that can affect her kidneys. One time I pick her up and she has a diaper full of poop. I complain. Within the same week, after picking her up, I get home to change her and notice particles of poop because they didn't clean her well. I send an email to all involved about it, but then my daughter had to be hospitalized because, you guessed it, she got an infection.
Maybe you can take this knowledge and go to a daycare that's more affordable and will probably give you the same experience. At least your wallet will thank you.
All I can say is now my daughter is thriving at home because she isn't getting hurt or sick. She is developing better because I actually interact with her, unlike a time when I saw on camera her teacher completely ignore her when an activity was set up, and no effort was made to bring my daughter over to learn.
Do yourself, your sanity, and your wallet a favor and don't go here. Don't buy into all the influencer romanticizing Montessori aesthetics.
All they do is say their script,"oh we apologize...we understand...", but there is no change. There is no striving to be better, to stay on the ball. Their words are empty of proactive action, or any action at all. The previous posts and pictures are dated, and those people aren't there anymore. So anything that was said before being nice is no longer applicable.