School Age Summer Care?

[mishap]

Anyone here with school age kids and who works? I'm trying to figure out what to do with DS1, who finishes kindergarten next month. Summer-long daycamp is insane where I live, and the weekly camps aren't much better. It doesn't help that they all mostly end at 2:00 or 3:00 either.

We have a nanny for DS2 but she's very much a "baby nanny." We could ask her to be responsible for both of them, but I think DS1 would end up watching a lot of TV, which I don't want. She is a fantastic baby nanny (and nearly impossible to replace for what we pay her), so I don't want to lose her either.

I telecommute, but I need childcare or I get nothing done.

[Deleted]

Most of the camps near me have "extended" day option from 3-6pm but you have to pay extra. My job is flexible enough I just pick mine up.

I'm surprised you are leaving this so late. I had to do all my camp registrations back in January for the summer.

[mishap]

My area seems to just be getting started with this stuff, which is driving me crazy because I've been trying to plan forever. We're just now getting the notices sent home from school about the camps in the area. My research informed me quickly enough that I can't afford the day camps, so I've been looking at the weekly ones. Our town does "something" but they haven't gotten their acts together yet and don't have info yet.

How much is camp in your area?

[Deleted]

Camps vary. The country rec dept camp is something like $17/day but you have to stand in line at 3am the day of registration and is pretty much high kid to counselor ratio, etc.

They are doing a nature camp for 1 week and that is $185 (but it is only 7 hours), YMCA camp runs about $300/wk including bus (but it is 7:30-5:30) that they are doing for 2 weeks.

The priciest one the they are doing is geek camp at vanderbilt for 2 weeks and it is $500/wk.

The thing that frustrates me is school starts Aug. 10th and there are no camps in August... so I have to figure out what to do with them Aug 1-10 and SD goes back to school Aug 1 so there goes the easy solution of just paying her.

[keh2oblue]

Ditto septimus...look into your local parks and rec department and YMCA (though they're probably already filled by now). Also, I know DD's in-home daycare takes on extra kids during the summer months. You might want to look around for something like that.

[mishap]

Thanks for the tips. School hers is out third week in June through Labor day, so we have to find care for all of July and August. Our closest YMCA is about 35 minutes away, which is another snag I'm running into. A lot of the camp will take me 45 minutes roundtrip for pick up and drop off, and that's not a great time for me to leave my desk at 3:00.

I really wasn't thinking about summers when DS started school ... I thought I was home free!

[Deleted]

our local YMCA camp is probably 45 min from our house, but they have bus service from close to DH's office. You may want to see if they have bus service.

Your school may have camps too.

My frustration with the school camps is they don't release the dates until after all the really good private camps have opened registration.

[keh2oblue]

Oh, also, if you have a Boys & Girls Club in town, they run summer camps.