Take My Hand Inc

Address:	181 Fort Lee Rd, Leonia, NJ 07605, USA
Phone:	+1 201-585-1194
Site:	takemyhandchildcare.com
Rating:	3.6

Location

Photos 10

Reviews 4

Anonymous User

I have a toddler in the toddler class(formerly known as T-1) who has attended Take My Hand since infancy. When I came to visit the day care, I was a worry-stricken pregnant woman who felt incredibly guilty even thinking about sending my child to day care instead of staying home from work. My husband and I came to take my hand after visiting many other day cares in the area. From the moment we walked through the door, we were welcomed with open arms. We felt incredibly at home and could not picture our soon-to-be child anywhere else. What I love about TMH: The infant room is so caring and friendly. I felt so good about leaving my child with them every morning, and was glad to know that when I picked her up she would be happy and playing with the other infants. The staff in the infant room is so engaging with the children, and was so helpful to me as a first time mother. The waddler room also has an exceptional staff. However, I do not know by personal experience as that room is relatively new and my child was already in T1 by the time the Waddlers came about. The Toddler class is amazing! My child is excited to come to day care in the morning. I feel so at ease leaving my child with the girls. Crystal, Sarah, Dionne or Shaniqua are always there at drop-off with open arms and warm smiles. My child is always greeted with such friendly personalities. (Also, in rebuttle to previous comments: Sometimes I have a difficult time getting my child out of the house in the morning, and since I do not have a strict wirk schedule, I will usually drop my child off at various points of the morning. Whenever I drop off, there is always something creative and fun happening in the Toddler and Waddler classes. The children are sometimes dancing, and even marching around with instruments. They also have story book tubs filled with board books that are spilled onto the carpet where the ladies will sit and read to the children. I have walked in many of times during "circle time," where the ladies are teaching our children songs, nursery rhymes, colors, etc. There is absolutely a tremendous amount of structure and routine in the Toddler class.) At the end of the day, I always try to sneak in to the center to watch my child as she participates in spontaneous play. I would hardly call this roaming around. The children are typically dancing, singing, playing with blocks/legos, or sometimes if I am really late they are playing with teachers or cuddling up. The afternoon staff is so helpful and prompt with answering any questions I may have such as lunch, nap, or during the day activities. Crystal, Tiffany, or Jaquie are usually there when I pick up my child and I am so glad to know that they interact so playfully with my child and communicate so well with the morning staff to deliver me the answers that I need. What I dislike about TMH: The parking is a little limited during drop off and pick up times, as they have a small parking lot. Also, in Leonia there are strict parking rules about the streets and I have often had to park in the church parking lot to pick up my child, which is inconvenient in unpleasant weather. THANK YOU SO MUCH TMH FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK.

Stan Sarama

My 2 year old daughter has been going to Take My Hand Child Care Center since September 2013. The is my 4th child and all 4 kids have attended daycare/school - although the other 3 kids went to another local child care center. I am very impressed with Take My Hand! The teachers she has had in the 18-24 month old class - and now the 2 year old class are WONDERFUL. They always welcome my daughter warmly and at the end of the day when I pick her up - they communicate any essential information about her day. They do a lot of creative projects which the teachers obviously have planned out very well. For example - a few months ago - as part of their Sensory theme week - the kids baked Oatmeal Muffins. As part of the Spring theme - they are purchasing eggs from a local farm and will keep them in an incubator until they hatch. The outdoor space at Take My Hand is excellent! They have a large gated area to play - as well as a playground with the soft synthetic ground to keep it safe for the children. There is a weekly music class - which my daughter talks about EVERYDAY! In addition the kids sing on a daily basis. One of the things that MOST attracted me to Take My Hand - is the flexibility they offer in scheduling. You pay by the week - so if you have a vacation planned - or dont need to send the children for any reason they you know of (4 weeks) in advance - you can pull them out for the week and not have to pay. They also offer great flexibility with the part time programs. Take My Hand was highly recommended to me by several different families in Leonia. I am so glad I decided to send my daughter to the school. With my almost 9 years of experience with daycare - I am very surprised to see the negative reviews posted here on Google. I dont agree with any of the negative statements made about the school.

Anonymous User

What I like: 1) I feel our child is safe there - the owner and/or one of her two children (who are assistant managers) are spend 95% of their time among kids, which is the best safeguard against "funny" stuff; 2) our child seems to like the teachers; 3) the teachers are very friendly and engaged (in the first half of the day - read on for my take on the pm); 4) Teacher-to-child ratio is 1:3 - better then the state-mandated 1:4. They generally do stick to 1:3. 5) The owner is flexible and accommodating if I need to pick my child up at, say, 5pm instead of the scheduled 4pm; 6) the place is not very expensive. What I dont like: 1) Teachers seem dead in the afternoon - they are not doing anything with the kids and are hardly watching them. The kids are left to their own devices and just roam; 2) Older infants, younger toddlers and older toddlers get "merged" for about an hour in the morning and after 3:30-4pm. This means that the older kids are bored and the younger get trampled; 3) Not enough structured activities - every day there should be music time, reading time, sports time (kick the ball around or something)! 4) Not enough outdoors time. The kids stay inside even when its perfectly warm and dry but foggy! Overall: I feel like my kid is safe and well treated at TMH. You cant rely on TMH to really develop your child - but then again, that should be the parents job anyway and should never be fully outsourced to any daycare. This place is far from perfect, but having seen 3-4 other places I think that hardly any is.

Anonymous User

We chose TMH because we heard good reviews, the location was close and rates much cheaper but I did not like our experience there. I recently pulled my toddler out of TMH because of their inconsistent sick policy and a few things I noticed when picking her up. During her stay there, the temps were in the 90s and Id often find the children playing outside. My daughters face was red and it looked like she didnt have her sippy cup with her. This was everyday. I thought it might be better to keep very young children inside during such hot weather. This is not terrible but I dont agree with it. Also, everytime they changed a child, I never saw them wipe the changing pad down. In fact, Ive never seen them clean up anything. No gloves, no disinfectant, etc. Im sure they do it but daycares should be diligent about that. Now, the sick policy - she got coxsackie virus there and when we brought her back after a doctors clearance, I was told to pick her up because she could infect the other children. I was told to get a doctors note saying that she no longer had coxsackie (totally a ridiculous statement!) What did she want - a lab report?? Every time she got sick (constantly) I got a CRISIS call. The coxsackie situation costed me and my husband an entire week of work.