Morgan's Early Learning Center

We had high hopes for this daycare because of its location, but unfortunately our experience was very disappointing and I feel the need to share in case others are going through it. Our toddler never seemed happy here. Every morning he would stand by himself when we arrived because the teachers rarely greeted or welcomed him into the classroom. He would try to cling to us and cry when we would leave everyday, even when there was food out which is his main motivator for anything. We were repeatedly told this was just a normal phase that toddlers go through, but after switching to another daycare the difference was immediate. He now walks in happily with enthusiastic greetings from teachers, is excited to be there, and leaves in a much better mood at pickup. That experience made us realize that not every child who dislikes daycare is simply “going through a phase.” The young toddler classroom often felt chaotic. Instead of getting up to redirect children or engage with them, staff frequently stayed where they were and yelled “no” from across the room. On one occasion, I witnessed a teacher tell a child that his mom was there to get him when she wasn’t, simply to get him to stop what he was doing. That was one of the many upsetting things I saw at pickup making me wonder what they did when I wasn’t there. At some point I was reporting the upsetting things I saw daily to the director with no change (and this was literally the max of 10 minutes I was there for pickup). There also seemed to be noticeable tension between the lead teacher and assistants, and the classroom did not feel well led or consistently managed. The director did not appear to be very involved with what was happening in the classrooms. It was very clear both lead teachers and assistants did not understand how to handle behaviors of children at this age. For example, my son would blow raspberries (which is typical at 18 months) and they complained to me that he was “spitting” on them. The lead teacher was always washing dishes or painting windows or doing something else not related to watching the children at pickup while there was a lot of chaos (this was around 4pm when they combined classrooms which did not help) and clearly exhausted teacher assistants sitting around minimally or completely not engaged nearly every day. Since changing daycares, our son has become happier, is making better progress with sharing and social skills (rather than being worse at it like at this daycare), and genuinely enjoys going each day. And the change was clear in only a couple weeks of being there vs the months he was at Morgan’s. The teachers at pickup at our new daycare are consistently always involved with the children and it’s so nice to see. I know every family’s experience may be different, but I wanted to share ours so other parents know that if their child consistently dreads daycare, it may be worth considering whether the environment is the right fit.