Parents of school age kids:what do you do in the summer?

[Tiffylv]

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[JanaDee]

My kids were home with me during the summer when they were that age.

 

[kmb584]

My daughter (6) goes to a "summer camp" at her former preschool. They call it camp because there's no structured learning and in reality it's nothing more than daycare with a more appealing name. Her snacks and lunch are covered (though I do pack her own lunch) and it's $175/wk.

 

[Anesthesia Fine]

We did daycare until last summer, because my sitter retired when my youngest hit kindergarten. My husband is in nursing school, so we were able to juggle school and work schedules and enlist our teenager to help out.

This year we did cobble together a camp schedule, but I completely understand using daycare! When my oldest was at daycare the one she went to did a lot of cool stuff in the summer and it was a lot less expensive than day camp.

 

[Disneylover99]

It sounds like you've got it covered and you're doing what's right for your family. Bonus for you because he's got a great teacher, lots of friends, varied experiences and homework review.

Specialty summer camps are not always as great as they appear to be on the surface. I'm home with my kids during the summer and they've tried a week or two at different summer camps over the past few years. They were okay. But nothing worth paying extra for IMO.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

My wife is a teacher, so she stayed home with the children.

 

[lauradis]

When the kids where little, we did the shift are schedules around so one parent was with them at all times and a little daycare, summer camp, but it was limited hours and really not worth $$ for the hours or the activities.

They enjoyed being kids and free during the summer time.

Do what is best for your family and dont listen to the oh my kid is going to x and x bragging.

With the extra 105 a week not spent you can take your child to great outing when your off.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Working for the school, I have the same breaks as DS, so I don't really have a solid comparison for you, but the program you are in sounds great to me! The fact that you both love it is reason enough to not worry if it's "the norm" or not. I say keep doing what's working for you and your son!

 

[SLP958]

DS 7 goes 3 days a week to his school summer program. They go on field trips 2 days and the library the other day.
It is 60 dollars a week.

The other 2 days one of us is off, he hangs out a work with us, goes to a friends house or spends the night with grandparents.

Don't worry about what other parents are paying big bucks for. If your child is happy and having fun that is all that matters.

 

[barkley]

I take my son to daycare in the summer and we both love it. It costs $145 per week plus a $130 fee at the beginning of the summer. It covers all his meals (breakfast, lunch, and a snack), he loves his teacher there, he has tons of friends, they have a large outdoor/active component, they go on 3 or 4 field trips a week, and they review school work. He is already looking forward to this summer.

But in talking to the other moms at his baseball game last night, I am the only one sending my kid to daycare. The rest were opting for either speciality summer camps or a family member/babysitter. Camps aren't even really an option for me because I have to be at work at 6:15am, but even if they were some of these people were talking about paying $250-$300 per week. I don't have a family member to watch my son and my sitter charges me $120 per day whenever I have to work on the weekend or a holiday. I can't even imagine paying that.

Just curious if this really is the norm. What do you do for childcare in the summer?

mine are grown now but back when they were younger we did a program similar to yours that their school offered during the summer. it worked well b/c they already knew the kiddos so it was just like going to school w/all day being recess, field trips and some fun review of school work (fun b/c since no grades/no tests-no pressure!).

specialty day camps wouldn't have worked for us b/c of start time (and commute) to work-plus my kids liked to do a variety of stuff during the day. gotta say too-those rates seem high, the one full week sleep away AWSOME camp my kids went to a week each year still only charges $310-and that's for a full week 24/7, all meals, all activities (not tent camping-indoor dorms, in ground pool/hot tub, lakefront property w/ crazy amenities most adults would kill to use for a week).

 

[bethy]

I think it sounds like you have the perfect arrangement for you and your son! I see families do all kinds of options around here plus many hybrid arrangements. I am glad there are so many options. The other option that is popular in my area for working parents is that they hire a nanny for the summer - usually a college student who is home for the summer.

 

[aprilchem]

We have a full-time nanny in the summer - she is a teacher, so she works for us from the time our kids get out of school until she goes back to school (two weeks before school starts). This summer she'll be with us July 1-August 15th - the rest of the weeks we'll be traveling.

