What do you do for afterschool? Also $?

[basilicali]

My younger DD is starting kinder in the fall, here it's just a 3 hour program and you can get AM or PM--you find out the week before school starts, ugh. My husband and I both work so we need afterschool. If she gets PM, the only option is the school site program, but for AM there are other off-site options that will pick up.

I checked a few of them out and the $$ varies dramatically. I expect kinder afterschool to be more expensive, but 1 program was $11k for the school year including 3 weeks of summer camp, they provide snacks but kids bring their own lunch. If you don't do the year-round option, $945/mo and $345/week of summer camp. On top of that you still have to pay for pickup directly to the driver. Another one was $470/mo including hot lunch plus the pickup fee to the driver too. At that one summer camp is $260/week.

What are you doing/paying for afterschool/summer camp?

[westwoodmom04]

I have two kids who are school age (one is in first year of middle) so find it worthwhile to have a part time nanny who also does light housekeeping and drives them to sports and extracurriculars. But we also do camps for most of the summer, with one or two weeks of the nanny full time so they can just go to the pool and see friends. We take at least one week of family vacation in the summer, and the kids also spend a week with my parents who have retired in a resorty area. We take a vacation during spring break to avoid child care issue then, and I try to take off a good chunk of the winter holiday period, although mostly a staycation.

[vonfirmath]

Our K is all day. I use the afterschool program through the school because I don't like the idea of other people transporting my kids.

[klwa]

Our kindergarten program is all day, so things are a bit different than in your case. However, our daycare has a before/after school care program, so we only have to do one drop off & pick up for the 2 in school & the one still in daycare. It's approximately half the price for before/after care as a full week in daycare. And then on days that they're out of school, there's an additional fee, which works out to full cost on the weeks like during the summer. Regular rate for daycare is ~ 140, so we pay ~ $70 per week for each of the big kids the weeks they're in school.

ETA: The daycare actually puts the kids on the regular school bus & meets them in the afternoon, so it's a regular school bus driver who does the transport. Since the daycare is within the area served by the school, they just assign it a bus stop.

[carolinacool]

DS is in first grade now, but K here is full day. We do aftercare at the school, which is $46. They are supposed to help with homework, but that pretty uneven. Mostly, he gets to play with other kids until we leave work.

For summer camp, we plan to do our neighborhood Y again. He had fun last summer, and the director makes an effort to make it fun and education. We have friends who have attended camps at other local Ys, and their experience wasn't quite the same. He will do a week of basketball camp at a local university.

The Y also does aftercare during the year and will pick up at local schools.

ETA: We do know a couple of people who use the aftercare option at our former day care, but that's because the day care is open later than school after-school and they need that extra time. It's also more expensive. I only know of one person who's hired someone to pick up their child from school.

[Cam&Clay]

In-home daycare down the street from school. $10 per hour.

[PZMommy]

Kinder is all day here. We use the school's before and after school program (run by the ymca on the school campus). It is$460 Amin th and includes fall, winter, and spring break. Summer camp is extra.

[chottumommy]

We have a full day kindergarden. School has afterschool but we have a nanny who picks up the kids and takes them to activities. No housework for the nanny just taking care of the kids and their activities/projects. They don't have any homework as yet. We pay $13/hr about double of afterschool care. I like it since DH is never home before 7 and I don't have to take them anywhere after I get home.

For summer we do a mix of camps (all nature outdoor camps), nanny, grandparents if they are visiting and a one week vacation. Summer camps are all either run by the university or by our nature centers and are around $180/week with sibling discount. Timings are 9-3 with extra for aftercare. I usually pick them up and work from home after that or have one someone else pick them up.

Our nanny also takes care of spring and winter break. She is amazing and I will be so very sad if and when she leaves.

[mmsmom]

I just wanted to say I think it is awful they do not tell you further in advance. We only have 1/2 day K too but we find out in May which you have. We also have school busses that take kids to After K care (certain locations only) or pick up from before K care. Here many families do private K so they can have full-day care. Just wanted to mention that as an option since it seems if you are paying $11k plus transportation then you may be able to find full day private K for that. Another thing to consider is if you want your child to have access to activities in the AM or PM when they are not in school. Many places like the Y can provide swim lessons, Dance, etc. during their time there.

[khalloc]

We also have full day Kindergarten. I sent DD to an in-home daycare after school though until she was in 2nd grade. It was around $100 a week. The bus dropped her off.

[firstbaby]

I agree with the PP's who have suggested looking for a nanny. You could look for one PT, or if you have a network of working friends who are also sending kiddos off to half day kindy, get the word out that you are open to a FT nanny to split between your half day need and someone else who gets assigned the other half of the day. Could be tricky to coordinate since your school doesn't let you know until so close to school which half you got, but it will be easier to find a FT nanny rather than PT. I also agree with the PP suggestion to look at private K. For the money, it may give you the most of what you are looking for.

[belovedgandp]

Our school only recently added full day as an option. When my now middle schooler was younger, it was only 1/2 day. You would know by May if it was AM or PM.

A lot of families kept their kids at their daycare/preschool for the K year. Many of them in our area have K curriculum options. Especially if they had younger siblings it let them have another year with the kids at the same place on the same schedule and not deal with holidays.

Lots of families still do this even though we now have full day. Full day is an additional fee per month to the public school. Add together before/after care fees plus tuition and it was sometimes greater than what they were paying at the other full time schools. We'll add 10-20 students in first grade who did not attend K at our K-5 elementary school.

