Bethesda area daycare

[Anonymous]

My family and I are looking to move from DC to Bethesda sometime in the next few months. Wondering if anyone has good recommendations for daycare for a 15 month old. We haven't bought a place yet so we aren't sure about exact location, but hope to be in Bethesda or nearby surrounding areas.

[Anonymous]

Wonders has an excellent center just above the Bethesda metro as well as one in Chevy Chase. Both strong programs.

[Anonymous]

We love Wonders!

[Anonymous]

Children in the Shoe has a location in Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Children in the Shoe has a location in Bethesda.

There are two Shoe locations in downtown Bethesda, right across from each other on East-West Highway. All three of our kids went to the East-West Towers location and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about it - besides the cost.

They handled multiple challenging situations very well; the lack of stress on our family was worth the money, frankly. Most of our friends with kids have gone through so many manifestations of daycare nonsense. We had none of that with the Shoe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Children in the Shoe has a location in Bethesda.

There are two Shoe locations in downtown Bethesda, right across from each other on East-West Highway. All three of our kids went to the East-West Towers location and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about it - besides the cost.

They handled multiple challenging situations very well; the lack of stress on our family was worth the money, frankly. Most of our friends with kids have gone through so many manifestations of daycare nonsense. We had none of that with the Shoe.

What nonsense? I liked the Shoe when we toured but the location was not ideal. Went with a much cheaper local daycare and have had no "nonsense" and plenty of effective handling of a very challenging situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Children in the Shoe has a location in Bethesda.

There are two Shoe locations in downtown Bethesda, right across from each other on East-West Highway. All three of our kids went to the East-West Towers location and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about it - besides the cost.

They handled multiple challenging situations very well; the lack of stress on our family was worth the money, frankly. Most of our friends with kids have gone through so many manifestations of daycare nonsense. We had none of that with the Shoe.

What nonsense? I liked the Shoe when we toured but the location was not ideal. Went with a much cheaper local daycare and have had no "nonsense" and plenty of effective handling of a very challenging situation.

That’s great you’ve had a good experience. There are many terrific daycares out there, for sure. Some of the issues I’ve seen that we didn’t deal with include:

-Utter inability to handle difficult children
-Lengthy closures around the holidays and in summer
-Defaulting to MCPS for determining weather-related closures
-COVID policies that had no basis in evidence
-Discipline policies that were developmentally inappropriate and shaming of kids
-Providing inadequate stimulation for kids
-Screen time for kids
-Failure to adequately communicate with parents about disruptions to care
-Insufficient training around signs of child abuse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Children in the Shoe has a location in Bethesda.

There are two Shoe locations in downtown Bethesda, right across from each other on East-West Highway. All three of our kids went to the East-West Towers location and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about it - besides the cost.

They handled multiple challenging situations very well; the lack of stress on our family was worth the money, frankly. Most of our friends with kids have gone through so many manifestations of daycare nonsense. We had none of that with the Shoe.

What nonsense? I liked the Shoe when we toured but the location was not ideal. Went with a much cheaper local daycare and have had no "nonsense" and plenty of effective handling of a very challenging situation.

That’s great you’ve had a good experience. There are many terrific daycares out there, for sure. Some of the issues I’ve seen that we didn’t deal with include:

-Utter inability to handle difficult children
-Lengthy closures around the holidays and in summer
-Defaulting to MCPS for determining weather-related closures
-COVID policies that had no basis in evidence
-Discipline policies that were developmentally inappropriate and shaming of kids
-Providing inadequate stimulation for kids
-Screen time for kids
-Failure to adequately communicate with parents about disruptions to care
-Insufficient training around signs of child abuse

Yikes. The only thing on that list we have had an issue with is the MCPS weather-related closures but it's NBD in the grand scheme of things. All daycares should have written screen time policies. Lengthy closures for holidays and summer sounds like something that any parent should check ahead of time. Lots of preschools have this and that's why we chose a "daycare" over a "preschool".

[Anonymous]

"What nonsense? I liked the Shoe when we toured but the location was not ideal. Went with a much cheaper local daycare and have had no "nonsense" and plenty of effective handling of a very challenging situation."

Can I ask what daycare you chose?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Children in the Shoe has a location in Bethesda.

There are two Shoe locations in downtown Bethesda, right across from each other on East-West Highway. All three of our kids went to the East-West Towers location and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about it - besides the cost.

They handled multiple challenging situations very well; the lack of stress on our family was worth the money, frankly. Most of our friends with kids have gone through so many manifestations of daycare nonsense. We had none of that with the Shoe.

