8th Street Child Care Ctr

I have had my children enrolled at Altoona 8th Street for over a year and a half. In that time I have seen them make strides working to make improvements. Some teachers have left and have been replaced with wonderful new teachers who you can tell how much they love working with children. \r Every morning when I take my daughter in to the center she is so excited to go see her friends and her teacher. Her teachers have even had several parent teacher conferances with me. I love that. I never knew how much went into caring for children so young untill I started to get a news letter from her class every week and had the oppertunity to talk with her teachers at conferances about all the different things they work on with her.\r My daughter comes home singing songs recipting stories all the time. I have also seen her be able to get along with other children so much better from being able to be around other children her age. Next year she will be in the pre-K classroom. I can't wait, because I see how much the kids in that class room are realy ready for kindergarten. more

I moved to Altoona a year ago and did my research and interviews with child care providers. My initial interview with the Director was very good. I loved her personality and felt very strong about bringing my daughter there. She told me of the pre-school curriculum and many other things that really got me excited to bring my daughter there. HOWEVER, after just a day my daughter, only 3 was very sad and even through fits to not attend 'school' in the morning. I figured it was just a new place and my daughter would surely grow to love this place. I picked her up in the evening and she was crying on the playground, by herself as the 'teachers' were sitting on a picnic table talking with each other. NO ONE was around to even see why my daughter was crying. Come to find out, that evening my daughter had a splinter in her private area. The teachers never even looked at her. The next day, of course, another fit and another night of picking her up and she was crying. Again, NO ONE was around my daughter at all. She fell and hurt herself and no one even bothered to see if she was OK. She had a scab on her knee. They were too busy talking at the picnic table again. Of course the work she had brought home was nothing like the director promised me the curriculum would be. It was literally a bunch of scribble. This coming from a little girl, who at 3 already knew how to write her name. I was very disappointed. The poor work, the sadness, and lack of supervising continued for the 4 1/2 days that we kept her there. On the fifth day, I met with the director in the middle of the afternoon and explained my concern. She assured me they were trying to get a good curriculum for the pre-school kids. Even though she had already promised me they had one. She completely mis-lead me just to get my daughter enrolled in their school. After I confronted her, she even asked me if I would be giving 2 weeks notice. Are you kidding me? Why would I subject my daughter to this place. You have not educated her at all and you didn't even supervise her. NONE of the teachers there had any special training for pre-school kids. I cannot begin to tell you of the complete disappointment I had with 8th Street Child Care. I would not recommend this place for even dog sitting!! It gets one star because I have to give something...otherwise it would surely be a negative number!!! more