Bright Horizons at Redmond

My son has attended BH Redmond for 8 months in the infant room. His teachers: Linda, Shyamali and Mitka were incredibly caring. He was always very happy there and you could see a true connection between him and his teachers particularly Linda. Communication with parents was also great. I have no complains whatsoever for the care and attention provided to my son but I had to remove a star because of the high price which made us have to change daycare.

Avoid this bright horizon if you can. Staffs are arrogant and the teachers don’t really care about your kids. They care more about the money.

Before placing either of our kids with BH, I visited their intended classrooms for extended periods of time on my own, without my own children being there. I loitered quietly in a corner of the classroom with a book to occupy myself for for one or two period (s) of 2 – 4 hours each. Having spent upwards of 10 hours observing classroom dynamics, I believe I have a pretty good feel for the general vibe of a typical BH classroom. My expectations were high and they were satisfactorily met. Our younger child enrolled at BH-​Redmond at about age 3 after moving from a different BH program located out of state (which we used from age 11 mos). Our older child also attended a BH program (out of state) from 18 mos through pre-​K.
Throughout my 7 years of experience, I have always been happy with BH and have virtually no complaints. In my experience, they have well-​qualified, competent, conscientious, and kind staff; low staff turnover; good safety and health procedures; excellent communication with parents; pleasant facilities; and a fun, age-​appropriate, and educational curriculum. The food service at BH-​Redmond is very nice… healthful, varied, and tasty. The outdoor play spaces at BH-​Redmond are merely satisfactory (IMO). In all other respects, BH-​Redmond exceeds my expectations. I believe I’m a better parent, thanks to BH, in that I’ve adopted some of BH’s ways for my own parenting toolbox.
(Full disclosure… I don’t have much knowledge of infant care – just toddlers through pre-​K – because I declined to enroll until my children were walking, or nearly ready to walk… believing that non-​mobile infants benefit so much from 1-​on-​1 or 1-​on-​2 care.)

My daughter has attended this location off and on as part of our backup daycare plan. Even though she isn’t a regular, paying student, the staff is always friendly, and our daughter enjoys herself.
This place is HUGE; it is rather deceiving from outside just how big it is.

I submitted an application for about 2 months and during the period of time, I made at least 3 phone calls to follow up and left voice mails asking them to call back. None of them got through and I never get any call backs. I also visited them 3 times but did not get anything out. This is how they treat their customers and I don’t feel that I am paying money for a service.
The last time I was there, their attitude was arrogant and did not feel any sorry of ignoring us. It’s like, if you want to apply, just wait, if you don’t want to apply, take your stuff and go home!
Strongly not recommended this piece of shit.

Our son has been a Bright Horizons at Redmond for almost a year now, and we absolutely love it. He started in the infant room and recently transitioned to the toddler room, and both experiences have been great. We did experience turnover in the infant room when we’d only been there a couple of months, and with both teachers leaving within just a few weeks of each other, it was hard. But we brought our concerns to center leadership, and they scheduled a conference where we talked through our concerns and they gave us updates on the plan to replace the teachers. And honestly, we were much happier with the two teachers who ended up taking care of our son the rest of his time in the infant room. They were wonderful, incredibly caring people, and our son just loves them. He still visits them when we walk by on our way to his toddler room. His toddler teachers are wonderful, and our son is having a great time and learning all sorts of new things.
From what I hear from my friends who have children in other day care centers, teacher turnover is pretty common in this industry. I do think that Bright Horizons hires really smart, engaged people, and I’ve always been impressed with the «all hands on deck» mentality at our center. Every employee is engaged with the kids, no matter what their position is. Everyone knows our son’s name, even as big as the center is. Center leadership has been consistently responsive to any questions or concerns we’ve had, and they genuinely care about making the center a better and more welcoming place. There is an engaged Parent Partnership Group as well if parents want to become more involved.
Leaving your child (especially an infant) in anyone’s care is scary and stressful, but I’ve never doubted that my son was loved and hugged and engaged during his days at this center. He’s learned an incredible amount and absolutely loves coming to school every day. I think the parents at this center (my family included) can be a pretty tough-​to-​please crowd, so I have to say I’m impressed by how many families I meet who express how much they love it here.

