Anonymous wrote:

There are a few great teachers there, but make sure you are getting what you pay for. Your child deserves it. Blind trust and minimizing complaints, concerns, incidents, etc. is what you may or may not deserve the consequences of, but a child NEVER deserves to powerlessly suffer the shortcomings/vices of your thought processes for. If you buy that you are getting the (*genuine*) happy BHCC staff package, then it helps YOU get through your days and nights. Keep in mind that the big warm welcomes and goodbyes your child receives is what YOU want to believe the majority of underpaid staff feel about your child throughout 480 minutes of their day, despite their own struggles with lower hierarchical needs like decent housing, quality childcare within their means, unaffordability of healthy foods for their families, etc. Don't take the word of those currently working there, especially since they sign forms agreeing not to badmouth the BH Corporation for 2 years after they leave BH of their own free will or whether fired. The BHCC HAS had a history of extremely high staff turnovers since the center opened roughly a half dozen years ago, a lot of incidents of having lost toddlers on walks, and for what you pay in money you should consider tiny nanny cams and or audio. The person who said that only a horrible person would do something like that is placing misguided adult loyalty codes above the need to ensure that the children aren't dwindling their private college funds away for subpar structured learning programs in reality. The Elmer's Glue for arts and crafts time is no different elsewhere, and neither are the minimum childhood education credits (and understanding of children) required of staff elsewhere. Maybe you need those "Today we chased bubbles for motor skills development", I don't know. I will say that all centers have their core program aimed at development, and all structured and unstructured play and lesson times assist children. And the food menu? A lot of apples are served, but for what you pay, they could afford at least some fruits and veggies that are organic if they are part of the USDA's dirty dozen list with high pesticide levels. The menu even looks chic and better than the hotdogs at some centers, like quiche or tomato bisque, or cheese cubes and kiwi for snack times. Yet your child receives exactly what is scooped onto his/her plate by equally hungry staff who can't afford to eat out daily, and can often only afford to live off foods highly processed, cheap carb, GMO, hormone-injected cow's milk, etc. outside the center. Yes, the center is in an upscale location with door locks and the minimalist decor gives it a clean appearance. This location has its roach problems, in all seriousness. And door locks? Staff regularly hold the doors open behind them for anyone decently dressed, as you can't believe that every staff member recognizes the hundreds of parents when they spend most of their time in their classrooms. What all of this leads to is this: if you wouldn't buy a car based only on its nice appearance and brief time around the 'nice' car, but would instead look under the hood and test a car before trusting your life and entering a contract payment based on this, why would you do this with a profit-based center you entrust your children to? I have worked for Kindercare, Creme de la Creme, Goddard, Primrose, etc. over two decades and they really aren't much different from BH when it comes down to it, better in some ways. Creme has lobby tv's where you can see into the classrooms and centers, even. Some locations even have classroom cams parents can log into.[/quote

In the middle of your message you made it seem like the daycare providers are saving food for themselves. I am here to tell you that this is true. I worked in a BH center and saw this all the time. Report to the director if you believe staff is taking food from the children.

Anonymous wrote:Try Sparkles Crystal City. It's a new center, reasonably priced realitive to BH, great outdoor playground, technology nook, a great facility for my kids to grow. I've been impressed all around so far.

Anonymous wrote:Donna Montgomery left about 2 years ago and was replaced by Ronda who made some really good changes. Not sure what's up now, but I do know you can't judge it based on that former director. But you're right, there were some serious issues with staffing, and I believe that Ronda made some big changes - hiring better staff, terminating those that weren't performing, etc.

Anonymous wrote:Bump!

Raqwoj wrote:Bump! We are considering this center for our 1-year-old boy. Anyone have any experience/insights they can share? Thanks so much! (Can also email me at raqwoj [at] gmail.com)