Creme De La Creme

We have had our son there since he was 4 months. We have had nothing except a great experience. All i have to say in the morning is, «are you ready to go see Mrs. Maggie «? His response is always yes. When my husband picks him up he sometimes has to pick him up to leave as he wants to stay. He is saying Spanish words, we are not Latin. He knows his sign language enough to help when he was not speaking. I just can’t say enough great things about the daycare!

Since Crème is one of the most expensive day care centers in the area and it does have beautiful facilities, we thought this would be the ideal place for our 2-​year-​old daughter. Unfortunately, it was a terrible experience. While the Crème curriculum (essentially like middle school — herding children from one room to another every 30 minutes or so) might be suitable for older children, it just is not suitable for 2-​year-​olds (think the polar opposite of Montessori) — The result is an extremely stressful environment not conducive to learning, healthy social interactions, or loving care. Virtually every time we picked up or dropped off our daughter, we walked into chaos with teachers berating little ones. One time, a little boy whose shoe had come off came over to me as I was waiting and asked for help with his shoe. As I started to help him, one of the teachers SCREAMED at him not to bother me. It was insane. My impression was that the people working in that classroom simply did not like their jobs. Another time, a teacher screamed at a little boy who was taking a while to get in line to go to the next room. When they got to the room for story-​time, the little boy and two other children (for no apparent reason) were made to sit down on the other side of the room where they could not see the book the teacher was reading or otherwise participate… again, insane. Our daughter «suddenly» started hitting other children when she started going there and soon we realized that all of the kids were hitting each other, most likely because the environment is so stressful. As soon as we took her out of Crème, she stopped. These are just a few of the many strange and concerning things we saw… and that was when we, the parents, were STANDING RIGHT THERE! Imagine what goes on when we aren’t watching if the teachers are that nasty when we are. When we told the school that we were starting potty training, they said to go ahead and send our daughter in underpants with extra clothes, etc. The very first day we did, she came home and told us that because she had had an accident «teacher grabbed my hand so hard it hurt when she took me to the potty.» Our daughter has NEVER told us anything like this and it was a severe enough memory that she repeated it for weeks afterwards. Clearly, the teacher was angry that our daughter’s accident had thrown off the all-​important Crème «schedule» (because kids are only supposed to go potty at the scheduled times when they are back in the main classroom). After that incident, even though we had paid for another 3 weeks and both my husband and I work, we could not bring ourselves to bring our daughter there.
While the administrators were very kind and understanding of our concerns/​complaints, and I think they may have fired at least one of the terrible teachers, it just did not make up for the fact that we felt sick to our stomachs leaving our little girl there every morning. All the brain research shows that children are incredibly impressionable at that age, so experiences like this can have a lasting effect. My advice to all parents looking for day care is to not be naïve enough to think (as I did) that beautiful facilities and an expensive price tag must be the best.

We have had our daughter at Crème de la Crème since April of 2010. She started as an infant and has gone through the entire curriculum during her time there and will culminate her education there by starting Kindergarten this Fall. She will graduate from Crème in the Summer of 2015.
The staff and teachers at Crème de la Crème are the best of the best and have been incredible to work with. Starting out as new parents, the teachers at every level have been so helpful and loving with our daughter that it has validated our choice to go with them over other daycares. There is no better daycare in our opinion and we did our research of several big name daycares before choosing Crème.
When we looked at other daycares, the one thing that stood out at Crème was the level of education and detail. We found the majority of daycares just made sure your child was fed and looked after. The difference with Crème is that they start a learning curriculum from the beginning when they are an infant. Every level has a lesson plan and the goals to move to the next level are clearly spelled out so you as a parent participate in the learning process. The curriculum is constantly monitored at a corporate level so you can always be assured that it is current and relevant. They also offer extracurricular activities like ballet, soccer, and golf to keep the children well-​rounded.
While other daycares may be less expensive, they will nickel and dime you with separate costs for diapers, food, etc. We liked Crème because it was one price and you didn’t have to worry about bringing everything on your own. It is honest and straightforward and you get what you pay for.
In summary, Crème is a not a daycare but the rare combination of a nurturing and challenging environment that goes beyond what even most public schools provide. Our daughter will leave Crème not only better educated but better mannered and well rounded. We wanted the total experience for our daughter and Crème has provided it.