Gretchen'S House-Oak Valley

Do NOT ENTRUST YOUR CHILDREN TO THESE PEOPLE, especially at Creek's room. We enrolled our baby to Creek's room, and we pulled her out after one day. This is our experience: I arrived with my daughter, and stayed with her since it was her first day, strange place, then I found out neither teacher attempted to engage my daughter for the entire stay of almost two hours! One teacher, Ms.Hale sat in front a lap top the ENTIRE time! She did not engage with any children! And she left for lunch for over 45 + minutes!(still was out when I left with my daughter) During that time, there one teacher, five children, plus my daughter in the room! The other teacher, Ms. Allison, who served every other child a lunch, she did NOT even offer my daughter anything! And my daughter was enrolled, it was her first day! My daughter just sat there WATCHING other children eating, and after 10 min, I just took her home to feed her. Seriously, what kind of teacher not even offer a child some food when others are eating? And guess what, this is not the first time, we just found out through a colleague of my wife's, they did the same thing. Their child enrolled in Creek's room, and they pulled their baby out after half hour on the first day, after realizing there was zero interaction between teacher and students! So Please, please, please, do not trust your baby to these people. Other Grectchen's House might be different, or other classrooms might be different, but avoid Creek's room, most definitely! I am glad I stayed there the first day, imagine your children get no attention, no affection, no food at the day care, and you would never had found out! What's more, what kind of management allow this type of unprofessional conducts to occur, at supposedly one of the best day cares? Of course, we had to scramble to find another day care, and both my wife and I work, we took time off driving like mad around Ann Arbor to look for another day care. So save yourself the worries, the hassle, the anxiety, and most of all, save your precious children the wretched treatment at this place!

We've had the privilege of being part of the Gretchen's House family for over seven years at the Mt. Vernon and Mt. Pleasant locations. We experienced extremely low turnover, excellent caregivers, and outstanding learning opportunities for our children. We consider many of the staff an extension of our family. Our daughter exited GH care fully prepared for Kindergarten and is now thriving in elementary school. We expect the same for our son.

Over a period of six months in one of the preschool rooms, two teachers left, one was replaced by a very low quality teacher who was rude to parents and clearly hated her job. She was more interested in the class pets than the children. The other teacher was replaced with sub after sub for almost two months. There is very little consistency here in teachers and in parent communication. I often found my child doing nothing constructive when I picked her up, with the teachers drawing on whiteboards or shuffling through file cabinets. I gave feedback on these problems when completing the parent survey and WAS NOT followed up with. The tuition was raised despite these issues, and yet more days off for the teachers that parents are expected to pay for. Gretchen's House centers are a joke, but they will continue to get customers since they have monopolized the daycare market here in Ann Arbor. I was asked for feedback again when I withdrew my child and yet again, NO ONE followed up with me- hence this online review.

This is the best, most caring, fun, kind set of caregivers. They truly become part of your family and provide wonderful care for infants to toddlers. I work full time and feel very comfortable leaving my 3 month old, as well as my 2 year old, with this group of people.

Pre-school program is good. Flexible scheduling. The staff is always extremely nice and they also offer a "parents night out" service, where you can drop your child (plus siblings) off for an evening out.