Smuggler’s Notch: Child Friendly Travel at Treasures

The best part and the biggest reason we will be going back to Smugglers Notch next year is the Treasures child care facility.  This place is every parents dream and the kids there are having so much fun, they won’t even know you have left them.  It is a state of the art child care centre that is open from 8:30 – 4:00pm EVERY DAY.  They have radiant floor heating (so no stress trying to keep Jesse’s shoes on, because they encourage no shoes), bright colourful giant fish tanks in every room, child friendly bathrooms, one-way observation windows,  and the most incredibly trained and friendly child care providers you have ever met.The building is even designed to give you the ability to ski in and ski out of there every day.

The facility caters to children from as early as 6 weeks all the way up to 3 years.  For those between the ages of 2.5 and 3.5 they even can learn to ski for an extra charge.  I cannot say enough about how impressed I was with both the facility and the staff.

Each morning I received a security card, that would have to be returned in order to pick up Jesse, which made me feel like he was in safe hands. They would then call up one of the lovely girls from the Little Dippers room where Jesse would be hanging out to come meet us in the hallway.  We would have a little chat each day about Jesse’s mood and then they would ask him if he was ready to play and off they went, with Jesse not making ANY Fuss!  In fact as soon as I mentioned we were going to see Cora, Carin, Brenda and Ninette he would almost run out the door of the chalet.  The place is perfectly set up for –hmm how to I put this nicely — little curious adventurers like Jesse.  There are tons of bright and interesting toys and kids are welcome to explore their surroundings, so this was something my little hellion could not get enough of.  The staff there are incredible and the kids are having an amazing time and they will not even miss you while you are gone. In fact I felt guilty picking Jesse up early one day since he was having such an amazing time with all the kids.

Healthy child friendly food is provided, but they are more than willing to serve your child his food from home instead — again since Jesse is so fussy with his food – this was great for us.  They have plenty of activities through the day to keep the kids interested and happy. They also spend a lot of time in their spacious outdoor play yard which Jesse loved and we really appreciated it as well.  You can actually observe them playing outside while you are on the ski lift or skiing down Morse mountain.  For the older kids there are also trips to the Fun Zone where they have a special section with smaller bouncy play areas.

Each day we got a report on Jesse’s day that included what he ate, when he slept, diaper changing times, staff that cared for him, what games he played and some special personal notes about him. Quite frankly since Jesse can be quite — again how do I put this nicely – spirited, we are always nervous when we pick him up from daycare.  No worries here, they always grabbed us aside to tell us how wonderful, fun, friendly and curious he was.  Honestly, at first I thought they were just trying to make us feel good, but when I thought about it it made sense.  At Treasures everything is set up so that he can explore and not be locked in, and lack of freedom or exploring time are what set my little hellion off into tantrum time.  I already miss having Jesse at Treasures and wish I could have brought the whole facility home with me, it is the PERFECT place for the little ones.

This post was written by Jennifer Rayment an UrbanMoms member and married Mom of 2 wonderful but unruly boys.  A Library Technician at Humber College with a serious addiction to books. Jen also volunteers for the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Association of Ontario as her oldest boy Jake has Spina Bifida.  A geeky tv loving optimist with a dry twisted sense of humour and a big heart. Jen blogs about Spina Bifida here and about books here.