Lake Shore Schools

We love Lake Shore Schools, and I agree, you have to look at recent reviews, especially for a place that has been around for decades. In the last 2 years, management has changed and great pains have been taken to improve facilities as well as education. My daughter is 2 and has been at LSS since August of 2013, starting in the infant room, a full year in the toddler room and now in the 2 – 3 year-​old room.
She LOVES going to school, which is perhaps the most telling. The hours LSS is open is very feasible for working parents — earliest drop-​off at 6:45am, latest pickup at 6:00pm. They request a 10-​hour max, but even if one has to occasionally go over that (without taking advantage) it isn’t a problem.
I can’t say enough about her lead teacher, Amanda. She is caring and has been with Sam since the infant room — a wonderful thing about the curriculum is that teachers (at least lead teachers) stay with the group of students from infancy through 3 years of age. This consistency is fantastic. There is more turnover with the assistants, as to be expected, but all of them have been wonderful and different, and provided my daughter with additional enrichment.
Any mild issues that have come up regarding payments or changes to tuition have been handled with grace by the administrative staff, who knows every child by name and is just as involved as their teachers. Also, it’s super-​affordable as far as daycares go!
My daughter has thrived at LSS. She knows certain letters, colors, can count to 10, loves books, loves her friends and really cares about their well-​being. Nature accounts for a lot, but LSS does a great job nurturing their kids!

My husband and I toured this daycare in August 2013 when I was still pregnant. We needed childcare starting in May 2014 and were told by Miss Tina that we were the first family to get on the waitlist for that month. Getting on the waitlist was obviously not a guarantee for a spot, but Miss Tina did say it was quite likely that a spot would be available since we got on the waitlist so early. She also said that the school would call their waitlisted parents every so often to touch base and give updates about their availability for new children.
I never heard back from them, so I called in March 2014 to inquire about starting daycare in May. They then told me that they were restructuring their two locations and were not accepting any infants until the end of August/​beginning of September. I had not heard of any changes to their waitilist and was quite shocked by this information. It seems like a huge oversight to not communicate such a significant change to their waitlisted families. As a parent, I would highly caution other families to consider this severe lack of communication when searching for daycare.
I’m rating this school two stars because they did return my refundable $ 100 waitlist fee without any problems.

I can’t give this place a zero? «Miss» Farah? You’re not addressing the children of those hapless, trusting parents, but adults! This is indicative of the abuse my child suffered at this place. I read about your «new management» but that means nothing when you have, by your own admission, kept the old, trusty crew. I am literally shaking as I write this because my daughter was TRAUMATIZED by this place, which is affiliated with SILVER SPURS DAY CAMP. I chose them because everything looked great, they had transportation, other kids were there who seemed fine, but I should have listened to my gut reaction as a parent. I wondered why that overweight strange woman in the office wore that big belt ALL THE TIME. Or why was she so tight with the other one who was way too masculine and aggressive to be working with kids. Back then I was pretty naïve! I took her out because suddenly she couldn’t bear to have her neck touched and she was becoming more and more reluctant to go back. Unfortunately, I didn’t know what had happened to my daughter for a long time. In fact, It wasn’t until we had moved to another STATE that my daughter told me why. My daughter, now an adult, was one of those kids another reviewer wrote of who was unfortunate enough or, perhaps, attractive enough to be their chosen scapegoat. I see that the woman in the office is «Miss» Nita? What is it with them? Like that discipline, huh? «Very pushy» is right! Now just imagine how you would feel if you were a tiny child who wasn’t paying the bills and, oh yea, an adult? Well, shocked and horrified parents, or at least those who DON’T like their kid to be «disciplined» or man-​handled, let me tell you about the two women who liked to make my 4-​year-​old daughter stand, at attention, in front of the rest of the kids while they ate ice cream and laughed. Or how «Miss» Rose, who ALWAYS wore that wide, tight belt, used it to threaten her with. Or «Miss» Marsha who literally strangled MY CHILD, with her bare hands until she was panicking! I ENTRUSTED this institution! I was PAYING those nasty sadists to «care» for my little girl who was so traumatized by those women it wasn’t until YEARS later she could even stand for someone to touch her neck! Yea. Nice place. They’re «qualified» all right. They’ve got their papers all in order — of course they do. But the reason, I’m fairly certain, they have such high turnover of the best people, as another reviewer pointed out, is because when abuse happens most of the time people will look away or leave, rather than go up against very AGGRESSIVE people who have their tight little group of co-​conspirators. Anybody who knows how abusers of children operate will recognize this whole scenario quite well. As I said, this was years ago, but I can see nothing has changed by the negative reviews here. Yea, I tried to go through the channels, from another state, to get them away from kids, but it’s amazing how people and places like this get away with this because they are doing it to LITTLE ONES who don’t know they have rights. I don’t know, maybe things have changed. But when you have «Miss» Farah and «Miss» Nita being all aggressive in the office — well, I don’t think so. Disgusted they’re even still in business.

