| rev:text
| - After our nanny went back to school, I anxiously started daycare hunting. Unfortunately, I took the word of another person who planned on starting their child at CLA in the near future. I went on a tour of the facility and it was so huge that it somewhat overwhelmed me. I was desperate & needed to get my child into daycare, so I speedily signed her up without doing further research.
From the moment I dropped off my daughter, I had a knot in my stomach. I think it mostly had to do with the toddler vs teacher ratio. There were so many kids & clearly not enough teachers. Every time I picked up my child, the teachers were so busy completing the daily papers for each kid, that they weren't giving their full attention to the kids. I could care less about the stupid papers; I would rather the kids being tended to.
On several occasions, I watched my daughter through the window bawling in a corner. I stood and watched to see how long it took for the teachers to acknowledge her. At one point, 4 minutes went by and she went unnoticed; I couldn't take it anymore. I walked in and she ran to me & I asked the teachers why she was crying. One responded with, 'oh, her favorite teacher left for the day.' I replied with, 'so, you knew my 2-year old was crying and you did nothing to coddle or soothe her?' They just stared at me. There must have been 16 kids in the room at the time and only 2 teachers; one was changing another kid's diaper & one was filling out the stupid daily papers.
I also noticed that there was zero structure, especially toward the end of the day & toward the end of nap time. The kids were either free to run around like maniacs or they would be sitting at a table doing nothing like they were all in time out (it broke my heart). The days all the kids were jumping on things and running around, it would take me almost 2 hours to calm my daughter down at home & get her to behave. On several occasions at the end of the day, one super grumpy teacher would be sitting down while the kids were sitting at a separate table all by themselves with no toys or books. This lady was mean as crap... wouldn't make eye contact, handed me my paper with an attitude and didn't say a word. It's like she hated her job & I couldn't imagine what she was like towards those poor kids all day. She clearly wanted nothing to do with them. I had my mom and dad pick up my daughter on several occasions and they also agreed with me reference the mean/grumpy teacher. That was the last straw for me!!! How can you just sit toddlers down at a table and not give them anything to do or play with?
I picked up my daughter early one day during nap time. There were 6 kids still sleeping on their cots and the rest were running around screaming and jumping over the kids still sleeping. I was appalled... I mean, literally speechless. My daughter was one of them still sleeping and several kids had jumped over her cot. I was fuming mad... I had to leave immediately with my daughter before I lost it.
I should have known my daughter hated this place because when we would drive to school, as we got closer, she would start melting down and screaming 'no school! No school!' It killed me when I left her.
Several things that also bothered me: they claim they help potty train your kid (and charge extra for it), but not one time in 4 months did they circle on the paper that they tried to potty train. I would guess it's because they're way too many kids and not enough staff. Also, this place should definitely be classified as a DAYCARE, not a school or preschool. There was zero structure, especially towards the end of the day when the teachers were clearly exhausted and grumpy. Lastly, I just hated how huge the facility was. Just way too overwhelming and not enough oversight.
As I think about it, their toddler playground is incredibly lame and boring. I picked up my daughter one day while she was outside for recess. She looked so miserable and was holding onto the gate bars looking outside, like she was in prison. I asked if she liked to play here and she said, 'no, I want to go home.'
I pulled her out of CLA and thank God I found an amazing school. My daughter loves going everyday and she hates leaving when I come to pick her up. I feel so good about dropping her off. After dropping her off at CLA, I couldn't focus at work because I was so worried about her. Also, when I would pick her up from CLA, when she would see me walk in, she would run to me and start to panic and cry, like she was so beyond relieved I was there to rescue her.
Just overall, I was totally unimpressed. The facility may appear to be amazing and enormous, but that does not equate to a good experience. If you're good with a daycare-type, do whatever you want-type atmosphere, then go for it. All I know is that if I had to leave my 6 month old at CLA and that was my only option, I would quit my job to stay at home with her.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)