My daughter and I hung out this morning at the Green Lane School and were happy with what we saw. They have an opening that we're going to jump on.

The teachers do seem to really care about the childen and they stick to the ratios pretty strictly. In my daughters room (age 2) the ratio is 5 to 1. The only concern I have is the academics. I know they are only 2 at this age and so academics shouldn't be such a large focus. From what I understand, Green Lane has a laid back schedule as to academics in the summer. We can all use a break - especially such young children - but I'm hoping they spin in some learning with colors, letters, shapes etc.

Anybody, maybe geminigirl1, have any input on that for me? Do they teach the children colors, letters, shapes etc?

Another perk of Green Lane, besides the great ratios, was that they seem to do a lot of arts & crafts that they send home daily. During free play, some of the children were coloring. One of the teachers went around and wrote the names on the papers to be sure what they colored went home with them that day. They also made foam decorations for their bedroom doors that went right into school bags when they were finished.

On the flip side, my daughter has done a minimal amount of arts & crafts at Les Petits. The minimal that she actually did do, not all of it was sent home. I would see the room decorated with Easter crafts the children did and then never see that Easter craft go home with her. The children made a craft for mother's day too and that never went home. Did they trash these crafts? I don't know.

Speaking of sending things home, with Green Lane, I already have a newletters. With Les Petits, they gave me one "monthly newsletter" one time in the fall and I thought that I would get one every month. Not the case. There was another time they gave us one labled "weekly newsletter" back in March and I thought again, they're making changes and I'll get something like this weekly. Nope. Besides those 2 newsletters, another was never sent home.

I really think Green Lane will be a good fit for us. Like I've said before, I want a safe, happy place and with the shortage of staff, I don't think LP was offering that. I understand that they lost 3 members of the team but now that they've filled those positions, why would I walk in this week to a room of 19 children to 1 teacher? I held out until they hired new staff and the problem still existed.