part time work and day care.

[lorinick]

I was offered a job in my field. I'm a dental Asst. out of work for about four years. The pay is good. It's a two day a week job. 8:30-5:30. I can't find affordable day care. That will allow me to do two full days a week. Also not sure I'm ready to go back. I have an older child that does get on the bus till 8:20. How much do you mom's pay for day care in your area. I do have home day care right now. I work 5hrs a day and pay 25.00 day. But I want my son in preschool for three. It's important and everyone around me send thier child to preschool.
How do you mom's make this work?
How much do you pay per day?
Is sending your children to preschool something everyone does where you live?
I would like to make this work. But I'm not sure with two kids to consider in the summer time is doable. Any feedback would be great.

[egoldber]

Unfortunately, it can be very hard to find part time child care. :( Most people I know who work part time pay for a full time spot and just don't use it all the time.

Does your DS's school have before and after care? That is what we do for my older DD. Most days she does not spend that much time there, but when we need it, it's good to have.

My younger DD's daycare is a preschool that offers before and after care. They have pretty flexible plans, and you can, for example, send your 3 year old for 3 days a week, but only use before and after care 2 days a week. But finding somewhere this flexible can be hard.

[bubbaray]

Yeah, PT care is virtually impossible to find here, unless you do something like a nanny share. Most people just pay for FT daycare or a FT nanny.

I have never had either of my girls in preschool. Both were/are in daycares that have a preschool-like curriculum. I wouldn't worry about the PS piece -- if it works, it works, if not no biggie. I think if your child is in daycare, they are getting the main benefit that PS offers, which is socialization.

JMHO.

[lorinick]

Yeah, PT care is virtually impossible to find here, unless you do something like a nanny share. Most people just pay for FT daycare or a FT nanny.

I have never had either of my girls in preschool. Both were/are in daycares that have a preschool-like curriculum. I wouldn't worry about the PS piece -- if it works, it works, if not no biggie. I think if your child is in daycare, they are getting the main benefit that PS offers, which is socialization.

JMHO.

day care/preschool doesn't most people in your area send them to one. So they will be ready for K.

[bubbaray]

There was a very limited list of "suggestions" for K prep. More social -- know how to put on a jacket, shoes, etc. Use scissors, write name. I would think that any child who is in daycare would have met the list 100%.

My circle of knowledge is pretty limited b/c most people I know with children work, so their kids are either in daycare FT (or mostly FT) or they have a nanny. I know one mom who had a nanny and who's son had fine motor skills that he had to work on before K (at the suggestion of his developmental ped. at Childrens -- he was assessed regularly because he was a micropremie).

[doberbrat]

our dc is also a preschool. we do pt care - weird hours 11-5:30 b/c those are the horus we need. its hideously expensive.

for dd1, ps - is $760 a month. she goes 18h a week. the YMCA is a little more affordable in that 3 full days a week would be $775.

there are some ps that have before/after care but they generally dont go past 4pm and then you have the school vacations to cover. an impossibility in my mind.

[HIU8]

DD and DS are in preschool 5 days a week with 2 days of aftercare until 4 pm. It costs me $1480 a month for both of them--just so I can work and keep myself in my field if I ever need to go back full-time (which I may have to sooner than later if we do private school).

[baileygirl]

I worked part-time after DS1 was born. The daycare was associated with a hospital, so there were doctors, nurses, etc that worked odd shifts that sent their kids there. I paid $150 a week for 3 full days, 2 days would have been $100 and 5 would have been $200. I have noticed that for 3+ it is easier to find part-time preschool programs.

[MontrealMum]

Yeah, PT care is virtually impossible to find here, unless you do something like a nanny share. Most people just pay for FT daycare or a FT nanny.

I have never had either of my girls in preschool. Both were/are in daycares that have a preschool-like curriculum. I wouldn't worry about the PS piece -- if it works, it works, if not no biggie. I think if your child is in daycare, they are getting the main benefit that PS offers, which is socialization.

JMHO.