I worked at this location in the past and I have got to say it is the most disorganized depressing place I have ever worked. This whole post is a reflection on the wing of people where I worked. It does not include all the employees unless stated. I have a positive happy go lucky person who is passionate about children and this place drained me of all of that. Why is this place disorganized? There is constant turnover of staff at this place that it is always hard for someone to come in for the teachers to take breaks. That’s what they were hired for right? Most days I would get my breaks late like an hour before I’d get off or not get it at all. There must’ve been about 8 people who left the month I left.
The teachers… you’re supposed to have a college degree in order to be a teacher there. Wrong, many of the support staff are converted to teachers quickly because they’re desperate to hire someone to take their place. I’ve seen it countless times. The teachers I worked closely with (i say this because i know in other rooms there were some quality teachers) were the most immature people I’ve ever met. I truely felt I was in high school. They would constantly complain about every little thing and talk behind everyones’ backs. The chit chatter includes the leadership staff, so I didn’t feel comfortable going to them and talking to them about my concerns. There is so much work that needs to be done throughout the day with daily paper work, emails to parents and planning that that is what teachers focus on since it’s required. It’s crazy how they expect so much yet pay the employees close to minimum wage. Many times I would lose my planning time since there was no one to cover during that time so the children wouldn’t be getting the best activities planned. No phone policy in the classroom? Out the window.
Your child’s care… One good thing I can say is that I know that everyone who worked there loved the kids. I always looked at the parents and always wanted to say that I wish I could do more for your child. If only it were more organized.
I can’t say it’s still the same kind of environment, but after working there for almost a year this is what I saw. I would definitely recommend another location for your child.

In my view, Bright Horizons in Redmond is as good as it gets.
Just a couple of feel-​good things: every teacher there seems to knows every child’s name and greets them with a smile in the morning, and every teacher shows happiness when they interact with a child, particularly if the child gives a goodbye hug. I have only seen excellent attachment by children to their care providers.
The center provides great learning experiences every day, including both indoor and outdoor activities. They provide detailed lesson plans every week, as well as details of the child’s day every day. Art classes, music classes, and physical fitness classes are all available.
Furthermore, they teach children the appropriate ways to interact with others. I was extremely happy with how well my child did when he went to his first soccer practice, and I feel confident in saying that it was because he was taught good group behavior at Bright Horizons. They also teach the proper way to respond when a child does not show respect; a child is encouraged to use words rather than to respond with disrespect.
Finally, the children are provided with healthful snacks and meals throughout the day. It is a really helpful benefit included in the tuition. You can feel confident that your children are receiving a balanced diet while at Bright Horizons. Snacks are fruits and vegetables (and sometimes crackers). Breakfast is whole grains, lean protein (egg/​turkey), and fruit. Lunch is lean protein (chicken, turkey) and vegetables. Bright Horizons also does an excellent job of accommodating dietary needs if you prefer.
A quick side note: I have never seen or heard anything consistent with what Anne L. has said. The one time that we provided feedback to the center director about a teacher, it was met with a positive response, and the director provided an update as to how the feedback was delivered and heard by the teacher. Second, Children moving rooms is common to ensure the proper child/​teacher ratio (for infants, it’s 4:1), and our children always responded to the new room without issue. Finally, I cannot speak to the circumstances under which Bright Horizons threw away breast milk and diapers, but I know that they have extremely strict policies about storing milk. For example, milk left in the fridge overnight is thrown out because there is no way to verify that the fridge did not stop working while the center was closed, and therefore running the risk of the milk going bad. While it is tragic when breast milk is thrown out, I would prefer that my daycare be better safe than sorry.