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| - My baby daughter goes here and I am very pleased with the level of interaction and care she receives.
When I was looking for a daycare for her I toured several, and even considered the same daycare that my 5 year old son had attended for the last 4 years right down the road (but had left a few months prior due to his recent attitude problems at that daycare). I needed to know that my tiny, fragile, premature daughter would be in good hands. I graded the daycare centers that I toured on the compassion I felt and level of competency I sensed from the daycare director, the interaction from the teachers and amenities I noted in the baby room, the cleanliness of the facility and the general sense I had of the place. The weekly price wasn't my main concern, although it CERTAINLY wasn't a non-issue.
One daycare I looked at seemed nice (they even had a sign in the lobby stating that they watched children free of charge for interviewing parents, which I thought was sweet) but I didn't like the way the place smelled and the baby room seemed too small. Another place didn't have an appropriate outdoor play place for the tots, and that wasn't okay with me, even though in every other sense they were a contender.
But when I toured Maxwell I was very impressed with the whole center. The center was spacious, bright, colorful and had lots and lots of children's artwork decorating the walls. Although my child is far too small for it, there is a RAD, two-story indoor play town with a slide and other neat things for the older kids for when it is too hot for them to safely play on the outside playground. The director, Kristin, was knowledgeable and attentive to my questions. The baby room teachers seemed sincere and down to earth, and the baby room itself was clean, bright and colorful. I read though the parent handbook and the enrollment paperwork they offered, and somewhere in the explanation of what services they guaranteed to provide to your child on a daily basis was a promise that they would hug your child each day. I thought that was neat. (I mean, it's assumed that a daycare will be affectionate and caring towards your small child when you take them there, but how many of them actually promise you that your child will get a hug each day??) Anyway, the rates and registration fees were competitive and everything else checked out with me so I enrolled my baby there.
Now, we've been going there almost a year, and to be honest there have been one or two times where I was annoyed at other parents for doing some (thoroughly) annoying things, like clogging up the circular driveway in front as they leisurely dropped off their child and chatted with other people in the hallway (as opposed to parking over in the parking lot if they wanted to take their sweet time in the daycare center and saving the driveway for the parents in a hurry), or even worse people parking behind me in the driveway when I already had someone parked in front of me and basically trapping my car as I waited for either one of them to move so I could get out (GRR!!). But overall I am very, very happy. My baby girl LOVES her morning and afternoon teachers, and has no separation issues at all when I drop her off because she is always so excited to see them and start playing.
And I can tell that they genuinely love her over there. In fact, she had a small surgery that required a two night hospital stay not long after we started going to MPA and her teacher called to check on her condition after her surgery. Then she got really sick earlier this year with RSV and spent two different stints at Phoenix Children's Hospital, of more than a week each stay, not only did MPA NOT charge me for the time she was away (believe it or not, some places actually would) but they also made her a get well card that had at least a dozen teachers signatures and messages for her written on there, and her morning teacher also came clear over to PCH to see her and give her hugs! She was so happy to see her. :) That meant a lot to me.
Also, twice now my vacation time has fallen about 4 weeks before my bi-annual vacation credit was due and they still let me take the week off without a charge. It was SO appreciated during these very tight times!
Anyway, this is a GREAT daycare center! Love them! :)
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