Children's Discovery Ctr

Recommends

Alicia B.

Joined 6 months ago

My two children (2 1/2 and 5 1/2) have gone to other daycares, but when we found the Children's Discovery Center a year and a half ago, we found our "home"! As a teacher, I have very high expectations for the learning and care of my children. The staff at CDC have proven they are up to the challenge and are always surprising us with the thought and effort they put into our children's care. While CDC does not provide food, they make up for that one downfall with their wonderful staff, consistent training, amazing outdoor play areas (esp. for the older kids), group gatherings and field trips. Todd, the owner, goes above and beyond to make sure each child is taken care of. Our family is thankful to have found the Children's Discovery Center.

Doesn't Recommend

Paul F.

Joined 1 year ago

Over-promise, under-deliver. Like a lot of other daycare centers, this place makes promises but doesn't really deliver. Our pre-school-aged child went for about 8 months and made very little progress. The "teachers" will only provide progress reports or tell you about your child's day if they're asked. There seems to be very little communication from the providers to the parents, though the owner is overly friendly to the point of making some parents uncomfortable. Unlike with most providers in this price range, you must provide your child's snacks. They provide a sheet to cover the child's naptime mat, and then promptly send it home with the child to be washed.

As promising as this place might seem, keep looking.

Recommends

DyerDenise

Joined 2 years ago

Amazing Center......and Staff!! Thank you!. Our 4 1/2 year old son has been attending Children's Discover Center since Oct 2010. We have seen such positive growth and development in this short amount of time. The staff here is nothing short of remarkable. Within days of starting the teacher reached out to us simply because she wanted to meet and learn more about our son and his family! This meant so much to me and my husband. As we all know, kids do not come with a manuals; nor did many of us attend school to become great parents and; yes, some days do seem so much more challenging than others. When "those days" happen and the staff reaches out and gently offers advice or words of encouragement - I welcome it wholeheartedly - After all, these are people who spend most of our childrens waking hours with them.

I want to say "Thank you" to Todd and the amazing staff for your passion and dedication to teaching our children !

Doesn't Recommend

asymtote123

Joined 6 years ago

FInd another Child care. We've had 2 children at CDC. At first things went well. They had good staff and the kids were happy. Then the staffing turnover began. "Teachers" came and teachers went. We began to question whether the kids were being adequately supervised. We dropped in several times (unannounced) and found the kids watching TV or playing nintendo not outside during beautiful weather. This certainly isn't the "Montessori" method that we expected.

We also had them there for the summer camp. We reviewed the camp field trip list and the kids thought it'd be fun to be going to all those events. We later found out that the camp field trips all changed after we registered and paid our bill.

Many of the field trips were re-scheduled to the local Dundee Park instead of going where they promised - Sebago Lake, Range pond, Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth, etc. The kids were heart-broken, They ended up going to Dundee twice a week for most of the summer. We did get some of the field trip money refunded to us but that wasn't the point. We expressed our concerns to the owner but she didn't seem the least bit interested.

SInce their van wasn't working well they'd also to make several trips back/forth to Dundee. They'd take a group of kids leave them with teacher and run back for another load. They also asked parents to help out and shuttle kids on these trips.

We've talked with many of the staff. Only a couple are still there and things have gotten worse not better. The ones who did leave tell us they really tired to make things work but got tired of the owner.

My kids were sad when their friends parents pulled them from CDC. We guess we were a little slow to recognize things were going down hill that fast. We certainly can't recommend CDC given our experiences.

The good news is that there are several other options in Windham. Our kids are doing well elsewhere and met some of the their friends who also left CDC earlier.