Bright Horizons – Field Trip Hell

So, when Aidan started attending Bright Horizons when he was two, the big deal for him each summer was seeing the “big kids” get on the buses to go on field trips. So, I was so excited this year because he would finally be able to participate.

First of all, the summer program in general at Bright Horizons is totally lame. When I think of summer camp, I think of trips to the movies or to get ice cream… not trips to places like the photo museum or activities like practicing writing in a “newsletter”. When I approached the director about this, I was told that Bright Horizons offers an “enriching” summer program that appeals to parents that want their children to have an “educational experience”. I would seriously like to meet those parents! After speaking to Aidan and offering him many other more fun alternatives, he was adamant about staying with his friends for the summer since it would be their last time together before Kindergarten. So, I paid the $1990 in fees and the additional $220 “activity fee”… AKA schmuck tax.

The sign-up sheet for the first field trip was posted about a week ago, and the destination was the Florida Photo Museum. I was told the kids would get to play with digital cameras and explore the world of photography. I figured it would probably suck, but I was going to keep an open mind. Of course, I signed up to be a chaperone.

As the day got closer, I was told Aidan might have to ride with me to the museum. And, that wasn’t cool because all Aidan really wanted to do was ride the bus. So, I fought for that up to the very end. At 9am on the day, we were all there and ready to go. But, 10am rode around and people were still taking count of how many kids would be going. It seems that a max of 14 people on the bus was a somewhat confusing concept. We did finally leave a little after 10, with Linda and me riding together and following them.

As we’re on the interstate, one of the buses veers off to take an exit but then suddenly decides to get back on. Fortunately, we were the car behind them! And, I guess they didn’t realize that was actually the exit they were supposed to take. I finally got the teacher on the phone and asked if they were lost. It turns out they were, so Linda got in front and directed them there.

Once we arrived, it was obvious parking was going to be a huge problem. The museum turned out to be in an office space, probably about 800 square feet or so, in one of the buildings downtown. Downtown being what it is during working hours, there weren’t any spots available and only one-way streets to guide us around. It turns out parking garages were not an option due to clearance. After getting in trouble with the parking cop, we unloaded the kids and walked them over to the museum and then returned to try and figure out the parking situation. It ended up with one of the bus drivers parking in a freight loading spot illegally and fully breaking down in tears over the whole deal. While she was ranting on and on, we were missing the whole “field trip”.

Finally, parking got sorted out for us and we went to join the kids. And, I’m not kidding when I say that this place could not have been any more boring. Imagine a limited number of “photos” that included old captions of Native Americans. Sure, it might be interesting to an older kid or someone interested in photography or history in general, but I couldn’t find anything interesting in them at all. And, to top things off, the “activity” consisted of piling the kids into a small room where they were told to “color” a printout of one of the photos. Unfortunately, not all of the kids got a chair at the table and couldn’t color. And, they didn’t have any pencil sharpeners for the colored pencils, so that didn’t help matters. Oh, and the glue sticks were all dried up, leaving only one to be passed around for kids to paste their photos onto a piece of construction paper… LAME!

So, to make a long story short, I am not very happy with Bright Horizons right now and do not recommend the Florida Photo Museum to anyone with a pulse. When Skye is old enough for “school”, I think we’ll be considering other options.

Oh, and I just can’t wait to see what surprises the rest of the summer holds.

Update:

Since writing this, Bright Horizons contacted the Photo Museum and received an apology that was posted on the class door. Also, I think they have agreed to come out and do some kind of additional activity at the center, which I believe is the one we were originally supposed to have done on-site. The director at Bright Horizons called me that day for a follow-up and advised that an additional trip had been planned to Great Explorations, which is actually a pretty cool place. She addressed my concerns about the “lameness” of the trip and has since spoken with the bus driver and done some other damage control. And, I learned today that another trip is planned to a water park. So, I do sincerely appreciate that they listened to my ranting about the summer program and addressed my concerns about having more “fun” stuff to do. So, while Luke and I do often joke about the cost of care at Bright Horizons and nit pick about other stuff, I admit that no other facility I personally toured even came close to meeting my expectations… and, I’ve toured quite a few centers just to make sure we weren’t missing out on anything! I’ve grown very close to the teachers and staff at Bright Horizons and trust that Aidan is safe and happy while in their hands. Hopefully, they won’t miss my “feedback” too much in the fall when Aidan starts kindergarten. But, you never know… I just might be back with Skye to keep them on their toes.