What are your childcare plans when school starts?

[okinawama]

Our district announced that students will be at school 2 days a week, and home for 3 ( with the possibility of all virtual or all in person based on local COVID numbers). While this isn't a surprise, the confirmation of the plan has myself, and many others, scrambling for what to do with our kids on the days that they are home. If working from home isn't an option for you, what are your plans, and what are the ages of your kids? Is your community coming up with unique solutions?

[gymnbomb]

My 3 year old will be in full time daycare. My work schedule will be flexible enough that I can either work from home with my 6 year old or take him to my office on days he has distance learning. It is not ideal, but will be manageable.


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[mmsmom]

Many families in our area are hiring former teachers/substitute teachers or tutors to both nanny and help their kids with remote learning. Many families are forming small groups of 2-5 kids with one adult. Our YMCA’s which normally have daycare and before/after school care just announced they will have a program for K-12 to do their remote learning and also have sports and other activities. The Y’s have been open for essential workers childcare since March here.

My kids are in middle school and will be going every other day. DH and I are working from home and they work independently so thankfully we do not have to make arrangements.

[marymoo86]

A couple of camps with activities and teacher help are opening up. However with the cost I might as well go private. How can some families endure this?

[basil]

We will keep using my nanny, as we did in the spring and summer. We can only do this because we have high incomes, it's wildly expensive. I don't understand how the average family will manage. For example, I don't know what my parents would have done in that situation, and they were teacher/college professor so pretty firmly middle/upper middle class not just scraping by.

[Kindra178]

This pod thing (ie hiring a teacher to administer the public school online curriculum and supplement as needed) is blowing up here.

[carolinacool]

Many families in our area are hiring former teachers/substitute teachers or tutors to both nanny and help their kids with remote learning. Many families are forming small groups of 2-5 kids with one adult. Our YMCA’s which normally have daycare and before/after school care just announced they will have a program for K-12 to do their remote learning and also have sports and other activities. The Y’s have been open for essential workers childcare since March here.


Our school board hasn't voted on a hybrid plan yet. Under one plan, k-8 would be in school five days a week and high school would be at home. However, some people are anticipating they will choose one of the other plans with cohorts/days in/days out, so I've seen a lot of the above mentioned in my FB groups. If we weren't working from home, we would choose the Y option simply for the affordability -- we go there for aftercare during normal times.

[AnnieW625]

My kids are a starting the year off at home (as of right now) as our county is on the California’s watch list so school can’t be open until the county has been off the watch list for 14 days. Dd1 starts on 8/7, and Dd2 starts on 8/17. The plan is for both to be in school in person 5 days a week. My girls will both be in Catholic school, Dd1, a freshman in high school, and Dd2 in 5th grade. Dh will be working at home until at January and my work from home doesn’t have an end date so we shouldn’t need aftercare for Dd2 while they are doing distance learning. Once school opens back up there is aftercare at Dd2’s elementary school so she will most likely go to that. If Dd1 has no after school activities she can take the city bus home (she has done so for the last two years), but if she has after school activities I can pick her up at anytime after 4 pm (when I get off work).

If distance learning goes on for a long time we might have to hire someone to come in and sit with Dd2, but I am really hoping to avoid that as we are already stretching our budget by having both girls in Catholic school, but at this point we felt better opting for the Catholic elementary because they already had multiple plans in place for cleanliness, and education.

The public school district doesn’t have their final plan set yet and the start date is 8/10 and right now the only two options for schooling are virtual (taught by teacher) or home school (taught by parent) as the hybrid/in person model has not been approved yet. Neither of the current approved programs worked for us. As I am sure hiring a tutor or teacher to sit with Dd2 for 5 or so hours a day will cost more than Catholic school tuition.


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[acmom]

This pod thing (ie hiring a teacher to administer the public school online curriculum and supplement as needed) is blowing up here.

I'm curious about how people are setting this up? I briefly talked to some neighbors about this possibility - several of us are teachers (a variety of levels) and we thought we might be able to figure something out like this in the neighborhood. Our district (or area) has not announced any specific plans yet, so we haven't talked about it much again yet.

How many kids are in these pods? Are they one age or multi-age? And where/how often are they meeting?

[KpbS]

I'm curious about how people are setting this up? I briefly talked to some neighbors about this possibility - several of us are teachers (a variety of levels) and we thought we might be able to figure something out like this in the neighborhood. Our district (or area) has not announced any specific plans yet, so we haven't talked about it much again yet.

How many kids are in these pods? Are they one age or multi-age? And where/how often are they meeting?

