Franklin Park Conservatory Summer Camp
I know I always try and find reviews for kids summer camps and struggle to find anything aside from word of mouth, so I thought I’d leave this here.
My 2 children are enrolled in summer camp at Franklin Park Conservatory this year and the teachers in the 3-5 year old class are so rude. I noticed it last year too but this year it has been extra apparent. It seems to be the woman who runs the program and the negative attitude has spread to the other adults in the classroom.
The programming seems nice. The ratio is great and stress seems low. But the teachers are rude at pick up and drop off and don’t seem to like interacting with the kids. It’s a weird vibe overall. Like work place culture is bad. It’s a lot more negative atmosphere than zoo camp or the Ohio wild life center which are big hits with the kids.
There are 2 specific incidents that have happened so far this summer. Today my 4-year old didn’t lift up her skirt enough when she used the bathroom and they got a little wet. They called my husband who ran over a new outfit at their request and dropped it with a staff member right away who confirmed they could get the clothes to our daughter. Then when my mom picked up at the end of the day they were mad at her because “dad never showed”. She wasn’t wearing the clothes my husband dropped off. So they messed up and were rude about it… (I believe it was the director herself who was rude.)
They also collect all the camp shirts at the end of the day but for some reason didn’t collect one of my kids shirts. I didn’t even realize there was a camp shirt because it never came home with us last year, therefore I didn’t know to send back his shirt the next day. So when he didn’t come back in his camp shirt the next day again they were mad about it. Even though they collected all the other kids shirts and were never told he needs to wear the same shirt everyday, I think because they’re supposed to collect them everyday. (Zoo camp is explicit and clear about this)
I remember they were rude last year too and didn’t seem to like children. It was my daughter’s least favorite camp but it’s close to our house and lining up camps all summer is a challenge so I figured we’d try again. We won’t be trying a third time.
If anyone knows where I should leave summer camp reviews let me know.
ETA: we love the conservatory when we go as a family and will keep our pass. The summer camp just seems… not great.