My children were in daycare at Harvest Ministries (HM) for eight months before we pulled them out…read more One of the main reasons we chose this place was because of the overwhelming number of positive reviews. But I can tell you that this place has numerous problems, and will outline why I don't recommend this center:
1. A wise person once wrote in a review that you should always check inspection reports for any daycare facility you are looking to send your children too. HM never had any inspection reports posted because they are a religiously-exempt facility, and UNlicensed despite their care.com flyer saying they are. However, as I checked back to post the link, they do have an inspection report posted; apparently some complaints triggered the state to do an inspection (they still have to comply with VA code even though they are religiously exempt from other state requirements). That report (http://www.dss.virginia.gov/facility/search/cc2.cgi?rm=Details;ID=41580;search_exact_fips=199) indicates numerous egregious issues, like failing to get background checks done on their employees (are you kidding me?!), not ensuring children are immunized, and failing to meet required staff-to-child ratios.
2. This facility has a TV in every room and they use it to babysit the kids. Every morning the kids watch TV from 6-8am (approx..) and again in the afternoon when they wake up from nap, from 3:30-6pm. That doesn't include the other movies and shows they watch throughout the day. So if you work regular hours, your kid will probably get exposed to 2+ hours of TV a day.
3. The teachers yell at the kids ALL. The. Time. They also threaten. I once observed one of the teachers taking a group of kids to the restroom, and she said to them in a stern voice, "If you don't have to go potty and you're just making it up you're going in time out." So if a little kid felt like maybe she had to use the bathroom but wasn't sure, she was going to get punished for trying. Totally unnecessary. I have also observed teachers grabbing kids by the shoulders, yelling at them and saying things like, "if you don't calm down you're going to lose your playtime!!" Instead of positive discipline, they just yell a lot. I noticed this negatively affecting my 3-year-old in his behavior when he came home - he would be defiant and irritable. While pretty much all kids this age have tempers, he would really only act this way when he came home from HM.
4. Safety concerns: One time while I was dropping my younger child off in the infant room, I noticed a remote control lying on the floor (yes, they even have a tv in the infant room, though it is mostly used to play music videos of nursery rhymes all day), so I picked the remote up off the floor and placed it on the ledge out of reach, saying "this is a safety hazard and should be kept away from the little ones' reach". The director mocked me, saying, "We've never had an issue with it." "But don't you see," I said, "they could get into the batteries - it's a safety issue" The battery cover wasn't even taped shut. "Whatever makes you feel comfortable" the director said to me in a completely sarcastic and condescending tone. Like I was the one overreacting. Isn't it plain common sense to keep anything with non-screwed on batteries like a remote out of babies' reach?
5. The toys are dirty and rarely cleaned. On more than a few occasions, while settling my younger child in to the tiny play area in the infant room, I noticed dirty, grimy toys with so much filth on them I had to put them aside and tell the teachers that these toys needed to be cleaned. I'm not a clean-freak but it was disgusting.
6. The center does NOT want you, the parent, to see your child in their classrooms. In fact, you, the parent, are not allowed to walk around the facility "unsupervised" (this is what one of the teachers actually said to me). EVERY other daycare center we have used has had an open door policy with parents. But I was told I needed to drop off my kids at the front and they would take them back to their classrooms, the only exception is the infant room. But when I would stay for a few minutes and play with my little one, I'd get text messages from them saying I needed to just drop her off and go so she would learn to be without me. This lack of encouraging parents to be involved really bothered me. The director told me they do this to mirror the public schools, but I now realize that's a big cover-up, because there are myriad other ways they don't mirror public schools.
In retrospect, I wish we had never allowed our kids to go here. I wish there had been reviews saying what it's really like there, and we would have made a different decision, but we assumed a daycare run by a Christian church would be a great environment. The fact that they didn't do background checks on their employees alone is completely reckless and inexcusable.
