Any FDA WOW Discovery Preschool Program parents here?

[Anonymous]

To the 13: 24 poster. This is not what my post asked. Your post highlighted my questions but did not address them. You are addressing YOUR concerns and perceptions and not addressing my questions.

[Anonymous]

This may or may not be helpful to any of the current parents, but these are the things my spouse and I noticed as immediate changes in our child after being at WOW:
-DC now says "Oh God". This is not something we say in our home, nor anything DC said in prior care.
-DC pushes other children.
-DC bumped head on floor on purpose.

We are now working hard to correct all of these things. It really sort of gets you at the core when you see your child acting out in a way you know not to be DC's normal self. While one of these things individually may be normal- we know it is not normal for our child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12:48 again here. No, not one of the directors but the future FDA employee who has been posting questions throughout this thread because I'm considering a spot for my DD as of April 1 in the Mulberry room.

DD is currently in a very loving in-home day care situation and, like others who have posted here, I'm concerned about the quality of the teaching staff. An apathetic staff would be something I'd hope the directors could fix, but I want to make as informed a decision as possible. (and yes, we're touring and meeting the Mulberry teachers to form our own opinion before we make any decision).

A teacher who makes a child feel afraid and/or physically mishandles a child is unacceptable. I'm trying to figure out if this is one individual, two separate incidents or two individuals, two separate incidents. If the latter, that's a bigger problem.

12:38/13:22: DC is not in the mulberry room, but is there for a few minutes in the morning before the older discovery preschool class is staffed beginning at 8 PM. The only person I've spoken to in-person from the Mulberry room is Kimberly, who is there when I drop DC off. She seems very nice and seems to be very genuine with the children-from the little I know of her I like her very much and feel confident leaving DC with her. I was at WOW last week observing in the morning, and I don't think I saw Kimberly in the Mulberry room when I was there (around 9 AM). The teachers I did see though I just didn't get the warm, loving feeling from. But that is just observation and I have only been there that one day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the 13: 24 poster. This is not what my post asked. Your post highlighted my questions but did not address them. You are addressing YOUR concerns and perceptions and not addressing my questions.

The curriculum does not need to be changed, but it needs to actually be executed.
When a parent asks the teacher a direct question about their child, a parent expects the question to be answered with the curriculum and their child in mind in a clear way. Not a different answer from each teacher- none of which point to anything in the curriculum. And rearranging teachers does not solve the core problem.

Does that make that clearer for you

[Anonymous]

IMO, apathetic staff can't be fixed. They either care or they don't care.

[Anonymous]

To 13:37 a child bumping their head on the floor is a very serious behavior change. YOU should have brought this to the attention of the center director the next day before you dropped them off. What did your pediatrician and the center director say about this destructive behavior?

Granted, I am a new parent but any serious behavior change would send red flags up to me. Bump, posting on a anonymous forum. Is the head bumping related to a transitioning problem?

[Anonymous]

Changing staff can easily be fixed. Painting the staff with a broad brush of apathy is not fair. There are some staff members there that are not as vibrant and bubbly as others but that does not mean they are not capable. I do expect them to be able to communicate well though.

[Anonymous]

To 13:50- Thanks for the concern. This is why we pulled DC out immediately. We did not take DC back to the center. DC is back at our prior provider and has not done this since. DC has also not pushed a child since leaving that center. The "Oh God" we're still working on.
Our child is fine & ahead developmentally. DC is happy and playing and did so over the weekend with other children as well. I believe DC was bored at WOW and that the teachers were not engaged with our child. I think DC was not greeted warmly and the teachers were not genuinely caring- and it DOES affect the child(ren).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Changing staff can easily be fixed. Painting the staff with a broad brush of apathy is not fair. There are some staff members there that are not as vibrant and bubbly as others but that does not mean they are not capable. I do expect them to be able to communicate well though.

I think there are just different opinions here. I saw teachers who didn't seem to care and didn't seem interested in being there and that's not what I want for my child on a daily basis. I get that they are capable but it does not mean that they are good. And frankly most of the teachers I've seen in action have been apathetic. Not all of them but more than not, that has been the attitude.

I've seen a teacher give a child with allergies, who is only supposed to be fed food brought in from home, the school provided snack when child was fussing for the snack. The teacher could have tried to redirect the child but instead just handed over the snack. That is absolutely not acceptable and could lead to harming the child.

