Lighthouse Early Learning Academy 163 Panther Drive, Holland, MI 49424

"I personally would rate this a zero star if they had one based off my personal experience! On February 20th, 2018 I had to drive my daughter to the emergency room to get seven stitches in her forehead from the directors son dropping a block on her head. I will never forget my three year olds screams pleading to her father to make the doctors stop. I felt compelled to write this review today for the simple fact she is now getting made fun of for her permanent scare on her forehead. They launched an internal investigation, but nothing came of it of course. I just thought everyone should know before signing their children up to a place like this."

"My son goes here and has since he was 7 weeks old. he is now almost a year and a half and we both love it. He happily runs in to greet the teachers at drop off, is happy and tired from playing when I pick him up, the staff has always been helpful and responsive and we love it."

"I just finished working here for three years. Because of this experience I will NEVER put my future children in daycare. EVER. Lighthouse has three locations: South Holland, Byron Center and this center on the north side. I havent worked at the other two except as a floater but the Adams St location seems slightly more put together than this one. It is certainly bigger, more attractive, and seems more welcoming. The Byron Center location is their flagship center. Of the three, its the only one I would recommend. It is custom built around the reggio experience and everything is new and shiny. Speaking of Reggio, each center has the same curriculum and models its teaching practices after the reggio approach. Dont know what that is? Great. Neither do the teachers. None of them have ever been trained on Reggio.... or anything else for that matter. There is absolutely ZERO training that happens here. IN FACT, when they do working interviews to make sure there is a good fit in the classroom (which honestly, half the new hires dont even do) the interviewee does staff breaks. That means that someone off the street who hasnt been hired yet is working for free and watching your kids as a part of the ratio-ed staff. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the unprofessionalism that not only happens but is encouraged there. Over the past year alone: It took screaming at the kids, a classroom switch, a bruised staff members child and threats to throw kids across the room before one teacher was fired. The cops and CPS interviewed another girl because a kid in her class had mysterious bruises on her arms that werent there when dad dropped off. No corrective action was taken. Most recently, a staff member left a very young child unattended outside for more than 15 minutes. She still works there. Theres much much more, but Im certain I would run out of space. While taking a tour be sure to ask about staff turnover rates. The sure sign of a third rate childcare is extremely high turnover and "extremely high" doesnt even begin to cover it. Though, I HAVE heard the director frequently lie about this to prospective parents, so Im not actually sure how much good it would do. (There is a whole other tirade I could on about the director, but we'll keep that out of this. Just be prepared for lots of blank stares and total incompetency. And if you ever have messages that need to be relayed tot he staff make sure you tell them yourselves- her communication skills are nonexistent. More than one teacher would walk into her classroom on Monday and have new students there waiting that she was never told about or had never met before.) Finally, while on the tour look at the faces of every single staff member who works there. Most genuinely do love children- why else work in childcare? You could certainly make more money flipping burgers at McDonalds for half the stress. You can love what you do to the ends of the earth, but if you are trapped in a toxic environment that doesnt appreciate you or give you the tools to do your job properly why constantly pushing the standards of whats acceptable in order to make a few more dollars... Well you're bound to hate your job. Trust me when I say these girls HATE their jobs. They are nice girls, but they cant stand working there- you can see it in their faces... Why would you want to thrust your children into that?"