Summer care

[librarychica]

We are half way through spring break so now of course I’m thinking about summer care. What’s it looking like for y’all?

My kids will be in science camp for July and I will take the first week of August off for either a vacation or in-town quality time. Last June the girls stayed with my parents during the day but that’s 45 minutes of driving each way for us to drop off and pick them up and my parents looked rather worn out. My dad is already asking for them in June so I’m thinking about suggesting I drop them off on Sundays and get them Tuesday and then hiring a babysitter for the rest of the week (2-3 days as I have every other Friday off). We have a teenager we have used a couple of times and lives in walking distance. Would you consider having a 17 yo watch your kids 3 days a week? She seems a tad young but I watched my cousins waaay younger and my girls are 4 and 7, not babies. If so, would you let a teenager drive your kids (like to the library or playground 1-3 miles away) or require they stay at the house?

[186momx]

librarychica, I did this two summers ago and DD still asks for that style of summer care. She was so bummed when S moved back to AZ and couldn't watch her. I will say I juggled 4 different girls and found that none of them wanted to do more than 1 or 2 days a week and not back to back. I didn't let them drive DD anywhere but they were allowed to walk to the school, park, and grocery store. All of those things were also a privilege so bad behavior or issues would loose those privileges. I also had a list of things they could do and a schedule. My biggest issue was these girls couldn't cook so lunches for everyone was hard.

DD will be doing a mix of aftercare summer camp as I can do half days and pick and choose days. Not DD's preference but will work best with gym practice that starts at 3pm. I can't have her half way across town at camp that doesn't get over until 4. She will also do 3, one week gymnastics camps through her gym. I also told her I would get her music lessons so will do that on Fridays that I have off.

[k3am]

We're still waiting for daycare to release the camp details and pricing for school age kids. If it's not an arm and a leg and sounds entertaining, we'll stick DD there. Having one drop off and pick up for the summer would be fan-freaking-tastic.

The YMCA offers okay priced programs. I had originally thought it was overpriced, but then I got the pricing for her current program, and it's $315/week + the cost of field trips. So $300-360/week, including field trips, doesn't seem too crazy. I'm also looking into how much the cost of membership is, since work will subsidize my membership, and being a member saves $40-80/week depending on the program.

We've debated sending DD to my IL's for a week or two, but honestly, I don't know that they're up for the challenge and I think she'll be really bored there.

I keep threatening to send her to my sister's for a week or two. My sister has a teacher schedule and two dogs. DD *really* wants a dog, so I always tell her she has to take care of my sister's crazy dogs before we would even consider it. DD would come back so very, very, very spoiled though.

[sdlaura]

No way would I drive 45 minutes each way for my kids to have a more laid back summer

My two older kids are doing YMCA camps including extended day hours every week except when we're on vacation for 10 days around the 4th of July. We only have 8 weeks of summer break here. DD's last day of 1st grade and DS1's promotion ceremony from preschool are both on Friday, June 21st, and then their first day back at school is Monday, August 19th.

Our YMCA uses two different locations for camps each summer and this summer their offsite location is an elementary school that's only a mile from our house - the main YMCA is a few miles away - and the school has great parking, unlike their last couple of offsite locations. So I'm really excited about the convenience. I created a spreadsheet and was able to line up both kids at the same location for all but one week, when DD's friend wanted her to do gymnastics camp and friend's mom offered to drive her. The camps are really varied like DD is doing a skateboarding camp and DS1's camps include science and dinosaurs, and they're each doing a cooking camp.

I'm already fantasizing about the mornings of dropping the baby at his in-home daycare 1 block away, driving 1 mile on residential roads then pulling up to camp and having the counselors get the two older kids out of the car, then heading 20 minutes to work. It should be amazing!

[librarychica]

sdlaura, I agreed in a moment of weakness. Dad had just retired and they were so enthusiastic, i want them to be close to my parents of course, it was only a month and H wasn’t supposed to travel but then he ended up traveling one week after all and it was just a ton of driving. Plus I think the full weeks kind of wore them out. My mom was noticeably less enthusiastic, lol.

[sdlaura]

Mar 20, 2019 17:59:42 GMT -5 librarychica said:

sdlaura , I agreed in a moment of weakness. Dad had just retired and they were so enthusiastic, i want them to be close to my parents of course, it was only a month and H wasn’t supposed to travel but then he ended up traveling one week after all and it was just a ton of driving. Plus I think the full weeks kind of wore them out. My mom was noticeably less enthusiastic, lol.

Ha!  It's nice that your parents are so close.  Maybe when your kids are old enough to stay on their own a bit, your parents would come to you once a week and they could go there once a week or something?

