Hello parents,
I'm writing to share info about our bad experience with mini summer camp at wild@play newport. For those who are considering either the summer camp or other programs at this place, a word of caution...

We had joined our 3.5 yr old son in the mini summer camp (9am-noon) at wild@play a few weeks ago. The mini-camp is for 3&4 year olds. Right from the start we weren't greatly impressed. Here's one incident that caused us to discontinue at the camp which happened last Friday.

Friday is 'pizza day' at the camp and for a $5 fee they feed the kids pizza and pick up time is 12:30 pm. We had paid for it in advance. When our son's nanny arrived to pick him up at the camp at 12:30 pm, she was told that he had wet his clothes and she had to change him. When she went in she found him alone, in the restroom with wet clothes. When she asked the coordinator if he'd even had his lunch, she said that he had wet his clothes before the pizza was served (which is usually at 12:00 pm)! The game plan was to make him wait in the restroom, with wet clothes till pick up time so that someone else changes his clothes. He wasn't even fed his lunch. I was livid when i heard this and wrote to the owner asking for an explanation as to why our 3.5 yr old was left alone, hungry and with wet clothes on in a restroom for 30 minutes! The owner replied saying the coordinator would get back to us.

Now the coordinator had already made the mistake of telling our son's nanny that this had all happened before the pizza was served. So she wrote to me that on Friday, the art class ran late and lunch was served very late at 12:20 (suspiciously convenient), so he was in the restroom for no more than 10 minutes (still unacceptable in my opinion). She told us that their policy forbids employees from changing the kids' clothes! However, what she didn't know is that my husband had got a call at 12:16 pm that very afternoon from another confused employee saying that we were late, our son was waiting to be picked up while all the other kids were already eating their pizza, since we hadn't paid for it. As it turned out, the caller had made a mistake and realized we had in fact paid for the pizza after speaking with my husband.

So essentially, the coordinator's story of 12:20 pm lunch serving time was  trashed by her own colleague and she was caught lying, red-handed. Needless to say we haven't heard from them after we pointed these two different versions out. It is now clear that our child was left in the restroom for a significant period of time because of their refusal to take any responsibility for our child. I waited for their response before posting this because I wanted to give them one chance to explain themselves and acknowledge their mistake. But all we got were lies and not a word of apology.

Here are some other grievances:

1. In all their promotional emails and info sessions, they had stated that the mini-camp was for 3-4 yr olds and full day camp was for 4-8 year olds. On separate occasions my husband and I spoke with them and they clearly gave us the impression that they wouldn't mix the age groups. But from the day 1, they mixed the age groups and held common classes. 

2. They require all kids to be potty-trained, which is fine. However, they never told us that if our child has an accident they'd refuse to take any responsibility. In all their emails so far, they've only repeated that they require the child to be potty trained as an explanation for their treatment of our  son. Our child is very much potty trained, but they don't seem to grasp that accidents can happen in this age group and it doesn't absolve them of their responsibility towards a child left in their care. With that attitude, they really shouldn't be running programs for 3-4 yr olds.
3. The guy who called my husband about the mix-up regarding the pizza was utterly rude to him. Some politeness towards a paying customer would've been nice. 
4. On all the days when our nanny went to pick our son up (yes, on time or even a few minutes early on some occasions), she would find the mini camp kids all ready to go and sitting on a bench in a super cramped corner near the reception desk. Would it kill them to let these kids to play comfortably in their large play area until their caregivers came to pick them up? It's as if they couldn't wait to get them out the door. The commercial nature of this place is unbelievable.

All in all, I feel wild@play Newport simply cannot be trusted with little kids. They have no ethics, warmth or compassion. The owner in particular sets rigid policies, and seems to have no idea about how children must be treated. If any of you are considering sending your kids there, think twice.