Wakefield KinderCare

A child I love dearly had a terrible experience at this place. She was badly traumatized.
The center’s priority in the aftermath was clearly all about covering its own ass rather than the well being of the child.
The child was too young to give much detail about what happened to her, but based on how long it took her to recover, I suspect that whatever happened to her was pretty bad.
I say, avoid this place.

Our Son started at KinderCare when we moved from Danvers to Reading. I looked at several different schooling options and I truly loved KinderCare. The classrooms are clean, bright and the walls are filled with the children’s work. The teachers are extremely nice and all have bright, vibrate personalities (which is so important). The kindergarten teacher, Ms. Sarah, is AMAZING! My son has learned more in the months he has been in her class then he has in his previous 2 years of schooling– the things he has learned in school never fails to «wow» me. Just some of the things being taught in his class are spanish, french, reading, spelling, writing sentences, addition and subtraction, telling time, space and learning about different topics from around the world. My son looks forward to going to school (has sometimes even asked me to pick him up late) and has never said anything poorly about his class/​teachers. The center offers extra curricular programs, which cost extra, but my son has done phonics and science and will be starting cooking soon. The director, Nicole, is wonderful and very involved with all the classrooms and children/​families. I was nervous at first about sending my son to a «corporate/​chain daycare» but once you walk through (this) KinderCare’s doors you will feel extremely welcomed and at home– this is far from your typical daycare. We will be so sad when our son goes to public school!

I read the above review and our experience couldn’t be any more opposite. My oldest daughter has been at this center since she was 19 months old and my youngest daughter started attending when she was 12 weeks old. I love the Kindercare Director and Associate Director. The teachers are all very loving an compassionate. My daughter is now in Pre-​K and is learning the alphabet, Spanish, science, astronomy and anatomy. It’s amazing how great the cirriculum is, and how she just enjoys going to school every day. With my youngest, the teachers work with her on her motor skill and speech development. I couldn’t be more happy. If you need daycare, it’s the best around. We looked at about 10 different daycares (home and center types) and we are so happy where we are.

It pains me to say this, because I very much liked so many teachers there, but I advise parents not to go to this center. My child loved it there, until she suddenly became traumatized because a teacher hit her. The directors did such a poor job, mishandled the situation so horribly, that we left. They did not report the incident (until I forced them to), they never showed any compassion for my child, who was widely acknowledged as one of the happiest, most obedient, good-​natured children they’d ever known. Their only priority was protecting their liability. I had to beg them repeatedly to do the smallest thing, such as letting us know if that teacher would be in my child’s class. The teacher never showed the slightest remorse or compassion, never attempted to make my child feel safe or comfortable around her again — and the administration never tried to facilitate that either. I was not even allowed to tell other teachers what had happened to my child, so they could be prepared for the fact that she was suddenly acting terrified and traumatized. Other ex-​teachers and ex-​families later told me that this teacher is widely known to treat the children with terrible rudeness and nastiness, but that «someone in the administration must love her» because she is allowed to be «a nightmare» to the children, with impunity. This center used to be good, when it was Mulberry. Kindercare bought Mulberry, and then Knowledge Learning Corporation took over — and it has become more and more profit-​oriented and corporate. The teacher turnover is quite high, and if you go to other centers in the area, you will meet many teachers and families who have left this center because they became disgusted with how this center only cares about money. I wish only the best to the many, many wonderful teachers there, and I am grateful for the good care those teachers provided. But I advise parents not to trust the welfare of your children to this center.