Quality Child Care Programs in Wake Forest/North Raleigh area (daycare, schools)

[tarheel.girl6]

Hi,
I have an 'almost' 3 year old boy who is ready for a really good child care program. I'm open to full or part-time but I'm more interested in finding a program that offers my son the opportunity for learning and growing both educationally and socially while surrounded by kind, caring adults. Sounds to good to be true, doesn't it?? Does this type of care exist here in our area of Wake Forest/North Raleigh? If so, PLEASE provide pertinent information. I've read older posts about Goddard and Primrose (Wake Forest area) so I will probably begin my searches there. If anyone has any input, I'd be most grateful!!!

[tanglewoodnc]

I toured both Primrose and Goddard in WF and there was no comparison for us. At Primrose, both teachers were sitting in the little child chairs when the owner introduced us. Neither was engaging the children, neither got up to say hello to us (including my 2 1/2 year old daughter) and neither even smiled. Even in front of the owner/director they both just muttered "hi" like sullen teenagers and did nothing else.

At Goddard, the teachers were actively teaching/playing with the children, came over to meet us, squatted down to talk to our daughter and were very engaging. It was like night and day with Primrose. We ended up putting our daughter in Goddard for almost 2 years (through 3 different classrooms/teachers) and loved it.

You should definitely tour both schools to get a feel for the individual teachers, but if they are allowed to be rude and (in my opinion) lazy right in front of the owner I can't imagine how the rest of the day goes at Primrose. Also, a good friend of mine had her child at Primrose for almost 3 years. She loved it and said the teachers were fine, but there were apparently problems with the way they move kids up when they age out of classrooms. Her daughter was forced to remain in the toddler room for several months when she was clearly too big, too old and too advanced for it simply because they admitted too many kids in the next age group and had not considered rising toddlers.

[tarheel.girl6]

Wow! Thanks so much for your extensive answer. This is very helpful information. I agree with your comments: "if they are allowed to be rude and (in my opinion) lazy right in front of the owner I can't imagine how the rest of the day goes at Primrose." And, I think that is an excellent point!

I've set up a tour of The Goddard School. Thank you again for your input!

[VickiR]

Does anyone have anything to add to this older post?

Any part time child care that you know of in North Raleigh?

Thanks!

[RDUBiker]

Goddard is, to me, still the gold standard. Just look inside and notice how bright and colorful and cheerful it is. We felt Primrose was too "academic" - 3 year olds don't need coursework and homework, they need intelligent playtime and caring teachers. If you are one of those type-A parents who is more concerned about making sure your kid knows everything that s/he'll learn in kindergarten before age 4, maybe Primrose would be your choice, but for us, we wanted our daughter to have lots of fun and play time while still learning, so Goddard was it. It's not the cheapest, but they are the highest rated and you can easily tell when you visit.

We visited others than just these 2, but those were much more like daycare compared to what I would call more of a "camp" setting like Goddard. They had hospital type smells, the staff didn't seem to be really interested (or well trained/educated), and it just didn't give us a good feeling to think of leaving her there multiple hours a day. At Goddard she asked us to leave her LONGER for a while after she started going there.