Expensive Daycares That Are Worth Every Penny?

I don't know where you live but all of the Kinderberry Hill's are great, if it's close to you the facilities at the one in Roseville are outstanding.

We are signed up to attend the Early Childhood Center at the Jewish Community Center in St Louis Park - we aren't Jewish but they are accepting of all faiths - I loved the facility and the staff. All ages do art and swimming in very small groups and they have age appropriate playgrounds for each classroom. It is secure, clean, bright, and happy. The kids are not stuck in one room with rotating staff all day...they have scheduled activities in a beautiful environment. It seemed everywhere I toured the childcare areas were dark and dull and playgrounds were geared toward one age group. This place is amazing - expensive, but worth it!

My daughter has been in 3 daycare centers, 1 in-home daycare, and 1 Montessori.Plus I use to be a on location photographer and traveled to different center's taking individual and classroom photo's. I've seen some crazy stuff and great stuff. I have to say New Horizon was the worst. Absolutely horrible. My daughter attended New Horizon and I could go on and on about the horrible things that happened at their Eagan location. I can also vouch that while I was on a photo shoot at the New Horizon at the Mall of America sight I personally saw a 3 yr.old leave the center by herself and staff didn't notice. Children's world was ok but nothing special. Especially for Children was pretty good no complaints. The best I found was Early Chilhood Montessori in St.Louis Park, it's in a church basement and nothing fancy to say the least but the staff was amazing, staff was pretty foreign and diverse and they showed love for the kids, discipline, were strict in a good way and did wonders for my child. I have also talked to and visited other montessori schools and would put any future children I have in a montessori. I saw these preschooler's work hung up on the walls and they were so advanced- reading, writing, math I couldn't believe it. They also didn't push kids they went on the kids level. I would definately look into a Montessori School.

Knowledge Beginnings is excellent. They have a large focus on literacy and the teachers all have some sort of background in child development or education. The director is superb. I highly recommend that you go there for a tour.

Hi A.,

Like everyone else has said in their posts, it really isn't the chain that is good or bad but the individual location. We moved here 1 year ago and since then my daughter has been in 3 daycare settings! When we lived in Delaware we loved Kindercare but when I enrolled her at the Kindercare in Maplewood I was very unimpressed and pulled her from it in 3 days. Luckily my mom lives in St.Paul and could watch my daughter until I could find another center. We next went to Kinderberry Hill (previously located next to 3M and now it is in Woodbury). We loved it there! The teachers were excellent and they had music and spanish classes 1/wk for the kids. My daughter was still in the infant room but was almost ready for toddlers. The ratio was still 4:1 in the infant room but I think the ratio in toddlers was 5:1 vs the standard 7:1 by law. They had a nurse on site and the food they cooked for the kids was excellent and nutritous too. Unfortunately we aren't in the same situation as you and simply could not afford Kinderberry Hill forever. When we finally found a house in Woodbury I transferred my daughter to Children's World in Woodbury. Children's World is great too but I cried when we left Kinderberry Hill. If you have unlimited resources, I would take my daughter to Kinderberry Hill but please check out whichever location you go to because it sounds like some of the posts didn't like the downtown location.

I don't recommend Kinderberry, but every experience is different and the teachers can make all the difference. We had our daughter at the downtown location and the baby room was fine. Nice teachers, etc. But they had the same teacher/child ratio as any other place and didn't do anything extraordinary for the crazy price. When we toured they had classical music playing but we never heard that again. I'd say 4 times out of 5 we'd visit or come to pick her up and she'd be in the swing or exersaucer.

The toddler room was horrible. The teachers didn't seem to care. For arts & crafts they gave photo copies of pictures that weren't even coloring pictures (they were regular pictures but photo copied, so different shades of gray) and gave the kids crayons to "color" the pictures. Daily updates were the same exact update for every child. We got a nasty note one day that said our daughter didn't have appropriate outdoor clothes (with exclamation points, etc.) and we didn't even know she was still going outside - it was starting to get cold in the fall and they have a little outdoor area on the roof. We had no evidence of them following the supposed "curriculum" or weekly events calendar. Even though the rates were through the roof, we were still charged extra (not much, $8 here or there) for "special activities" and visitors that went on when our daughter wasn't even there (we were part time, 2 days a week). Three teachers my daughter had were either fired or quit so retention wasn't good. When my husband picked our daughter up at the end of the day her diaper was always dirty (and he said it always looked like it had been that way for a while) so he had to change her before bringing her home. She was given lots of foods like raisins and bagels long before we thought she was ready for those foods. When we finally made the decision to take our daughter out of the day care, the director checked us out but didn't even ask us why we were leaving. It was very strange. Like I said, every experience is different and I'm sure most people are having great experience there or they wouldn't be paying that kind of money.

My daughter goes to Kinder Care in Bloomington. It is pricey for our budget 272 for full time, but it is so worth it. Our daughter is given such specialized attention, love and patience and is being stumulated by games, play time, stories, art and crafts and so much more and she is only 4 months old. They treat her like their own child! All the teachers have college educations, and are specialiy trained in CPR and First Aid as well as shaken baby syndrom infant CPR and ongoing classes! If you would like the diretors name and number just email me :) Good luck with your search!

Hi! I have heard great things about the Intergenerational Learning Center in Eagan, and Montessori's are usually better too. I would never recommend a New Horizon or Children's World to anyone, they are run very poorly! I have worked for them, and most of the teacher's are not even really teachers, and only paid $6/hour! I would recommend not going with a chain one, from my experiences working in them... they lie to the parents a lot and most people just assume they are good since there are so many of them... but it is the opposite.

Hello:I'm also very happy to be in the same boat as you are. My husband and I have been sending our son to Kinderberry Hill
daycare downtown Minneapolis for he past year. Needless to say it very expensive (a mortgage payment for 1/2 time) but it is worth it! I love the low ratio and the every expanding child circulum is wonderful. The teachers are great and there is an onsite nurse and cook. I am very happy and our son runs to daycare with a smile.

The best daycare by far are the New Horizon child care centers. ANd I am not saying that because I used to work for one for 4 years. my oldest child was attended new horizons from the time she was 4 months old until a few months before her 5th birthday. I loved every teacher she ever had. When we found out she had speech and language delays her preschool teacher always went above and beyond to ensure that sylvia and the other kids could communicate so that sylvia wasn't being left out because of her communication difficulties. When I went on sabatical I know that New Horizons was in the process of having all there child care centers become NAYCE Acredited. This is like the gold seal of a pproval in child care. only the best of the best get acredited.

A., I know there are some very good preschools in town. If you are looking for something other than Montessori, then I have an excellent recommendation. Turnquist Child Enrichment Center is THE absolute best of the best. My daughter has attended for almost two years. The place is seriously gold. It's near the corner of 2nd Ave and 17th Street. It is an expensive preschool, but well worth every dollar spent. Please let me know if you have any questions. Good luck!