Pumpkin Patch expelled my 3-year-old son without warning the day before Christmas Eve. They sent…read morethe dismissal letter five minutes after we picked him up, so he wasn't even allowed to say goodbye to his friends at the Christmas Eve party the next day.
He was having tantrums at school, but we were working with Pumpkin Patch and the Wheeler Clinic, and we're assured by Pumpkin Patch, even up to a week before his expulsion, that he was not in danger of dismissal. With the benefit of hindsight, and connecting with other parents and organizations that have had similar experiences with Pumpkin Patch, I now realize it was the center's inconsistency, constant changing of staff, and complete lack of structure that was contributing to his behavior. Regardless, the expulsion and the way they handled it was completely inappropriate, and damaging to my 3-year-old, and my other child (age 5 at the time) who was also no longer going to be able to attend. After talking to Child First, we learned that Pumpkin Patch has a reputation for dismissing children they don't like without warning. Do better for your kids.
My (now 4-year-old) son is now at an *accredited* school across town, and thriving. There are always trained teachers on staff, and he's been having nothing but good days. The longer he's been out of Pumpkin Patch, the better he's done, and the less I've worried about there being something wrong with him or his behavior. Pumpkin Patch was simply a bad school. For both my children. Even my older son talks about being yelled at constantly by the staff. When we enrolled, there were many trained adult staff, but by the time we left, my kids were being watched by 17/18-year-old children who had no idea how to handle a small child, and who were unable to not take his behavior personally. This new school has revealed that it was 100% the environment, and not a defective child.
I always got bad vibes from Pumpkin Patch, and wish I had listened. It smells terrible, looks dingy and dirty, and the director, Christine, is one of the fakest, most two-faced people I have known. You can feel it just talking to her. Please look harder for a daycare.