Oh, and edited to add that we used to do full-time daycare in the summer, but we like the nanny option better because the kids get to have more of a "normal" summer - they can sleep in, do swim team with all of their friends, etc. It was more relaxed for us this way.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

DW has Summers off except for a few days on each end. When the kids were younger, we used a daycare for that time. Now, DD1 is 14, so she watches DD2 (9). We looked into camps a couple times & have never been able to make it work. It always conflicted with something, or they couldn't get enough kids signed up to even DO the camp my kids wanted.

 

[Skippy918]

DH and I both work full time. We do the summer camp program at the daycare center. They have mini camps set up, like robotics and cooking and they also do field trips. The specialty camps cost even more and are not full day. It's frustrating as a working parent to have such few options.

 

[Tiffylv]

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[Minnesota!]

The before/after school place my kids use during the school.year becomes a summer care place. Each day has a different theme and there are two field.trips a weeks plus a walk to somewhere close...subway, movies, library, etc. It costs $29/day/kid. And, well worth it!

 

[bjscheel]

Glad your son likes the daycare experience. Sounds like a good deal. And if he has tons of friends there, you are not the only one sending their kid

My kids at 7 and 10 were dreading the end of school and plotting ways to escape daycare. They didn't do anything special there other than go to the pool which they were sick of. I was so sad for them, not looking forward to their summer. I found a neighborhood teen to watch them (at the time I was just working 3 days a week). They LOVED her. It was fantastic for us. They were already pretty independent, so she was just like a cool big sister, there to hang out.

There are no summer camp things here other than single day camps scattered here and there, so it was daycare or babysitter. Now the tables are turning and DD16 is going to watch two boys 6 and 8 for the summer. She's not sure what she's going to do all day with little boys, but hopefully it goes well.

 

[aprilgail]

I take my son to daycare in the summer and we both love it. It costs $145 per week plus a $130 fee at the beginning of the summer. It covers all his meals (breakfast, lunch, and a snack), he loves his teacher there, he has tons of friends, they have a large outdoor/active component, they go on 3 or 4 field trips a week, and they review school work. He is already looking forward to this summer.

But in talking to the other moms at his baseball game last night, I am the only one sending my kid to daycare. The rest were opting for either speciality summer camps or a family member/babysitter. Camps aren't even really an option for me because I have to be at work at 6:15am, but even if they were some of these people were talking about paying $250-$300 per week. I don't have a family member to watch my son and my sitter charges me $120 per day whenever I have to work on the weekend or a holiday. I can't even imagine paying that.

Just curious if this really is the norm. What do you do for childcare in the summer?

Wow that is a super cheap rate! When my daughter was little she went to summer camp from 730-4:00 and I paid 450 a week. And that did not include food! I paid extra for her to stay 30 minutes later twice a week for a private swim lesson too! Thank goodness for flex spending accounts, I was able to use that to have money taken out of my pay each week to pay for camp since it is considered childcare!

 

[leebee]

I wish we'd had that option for DD! I was a SAHM until half-way through 3rd grade, when we moved to a new area and i needed to go back to work. There were NO good options for child care in the summer. We cobbled together a variety of things: YWCA day camps, specialty camps (art, theater, dance, robotics, etc) but they were expensive, and DD didn't always enjoy them as she had no long-term friends in these week=based programs. It sounds like you and a great solution for your child. I just hate that, to make ends meet, we both had to work all sumer long, to the detriment of our child- but there really were very, very few good options.

 

[aprilchem]

If you don't mind my asking, what do you pay for your nanny? My regular sitter charges $10 per hour. Sometimes I have to work weekends or holidays and both school/daycare are closed. Between travel time on both ends and me wanting her there a little early in the morning for instructions, etc. I pay her $120 one one work day. I work 4 days a week so that would come out to $480 per week. I haven't ever asked, so I don't know if she'd lower her hourly rate for that much time. But that's a lot.

This year I'm paying her $425 a week. But that's for three kids, M-F, from 9:00 am - 4:30 pm. My comparison my local YMCA charges $150 a week per child. So it's a bit of a savings, but not much.

I'm not sure if I would pay less if I had fewer children - I've only ever had nannies for 3.