USDA Child Development Center feedback

[Anonymous]

Can anyone tell me about the USDA child development center? I'm looking at centers for my infant. I would really appreciate hearing about your experiences!

[Anonymous]

I have an older child at the one downtown so can't speak to the infant room. It's moving to a fully renovated space in a couple weeks.

[Anonymous]

Thanks... I'd love to hear your thoughts about the center in general, the management, and your older child's experiences.

[Anonymous]

20:44 again. We've been happy there (as I'm sure most parents would say about their daycare centers). We moved from a different daycare to there due to issues at the old center so here are some things I like better about USDA in no particular order:

(1) Responsive director: whenever I email with a question or issue I get a response by the end of the day at the latest. I've even emailed after hours and gotten a response. This was one my biggest issues with the old daycare, the lack of communication from the director.
(2) Daily sheets: at the old daycare the daily sheet inevitably said "had a good day playing with friends" which doesn't really mean anything, especially for an infant. The daily sheets here detail the activities, songs sung, books read, etc., along with all the standard stuff (meals, diaper changes, etc.).
(3) Activities: They do really neat stuff every day (sensory tables with water and sand; painting with objects; making sculptural art, etc.) I don't know if it's due to being part of a chain, but I'm really impressed with the variety of activities and the structure.
(4) Food: I really like the Good Food catering. There was just a long thread about it here. My child eats more at daycare than at home, including different foods (not sure if that is peer pressure or my cooking).
(5) Cleanliness: When a child comes down with one of the major communicative diseases they take extra precautions and so far my child hasn't caught them (but has caught plenty of other run-of-the-mill viruses!).
(6) Playground: there will be a revamped, dedicated playground, which I'm really excited about; and last but not least
(7) Teachers: I'm happy with the teachers there. Some of the teachers at the old daycare were almost sullen, not very communicative. Here everyone knows my child's name, and I know most (all?) of the teachers so if someone swaps into the room in the morning for ratio, I know who they are. The teachers seem happy to be there, and I know at least some of them have been there for years. The lead teachers have degrees, and some of the others do as well. My child's teachers honor any special requests without hesitation, whereas at the old daycare if I asked for something I felt like they were rolling their eyes at the neurotic mother. Maybe they were. Maybe the current teachers are, too, but at least I don't feel that way anymore.

[Anonymous]

This is VERY helpful, PP! Thank you so much for taking the time to write it!

[Anonymous]

You were considering the infant room though, right? I might be late chiming in on this, but when we visited the infant room about a year back (before our son was born) we were horrified. It smelled like wet dog and the caregivers looked incredibly unhappy. They knew we were coming but could barely muster up a smile when we walked in. There was just an overall depressing feeling in there and I felt bad for the infants sitting by themselves without much engagement from the caregivers sitting just two feet away. I can't speak for the older children's room as we just looked at the infant room.

I know the new facility in the Yates Building is supposed to be really nice, but for me, it's not the facility itself that's most important, it's the people who run it and the people who will have their hands on your child (or not) every day. Unless that's changed since we visited I wouldn't recommend. Or at least -- you should go check it out for yourself and trust your gut.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if infant care will continued to be offered at the GSA building (600 F St NW), and if so, who will be providing it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You were considering the infant room though, right? I might be late chiming in on this, but when we visited the infant room about a year back (before our son was born) we were horrified. It smelled like wet dog and the caregivers looked incredibly unhappy. They knew we were coming but could barely muster up a smile when we walked in. There was just an overall depressing feeling in there and I felt bad for the infants sitting by themselves without much engagement from the caregivers sitting just two feet away. I can't speak for the older children's room as we just looked at the infant room.

I know the new facility in the Yates Building is supposed to be really nice, but for me, it's not the facility itself that's most important, it's the people who run it and the people who will have their hands on your child (or not) every day. Unless that's changed since we visited I wouldn't recommend. Or at least -- you should go check it out for yourself and trust your gut.

Where did you end up?

[Anonymous]

We just started here a week ago, and I'm not feeling great about it. I would love to hear from parents of other toddlers here. Do you pick up your kid after 5:00? And if so, is your kid ever distressed because other kids got picked up before they did? And because they are in a room with two new adults who aren't the ones who took care of them during the day?

Does anyone else feel like getting any kind of meaningful response from the woman who works the front desk is like pulling teeth?

How long before your kid stopped having melt downs at drop off?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just started here a week ago, and I'm not feeling great about it. I would love to hear from parents of other toddlers here. Do you pick up your kid after 5:00? And if so, is your kid ever distressed because other kids got picked up before they did? And because they are in a room with two new adults who aren't the ones who took care of them during the day?

Does anyone else feel like getting any kind of meaningful response from the woman who works the front desk is like pulling teeth?

How long before your kid stopped having melt downs at drop off?

I'm a fellow toddler parent. My child didn't have meltdowns at drop off and then suddenly started having them for a week several months in and then stopped having them again. One of the teachers would step in and try to comfort so I could head out. Same thing happened with another classmate. Both are fine at drop off now. One of the toddler teachers has always been there during pick up for me, other than a day or two during the move. I thought they usually staggered schedules so at least one of the toddler teachers was at drop off and at least one at pick up. If you want to post a throwaway email, I'll be happy to try to answer other questions.

[Anonymous]

Bump. Does anyone have any recent feedback on the classrooms for older children (i.e., not infants)?

[Anonymous]

Bumping this again. Anyone have any feedback?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just started here a week ago, and I'm not feeling great about it. I would love to hear from parents of other toddlers here. Do you pick up your kid after 5:00? And if so, is your kid ever distressed because other kids got picked up before they did? And because they are in a room with two new adults who aren't the ones who took care of them during the day?

Does anyone else feel like getting any kind of meaningful response from the woman who works the front desk is like pulling teeth?

How long before your kid stopped having melt downs at drop off?

Yout toddler is sad because he wants to be with his parents. I'm a daycare mom too- and if we are on the late end picking up DS is sad. Don't put that on the teachers. You seem a bit unhinged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just started here a week ago, and I'm not feeling great about it. I would love to hear from parents of other toddlers here. Do you pick up your kid after 5:00? And if so, is your kid ever distressed because other kids got picked up before they did? And because they are in a room with two new adults who aren't the ones who took care of them during the day?

Does anyone else feel like getting any kind of meaningful response from the woman who works the front desk is like pulling teeth?

How long before your kid stopped having melt downs at drop off?

Yout toddler is sad because he wants to be with his parents. I'm a daycare mom too- and if we are on the late end picking up DS is sad. Don't put that on the teachers. You seem a bit unhinged.

You're responding to an older comment, but I get what PP is saying. At 5 p.m. they combine classrooms so some kids move into a classroom that isn't theirs with some different teachers. It can be a little unsettling if they're usually picked up before the room switch or until they get used to the routine. Also, they have a new asst. director/woman at the front desk now who is very approachable.

[Anonymous]

I'm bumping this post to see if anyone has any more recent experience with this day care center. Thanks!