Look at recent reviews when deciding on sending your child to this school… not old ones. The management has changed! I LOVE THIS SCHOOL!
I was one of those parents that for a good year, passed by and didn’t think much of it due to the appearance on the outside… and reading old reviews, not paying attention to the dates. Good lesson in not judging a book by its cover.
I had used a nanny and a small home day care before bringing my child to Lake Shore. I’m just sad I didn’t do this sooner. My two-​year old is in the lower school campus (for 0 – 3) and the amount he has excelled in such a short time has been unbelievable! My son, in one month, is close to being completely potty trained (never had gone on the potty at home), knows at least 10 Spanish words that he now uses in his vocabulary, comes home singing new songs every day, and knows everyone’s name. It brings such a smile to my heart!
I really love being greeted every time I walk in with smiles. What a great way to start and end my day. The school administrators care about creating a community. They take the kids on field trips once a month, spirit days once a month, child/​parent parties, parent-​only meetings for feedback… need I go on?
I highly recommend Lake Shore Schools… at least for the younger campus, as that’s all I’ve experienced.

I love this school! I have my toddler in the frog room and he is so happy there. He has developed so much sins he started over a year ago. All the teachers and staff are really friendly and professional. I am truly sorry that we have to leave this school due to moving out of state. I know my son will miss everyone and it will be hard to find something as good as this daycare.

I took a tour today and could not get out of there fast enough. Children were running amok, it seemed, and the «teacher» who was to take care of my 3.5 year old son (I think her name was Ms. Amy) should be reported to the authorities. She is emotionally abusing those children using physical intimidation and sternly talking down to the children as her «disciplinary measure». When I brought it up to the lady providing the tour she said «Oh we have a lot of problems with that kid». Supposedly Ms Amy is in the process of obtaining a Bachelor’s degree — that response screamed B.S. to me. I also witnessed another care taker yank a kid by the arm when she reprimanded him because. supposedly (I did not see that part) … he hit her head.
I understand why the kids are misbehaved. They are being treated poorly and being taught violence.
I WILL NEVER SEND MY CHILD HERE.

I have a baby in the new infant room at Lake Shore Schools. The teachers are very caring and listen to the parents instructions carefully. They adjust well to the individual child’s needs. I deduct 1 star because the inside of the building does show its ages and the inside can be cluttered and a little messy. The most important thing though is that the teachers are great.
The people who are bashing the place with a 1 star review after a visit are being unfair. For starters, even though it is on Clark Street the day care has room for 5 cars in front of the entrance that are exclusively for parents, if you didn’t figure that out you probably didn’t spend much time looking into it. I have never had an issue dropping off or picking up. Also complaining about the lock on the back door seems a bit ridiculous since it is a fully staffed daycare with the children under constant supervision and the back of the building is fenced off. As far as changing goes, every time I see a child being changed not only does the staff wash their hands but they also wear gloves. Occasionally a child will be difficult but the staff always handles the children calmly. They also have parent teacher meetings periodically to assess child development — even for the babies!

As city parents with a two-​year-​old, we’ve enrolled our child in three different daycares to accomodate job changes. We’ve experienced three different environments, styles of care, ranges in price, and organizational cultures. All three schools were medium-​to-​large sized daycares.
After a few months at the Lake Shore School on Clark, my wife and I are wondering why we didn’t enroll our son sooner. I guess we always walked past the store-​front style façade and thought, «man, looks really dark and crowded in there.» We were wrong. We should have taken a tour. It’s actually pretty huge and bright when you get in there.
The school is a caring, safe, and engaging environment, managed by well-​trained teachers. Between our three different daycares, we’ve experienced the gamut in levels of care. His current teachers are at the high end in their attention to detail and involvement in addressing his needs.
They’re responsive and show great expertise in handling development challenges. We have a child in the midst of terrible twos and they were quick to call a meeting with us when they spotted defiant behavior. They presented a well-​prepared plan for home and school that included research and handbooks, and impressed us with their enthusiasm to work with us as a team. It’s quickly making a big difference.
Perhaps some of the concerns expressed here have been addressed since they were posted. We really considered this feedback when we were investigating the school, but noticed that the reviews were a bit dated. In our time we’ve experienced:
–Clean, safe learning environments, full of well-​organized play areas. In our son’s room, there is a computer that teachers use to play interactive books and children’s CDs.
–An outdoor play area in the back that is large and protected with with heavy wooden fencing. I hung out in the back during a parent open house and I didn’t have any sense of insecurity.
–Well-​trained, experienced teachers. One of our son’s teachers has a Big Ten education. The experience I mentioned above is a great example of the training and expertise exhibited by the staff. We’ve worked with over a dozen teachers since starting our kid in day cares two years ago, and are completely satisfied and trust this group.
Finally, I should mention pricing. The place is an incredible value when compared to other programs. We are getting everything and more from a development and programming standpoint that we received elsewhere at higher rates of tuition. Our son is constantly immersed in art, learning new songs, devouring books, taking field trips (he never experienced this before), and is a very happy little guy.
I definitely recommend this day care for toddlers and twos.