[librarychica]

Mar 20, 2019 18:02:31 GMT -5 sdlaura said:

Mar 20, 2019 17:59:42 GMT -5 librarychica said:

sdlaura , I agreed in a moment of weakness. Dad had just retired and they were so enthusiastic, i want them to be close to my parents of course, it was only a month and H wasn’t supposed to travel but then he ended up traveling one week after all and it was just a ton of driving. Plus I think the full weeks kind of wore them out. My mom was noticeably less enthusiastic, lol.

Ha!  It's nice that your parents are so close.  Maybe when your kids are old enough to stay on their own a bit, your parents would come to you once a week and they could go there once a week or something?

Yeah, I’m hoping they’ll go for the sleepover option. I don’t mind dropping them and then picking them up a couple days later. I just don’t think it’s going to be a 4/5 days a week thing this year.

[waverly]

I’m kind of leaning towards maybe or no on the driving. I think 17 is old enough to watch them at the house.

I made this whole sheet up for summer camps because of course I did and then pretty much crossed them all off except the original camp I was planning on.

Local Girls scout camp is a maybe but we might be on vacation that week. Other Girl Scout and Cub Scout camps are 40-60 minutes out of the way. They don’t like the camp from the aftercare. Bible camp requires hiring a teenager for the rest of the day after 11:30am which seems like too much work for me.

DS might do one week sleepaway camp. The rest of the time they will be at our park district camp. Planning on a vacation the last week in June and first week in August.

[twinmomma]

Just doing Boys and Girls Club all summer long. Their camp is great. Swim time every day and field trips once a week all included. And it's by far the most cost effective with the best hours. $200 per kid per week for all day, before, and after care hours! Unheard of to find something that cheap around here.
I'm thinking rather than pick one week off for a vacation I'll just do a couple long weekends when I have them and go stay with my parents for the lake, so that will be mixed in too.

[sandandsea]

We are doing a week of family vacation followed by a summer math/writing/recess/field trip program and then my mom will do the last 2 weeks. We did the same program last year and it’s fine. I like that it’s academic so he doesn’t forget everything.

[covergirl82]

Kids will go to their old in-home DCP (who is a family friend) for the summer. Right now, it's easiest for the kids to go to their old in-home DCP as she lives close to us and then I don't have to do meal planning for lunches or worry about the whole them being driven around by someone I don't really know or sitting home bored because I don't want them to be driven around by someone I don't know well.

We also will have for sure one full week of vacation (4th of July week) and maybe another, or a very long weekend. Both kids will go to a few partial-day camps (sports for DS and sports and art for DD). Me, my parents, and DH usually split the camp days for transportation as DCP won't transport (which is understandable - if she did it for one family, she'd have to do it for all, and she'd be driving around all the time).

[waverly]

Mar 20, 2019 22:26:44 GMT -5 sandandsea said:

We are doing a week of family vacation followed by a summer math/writing/recess/field trip program and then my mom will do the last 2 weeks. We did the same program last year and it’s fine. I like that it’s academic so he doesn’t forget everything.

I wish there was a writing camp that I could send DS to.  He came back together with problems with punctuation, spelling, and capitalization.  I know he knows what to do but doesn't want to think about it when he is writing.

Today I reviewed with him the difference between the word us and the U.S.  You are going into 3rd grade you need to know this DS!

[mommyatty]

waverly- look at private schools. Ours has “bridge”camps to go over what you need to review for the next grade. And we also have camps around different subjects. Reading, writing, math, science. Most of the private schools in our area do, and they are open to the community, not just current students.

[2chatter]

We have had teen sitters and it works well. This summer they have summer school (for fun), vacation and creek camp. In between weeks I will hire sitters - they can walk to morning library programs or bike on the trail, swim in our pool and I have taught a couple sitters basic cooking through DDs - more just how to use our stove (gas). The menu is usually crudite, soup, sandwiches, pasta, pizza, salads, grilled fish, reheating roasted veggies and .... pizza rolls.

[librarychica]

Mar 21, 2019 9:21:28 GMT -5 mommyatty said:

waverly- look at private schools. Ours has “bridge”camps to go over what you need to review for the next grade. And we also have camps around different subjects. Reading, writing, math, science. Most of the private schools in our area do, and they are open to the community, not just current students.

Ditto this. That’s actually the reason we don’t use DD2’s private school (it’s PK3 and up but we moved DD1 this year). Not that there is anything wrong with ongoing instruction, it’s a good thing, but our oldest needs a high level of physical activity and they were mostly staying inside all morning working on academics and then going outside briefly during the hottest part of the day.

All the private schools here have them and many have great reputations. Plus you can sign up for just a week or two.

[mellym]

We signed DD1 up for a Y outdoor camp with field trips and swimming every week. Drop off and pick up is at the Y where our two youngest go to daycare. I can't wait for one stop in the summer months!

