daycare gripe!

[shanniesue2]

Our beloved in home care provider is no longer providing daycare I'm a teacher, so I've had some time this summer to look at other care options. I narrowed it down to two centers, a Goddard School and a KinderCare. I liked Goddard better, but went with Kindercare b/c the tuition was lower and we'll already be increasing our childcare budget by about $75/month just switching from an in home to a center (I'm not willing to go with an in home if I don't have a personal recommendation from someone that I know very well).
Anyway, so we settled on Kindercare b/c I was happy with most of what I saw on the tour and it was a little lower in tuition (the only thing I didn't like on the tour was that they do a calendar time with their 2 year olds--stupid, but they don't force the kids to come to circle, so I figured it wasn't that big a deal). I paid the registration last week. And turned in all our forms. The next day, I took DS up to his "new school" so that I could talk more in depth with his teacher and let him visit the room. Anyway, we were there for 30-45 minutes and three things happened. 1) A little girl started pushing him. He kept telling her "DON'T DO THAT" and then she hit him on the chest. He started crying, and I waited about a second or two to see if a teacher would step in with the little girl. None of them did. So I bent down and worked with DS on saying, "I don't like that. Don't hit me." And I gave him a hug. While I was down doing this, I waited to see if a teacher would step in and work with the little girl on more appropriate behavior. None of them did. So I redirected DS to a different area in the room. 2) The teacher warned me that there are some little boys in the room who are pretty rough and that DS might come home with.... (she didn't fill in the blank). I asked her what the procedures were for letting me know if DS gets hurt while he's at daycare. The fill out an accident report and send home an owie note at the end of the day. I'm used to getting quick emails from his care provider if he bonks or something during the day. I know that centers are different from in home and that with more kids teachers have less time for this sort of thing. But still, I don't want to be at work all day wondering if DS is getting beat up by the kids in his class and not find out till I pick him up at the end of the day. and 3) she had this soft structured climbing furniture set up on the floor in the middle of a wall (instead of a corner). The kids were having a blast playing on it. And she mentioned to me that they have a lot of fun on it but she has struggled with it b/c when she puts it in the corner, they tear down the calendar she uses for circle time ( get rid of the calendar, lady). And the other corner has a door... so she puts it in the middle of the wall. But the kids get really rambunctious on it and they get hurt a lot.

So the next day I called the center to tell them I wouldn't be sending DS there after all. I spoke to the asst. Director (the director was at a meeting). I also asked if they would be willing to refund my registration fee. It's supposed to nonrefundable, but I thought that maybe in this situation, and since he hadn't even started, yet... they might be willing to do it. The asst. dir. said that she would have to talk to the dir. about that and that the director would probably want to call and talk to me about everything anyway. That was last Thursday, and the director hasn't called. I don't expect to hear anything from them.
So tomorrow, we have an appointment at Goddard for DS to go spend some time in the classroom, so that I can observe teacher-child interactions and talk to the teacher more in-depth before I pay another nonrefundable registration fee.
The whole thing just irks me. Plus, I feel like I'm running out of time. Because I just got offered and accepted a position at a new school that has a continuous learning calendar instead of a traditional school year. So I'm cutting my summer break short by about 3 weeks. YIKES! I only have one week to find a good place for him!
So wish us luck!

[Carita]

GL - you are so lucky the other school has an opening! I hope your experience there is better!

[HappyMommy2]

Goddard is amazing. And FAR better than any other center we looked at. I had heard a few stories about kindercare.

Goddard is totally worth the ten extra bucks each day. Great teachers, great curriculum, cleanliness, etc.

[nextcommercial]

I've worked in large chain centers, and it's HARD. It's a dog eat dog world there. Some of those kids are wild, and once it's started, it's hard to stop it.

Plus, we lied ALL. THE. TIME. We lied about what we did with the group that day. It was basically controlled chaos. We couldn't get much learning in. We couldn't have centers (table toys) because the kids would just throw everything to the floor. In all honesty, it's partially the teachers, but a lot of it is the kids. One or two rough kids can ruin the whole group.

We lied about what your child ate. We had no idea what he ate that day. We know what we put on the plate, but if he ate it, we didn't know, so we just wrote a few things on the sheet and hoped the parent would believe it.

If you get a bad feeling about a group of kids, go with that. The teachers are doing their best, but they aren't highly trained, and they don't REALLY feel comfortable correcting kids in front of you. If you weren't there, she'd have probably handled it differently. They are also underpaid for the amount of work they do, so the teacher turnover rate is high. I HATED it in some schools. I loved it in others.

Look for the best setting for your son. If you have a rough and tough kid, find a school that allows him to jump from the furniture. But, if you have a calm quiet child, find a place that is more nurturing and peaceful.

I'd really like to learn about this Goddard school. I've heard of them, but I've not ever heard details.

[sanguine_speed]

We have used a number of excellent child care centres over the years, the best being one that was literally run by the parents through a Board of Directors consisting of parents, with staff that had been working there for longer than I had been alive.
It is normal to provide an accident report for minor injuries at the end of the day. My children have been bitten, punched, scraped, fallen with goose eggs, etc., and I have never been called immediately unless my child required medical care beyond a bandage, an ice pack or a hug. I never thought twice about it. I would actually prefer that the staff spend their time managing the groups they have, and giving hugs and attention to the kids than leaving to call the parents every time a child gets a booboo.