The receptionists were hit and miss — one really nice and welcoming and the other one is to be avoided at all costs. But that’s not the most important thing. Our biggest frustration was with some of the teachers and also the inacurracy of the communications.
Our daughter was in the frog room (18 to about 24 months, give and take) and did not like it one bit. So I decided to spend a little bit of time with her and observe what happens. It was clear one of the teachers did not have much patience for the toddlers who are still learning to express themselves. E.g. This teacher was serving grapes for breakfast. One of the kids finished what was on her plate and wanted more, but she wasn’t able to verbalize it (either that or she was just afraid of the teacher). The teacher told her to use her words, she didn’t, and the teacher tipped the child’s forehead backwards to make her point. While it is unlikely to be consider child abuse, this little girl was startled and was even less able to say what she wanted. I was a coward and didn’t say anything at the time (fear that the teacher will punish my daughter as soon as I leave). Instead, we pulled her from the school.
When the school administrator asked why we pulled out, I just said our daughter was not adjusting well. Then the administrator blamed us for pushing her to a class she wasn’t ready for! The frog room was supposed to be for 18 months+, and the school had told us she should and would be moved from fish to frog in November. However, November came and went and the school had to keep her in the fish class due to capacity issue, so we had asked them a couple of times when she would be in the right age class, but never pushed. She was 22 months by the time she joined the frog room. I hardly consider that pushing.
Similar to some other reviewers, we also had a payment dispute with the school — for all of $ 60! (We were enrolled part time but had paid a deposit at the full time rate. When we pulled out, they refused to give us back the difference in deposit). Very money hungry for sure.
There aren’t a lot of options in this neighborhood, so I wouldn’t say absolutely ‘no’ to taking your child to Lakeshore. Just know what you’ll be getting…

I don’t know why my review has been filtered. Since my first review, I’ve spoken to other moms who, it turns out after we talked a while, considered sending their children here, and decided against it after visiting. When I talk to to them about it, they didn’t even encounter the same staff I did, and still decided against it. There seems to be a revolving door of staff, at least the highly qualified ones.
If you visit this school, ask how long the staff has been there, all of them, and what their qualifications are. It appears that the higher the education level, the shorter the stay.

Lake Shore School is WONDERFUL! I agree fully with Chris S. and not at all with Mary and Aaron.
My two children have gone there for several years and they love it. When we moved to a neighborhood outside of Andersonville we tried a new school for our children and they were miserable, constantly asking to return to Lake Shore Schools. When the new school year started we did move them back to Lake Shore Schools and, again, they are thriving. Both of our children started at LSS at the age of 15 months and we were both very pleased with them as a daycare.
I am also a teacher myself (high school) and have many days off where I have dropped my kids off late or picked them up very early (i.e. I have been able to «surprise» the Lake Shore teachers with my unexpected presence and I have NEVER seen anything that made me think twice about continuing to send my children there.
I would certainly believe me and Chris, who have both had happy children at LSS for ages rather than a disgruntled employee and a mom who has no real experience with the school or its teachers.
Also, there are terrible kids in every school… no matter how fancy or expensive. that’s the real world.