I our area it's all organized by families who are friends. They are grouping kids together by grade, often gender (friend groups essentially) and will rotate houses to do virtual school together. I know some are hiring tutors/supervisors, but my two oldest are middle and high school and the folks I know organizing have 8th graders and up. The younger kid families are forming groups also, I just am less familiar with those circles.

[carolinamama]

This pod thing (ie hiring a teacher to administer the public school online curriculum and supplement as needed) is blowing up here.

It's quite popular in our area as well. Mostly friend groups are setting it up together but I see people posting on local boards looking to form them among school peers. Nannies willing to oversee the virtual schooling have seen their earning potential rise and good ones have their pick of jobs right now. One neighbor had a prospective nanny practically laugh in her face at an offer that would have been almost exorbitant last year.

[ourbabygirl]

Our governor won't give recommendations until next week, possibly as late as Friday, and our district probably won't announce until the end of next week or the following week, so I'm waiting to see. I had been applying and interviewing for teaching jobs, and then put things on hold when I realized I'll likely need to be home with my own kids (youngest will be entering K)... I highly doubt our district will have anything more than a hybrid model.
I'd love the chance to earn money (don't think I want to keep subbing with everything going on, since I sub MS and HS and have contact with 150 or so kids), but don't know how I could teach/ tutor/ nanny other kids when I need to watch my own. But if there were a way I could do it virtually, it would be very appealing.

[niccig]

The school district I live in is setting up childcare for elementary aged students into learning pods supervised by a classified staff member for families that need childcare. I’m not sure of the specifics as DS is in high school. Even if DH and I go back into work, DS can stay home.


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[essnce629]

This pod thing (ie hiring a teacher to administer the public school online curriculum and supplement as needed) is blowing up here.


I'm curious about how people are setting this up? I briefly talked to some neighbors about this possibility - several of us are teachers (a variety of levels) and we thought we might be able to figure something out like this in the neighborhood. Our district (or area) has not announced any specific plans yet, so we haven't talked about it much again yet.

How many kids are in these pods? Are they one age or multi-age? And where/how often are they meeting?

I was wondering about this too. DH wants to hire someone to oversee DS2's remote learning as the spring was a disaster with him! I let him figure things out on his own for the first 2 weeks of remote learning (5 weeks into the shutdown) but then there were too many comments from his teacher saying he was missing assignments, didn't read the directions so was making tons of mistakes, or was getting distracted by switching over to YouTube. So then I stepped in and sat with him 3-6 hours a day to get things done and keep him on task. After 2 weeks of that he was pretty much over it and basically DH fired me and he stepped in and tried to oversee the last 2 weeks of remote learning while he worked full time. So yeah, not great, but DS had zero live Zoom classes and I think that was part of the problem, there was just no engagement or motivation. He's starting middle school now and we've been told that there will be 10 live Zoom classes a week which I think will keep him more engaged and I'm willing to take a wait and see approach. DH on the other hand is already freaked out about it and thinks I should hire someone now. I just haven't seen anything mentioned at all in our circles about hiring tutors, forming pods, etc and have no idea where to look, especially since his closest friends are all going to different middle schools. Maybe I should check Nextdoor?

[okinawama]

This pod thing (ie hiring a teacher to administer the public school online curriculum and supplement as needed) is blowing up here.

This is taking off in my area as well, and I love creative solutions to unique problems. In my area, the going rate for a pod is cost prohibitive, in part because for dual working families, we’d have to hire an additional person to get the kids to and from the pod every other day. I love it as an option for those that it works for though.

[westwoodmom04]

I was wondering about this too. DH wants to hire someone to oversee DS2's remote learning as the spring was a disaster with him! I let him figure things out on his own for the first 2 weeks of remote learning (5 weeks into the shutdown) but then there were too many comments from his teacher saying he was missing assignments, didn't read the directions so was making tons of mistakes, or was getting distracted by switching over to YouTube. So then I stepped in and sat with him 3-6 hours a day to get things done and keep him on task. After 2 weeks of that he was pretty much over it and basically DH fired me and he stepped in and tried to oversee the last 2 weeks of remote learning while he worked full time. So yeah, not great, but DS had zero live Zoom classes and I think that was part of the problem, there was just no engagement or motivation. He's starting middle school now and we've been told that there will be 10 live Zoom classes a week which I think will keep him more engaged and I'm willing to take a wait and see approach. DH on the other hand is already freaked out about it and thinks I should hire someone now. I just haven't seen anything mentioned at all in our circles about hiring tutors, forming pods, etc and have no idea where to look, especially since his closest friends are all going to different middle schools. Maybe I should check Nextdoor?


