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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
la petite academy/enchanted learning center
ok.Dh and I are at the stage where we need to start looking for daycare options. We live in the Hilliard area and la petite and enchanted learning center has caught our eye. Any good/bad things you can share about them. We're thinking we want to go ahead and schedule a meeting but on the state website, not much info on enchanted learning center
TIA
TIA
Re: la petite academy/enchanted learning center
I used La Petite in Pickerington for one summer and that was more than enough for me. I know they vary by location, but I didn't like it and my daughter absolutely hated it there.
I got the vibe (this is my personal opinion, so don't be upset with me ladies) that it was just barely a step up from the lowest child care centers. Slightly cleaner, security at the door, but not a really great place.
That said, it could have been that location, and it very well could have been that we were used to her "normal" day care. I was just over taking 2 weeks in the summer off because the school was closed and decided to try something new.
A co-worker of mine uses Merry Moppet and loves it! Institutional is a good word for LaPetite. Very fitting.
Honestly, when my daughter was an infant, I liked in-home centers better. There are definite drawbacks to them (like the time the provider was rushed to the hospital at 4 a.m. and everyone started showing up and there was no answer).
Good luck - it's a huge decision to make and it is good that you are already looking for care. A lot of people are shocked to find out there are waiting lists.
A few other co-workers use Giggles & Grins and they really like it also. One of them has an infant in there.
We took DS to the Enchanted Care in Gahanna and hated it. It's a fairly new facility -- probably about a year old? Maybe a little less than a year. We liked the tours that we took, and for the older children, it's a really great place. The infant room, however, is a chaotic mess. There were 12 babies in the room, sometimes 8 or 9, and only 2 employees. My SIL worked nearby and would go and check on DS the first week he was there, and every time she went, she found him either wide awake in his crib screaming (he doesn't like to be in his crib if he's not tired) or laying flat on his back staring at the ceiling. The employees tried their hardest, but there just weren't enough hands to help all the kids when they were upset. It was horrible. I felt so guilty everyday -- it broke my heart to send him there. And I would race out of work at the end of the day to go get him as soon as I could -- I felt like I was breaking him out of prison. It was also very impersonal. I felt like the employees hardly knew DS's name, didn't pay any attention to him unless they were feeding him...and even then, they were also trying to feed another baby at the same time.
We took him out after 3 weeks and found Primrose School, and I enrolled him and paid there without even touring the facility, thinking nothing could be worse than Enchanted Care. Primrose is heaven compared to E.C. It's so wonderful and peaceful. Everybody knows who we are, they all know DS by name, and they really care about him. I never want to stop going there. He loves going every morning -- he gets to excited when he sees the girls who work in the infant room.
Go with your gut, not what anybody tells you. And if something feels wrong, definitely don't overlook it.
I'm not married ... yet, so I stop over here sometimes to read postings, but never post.. until now. I am a former employee of ECLC. I am a degreed lead infant teacher at a well known and respected local childcare center (I would suggest us, but we have a 2 year wait list right now and are not near you side of town). I would highly suggest avoiding both centers. I have never heard positive things about La Petite and I left ECLC because their curriculum is not developmentally sound.
Some useful information you might what to know:
All centers and type A home care providers are required to be licenced though the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. There are rules and requirements they need to meet and are inspected at least twice a year. The results of the inspections are posted at http://jfs.ohio.gov/ and I would highly suggest looking up any provider there. You can view reports with detailed information about any non-compliance issues. The issues that are red are serious and are what causes centes to be shut down by the state.
I would also advise you to look for centers that are NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) accerdiated. This accrediation is not required of a center and only 9% of centers in the USA are accredited, but those that are hold themselves to a higher level of care than those that are not. Check out http://www.naeyc.org/ for more information.
That's just my two cents,
Dawn
Yes, 2 great pieces of advice: go with your gut, and NAEYC. Although I will state that the Kinder Care I was *forced* into using (we had just moved here and I had no other option until I could find a place with an opening) was NAEYC accredited and I don't know how they got that.
I did like a few of the Goddard Schools, but that varies by school as well. I ended up using Columbus Montessori on James Road and love it. If I were to ever have another child, I would not use any other place. I'm sure there are others out there just as good (or better), but I just adored the school.
Again, good luck! It's a stressful decision to make.
http://www.actionforchildren.org/index.cfm
Once you have a list narrowed down on paper, you should visit them unannounced to get a gut feeling of the center.
She and her DH just had a baby and she would love to stay home but they cannot have just one income. Unfortunately la petite does not give their e'ees discounts on infant child care so they cannot afford to send their DS there. That I think is terrible! If they sent him there her take home pay would be around $300/2 weeks.
Anyway, sorry to go off on a nonsensicle tangent!
I will say I toured the lapetite at polaris and found it to be very nice. My students that go there love it.