[librarychica]

I was leaning toward teenager, no driving, but H is really pushing back. Teen is sitting today and H insisted on working from home. 🙄Then she evidently couldn’t keep DD2 out of H’s office ...

We shall see. On further calendar review, we only need like 10 days in June and I would think most college students (our usual sitters) would want more hours than that.

[sandandsea]

Yeah the academic camp is good for him. They have three recess breaks too so it’s not like he’s sitting inside all day. The aftercare from 3-6 is video games,art and movies daily.

He did an adventure camp last year with paddle boarding, kayaking, biking and hiking and he enjoyed the activities but they were only 2-4 hours of the day and the rest was sitting outside playing and he was bored.

A lot of his friends from school do the academic camp and it’s one of the most affordable options so it’s good for now.

[2chatter]

librarychica - we have never had an issue with hours - many see it as a supplement to whatever other income they have and really appreciate it. So if DH gets on board I would say worth a shot!!

[justcheckingin73]

Mar 21, 2019 11:59:47 GMT -5 2chatter said:

librarychica - we have never had an issue with hours - many see it as a supplement to whatever other income they have and really appreciate it. So if DH gets on board I would say worth a shot!!

I second this. I hired a nanny one summer a couple of years ago and due to cost I only wanted her from 9-3 everyday. I was worried that I wouldn’t find anyone. But it ended up working out great. She could sleep in and if she wanted a second job, there was still time in the day for her to do that.

I need to coordinate something for this summer. DD is 15 and DS will be 9 and he’s never gone to summer camp which drives me crazy. I think he would love it but he’s an anxious kid and likes to do what he wants on his time (I can’t blame him because those were my summers) so I’ve always kept him home. He plays outside, plays his PS4 and iPad. But I’m thinking I might pay DD to be his part-time nanny. I’ll have to talk to her about it but I’m thinking that she’d have certain days/hours that she would be “on duty” and would ride bikes, play basketball, take him to the park, etc. It sucks that I have to pay her to play with her own brother but she’s at that age where she typically does her own thing after summer running and my son is left alone.

[mae0111]

OMG the camp that my kids go to ever summer is full for DD2. She's going to be crushed. I dragged my feet because it's never filled up before - I didn't think there would be a problem!! ARGH!!!

[callmekd]

DD1 will spend the majority of the summer at her before/after school program who runs a full time summer camp - with field trips 3x/week. but they aren't open the first or last week of summer....so

she is going to a science camp the 1st week of summer (it's pricey and only 7 hours but there is no other option).
then the last week of summer she's signed up for a camp at the zoo (near our house).

[callmekd]

the littles will stay at daycare, as usual.

[sdlaura]

mae0111 is there a wait list? I think a lot of people have summer plans that change.

justcheckingin73, I definitely plan to pay my daughter to take care of her little brothers when she's older. Or pay both older kids to watch their younger sibling. They can't wait!

[waverly]

I checked all 3 private schools (Catholic since it’s a big Catholic area) don’t have summer camp.

Montessori has an academic based one but nothing with writing and the school reviews are kind of all over the place and no one I know has gone there.

There are academic camps at colleges but farther drive and nothing with writing.

[ilovelucyvv]

Plan A is to have DD go to a camp near work. Plan B is for her to go to the local rec center’s camp near MIL’s house. I won’t find out if she got accepted into A until May so I paid deposits to reserve B. A is way more convenient so fingers crossed.

[shakinros]

I had a HS senior as DD’s after school babysitter last year when DD was in K. 2.5hrs a day so she didn’t have to fill a whole day but it worked out great. I did have her drive DD to the pool or out for ice cream.

This year it’s 3 weeks of farm camp. Far away but they have a bus that picks up and drops off AT OUR HOUSE for only $60 extra per week. Worth it.

Then 1 week at my parents’ house out of state.

3 weeks of science camp
3 weeks of camp at our gym (swimming, sports, games)

Then back to school. No family vacation this year. We’re trying to rebuild savings/pay down debt from DH’s long unemployment.

[divanerd]

I'm still deciding on summer. It may be a mix of swim, tennis and science camp at 6yo this is the first time we have to figure this out.

Man I miss his Primrose

[mustardseed2007]

Mar 24, 2019 16:36:15 GMT -5 divanerd said:

I'm still deciding on summer. It may be a mix of swim, tennis and science camp at 6yo this is the first time we have to figure this out.

Man I miss his Primrose

Same! Not primrose but same idea. 

We're doing science, art and drama camp so far. Also doing VBS. 

[k3am]

We're putting DD in camp at her old DC/where DS is. The price is the cheapest of the 3 options we were considering because we get a discount for DH working at a certain company (that he no longer works at, but they don't need to know that) and one drop off/pickup sounds fabulous.

I'm kind of bummed though because the YMCA camps sound way more fun, but she'll never know what she's missing out on.