Young Explorer Montessori

This place is only getting on star because 1) I can’t rate it any less and 2) Miss. Cathy is an excellent teacher. While Miss. Cathy is wonderful, the heart of this school is based on the money coming in the door.
My BIGGEST issue with this is place is that they charge a diapering fee of $ 3.50 PER DAY — OK fine, it’s a Montessori, it’s a supposed to be a good school, so I’ll swallow the diapering fee as long as you change my kids diaper. The first week and a half, this didn’t happen. This is when my issues started. We brought it up to Ms. Maduka’s husband and was told that they change diapersat 12:30pm, so he doesn’t get a diaper change since he’s pick up by then because he does half days. If you’re going to charge me a diapering fee and not check to see if my child has wet diaper during the day because it isn’t «time», I have an issue with that. My kid is SOAKING wet by the time we pick him up, it’s 4 hours. If you’re not going to change his diaper and tell me I’m the ONLY parent that has had an issue with this ever? Then you’re going to charge me a diapering fee when challenged? What on earth am I paying for? My heart broke when I saw my son had rashes all over from the lack of diaper changes.
First let me say, I have no issues with spending an extra buck if it means my child get a good start in life. When I visited the school a couple months ago to get a feel for the space, fee schedule and see if there were openings I felt good about my decision and returned a few months later as discussed to get him enrolled. We paid the fees and set up the dates. During the enrollment process Ms. Maduka informed us that the fees had gone up but not to worry since she would honor the fees she initially quoted us. That was very cool of her. I didn’t know what the new fees were, but little did I know this would lead to me being treated like a second class citizen by her husband whom she did not ask permission from before offering me the reduced rate. He later threw it in our face and accused me of BEGGING and PLEADING for a lower fee and that he was not happy I wasn’t paying full price. Well excuse me. You need to fix you internal communication issues before you give me trouble. I then got accused for having issues with paying JUST $ 10.50 a week to change my son’s diaper (which they didn’t do until WE made an issue of it). Yes, I have an issue with it — especially if you’re not going to change it. When we challenged Ms. Maduka’s husband — we were asked if «we could read» or «use a calculator» — he rolled his eyes at us and consistently tried to speak over us and disrespect us. My husband and I have never been treated spoken to so poorly. It was unacceptable.
Pulling my son out of this school was the best decision we made — he will be starting at a school that actually cares more about him then the dollars rolling in (which Ms. Maduka’s husband openly admitted he only cared about the money).
Save yourself the trouble and go to Golden Kids Preschool instead where they actually care about the kids before your wallet.

Like every parent I was very nervous about sending my baby/​toddler off to school. I checked out at least 5 schools all in which my daughter couldn’t wait to leave during her try out times. Needless to say we checked Young Explorer and I knew right away as did my daughter that this was the school for her. Maduka and Ms. Jean are not just educators but loving and caring mothers. I’ve met substitute teachers a well and they are all wonderful. They watch the children attentively and always watch out for their best needs. The school is also VERY clean and that was very important to my husband and I because nothing is worse than an unkempt school. It’s an equal amount of boys and girls and my daughter is comfortable with this homey atmosphere altogether. We are actually deciding to put her in more days because my daughter has shown so much improvement in her behavior and knowledge in class.

I would like to add an update to my previous review. My daughter started Kindergarten at another school a couple months ago. She made honor role and got all 4s on her report card and will be going to advanced 1^st grade next year. I would like to thank Young Explorer Montessori school and Ms. Jean for this accomplishment. My daughter learned so much in Preschool, which helped her make honor role in Kindergarten.