What nonsense? I liked the Shoe when we toured but the location was not ideal. Went with a much cheaper local daycare and have had no "nonsense" and plenty of effective handling of a very challenging situation.

That’s great you’ve had a good experience. There are many terrific daycares out there, for sure. Some of the issues I’ve seen that we didn’t deal with include:

-Utter inability to handle difficult children
-Lengthy closures around the holidays and in summer
-Defaulting to MCPS for determining weather-related closures
-COVID policies that had no basis in evidence
-Discipline policies that were developmentally inappropriate and shaming of kids
-Providing inadequate stimulation for kids
-Screen time for kids
-Failure to adequately communicate with parents about disruptions to care
-Insufficient training around signs of child abuse

Yikes. The only thing on that list we have had an issue with is the MCPS weather-related closures but it's NBD in the grand scheme of things. All daycares should have written screen time policies. Lengthy closures for holidays and summer sounds like something that any parent should check ahead of time. Lots of preschools have this and that's why we chose a "daycare" over a "preschool".

I agree about checking the closures ahead of time, but I’ve also had friends so desperate for a spot they figured it would be NBD and it turned out to be a very BD.

The weather closures haven’t been an issue in the last few years when we’ve had so little snow. I distinctly recall when my kids were very little (and at the Shoe) how lucky I felt about the weather closures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"What nonsense? I liked the Shoe when we toured but the location was not ideal. Went with a much cheaper local daycare and have had no "nonsense" and plenty of effective handling of a very challenging situation."

Can I ask what daycare you chose?

Kidsco Jr. It's not in Bethesda though. At the time we were comparing to the Rockville location of the Shoe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Children in the Shoe has a location in Bethesda.

There are two Shoe locations in downtown Bethesda, right across from each other on East-West Highway. All three of our kids went to the East-West Towers location and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about it - besides the cost.

They handled multiple challenging situations very well; the lack of stress on our family was worth the money, frankly. Most of our friends with kids have gone through so many manifestations of daycare nonsense. We had none of that with the Shoe.

What nonsense? I liked the Shoe when we toured but the location was not ideal. Went with a much cheaper local daycare and have had no "nonsense" and plenty of effective handling of a very challenging situation.

That’s great you’ve had a good experience. There are many terrific daycares out there, for sure. Some of the issues I’ve seen that we didn’t deal with include:

-Utter inability to handle difficult children
-Lengthy closures around the holidays and in summer
-Defaulting to MCPS for determining weather-related closures
-COVID policies that had no basis in evidence
-Discipline policies that were developmentally inappropriate and shaming of kids
-Providing inadequate stimulation for kids
-Screen time for kids
-Failure to adequately communicate with parents about disruptions to care
-Insufficient training around signs of child abuse

This was not our experience at the Shoe at all. We loved our time there.

[Anonymous]

Wonders and Children in a Shoe are downtown Bethesda. Rock Spring Children's Center is fabulous, and is still Bethesda. Our children had a great experience there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Children in the Shoe has a location in Bethesda.

There are two Shoe locations in downtown Bethesda, right across from each other on East-West Highway. All three of our kids went to the East-West Towers location and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about it - besides the cost.

They handled multiple challenging situations very well; the lack of stress on our family was worth the money, frankly. Most of our friends with kids have gone through so many manifestations of daycare nonsense. We had none of that with the Shoe.

What nonsense? I liked the Shoe when we toured but the location was not ideal. Went with a much cheaper local daycare and have had no "nonsense" and plenty of effective handling of a very challenging situation.

That’s great you’ve had a good experience. There are many terrific daycares out there, for sure. Some of the issues I’ve seen that we didn’t deal with include:

-Utter inability to handle difficult children
-Lengthy closures around the holidays and in summer
-Defaulting to MCPS for determining weather-related closures
-COVID policies that had no basis in evidence
-Discipline policies that were developmentally inappropriate and shaming of kids
-Providing inadequate stimulation for kids
-Screen time for kids
-Failure to adequately communicate with parents about disruptions to care
-Insufficient training around signs of child abuse

This was not our experience at the Shoe at all. We loved our time there.

Just to be clear PP was giving a list of problems their friends had that they did NOT have the Shoe.

[Anonymous]

We have been at both Wonders and the Shoe. Had good experience at both. We moved from Shoe to Wonders because having the meals included (which Wonders has but Shoe does not) made life better. The cost was virtually identical when we switched.