Same here. We pay for a FT slot, but I pull DS out from time to time. Not too often, though, because if he misses so many days a month he'll lose his slot and it took us nearly two years on the waitlist to get this one. There are very few daycare spots where I live, and we can't afford a nanny.

We are very lucky with our daycare for many reasons, but one great one is that it has a preschool curric. too, and the kids get assessed twice a year. DS is tracking along just fine with the things I hear (and have read here) that kids need to master before K, so I'm not worried that he won't be ready.

[JustMe]

In my area there are many in-home childcares that accommodate part-time slots..I'd ask at your community college to see if they have listings or know who does...some of these in-home childcares are run by teachers who want to stay home with their kids and some even offer a preschool-like program..I know that's not exactly the same as preschool, but it offers a lot of the benefits, I think.

[niccig]

A friend works part-time. A sitter comes to her house, the mum leaves for work. The sitter takes the eldest to preschool, stays home/park with the baby. Then the sitter picks ups the eldest at lunch time from preschool and take her home, gives both kids lunch etc. The mum is home around 2pm.

Our preschool was from children 2 yo and up. You could go 5 days, 3 days or 2 days. They were open from 8am until 6pm.

[Snow mom]

My DDs daycare has all kinds of part time schedules available. They don't give any preference to ft or pt. Basically if there are open hours in the schedule someone can have those hours and when you go on the waitlist you tell them what hours you want and they make it happen. Would your job be the same two days of the week each week? That seems pretty doable. The one thing I've noticed is you pay more per hour the fewer hours your kid goes to daycare. So one day a week for three hours is something like $500/mo but we just added an afternoon (3 hours) to my DDs schedule for about 45/mo (she attends almost four full days.) anyway, I think options exist, at least in some areas. A few full days shouldn't be that hard to arrange as long as they are always the same full days.

[smilequeen]

I worked 2 days a week for quite a while (until we moved in August). We had a disaster of a nanny that scared the heck out of me and my boys were in a daycare/preschool program while I worked. It was impossible to find a part time slot for an infant so I paid full time and only used the 2 days (although it was good that if I had an appointment I always had somewhere for them to go instead of scrambling for a sitter I suppose). Once they were 1 I just paid for what I needed.

We used a Goddard School. They had a great preschool program but were also geared towards working parents. It was perfect for us at the time. We were in a super low COL area at that time though and I paid around $600 when DS1 was in 3 day preschool. I don't know what it would cost here, just that it would be more.

Now, my boys go to a Montessori preschool and if I go back to work (which I promised DH I would work 2 days a week 9-2 starting in July), Grandma will pick them up for me and keep them. We moved so that we could have grandparents around :)

[carolinamama]

Does your state have a website that lists all the licensed daycares, both home and centers? Our state does and I just started there, looking at scores etc and started calling all the ones I thought we would consider. Then I visited the ones that had part time care that I felt comfortable with after my initial phone contact. I found that part time is not cheap, but it was worth it to me to be able to work. We paid $650 a month for two days a week. DS1 goes to a Montessori preschool now that I am home but in the fall I will return to work 2 days per week again and both boys with go to this preschool, using their extended care for those 2 days. It won't be cheap when I add it all up, but worth it to me to get back into working more. DS1 will be in 5 mornings a week and then 2 extended days on top of that. He does better with structure and activities so I can't imagine him not being in preschool, but everyone child is different.

[wellyes]

Lots of home daycares around here welcome PT kids because they already have other PT kids and want to fill gaps in the schedule. And just about every one has an opening on Fridays since that is the day most PT moms opt to take off.

[Nooknookmom]

One of our preschool's (DD1 attended and DD2 might) has many programs.

M-F all day (7-6 if you like)
M-F mornings / or until 1 pm so the kids stay for lunch bunch
MWF all day
MWF mornings / or till 1
T TH all day
T TH mornings / or till 1

Maybe a preschool near you would have something similar. FWIW, our MWF morning program is $230 per month, it goes up from there.