Grayslake KinderCare

"My fiance and I went with our 2yo and 6m old for a tour in December. Immediately we got a horrible first impression of treatment of the kids when arriving. Approaching the center from our vehicle a small buss was dropping of what looked like preschoolers after-school. The bus drive mush have not seen us walking up behind her, she was getting the kids off the bus while DRAGGING a little boy inside, holding him by both wrists in the air. She looks so mad, ignoring the other kids as the came in behind her. She dragged him all the way from on the bus, inside the centers main entrance, and down the hall to the left. We thought maybe nobody seen her doing it because "they don't have cameras due to their open door policy " as we were told but as we were waiting to be let in one of the women who sit up front walk right passed her doing it and let us in and got the director from the infant room to meet with us. We got a brief tour and seen many kids in each room crying either eating or waiting to be fed. We left hoping to get bus information to notify the school but it was already gone. Parents please speak to your kids about how their day went, if anyone hurt them or their feelings. Some babies are too small to speak up but their behavior will say it all."

"I can't say enough great things about the Grayslake KinderCare. My son has been going there for the past 3 years and absolutely loves it. The curriculum is amazing and I can honestly say that he is more prepared for kindergarten than most of his same age peers who do not go to KinderCare due to their amazing curriculum. The teachers are wonderful to work with and take a genuine interest the kids the work with. The Director and Assistant Director as very friendly and very easy to work with. They are very transparent about issue that pop up and are always looking for feedback and/or ways to improve. I can't say enough great things about the Grayslake KinderCare. UPDATE: While I will still believe that Grayslake KindeCare was absolutely amazing for my son and they did a great job of preparing him for Kindergarten, I will say that they are not really equipped to manage school aged kids. While they have an after school program for kids, the school aged classroom has a wide range of ages in the afternoons. Some teachers are great at classroom management, while others are not. There have been days that I walked into the school aged classrooms to find kids throwing things around the room and at each other with staff (often younger staff) on their cell phones not paying attention to students or, on several occasions, one staff told me how stress out and burnt out he was, which showed with his interactions with the kids. One of the things that bothered me is that in the fall when I signed my son back up for KinderCare, I was told that it's a great option because my son would continue to be able to participate in the summer programming offered at KinderCare and, during snow days, all I had to do was call the center to say that he was coming in and we would be all set. That is not the case in practice. What was not disclosed to me is that there are only 25 school aged spots on snow days, half of which go to the kids of center staff (which makes sense). Unfortunately, this means that there are only 8 spots available for other parents on a first come first serve basis. This is problematic when both my wife and I have jobs in which we have appointments with people (hers are office based and mine are community based). This put us in limbo and made it challenging to plan for how to navigate these days last minute. While I get that the school aged kids are not at the center full time, it felt like school aged kids and parents were being pushed out. Then recently, another e-mail went out saying that there are limited spots for school aged kids for the upcoming summer programing. Again, that is now how it was presented to me in the fall. Ultimately, we made the decision to move our son to his school's after care program so he could be with his classmates and meet other kids at his school. While I have brought this concern up to the center director, I found her response to be dismissive and defensive, hence the reason for my update. I think this information is really important for parents to have so they can make an informed decision. These perks that were sold to me in the fall are the reason I paid the higher price for KinderCare programming at the start of this school year, but since those perks don't seem to exist anymore, as a parent of a school aged student, the costs now outweigh the benefits."

"The lack of professionalism from the staff was evident from the very beginning. My experience with this daycare has been extremely unsatisfactory. I don't recommend this daycare to any parent seeking a safe and conducive environment for their child's growth and development."

"We have had all three of our children enrolled at KinderCare and have absolutely loved it. The kid's days are filled with so much learning and fun! I love how the center really does feel like a family. Every teacher seems to know EVERY child, even those they haven't directly had in class! Also, it's wonderful how flexible and easy to work with the staff is. When you're juggling so much between the kids and work- it's so nice to feel they are on your side, always willing to work with you with schedules, etc. We love you, KinderCare!"