No advice on where to look, but I would definitely want to get an arrangement now. Having hired nannies for the school year before, the good ones go fast, and there are many people in panic mode right now.

[SnuggleBuggles]

There may be a plethora of college kids available as they take unexpected gap years (since the alternative is near full tuition for remote learning only- a bunch of ds1’s friends are deferring). With no internships nor international travel, they’ll be looking for work. Will they all be top notch? Doubtful. But, if you need a body you can find one. ;)


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[PZMommy]

There may be a plethora of college kids available as they take unexpected gap years (since the alternative is near full tuition for remote learning only- a bunch of ds1’s friends are deferring). With no internships nor international travel, they’ll be looking for work. Will they all be top notch? Doubtful. But, if you need a body you can find one. ;)


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On one of my local parent/teacher FB pages, I've seen parents offering up their college age students to help oversee distance learning. If you just need a body vs a qualified teacher, it might be a less expensive option.

[AnnieW625]

There may be a plethora of college kids available as they take unexpected gap years (since the alternative is near full tuition for remote learning only- a bunch of ds1’s friends are deferring). With no internships nor international travel, they’ll be looking for work. Will they all be top notch? Doubtful. But, if you need a body you can find one. ;)


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Yes will definitely look at the option. We are moving to a medium sized university city (300k people) so that is how I plan to locate any additional help we may need. I don’t need someone licensed just someone who likes to hang out with kids.


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[Kestrel]

Childcare plans... We are completely screwed. I can only work during hours my child is in school - in the building, in school. I have been out of work since before this whole mess started, we moved to a new community, and know no one. While I make much less than DH, we are really missing my income. I don't make enough to pay for childcare normally, let alone in the current climate. I've had ten serious interviews this year; no one will hire a mother that can only work during school hours when 1) we don't know what those hours are going to be, 2) those hours can change at any time, even if we knew what they were, and 3) there are so many people out of work, why would an employer hire someone with those kind of restrictions when they can avoid the whole issue? I don't blame the employers; it's what I would do in their place. But is seriously sucks for me, and no end in sight.
We have three bad choices left. Forget trying to get hired, sell everything we can and buckle down. Continue to look at a job that is 9pm-5am, get home about 6am and deal with school (in whatever form) after that (school starts 7:15) and try to find a time to sleep. Or try to see if there are any students at DS's new school that might need care, and maybe try to babysit here at our house, even though we don't know anyone and there will be no open house or similar to meet people.

[petesgirl]

Childcare plans... We are completely screwed. I can only work during hours my child is in school - in the building, in school. I have been out of work since before this whole mess started, we moved to a new community, and know no one. While I make much less than DH, we are really missing my income. I don't make enough to pay for childcare normally, let alone in the current climate. I've had ten serious interviews this year; no one will hire a mother that can only work during school hours when 1) we don't know what those hours are going to be, 2) those hours can change at any time, even if we knew what they were, and 3) there are so many people out of work, why would an employer hire someone with those kind of restrictions when they can avoid the whole issue? I don't blame the employers; it's what I would do in their place. But is seriously sucks for me, and no end in sight.
We have three bad choices left. Forget trying to get hired, sell everything we can and buckle down. Continue to look at a job that is 9pm-5am, get home about 6am and deal with school (in whatever form) after that (school starts 7:15) and try to find a time to sleep. Or try to see if there are any students at DS's new school that might need care, and maybe try to babysit here at our house, even though we don't know anyone and there will be no open house or similar to meet people.

Are your kids doing online learning from the start? If they are going back in person, could you apply to be a substitute teacher while they are in school? I know it's not great money and does co
come with exposure risks. I only mention it because it fits the hours you need and the districts here are hiring 2-3x the amount of subs they normally would to encourage teachers to stay home when sick or if they have an exposure.

I'm sorry things are rough for you right now.

[Kestrel]

I did apply to work for the school, no news there yet. They're still out on "summer break" and not processing applications yet. (Classified; I have no college.)

But issues would still remain - if we go back hybrid, what would we do with DS when he's supposed to be home and I'm not?

[marymoo86]

Enrolling in a camp with small numbers that supports school work and has creative workshop activities.

It's 1/2 day and expensive. I'm willing to give public school a shot as we are in a good magnet but my patience is only tried for a certain amount of time. Kids agree to move to private if space willing if the public system turns out to be a disaster.