Community Update

My husband and I were looking for childcare for our 2 month old son. We visited all the centers in Mentor that didn't have glaring write-ups by the state. Bass Lake rubbed us the wrong way for several reasons. When we arrived, the security door was unlocked when we should have had to been let in. The administrator, Kathy, proceeded to tell us that she has been having trouble with the door jamming (yet, it didn't seem like she had had it checked out). Not very comforting. We were given a tour of the infant room. Nice large space big enough to separate the non-mobile infants from the crawler/walkers. However, the two caregivers present for the day had very flat affects that did not impress us. We'd like our caregivers to be somewhat enthusiastic and stimulate our child's development. Moreover, when we inquired about what the general schedule for the day was, they responded that the babies just dictate the day, which that should be the case to a certain extent, however, as an educator, my husband knows there should be a general flow to the day to help children develop. When walking back to the main lobby through the toddler room, a toddler was exiting the bathroom with her pants still down, struggling to pull them up for a long time without the caregivers lending a hand. Once in the lobby, Kathy gave us a huge spiel about the payment system and she seemed entirely focused on money. During the explanation, we witnessed 2 of the 4 year old group hitting each other, and Kathy's response was to poke her head in the room to tell them to, "find something else to do," rather than redirecting them as an educator should. Lastly, we witnessed one of the other caregivers in the 4 year old group pick up/drag a child by the arm to the carpet.

Needless to say, we did not choose Bass Lake. We feel much can be improved upon from an educator standpoint.