Lifeways Early Childhood

Posting from a throwaway for privacy.

Hoping to hear about experiences from current or alumni parents of LifeWays Childhood Center in Riverwest. Our 2 year-old goes there a few days a week and seems to really, really dislike it. He LOVES being outside, getting dirty, looking at plants and bugs in other settings, so we were really excited when he was pulled off the waitlist; however, before drop offs and after pickups he’s in tears, and the teachers have mentioned he sometimes has a hard time during the day too.

For background, he’s been in (and still goes to) a different daycare the other days, so although LifeWays is a newer place, he’s used to childcare settings, being away from parents, dropoffs/pickups, childcare routine etc. He’s also a generally adaptive and curious child as we travel cross country multiple times a year to visit family and vacation, and he’s never had such a lasting visceral reaction to a change of scenery or routine like LifeWays is causing. Lately, he’s been (in tears) asking to go to his other daycare instead on the days we head to LifeWays.

For our part, we were also expecting “a nature-based childcare” to be more exploratory and wild than LifeWays seems to be. Our impression so far is that the children spend their active day in free play in a fenced-in area while the teachers oversee. I think we were expecting the free play to be bookended by guided nature walks to listen for birds or point out plants, age-appropriate gardening chores, collecting leaves and rocks, and touching plants and bugs. These are all activities we know he’s done (and loved) at his other daycare, so again we were hoping LifeWays was going to give him more of it. His other daycare took him outside to collect leaves ONCE in fall, and we spent the next several weeks stopping to collect every leaf on family walks. Obviously we’d be able to get over our expectations for LifeWays if our son was happy attending, but it’s harder to justify while he’s so consistently distraught.

We are trying to keep general toddler transition/disruption in mind, but we are seriously considering pulling him out. He just seems really, really unhappy there even after more than just a few months and we don’t know how long we should force it.

No shade to the staff, we like them a lot and they’ve been very kind and accommodating. Just wanting to hear other parent’s perspectives. Please share any experiences you’ve had to help us decide.