Our son spent about 4 weeks in the preschool room at Leaps & Bounds. During his short stay he changed from an easygoing, happy child to a clingy and easily frustrated one. His sleep pattern went downhill as well.

Here are the reasons: two preschool teachers left close together just before our son's transition, leaving a teaching assistant with little experience in charge. Having visited and actually observed circle time one day we were concerned about the lack of control over kids. At any point in time at least one kid was in a break (time out) or in the director's office. No redirection or any other positive means were witnessed. And we rarely noticed poor enough behavior to justify a break in our opinion (time out for sitting on your knees instead of butt during circle time??). Even the director admitted that the teacher was overwhelmed by her job at times. It also didn't help that there was no consistent second teacher in the preschool room. We noticed at least five different faces from day to day, and even morning to afternoon (floaters, toddler room teachers, director). This lack of consistency and lack of experienced staff was mirrored in our son's deteriorating behavior.

We spoke with the director about the situation early on when our son was still transitioning part-time. She suggested continuing with the part-time transition for the time being, which we were happy with. So it was a big surprise when we dropped him off the next day and learned that his fulltime transition was beginning that very day! The promised daily updates on our son'™s progress and weekly journals also didn't materialize. And quite often none of the preschool teachers of the day were there when we picked our son up at the end of the day, so we had no idea how he was doing.

had been sending my 1 year old here for the past 6 months when I saw a teacher/babysitter "man-handle" a tiny infant in the non-mobile infant room. I was just about to leave with my son when I snuck another peak at all the cute little babies in the room one more time before I left - and that is when I saw her do what she did.... she grabbed this tiny little baby that was sitting next to her by his little arm and whipped him around behind her in a very angry and aggressive manner - basically, she grabbed him by his arm and tossed him behind her! She seemed upset that he was getting into the stack of balls that she was trying to put away. The poor baby instantly started screaming (since being tossed across the floor by his arm would probably have frightened him terribly!) I immediately told another teacher/sitter in a different room and then went home and called the owner and director. After a few days of supposedly "investigating" the incident they decided to keep the woman on as an employee of the daycare! UNBELIEVABLE! DO NOT SEND YOU BABIES HERE! THIS WOMAN WAS TERRIBLY MEAN TO AN INNOCENT INFANT!