[catsnkid]

Little different situation, as my school has full time K. I've used the school before and afterschool program since he started in K. I pay 280 a month, which is for 3 days/week afterschool and everyday before school. About 1/2 of the money goes for the before school.

[Pear]

Our solution only works if you are very lucky: We work shifted schedules. DH starts early and I go work late.

For summer we do a series of camps. We are averaging about $400 per week.

[trales]

Our school district is half day also - totally and completely useless for the working family. Once I really looked into it, paying for private full day K was only $750 more for the ENTIRE school year than paying for half day care and transportation. We opted for full day private K at a great little school and started in public school in grade 1.

[DualvansMommy]

Our district used to be half day kinder with either AM or PM options, depending which street you lived on. Two years ago, they went full day. So still lots of different options in my town with half sending theirs to public kinder with wraparound aftercare, which transportation picks/drop them off. Many families stick to private K option for K year, like I did with DS1. It seems to be 1st grade that almost all kids get enrolled in my district school. If I were you, I would seriously look into the private K option as many still offer their own version of before/aftercare at the school too. I know several of DS1 classmates stay on at school till 5pm thru school programs and aftercare.


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[LD92599]

We have FT kindergarten but after is 3pm-7pm. $362/month full time. It is run by the Y but held in our school. Same rate covers early dismissal days. Before care is 7:15-8-30 and $125 or so per month. Plus $50-$80 yearly Y dues

[basilicali]

Thanks for all the replies! I wish I could do private kindergarten, but if you don't start in kinder you will likely get overloaded to a different school for first grade. I know families that have been overloaded for up to 2 years, so I don't want to be in that situation.
I need to check out the school-based aftercare more, I was hoping for a place open until 6:30 because it's hard for me to pick up by 6. My busiest time at work is 3:30-5:30.

[Philly Mom]

We have half day here but for DD1 we have done private, which is incredibly common here. For those who do public K, which my younger will do, there are a few K enrichment choices to provide the second half of the day. Aftercare is normally done at the school. No one is open past 6. For us, I am getting an after school sitter.


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[AnnieW625]

We use aftercare at school and pay $220 per month total (we pay $9k in tuition total so I think that is why the school keeps aftercare reasonably priced, but unless your kids play school sports there are no extra activities so I think the price is fair) and we have to have the kids picked up by 5:30. I leave work at 4 and usually have them picked up by 5:00 (I have a 20 mile commute that can take 30-60 minutes).

We paid about $575 a week total for both girls for summer camp. Dd1 spent 4 weeks at ballet camp which ran from 8:30 to 3, and then had aftercare, and then did 4 weeks of camp at a Christian school which also included aftercare. DD2 did 4 weeks of academic/sports camp at the local university and 4 weeks at the Christian camp.

For the OP in the long run if the $11k place offers the hours you want, and has a well regarded summer program that your know your kids would enjoy then I would probably go that route because you can easily spend $400 a week for a single child to go to a specialized week long camp (at least in my high COL area....a 10-3 chef camp in my area was $350 a week and a robotics camp with the same hours was maybe a little less , but neither camp included before or aftercare so that was the added expense that could bring it to $400/week). I could see spending at least that much for a nanny over the school year. When DD1 was in kindergarten I would have been paying for 7 hours of before/aftercare because of the 3/1/2 hour kindergarten day at public school, which would've equaled $175 a week (I was paying $200 a week for toddler daycare for DD2) so not including 10 weeks at summer, 2 at Christmas, and one at Easter that would've worked out to about $7k a year and our public school isn't close to being private school quality so for that price we chose Catholic; but if our public school was beyond awesome I would've happily paid more than Catholic school for aftercare.


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[niccig]

DS's aftercare is $24 a day and covers both morning and afternoon - unfortunately no price break if you only use afternoon like we do. It adds up quickly - about $5k and then we have camp for the breaks. Off school sites are more expensive and ischiik aftercare is convenient for all the minimum days etc


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[legaleagle]

We do on site aftercare run by a private company (there are a few different companies that run programs at multiple schools in our large system. We pay $780/month for 4 days a week aftercare for my 3rd & 1st graders. They have before car as well so you could have a kid in care from6:30 am-6:30 pm. It also covers half days, teacher service days, snow days (if there didn't up being much actual snow or can safely open late) and part of winter and spring breaks. There are discounts for siblings, multiple days, if you do both before and after, if you prepay for the year, etc. if you need full day camp with aftercare it's easily over $300 even for the non speciality camps.

[maestramommy]

Our town has only half day kinder. So, the options are; 1)K+ for $5000/year, where the kid finishes the school day on site, then goes to aftercare, which is contracted out to a local preschool. Your kid gets to stay until pickeup, as late as 6pm. It's $15/day. 2) Kindercare, in which a local daycare comes to pick up your kid. I don't know how much that is, only that it is $$$. 3)K+, then aftercare with a local martial arts academy. A van comes to pick the kids up from school. They get homework help, and karate. I'm told it's a more expensive way to get karate class, but then again your kid is getting more than the class.

[khalloc]

We have full day Kindergarten here. I sent DD to an in-home daycare after school. The bus dropped her off. She went there for Kindergarten and 1st grades. I think it was $80/ week. Then when DS went to Kindergarten I switched to part time and now I leave work at 2:30 to be home for when the bus drops the kids off.

[lizzywednesday]

When DD started kindergarten last year, the district had half-day only, but you could pay for opposite-half care to get a full day; it was something like $400/month and did not include before/after care (which is $35/day or $280/month for 5 days) ... before-care opens at 7am and after-care closes at 6pm.

The district started full-day kindergarten this year.