ok talk me through childcare for primary school children - am in a state of panic

[WhatFreshHellIsThis]

DS1 is about to start school in September. I work 4.5 days a week, DP works full time. Up to now DS1 and DS2 have gone to nursery 4 days a week (I work from home on Fridays and a blind eye is turned to the DCs being at home with me.....)

How on earth do we handle childcare for when DS1 starts school? I'm a bit reluctant to do after school club for him as I think he's going to be exhausted from school and it will be another thing for him to cope with. We can't afford a nanny full time for DS2 (who could then pick DS1 up).

Is there such a thing as an after school nanny? Or is that just an au pair/mother's help? And what on earth do people do in the holidays?

Yikes....

[SolidGoldBrass]

Childminders often do after-school pick ups and holiday cover - and afterschool clubs are not bad, very undemanding AFAIK.
Ring the local council and ask them for a list of childminders/afterschool clubs, have a chat to afew people and see what sounds best.

[tootootired]

Isn't there a before/after school club?
From day one my DC's were begging to go to after school club. In our school, it's very relaxed, they do a light activity and then just snacks/colouring/board games until they are picked up. In this weather they get turfed out onto the playing field. They get to mess about with their friends and have a ball.

Quite a few childminders do school pickups, they can have larger numbers of school age children to add to their all-day pre-schoolers.

Holidays - you just end up stretching between your hols, your partners hols, holiday clubs, relatives, a week here and there. It's often a stretch but it can sort of work.

[pointydog]

If you don't fancy the idea of the after school club then phone round childminders and visit them. They will tend to do pick-ups from one school in particular.

Visit the after-school club too as they should have a quieter area as well as an area for the younger ones.

Childminders and after school clubs (holiday clubs) keep going in the holidays too.

[TheFallenMadonna]

Do visit the after school club. My DD had gone since reception and loves it. She sits and does endless art work and a bit of dressing up, while DS, who is a couple of years older, hares around like a mad thing. The other advantage (for the future) is that they both have sports clubs after school and that fits in pretty seamlessly.

[ruckyrunt]

can you spread the 4.5 days over 5 days so that you finish earlier that you do now and perhaps ask to go in early and get dh to do the school run?

[oldandgreynow]

IME you have to rethink your working arrangements.Many schools, even larger schools don't have any before/after school care in this area.There are no CM

[WhatFreshHellIsThis]

Thank you for all your thoughts! Sadly rethinking my working arrangements might be tricky, have only just negotiated this flexible working arrangement and it was bloody hard even getting this concession, let me tell you. Leaving at 3pm every day is not going to be something I can swing And I'd have to start at 7.30am every day to leave at 3pm, which is not really feasible even if DP does the school/nursery run, as he goes away on business at least once a week.

I will investigate the after school club, sounds like they're less scary than I thought. A childminder could be an option, I'm just so tired of flipping childcare issues and having to continually change things around. Never mind,if Shiny Dave Cameron has his way I probably won't have a job much longer, that'll solve the problem.

[WhatFreshHellIsThis]

cat I like your thinking about evening working - that might work.

[Portofino]

My after school club is fine. They play games, have a snack, play outside if weather is good. The number of times dd has been disappointed when I turned up as she was just about to start something....

It's playing at the end of the day. Presumably they would do the same if they were home?

[mummytime]

My dd loves the after school club. We have just trained her to greet me nicely rather than be very cross. Now its especially nice as they play in the playground most days (its the lovely back one with a pirate ship and some tree, and bushes). They also do art, play board games, dress up, and its pretty much child led.
I have been using the school bus so I could drop them off earlier. However this bus stops next year, and I'm not sure what I will do in the mornings, as Breakfast club starts at 8 am. However I do have friends who have provided emergency back up (when we missed the bus, or I had to personally take a DD to school before camp etc.).
There are people who will do a bit of early morning or after school child care, and often adverts appear in the school newsletter about this time of year.

[Northumberlandlass]

We have a great before / after school club. You can drop off at 8 and pick up latest is at 6. They will provide breakfast.

Actually during half term I was having a childcare nightmare and used a large nursery in our town for the first time. DS loved it ! I know that they take kids from 0 -11. They also do a morning / after school club, hours are the same, they can get breakfast & evening meal. There is a large field which they can play in.

I would check out the before / after school club and see if another nursery caters as well. It is all do-able.

[LoveMyGirls]

I'm a childminder and I look after school age children, I think it's nice for them have a homely environment, when we get home the children all play together, they can choose activities, play in the garden, sometimes we go to the park or do baking, the older children love playing with the younger children too. I do dinner for them so when the parents collect at 6pm they are relaxed and fed.

