My 3 year old has been going to Brandi's Place for about a year. She started out in the 2 year old room and has aged into the 3 year old room.
We visited several local facilities before deciding on Brandi's Place. We had a little wiggle room with our budget so that lowest cost would not be the deciding factor but not enough that price was no concern. The serious contenders were Happy Elephant, Baker College's Early Learning Center and Brandi's Place. A neighbor recommended Happy Elephant as that is where their children go however I heard enough other horror stories from others that we dropped them from our list. We visited Baker and Brandi's Place and ultimately decided on Brandi's Place. Both seemed to have good curriculums with the goal of having the kids more than ready for school when they got to that age and both facilities were secure with locked entrances monitored by video and well fenced in play areas. Baker's facility was noticeably older though, Brandi's Place had cameras in each class in addition to the entrance, the building just looked and felt nicer and their cleaning policies which included cleaning the children's cots weekly just made me feel better about having my child there. In the time we have been there were have been pretty happy. My child is excited to go and obviously likes her teachers and classmates. There were a couple incidents with another child but that is going to happen anywhere, the staff handled it ok. Every now and then there are bumps and bruises that staff don't send reports home about but with a room full of 2 or 3 year olds I know they can't see everything. They are constantly sending home worksheets and art projects and I can tell they are teaching a lot. The only drawback to me is price. I might be stingy and I was definitely spoiled by our first daycare (they closed during brief time we didn't need daycare and I sorely miss them!!) but Brandi's Place feels expensive and it feels like they "nickel and dime" for things. First off the base tuition seems high to me, yes they provide great care and they have to pay their teachers but ouch!! Second I was used to the other place letting us pay by the hour, that saved us quite a bit some days when we could pick up early and really saved because we only need 4 days. Brandi's Place does have a daily rate but it was $1 more for 4 days than for the weekly rate! Next is the credit card fee, I know they have to pay a fee to accept credit cards but can't they just roll that into the cost of doing business? By passing that charge on it just irritates me. Bump tuition up that much and make a couple bucks off the check paying parents or something, charging that extra amount just leaves a bad taste to me. Next is a materials fee every year. Now we get a TON of worksheets and crafts, probably at least one every day, and I know that adds up but again, roll that into tuition. Having to pay another fee on top of tuition every year just rubs me the wrong way. Finally is having to pay for planned time away for vacation. I guess it is pretty standard but our first place didn't do this and I was shocked to read that even with advance warning we would have to pay for a week we didn't use to "hold our spot", really??? All in all we really like Brandi's Place and would recommend them to others that can afford them, my only real complaints are from coming someone that is sore about the cost of daycare eating most of the salary of the parent that had to go back to work!