Can we talk before and after care.

[NJ-DawnCuba]

What are you guys doing for the extra hours that your kids are not in school and you are working. Here is what we are doing this year.

DS, he wil get on the school bus 7:25 that will take him straight to school. He goes to kindergarter full day, at 3 pm the daycare which is across the st, will pick him up and he will stay there until 5:30 when we get him. No sure of cost of after noon aftercare yet.

DD. My dh drives her to school daily, this makes him 10 minues late to work daily but he can get away with it. Her school has an afterschool program which is $12.50 per day for care from 2:50 till 5:30. I go pick her up, this past year it was a daily struggle to make it there by 5:30 and a few times I did not make it as I work pretty close but in a downtown congested area and traffic around 5 pm is brutal. The teacher started giving me a dirty look when I picked her up late, which really upset me as she knows I am driving racing from work. I suffer from HBP and try to avoid stress so at the end of school year I started looking for someone to pick her up and watch her for those 3 hours.
I did not wanted my dd with strangers or in a place I do not know but the stress was killing me.
Just a few days a go I found in the registration packet information that the aftercare was being changed to 6 pm , wow, that is fantastic news .
So I am set, oh and every month the school has a 12:15 day, that will cost. $15, plus the daily $12.50 per day, so I am getting my mom to come stay at my house and have a mom drop her off or dh adn I will driver her home.

[StaceyTX]

Most of the time DH takes Kyler to daycare at 6:15 and leaves on the daycare bus at 7:15 and is dropped off at the school (1st grade) at 7:45 and school starts at 8:00. He gets out of school at 3:15, the daycare bus picks him up at 3:30 and he's back at the daycare by 3:45 and I pick him up at 5:05.

Some days (usually twice a week) I take him to school on my way to work at 7:45. But he still rides the daycare bus in the afternoon. I prefer to do this, but I prefer the other two to go on to daycare at 6:15. Bad mom, I know, but they both wake up early and fuss, fight and are in my way while I'm trying to get ready for work. And, it takes FOREVER to drop them off at daycare because the high school is across the street and the highschooler are arriving at the time that I'd have to drop them off at daycare and the traffic is horrible.

Before and After school care is $83 a week at our daycare. The school has an after care program that is $50. So, since I have 2 other kids in full day daycare, my daycare matches the $50 so I don't have to have kids in two different places!

Our daycare is open until 6:30, the afterschool program at the school closes at 6:00. Luckily I work really close to both and can get there at about 5:05.

[brown_eyed_girl]

When DS #1 was in elementary school, I had him in a before-after care program at a daycare less than a mile from our house. The school bus would pick him up and drop him off there. They were open until 6pm and were fairly reasonable ~ about $80 a week if I remember correctly.

[CindiR]

My Kindy ds is going to to school 2 full and 1 half day and the other days she goes to the daycare at the school. She takes the bus (I go to work late and work thru my lunch) and then they take a bus home to an in-home provider for 45 minutes until one of us picks them up at 5pm.

[Rita22]

I drop off at school at 8:15, I am a bit later for work than I like but it is fine. DH picks up at the afterschool care program at about 5:00, he works at home and it only takes 2 minutes to get there. On days when DH travels I drive like a mad woman to get to afterschool care for pick up by 6. It works for us although DS begs me to come pick him up at school.

[jlquilts]

Dh drops them off at early care at 7:15 and I shifted my work schedule to work from 6:30 -3 and I dash out to meet the school bus at 3:27. I frequently have to go back to work to finish up documentation after 8 pm but I work ~2 miles from home so it's workable. Before care is ~$1450 for the year for the 2 of them and it includes breakfast. Aftercare would be alot more and I know that if they were covered until 6:30 that I would be at work well past my time. I can't believe that an aftercare program in the Northest would end at 5:30? I'm glad that it changed this year.

Jeanne

[lsl]

Its interesting reading all the posts about picking up kids and all the logistics involved. I am halfway round the globe from you guys and we go through the same thing everyday.

DS at 7yrs take a school bus at the early hour of 6.20am. (we are only 1 km away. God knows why the driver is this timing). Then its after school care run by his school until 5 when the after school care bus sends him home. My helper at home will wait for him downstairs (apartment) and bring him home.

DD at nearly 3yrs is sent to a child care centre at 7.30 and I pick her up before 7 pm. Good thing its mandatory here for childcare centres to open from 7am to 7pm but some days I am late also. Some centres fine parents $10 for every half hour !

There was once I was so engrossed in a workshop I forgot to pick up my girl !

[eli]

WAY late here.... Both kids are dropped off at school by DH as he does not work early in the morning. He drops DD off at 8:15am and DS at 8:45am. DD goes to after school/ENrichment from the time school ends until I pick her up around 10 after 5pm. DS only has half day kindy due to our stupid town... so he goes to a kindergarten enrichment program right after that from about 11:20 to 2:30 or so.. and then to his after school enrichment program til I pick him up around 4:55pm. All programs are run IN the school... which is good... But I pay about 1,500.00 per month for both combined right now. Next year, I mean Sept... I will take Junior or Junior miss to the work daycare with me... So that will be 3 kids in 3 different places making my evening commute really fun!
I checked out a home daycare in my neighborhood this past week but I was just not that impressed. It would be incredibly convenient to leave the baby there and then have the kids both take the bus there after school... It would make MY life SO MUCH EASIER... BUt... All 3 kids would be getting the short end of the stick.... And I just don't think I can do it to them! Price wise it's the same either way... give or take 100-200 per month.

[marciahardy]

Well, we have kept our DD in activity programs post school hours. Initially, we were paying hourly extra charges to keep DD beyond normal hours. I also adjusted my work schedule a bit.