During holidays we go on trips to farms, museums, picnics, walks in the woods, strawberry picking, do craft, baking, games etc

I also cover teacher training days.

hth

[Lizipads]

I had a nanny-housekeeper who did before and after school care. I also employed her for one full day per week, when she did my housework. She worked all day in the school holidays. Nanny agencies can tell you if anyone in your area is looking for that kind of work.

[iwouldgoouttonight]

I am also in a similar state of panic! DS starts school in september and his school doesn't run an after-school club or breakfast club. And most local childminders who do school pick-ups seem to have been fully booked up for ages (some parents must be incredibly organised!)

Me and DP both work 4 days a week but not the same four days IYSWIM. So two days are covered, but the other days I'm trying to work out if I could re-jig my hours so I could leave at 3pm one day and have a shorter lunch the other days. That just leaves two days - my plan a the minute is the try and befriend some of the parents of children at DS's nursery who are going to the same school and see if we can work out some kind of rota.

No idea about school holidays though - might have to send him off to stay with granny and grandad for some of it which he won't like!!

[edinburger]

Some of those after school clubs sound great - I am very jealous!

I contacted my local council and they gave me a list of after school care in my area.

Don;t worry - being organised does not help at all, at least at my son;s future school after school club.

i just started a thread as despite having put his name down over a year ago, filling out all their forms and paying a deposit he is on a waiting list. I've called several times to try and find out but each time I get fobbed off "we'll call you next week...."

I think I was very niave and just assumed that after school care was like nursery - pretty much supply and demand but apparently to get into this school's after school club you need to put the name down at birth!

As a single parent who works full time I need something and it appears there is nothing doing. Unfortunately nurseries here only take pre-schoolers otherwise that would ebe perfect as his nursery is great.

Hope you have better luck than me and find something!

[TennisFan]

It's really difficult - so I know where you are coming from, and expensive.
Me and DH are self employed and going through a difficult patch we had to take out 2 DC out of after-school-club which costs £26/day each!

We have also tried an au-pair to help just with the school pick-ups and an hour or two until I can get home. This was good - and flexible too.

School holidays are nightmare - we get 9 weeks in the summer here in NI - and I am currently drawing up a spreadsheet to see what i can organise for them both to keep them occupied and supervised while i have to work.

[mumtolawyer]

We do afterschool clubs (which are all non-academic) and homework club. We drop off but we found a part-time nanny who picks up from school and stays till 8 every day. She's doing a post-grad degree as a foreign student, so she's over 25 and it works brilliantly. You might look into that at local tertiary education establishments.

[HappyMummyOfOne]

We have an afterschool club despite being semi-rural and a tiny school. Although its on the school premises its nothing like school and its fab. Each night there is a structured activity like baking etc that they can do, outdoor play if nice, quiet corner for reading, toys, art, dvd etc. Its fab and very homely.

If you have the option, its well worth looking at. It also means that if your child wants to do an after school activity they can and simply go to the childcare after. Most CM's wont go back a second time for childrens clubs so they can miss out.

[Ladymuck]

As you can see afterschool provision varies widely from school to school. At this stage I would phone the school secretary during a quiet time of day (1:30-2:30 is usually best ime) and find out from them what other parents do. The chances are that the secretary will be a working parent herself and will be at least sympathetic.

FWIW I found childcare once my youngest was at school a total nightmare. I'm pleased that so many on this thread have found afterschool clubs to be positive. I found my children were spending time with children much older than them and learning things that I'd rather they didn't at 4 or 5. If you can afford a nanny until dc2 goes to school that may help for a bit.

[Runoutofideas]

Whatfreshhellisthis - I seem to remember from another thread that you live somewhere near me in NW Bristol? If that's right then let me know as I know one childminder who drops off at H infants and another who does El Infants. I also know people who use El breakfast and afterschool club if that helps?

[WhatFreshHellIsThis]

Thank you all! I rang the after school club today and they sounded very nice, they're sending me a form to go on the waiting list so you never know, it might all work out there.

Runoutofideas that's very kind - we are in NW Bristol but DS1 is going to WP primary. We're going to look at childminders if the afterschool club doesn't work out, I think.

[Runoutofideas]

Good luck with it all. Hope the after-school club works out. Sorry I don't know any childminders for WP!

[TheBoyWithaSORNedMX5]

Glad you're feeling a bit less worried about the whole thing. I remember feeling the same - but it does work itself out. I was surprised at how easily it happens, tbh as it looked impossible before DS started school!

DS goes to holiday club (£25 a day - includes trips to some very cool places such as the Dr Who thing in Cardiff, runs from 8am to 6pm), we split leave between us and do swaps with other parents. Now he's a bit older he wants to go on a PGL type thing - not cheap but that'll cover the October half term.

The rest of the time, we take it in turns to do drop off/pick up (we can start work at 7am and finish at 7pm - flexitime really is a life saver) and DS goes to afterschool club twice a week (which is £8 a day).