The Early Years, Inc
| Address: | 750 Fountains Pkwy, Fairview Heights, IL 62208, USA |
| Phone: | +1 618-624-5624 |
| Site: | theearlyyearsinc.com |
| Rating: | 4.4 |
Location
Photos 1
Reviews 4
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Jamie Elkins
We pulled our daughter from here after about 10 months. The tour we had before we made the decision was great. They said they keep a portfolio of what the children do and take pictures of activities. The infant room was exceptional when we started. After about 6 months, things started to go downhill. We stuck it out for another 4 months. When our daughter wasnt quite a year, she got moved into the "active infants" room. She wasnt walking at this point, so I think they moved her to make room in the infant room. I think they were at capacity in there. Every day when I picked her up, I never knew which room she would be in. A lot of the times she was back in the infant room. When she was in the active infants room, the teachers would be standing around talking. I can count on one hand the number of times that they were actually interacting with the children. I cant say they are very sanitary. I watched a little girl throw up right in front of me, and they just cleaned it up with a paper towel. They arent very strict in enforcing their "sick" policy. It seemed to change daily. One day I picked up my daughter (once again with the babies), and she had a pacifier that wasnt hers in her mouth (she had not had a pacifier in months up to this point). That was the final straw for us. The lack of communication is horrid. The director is hardly ever there and leaves everything up to the office person. They have super high staff turnover, and they treat their staff horribly. You could tell the teachers didnt want to be there. There was major conflict between the office worker and the teachers. They blamed the one teacher that actually got to know us on us leaving. This teacher is no longer with this daycare, which is unfortunate for them. They do have small classes, but based on the amount of children that left when we were there, its because of turnover not because they want the small sizes. We are so much happier with our new daycare. Overall, I would not recommend this daycare to anyone.
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Alexandria Buckner
Everything started off very great. She was to the jungle room for her age. This class HAD 3 teachers, all 3 teacher quit and the room was closed down. She was then assigned to the farm room. This room started fine as well. Not to long into her being in this class her items starting coming up missing her pampers, wipes and sippy cups. Evey time I would bring it up to Laura, the director, she wouldnt pay any attention to it or always had an excuse about what could have possible happened. There are some great selective teachers that work there but not all of them. Laura is never there you always have to leave her a message in hope that she will return the phone call. Back on May 2nd I believe, I drop my 18 month old daughter off to the early years like we normally do 5 days out the week. We arrived there at 815 for breakfast I talked to one of the teachers asking if we were late for breakfast one teacher informed me no we werent and that she would feed my daughter the other teacher jumps in and informed that we were late for breakfast. It was only 815 breakfast isnt over according to their classroom schedule until 830. The same teacher who informed me that we had missed breakfast is the same lady that is the acting director when Laura isnt there. So I asked her could she give her some dry cereal granola bars, anything. She then informed me that there wasnt anything to give her even the breakfast that the kids had was even skimpy. So I asked could she give her some milk, she then said I will try to give her some we are very low in milk as well. I proceeded to call the director she wasnt there Ive left messages and still know calls back I feel that this is very unprofessional 1. The director is never there so who can you talk to about this 2. There is no food to feed my child or if there is you basically told me that you was not going to give her anything 3. Her items are coming up missing no one is saying anything. Her other facility was reported as well. To me this is a definite sign of neglect
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Ron Breier
Our daughter was enrolled at the Early Years for the first year of her life. It was great back then. I quit my job for a few years to stay home with her and put her back in recently. Although we felt that our daughter was safe while there, we were not impressed with the current staff. As with any child, she had conflict with one of the other kids. When we tried to talk to the staff about it, they were not very well trained on how to deal with parents. We tried to speak to the owner about what they were doing to keep my child from being hit by anither stydent. The owner never listened, she just talked over us the entire time. Later we had another small issue that we wanted to address and we got the same treatment. The school does a good job at selling itself as a higher end school with a personalized education. But we found that not to be the case as it was in 2012/2013. Everytime we came in to pick her up early, there was zero education happening. Often they were watching TV, and I never popped in without seeing an employee texting on their phone. My daughter is a very advanced little kid. But when they screaned her for preschool she got awful scores. When we called to talk to the teacher to see how this was possible, it was insinuated that she would need poor scores in order for them to get state funding for her classes, because we do not have any "at risk factors". That was when we pulled her out of The Early Years and took her to a more expensive school that is not a convenient location. We were very bummed that the school went downhill, because we live right around the corner from it. The location saved us a lot of time in the mornings. But a little extra drive time is worth a good school for your child.
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Anonymous User
Being a military family, my children and I have seen and experienced our fair share of child care centers. Being a relatively new establishment I was really impressed by the lovely location, new building, and equipment and was excited for my 3 year old daughter to start, having just moved to the area. This place likes to go on about its security but there were several occasions during drop off and pick up where I was able to just walk through their "security" doors which were left ajar for whatever reason and with no one at the front desk to even check who I was. However, whats even more worrying was that on 2 occasions while my daughters room were outside playing, I was able to sign her out call her over and leave without her teacher even noticing! This aside, the care givers really did not seem enthusiastic about their jobs, looked bored and my daughter even stated that they argued amongst themselves. They are not accredited, they do not stimulate and after 2 months I pulled my daughter out and enrolled her at the Discovery school and have not looked back since. I gave them2 stars as they are still pleasing to the eye and very efficient at taking your money out without delay! If you want your child to learn and be prepared for kindergarten DO NOT send your little ones here!!