I agree with Aaron W. DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILD HERE!!!
My husband and I were so excited at how cute the place was and how well our daughter seemed to adjust. But going a second time with her grandparents showed otherwise.
First off, they won’t accommodate you until you pay money, which should have already been a red flag. But being the excited mom, I went and paid like $ 200 plus dollars just to get their handbooks and all that.
The second time I went in, they allowed us to come in without a preset appointment because we were already paid customers. I was so glad we went to see it again. Completely unsafe and unsanitary:
1. There was a guy who was drilling some shelf into the wall with about 5 or so 2 year olds standing right underneath him and he was sitting there joking with them, totally not paying full attention to what he was doing. What if he dropped the shelves on the kids?! Then he went and left all these nuts and bolts arms reach for these kids to explore.
2. There was a kid who was TERRIBLE. absolutely a nightmare. Within the time we were there, he pushed one boy down the stairs, pushed one girl’s head into the floor, and threw a kid-​sized car at someone. I spoke with the woman at the front who said that each time there is a disciplinary problem that child would get a time-​out. No time outs at all. And instead, they would just be so used to him they didnt even seem phased. I noticed also that every «bad» thing that would happen they just automatically would blame it on that kid even if it wasn’t him. Since I was there for about an hour or so, I sat at a table and played with puzzles and actually spent time with that kid who turned out to be nice, but no one there would bother with him. He was already a lost cause over there, it seemed.
3. The doors that face Clark street are locked by only a small sliding lock… similar to what you’d see in one of those rural country home screen doors where there are no scary people around. Unfortunately this is CHICAGO and while it’s in a more gentrified neighborhood, that doesnt mean anyone can just push that weak door down and do some sort of wrong.
4. When changing these kids diapers, the teachers wouldnt wash their hands in between… then go and wipe kids noses with their bare hands and just wipe the snot on their aprons. gross.
5. The potties are positioned right next to each other, where boys and girls go together at the same time. When I took a peek in there, there was all sorts of little urine drops on the toilets.
6. The playground is located in the back, by an alley. When I asked how sure you can be that your child isn’t going to just wander off to the alley, they just said, «the kids usually already know» then they said, «but in the case of new kids, there is a teacher that stands by the back entrance to make sure». come on. do you really think i’m an idiot!!! (while they were making all this up, this is when that one kid threw a car at another kid and they just told him, «stop that»)
7. pushy, pushy, pushy. after i brought my concerns up to the front desk lady, miss nita, (she wasn’t helpful at all). She really only started talking about money and the cancellation fee.
8. when you ask the teachers what their educational background is, they seem so hesitant to answer that. they literally looked at each other wide eyed and stumbling. and none of them had an education background. they vaguely said that one had an associates and one was getting a masters. when i asked, «is it in education?» one replied, «uh, yeah, uh huh».
yup…dont go here…

My son was in the daycare for a couple of months and I will never send him or any other children back! I also will not refer them to anyone. My son came home with an unexplained bruised and swollen eye on two separate occasions and he was not even two yet! I agree with one of the prior posters about the teachers always marking down the same exact nap time as they did it with my son also. The security was unbelievably hazardous and I should have walked away from the start but I had just landed a job that I needed to start ASAP. The staff is unbelievably RUDE!!! My son was always catching something and cried all day every day!!! Do not send your children here. I am now a sahm!

This is the most unsafe and worse school that anyone can send their child to. If you know what’s best for your child I strongly advise any parent: DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILD HERE!!! My child was pushed down to the ground by a teenager who was twice my son’s age (7 years old) and who was supposedly «keeping an eye on the younger kids». He said that he started to cry and when he went to an authority figure, they told him «Well, you should have been standing next to the wall like we said!» My son told me the older kids are always swearing and picking on the younger ones for no reason. The school totally neglected my son and allowed him to stay in school from around 11am to 6pm with an obvious black and bloody eye. No phone call was made to me and absolutely no first aid was administered to his eye by the school. When my son was picked up from school, nobody said anything to his Grandma, who picked him up that night. It was when my son got in the car that she saw his face and asked what happened– to which my son explained everything that was not told to us. The head boss was nothing but an old crab, who kicked me out of the school for complaining about the situation. She was always rude and idiotic, and only cared about getting paid more than the children’s well-​being. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, if you want your kids to be safe and taken care the right way, DON’T ALLOW THESE PEOPLE TO CARE FOR YOUR KIDS! They are super negligent, rude, pushy, and they will allow your children to be abused without doing anything about it and caring one bit!

The school itself was quaint. There is a playground in the back. A lot of the toys seem very outdated. The school itself has been around for something like 40 years??? So I can understand the clutter. Not the cleanest or most organized I’ve seen. Also, I have absolutely no idea how I would be able to park my car to drop off my daughter since the entrance is located on Clark street in the middle of Andersonville. However, some of the staff seemed very pushy. Unfortunately I will not be sending my daughter here.

My 26 mo old daughter just completed her first week and I feel very confident in saying that this place is top notch. Although, it is a very busy school, I feel my child and I are recieving the personal attention that all families deserve. They have helped make the transition for my daughter smooth by providing us with information about policy and procedure before her first day and by being patient and understanding during drop off and pick up. Communication is excellent, the teachers send a note home with all the lunch, nap and activity information for the day. The staff is great!
I can tell my daughter loves it because when it is time to leave she says, «no home. play.»