Seaview Montessori Preschool & Daycare

My family and I have had very positive experiences at Our Hamlet Childcare (formerly Seaview Montessori). My children have been enrolled in the centre for several years and they have received nothing but loving care from all of the teachers. The teachers have gone out of their way time and again to ensure my children are being engaged and challenged creatively, intellectually, and physically. When they do not play outside in the school yard due to inclement weather, they get lots of time to play in the gym (please note that the centre does abide by licensing rules regarding outdoor and active play). Having looked at many different centres in the tri-cities area, very few have the facilities and age appropriate play space as Seaview. Additionally, over the time we have been with the centre they thoughtfully applied to be a $10/day childcare provider to better serve the community and provide affordable care to a wider range of families.One challenge we, like all parents have experienced, is the closures. But as another parent posted, these have been due to health and safety reasons or staff illness and the centre has taken active steps to try and minimize the disruptions. Since instituting the policy whereby all children in a family need to stay home due to illness, we have seen a significant decrease in full daycare closures due to staff being sick. And, while some staff have left the center for other opportunities, it should be noted that the childcare provider environment is competitive and in this centre's situation, most teachers at this centre have had long commutes (there are not a lot of affordable housing options in the area and this is a notoriously poorly paid profession). By moving to new centres these staff members, in many cases, have been able to negotiate pay increases and work closer to home.I would also like to comment that despite many of these reviews by disgruntled parents, who are coordinating their efforts to slander the centre, I am deeply disturbed by some of the insinuations that the teachers are negligent in their care, because this is fundamentally untrue. They have been nothing but open, honest, and helpful. When my children have experienced set backs and difficulties we have been able to form respectful plans to encourage age appropriate growth. My approach has been to remember that daycare teachers are people and professionals too and they should be treated kindly, considerately and respectfully, which has always maintained my relationship with the teachers and helped in the growth and development of my children.

Since people didn’t like that I posted anonymously, here’s is me re-posting. I am writing to defend a childcare centre in which our family has experienced wonderful care for our child over the past last 3 years. The centre has for years been a site for practicum students to learn and we have always been treated respectfully. I need to state that the posts that have been giving negative reviews and very inappropriately using people's personal names on the internet are appalling. The parents writing them should be ashamed of themselves. I am dismayed at your lack of tact and your conduct.We have experienced closures for the reason of no A/C in the summer and it can be frustrating. Portable A/C units were bought, placed, and used in both rooms but did not cool them to a point of being safe for our children. If you took the time to ask the program operators what the reasoning was, you would have found out the following information. SD 43 owns the school and thus the rooms that the Centre uses. The school was built in 1967 with no A/C in it. Any A/C that goes in needs to be retrofitted but also needs to be signed off by the school board. Our Hamlet has been speaking with both of these bodies for the last 12 months and in fact, has already had visits from construction staff from the school district to see how A/C can be retrofitted into the rooms. There have also been instances of the centre needing to close due to snow when the school district did not. Staff safety also needs to be considered during these times. If they cannot get to their place of employment safely, regardless of the inconvenience to parents, then a call needs to be made for staff to not put themselves in a potentially dangerous situation.The sickness policy is not arbitrary nor is it biased against certain children. We are all given a copy of it, asked to review and sign it. It clearly outlines any number of situations where a sickness is suspected, or confirmed, and acknowledges that the centre has the right, at their discretion, to ask the guardians to come pick up the child/children in question. My partner and I, like you all, also have full time jobs - I also commute 2 hours per day. Having to go pick up our child if they are showing signs of illness is of course extremely inconvenient. However, leaving my potentially sick child around other people’s children and the staff would be incredibly disrespectful of us. The sickness policy is in place to keep EVERYONE’s children safe.My child has also been found to have no shoes or socks on when we pick them up… because they are A TODDLER. How many times a day do you try and keep socks or shoes on your child? Do you just spend all day doing this and nothing else? No? Then do you want your childcare provider to be chasing your child around all day, trying to keep a sock on them, or do you want them to be ensuring your child eats their lunch & snacks and improve on their literacy & speech? Let’s think about the real priorities and not socks.Saying that your child has been neglected or abused at this centre is truly horrifying. These are incredibly serious allegations. I have spent much time with the staff of this centre and never once have I ever seen them mistreat, neglect or not care for a child. If ever our child came home with a cut or bruise and I was wondering what it was about, I ASKED THE CENTRE. Complaining that the staff has flagged issues with your child’s behavior towards others at the centre is ludicrous. We have had issues brought up to us and were thankful for it. We could work with our child to correct the behavior and/or get them the supplementary tools they need. ALL people at the centre need to feel safe and protected – staff included.As a society, people need to stop treating our child care providers like they are the hired help. Smearing people’s names and potentially ruining child care for other people who genuinely appreciate and enjoy the program is asinine. I supposed you didn’t think about that before you wrote those posts though, did you?

It’s one of the best daycares that I have come across in the Tricity area. Being part of the local community school environment makes this a special place for the little ones. I have found the entire daycare staff to be sincere and dedicated, they take care of our little one as one of their own. In our experience, the entire staff have always tried to accommodate parents and kids as best as they can. They have always done the best they can despite the strain on the childcare system in our province.