Bright Horizons at Bayer

I think the director get top kudos from my wife and me.
My daughter has been here since 2 months old (she’s now 9 months) and they have shown empathy when seldom accidents happen.
In addition, their biggest draw is the fact that they provide plenty of activities to keep her mind stimulated. Also not to mention, the abundance of toys and books for her to explore.
We have looked at home care and nannies but after extensive research and experiences from our family’s children enrolled in bright horizons in other cities, we decided to go for it.
We’re glad we used a well trusted institution to care for her and plan on enrolling her here until it’s time for public school.

We toured this facility in February and were appalled by how the kids are being treated. Before our tour, I was sold on the price, location, hours, etc. A teacher actually took the time to call me back out of the blue to suggest I look into the West Berkeley shuttle as a way to help ease my husband’s commute if he does some drop-​offs.
That same woman was horrible to a child who was crying in the line of three-​year olds returned from outside. As they walked through the center, back to the classroom, no one said anything to comfort him. Then, outside the door, that woman yelled at him, «well, are you going to go inside? Because we COULD JUST STAY HERE.» He cried harder and went inside.
The teacher in the 3-​year-​old room was brand spanking new. Her name started with a D. She seemed nice, but was the third teacher in this room in a matter of months. Also, there was a kid crying and vomiting in the bathroom. None of the teachers were comforting him at all. My husband and I were the only ones to offer the kid a kind word, even though the director was with us, giving the tour. She told me that his dad was on his way, but offered no comfort to the poor kid.
The place is so neat and clean and free of crappy kids’ artwork. Instead, the walls have pictures of models. This was a red flag to us.
I am not writing this to make parents there feel bad, but to encourage them not to assume that the teachers are as nice to their kids as they are when parents are around. They were awful to the kids while we toured. I can only imagine the treatment when no «customers» are around.
I have backup care from BH through my work, but I do not even consider this an option for that.

My daughter went to this center from 13 months to 2 years. I cannot say enough about how wonderful this center is. When we had to move towns recently and take her out, we looked for a town that had anough BH center because we were so pleased with BH Bayer. The new one is good, but not as great as this center — its a hard act to follow. The entire staff from Jennifer (Director), Gabriella (Office Manager), Katina (education coordinator) and her Toddler teachers (Grace and Jenny) are amazing. They truly love our daughter and it shows in the way they care for her and us. There were tears all around when we moved and they even check in with us to this day to see how she is going. The center is clean, has a great routine for the kids, offers good toys and great activities. I have boxes of the creative art projects she made — way beyond simply coloring on paper. The teachers would go above an beyond for moms and dads day and halloween, helping the kids hand make presents and costumes we will forever treasure. My daughter has really flourished due to what she has learned at the center. Her new school continually comments on how advanced her language skills are and I attribute that to the class teachings from BH Bayer. The kids love reading and singing at circle time. And my daughter has learned so many important lessons in manners — she sings ‘clean up, clean up, everybody do their share’ at home now — what a helper she is. She was always thrilled to go to school and would make me hang around at pick up time to play with her a while — she was having so much fun.
We miss the relationships we made with the teachers, kids and parents at this center — they felt like part of the family.

our 11 month old son has been going to bright horizons in berkeley for almost 2 months now. we had been on the waitlist for 7 months and were excited when there was an opening. he is thriving here. my husband and i are thoroughly impressed with the wonderful care takers, clean facilities and daily communications on what our son and the other infants are doing. they send us a daily emailed PDF with pictures of what the children are up to which is so great to receive during a busy work day, it puts a smile on our faces. they send us home with a report on what he ate, how many times he soiled his diaper and if there are variations in this routine. its helpful for us to know.
i particularly appreciate the emphasis they take on keeping things clean. they make you either remove your shoes or put a protective covering over them before entering the classrooms and they use gloves when changing diapers.
each baby has their own basket for food and they require you to label their bottles with their names and color coded labels. they are very strict about giving the babies only what the parents provide for them.
my son loves it here, he gets all excited and happy when we’re walking up to the door. he’s made friends with the other babies and its so cute to see them interact. he also loves his primary caretaker who clearly cares about him and the other 3 babies. everyone that works there is warm and caring.

Our son has been going to this center since it was newly opened, and he was an infant.
The teachers are all very professional and loving, the classrooms have beautiful toys, and I am constantly amazed by the social, physical, and cognitive skills that my toddler is developing.
Things I appreciate the most:
They are warm and welcoming. When I was nursing, I was able to visit the school every day during my lunch.
The school is very clean and the teachers watch out for signs of illness. My son has gotten sick only once in this past year – from a family member! He is a toddler and already likes washing his hands and coughing into his sleeve.
Teachers get to know each child as an individual and take the time to tell sweet stories about our child. Every day I know what fun things my son has done and whether or not he had any particular joys or difficulties. I drop him off knowing that he is in a safe and caring environment.

This place is a epitome of bad experience. My husband and I went there to submit registration form for our baby. I went there because my tour experience the first time was satisfactory and hence I was interested in enrolling my baby here. However, my experience was different the second time. Staff here seemed very arrogant and many things I saw changed my opinion.
1. We scheduled for a tour at 3:30 with Jennifer, but another Staff said that Jennifer had other important people coming and hence she offered to give us a hasty 5 min tour.
2. The other lady let us to go around quickly into the Infant room. There were 9 infants with two caregivers. One caregiver was feeding 4 babies with the same cup and spoon. So I was wondering how would they keep track of how much each baby ate?
3. In the crib area, We saw an infant sleeping in a very bad face down position but nobody seemed to care about it.
4. Looks like there was a new baby who was fussy and a caretaker was frowning at the baby. However, she stopped once she spotted us.
5. My husband then asked if he could speak with Jennifer. But we were told that she is guiding a couple with the tour and she may not available for another 30 mins. When my husband offered to wait for 30 mins to meet her and asked for exactly 2 mins to ask a question. she said that Jennifer would have to leave immediately after the tour, and cannot spare 2 mins.
Overall the place looked very commercial and care givers here don’t really seem to have any passion or interest in their jobs. I was glad that I saw the real color of the teachers here before I could enroll. We carried a filled form and check with us but then decided not to enroll and left.