I've heard teachers say things like, "Johnny don't walk." Sorry, but I expect a place that claims to have such a strong educational focus employ teachers who can speak proper English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12:48 again here. No, not one of the directors but the future FDA employee who has been posting questions throughout this thread because I'm considering a spot for my DD as of April 1 in the Mulberry room.

DD is currently in a very loving in-home day care situation and, like others who have posted here, I'm concerned about the quality of the teaching staff. An apathetic staff would be something I'd hope the directors could fix, but I want to make as informed a decision as possible. (and yes, we're touring and meeting the Mulberry teachers to form our own opinion before we make any decision).

A teacher who makes a child feel afraid and/or physically mishandles a child is unacceptable. I'm trying to figure out if this is one individual, two separate incidents or two individuals, two separate incidents. If the latter, that's a bigger problem.

12:38/13:22: DC is not in the mulberry room, but is there for a few minutes in the morning before the older discovery preschool class is staffed beginning at 8 PM. The only person I've spoken to in-person from the Mulberry room is Kimberly, who is there when I drop DC off. She seems very nice and seems to be very genuine with the children-from the little I know of her I like her very much and feel confident leaving DC with her. I was at WOW last week observing in the morning, and I don't think I saw Kimberly in the Mulberry room when I was there (around 9 AM). The teachers I did see though I just didn't get the warm, loving feeling from. But that is just observation and I have only been there that one day.

Not knowing who posted what is getting so confusing lol...the problems inherent in everyone being anonymous.

I posted near the beginning of the thread about my concerns with a teacher in Mulberry being cold and unengaged, and I think she is the same one mentioned in the post that I have quoted (above). I also posted about the aide who was rather firm with one child - I have not seen her since that day. Kim is part of the new teaching team, and I posted about how happy I was about that. She seems really great, and my DC does like her a lot. Diana is the other new teacher in that classroom, and she is also really nice. Claire is the one who I could not stand and who my DC was scared of. DC just did not like her, and when I mentioned on the way to school that we were going to see her, DC would say, "No, no, no - no Miss Claire." Hardly reassuring. I have several anecdotes about her that made me nervous about her even before the center opened, but I'll save you all the angst. I am just glad that she has moved on from that class.

As for the gray folder mentioned earlier in the thread - the class teacher handed ours to us.

As for this parent meeting on Feb 23rd - was this announced, or were the teachers meant to let us know? This is the first I have heard of it.

[Anonymous]

To the 13:58, was your child in the mulberry classroom or elsewhere in the center?

My child is at the center and I receive feedback and anecdotes about her personality from the teachers. I am not a fan of the form that I receive everyday, it is a little cyptic, but at the same time I don't want the staff concentrating on filling out forms.

I visited Takoma Children's School recently and I really like the chalk board that they have outside of each classroom detailing the days activities. WOW has something similiar, more actually, but it needs to be up front in the classroom and more visible. Since I like to think of myself as a "green person" I would not advocate the use of more paper. I think the forms can be cut in half actually.

[Anonymous]

The parents meeting was announced in the email, with a link to the newsletter, sent on Monday. I think it might be on the website now, not sure if it is a secure link or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The parents meeting was announced in the email, with a link to the newsletter, sent on Monday. I think it might be on the website now, not sure if it is a secure link or not.

Do you mean Monday, Feb 6th? I did not receive an email from them yesterday...

[Anonymous]

Future FDAer here: So for our potential spot in Mulberry, I was told yesterday that Miss Claire is the teacher, but now (if I'm reading this correctly), Miss Claire was the one who was moved out of the Mulberry room?

I believe what you're saying 14:19, but this means that the person I spoke with on the phone (Carol) to schedule to meet the teacher if my DC attends the Mulberry class isn't up on the latest information on which teacher is in which room. That points to communications problems still.

[Anonymous]

14:19 here: This is my opinion. I'm quite fine with start-up problems in communication, people completing their training etc. It is a new daycare/school, with brand new staff who are just beginning to work with each other. My other child attends a charter, so I'm very used to occasional lapses in this sort of thing.

What I think cannot be compromised is the care of the kids. That was what I think was the huge issue in Discovery Preschool, and this seems to have been rectified, at least in one of the classrooms (I haev no idea if there are similar issues in the other). So I'm going to give WOW a chance.

If people expected everything to be up and running like a well-oiled machine, as if the school had been in operation for 10 years already, they were either naive or misled. It's a brand new school.