Had my children attend LSL location for 1 month in Nov 2015. They were 1 & 3.
1yr old room was fine.
3yr old room, different story. Was a young staff, & on day 1, I didnot feel the teachers did well with trying to integrate a new child moving from a different daycare. I ended up staying over an hour, just to make sure my child was comfortable in their new environment, bc of the lack of feeling like they were sensitive to this change. (this was the teacher , not so much the director or assistant director)
It was right after Halloween, & a child had candy with him. The teacher saw it, & I watched her snatch it out of his hand, I'm assuming so other kids wouldn't see it, as opposed to approaching him better.
Same DAY 1...they were at circle time going over letter flash cards. Child sitting next to teacher picked up a cards, & the teacher looked at him, took it back, & said "Did I say you can touch those?" In a very snarky way. She knew I was right there & it didn't stop her.
Addressed it with the director. Response was that it was highly unusual, & they observe the teachers, & she has not noticed interaction like that, but would observe more.
DAY 2. When dropping my kids off, walking in the door, there was a different class in the center room, doing smart board. While walking through the door, I witnessed a teacher Yelling...literally Yelling at 2 boys that were acting out. While I'm sure they were misbehaving, instead of getting on their level and calmly separating them, she yelled at both, in front of all of the other kids, told them she doesn't think their moms are going to be happy when she calls them, told them to sit down and be quiet. All of the other kids were just sitting there, not moving and you could tell were startled by the yelling.
She saw me standing there, & it didn't even stop her. The assistant director was walking past,& I called the teacher out to where she could hear me, I said to the assistant, "Excuse Me?? Do All of your teachers speak to the children in this way? "
I had my kids go in the office while I spoke to the director & assistant about what I witnessed, & voiced concerns that in the 2 days of being there I have witnessed inappropriate ways of speaking to & addressing children. I was given a similar response like the day before...which I pointed out..stating it was unusual.
At that point I started the search for a new facility. But had to keep them there until I found one we liked with an opening. I did not feel they were unsafe, so we managed it with the kids until we could switch them.
I will say the director and assistant, & a couple of the teachers, did try to make my kids feel more comfortable going there, during drop off, which was really hard for my 3yr old,.since starting there.
In that month that we were there, there was an incident where a toddler had gotten out of the facility & was found by a motorist driving by, apparently closer to the roadside than the facility. The way we learned about it was a letter on the table when you enter to sign the kids in, talking about how it did happen, but it also focused on rebutting posts about it made in Facebook. Seriously, that is how we found out, and addressing comments on Facebook was apparently an important subject to address in the matter.
And the last day we were there, while dropping off my 1yr old in their room, there was a teacher in the older 1s class (that's separated from my child's class by a swinging half door) changing a kid who was squirming around. To get the kid to obey, she did 3 quick taps (if that's what you can call it) on the child's belly, to get them to obey. Harder than a tap, lighter than a hit. Unbelievable!
The teachers also did time outs & made kids sit aside in a time out chair.
They have a young staff & a lot of what I witnessed in handling the kids, reminds me of how you may think an older teenage sibling might react to dealing with a younger sibling...not much experience.
Some might think this interaction is fine, but one of my biggest regrets in decision making for my kids.
