Daycare til Kindy starts OR summer camp?

[lecach]

DS will start kindergarten this year. We'll know by June 1 if he gets into the year-round school. Year round starts July 19 and traditional is August 25.

I was looking at local summer camps and found that a week of those is about the same price as a week of daycare. We pay $775 a month for daycare and the local christian camp is $205 a week. The Y is $179 a week. Since I work both offer a 7:30 a.m. dropoff/6:00 p.m. pickup for free.

I just thought it might be nice to have a bit of a fun break instead of going from one school to the other. I know a few kids in his class are doing this too. Plus if he ends up going to traditional he'll possibly one of the last older kids left at daycare.

Any advice or suggestions?

Here is the Christian camp description:

We call this camp ‘Potpourri’ because campers get to experience a variety of activities throughout their day and week at camp. A camper’s day begins and ends with all-camp activities that include energizers, songs and free-play. During the day, campers rotate between bible study, arts & crafts, science & nature, swimming and recreation. Campers (K-6) receive swim lessons 4 days a week in addition to free-swim time for practice and play. Our day-campers will enjoy many activities such as: singing songs, tie-dying t-shirts, making friendship bracelets and hiking the camp’s trails. All our campers receive lunch and 2 snacks as part of our program. Every Friday campers will participate in all-camper events and devotion. Potpourri is a great choice for a well-rounded summer camp experience.


Here is the YMCA camp description:

Camp Frontier is a full-day camp that offers a variety of activities and opportunities to campers. Each weekly session is loaded with fun activities from start to finish. While at Camp Frontier, campers will participate in daily swimming at the xxxxxx Swimming Pool, theme days, assemblies, outdoor games, a huge Slip-n-Slide, arts and crafts and more.

 

[Taja]

Not a parent--but I do have some thoughts! *LOL*

I rather like the idea of camp for the same reasons you do. And just the different experiences could be good for your DS.

One thing you might want to check into is the number of "campers" per counselor in your DS's age group. That could be one of the deciding factors between the two camps. And the minimum age/qualifications for the counselors in each of the programs. Those would be things that would concern me if it were my child!

What ever you decide, I hope your DS has a wonderful summer!

Edited to add:

Another factor might be how active your DS is and how active the activities are for his age group for each program. We have a five-year-old in the family with unlimited energy--wish he could give me some of it! *LOL*

 

[mikamah]

I did daycare through the summer until my son started kindergarten. The summer after K he went to summer camp for the first time, and I was nervous about him being in the camp with all the older kids. Kindergarteners seem so young compared to 6th graders.

It depends on your child too. It can be anxiety provoking moving from daycare to kindergarten, but to switch to a summer camp with all new counselors, and then have to switch to K in a couple months might be hard. It will most likely be a much larger group at camp than the day care that he's used to.

My son actually did fine his first year of camp, and the worry was all mine. He did one camp for most of the summer, and last year he tried out 3 different camps, and this year, he's picked 2 from last year, and is trying some different camps too.

good luck with your decisions.

 

[Leajess99]

I would probably go with the Y camp and skip daycare. If your school district offers a summer daycare program for school aged children than that would be a good choice as well. At any rate, I think your child would be happier at camp doing more fun things than at a daycare with younger children that could possibly keep them from trips and such. Good luck on your decision.

 

[mistysue]

How big is the daycare? Will he be in with just kids his age and up? Would they go on trips?

My experience has been that summer camp is fun, but if I want to anything at all on any of the weeknights DD goes to camp, I need to cancel it. She is completely exhausted!
No going out to dinner, no stops at the store, no trip out for ice cream... Half the time she falls asleep during the 3 mile car ride home. The last two years there is inevitably a day toward the end of the week when she refuses to get out of the car because she is so worn out.

I've been having her stay in a daycare camp run through the school that does one field trip/week and it works out great. Then I pick one week during the summer for her to do the "real" camp. She gets to have both kinds of fun, and I don't have to sacrifice my whole summer to letting her rest up for her next day. DD going to real camp the whole summer would feel like a punishment for me.

 

[lecach]

His current daycare is 4 classes of 16 kids each. Everyone in his class will go to kindergarten in the fall and a lot of them are leaving daycare after June. Quite a few are leaving after graduation (June 4). If he goes to traditional he would be one of the few older kids left in July and August. And I worry about him getting bored. He makes friends very easily. He's been in 5 different daycares and had no transition issues with any of them. They dont go on any field trips although they are on a large campus of a retirement community so they have the run of the campus - pond, gardens, farm, etc.