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Barbara Kids Port Zaventem or Happy Feet in Kraainem
I am hesitating between giving my child to a creche in Zaventem - Barbara Kids Port or another one in Kraainem - Happy Feet. Does anyone have special comments or warnings about any of these places before I make my final choice. Please share your experience if you have any.
Thank you in advance for your comments,
Probably you have made already your decision, however, I still would like to share my thoughts on Happy Feet. I have enjoyed reading the comments posted before on xpats and helped us a lot in making decisions when moving to Kraainem.
I can recommend Happy Feet. We are very happy with them. We moved in Feb 2011 to Kraainem and got for our son a place at Happy Feet and for our daughter a place at Les Tilipimpons. In my opinion Happy Feet is much more engaged with the children. For example, someone is coming to play the flute and makes music. Our son enjoyed much going there. The kids even prepared little gift for parents on special occasions.
The staff at Tilipimpons had been very nice to our daughter as well. However, I was missing the extra step of engaging with the children. Furthermore, I did not like the fact the taller kids and been separated from the little ones.
At the end, we got a place as well for our daughter at Happy Feet in September and we are still very happy. Our son has moved on to Ecole Maternelle.
For us one big plus is as well that the owner Estelle is speaking English as our French is quite poor.
One drawback: we had hoped that children would go outside more often in the summer. But it seems that not many creche in Belgium go outside playing in the garden with the kids in general.
I have not been impressed with Tilipimpons at all. Not only are they missing the extra step of engaging with the children, (they do not make anything with the older children for Easter, Christmas St. Nicholas etc) My baby had started crawling but I always found her in the playpen because she was easier to manage that way! Not enough mental or physical stimulation for developing babies. They are most of the time rotated between 3 or 4 play stations to stop them from crying I feel it is not a vocation for this family business but they are more interested in making money the easiest way possible! If the child has a slight cold they call the parents to come and take him/her home also parents can not choose the days that best suit them. They try and use any reason to keep your deposit if you do not keep the child there until school age. (2 and a half) So for expatriates with ever changing circumstances please beware! No good will here.
