Childcare 11yo

[Lj8893]

DD is just about to go into yr 6 and turns 11 in October.

Holiday childcare is very scarce where we live and mostly only goes up to 11yo.

What do we do after this? Do people leave their 11/12yo alone at home in the holidays?

Just thinking ahead for next summer onwards!

Same goes for when at secondary school, do people leave thier kids to sort themselves out alone at home in the mornings and afternoons/early evenings before and after school? At the moment DD goes to a childminder before and after school when we are working. That’s not an option when she starts secondary school.

Yes.

I don't know of anyone who uses childcare from 11up.

It will be a combination of working from home, grandparents, friends, time alone, your own holidays, fun type camps eg learn to kayak or whatever.

Actually thinking about this, this is where divorce is quite useful!! My ex and I will each take our girls this summer separately on a 10 day-2week holiday, they're going to my mums for a week with cousins, then they've got about two weeks left which they'll just hang out with friends.

I have a 12 (going into y8) and 10 year old (going into y6). They stop in some days. Have the option to go to either my mums or dps. But they prefer staying in. They make plans with friends. I work from home 3 days a week as well.

They started stopping home alone for the day around Christmas last year

Me and DH usually take a week off each (so covering 2 weeks) of the hols, and we each have different days off in the week too. So it just leaves 3 days a week where we need childcare or she will be alone.
In fairness DH works 2 minutes away so could be home Very quickly if any issues!

Just seems so crazy that in a year or 2 she will be left at home alone as can’t imagine it!

Secondary school yes people just leave their kids to look after themselves.
Summer at the end of year 6 they will still be 11 so should be able to go to holiday club ? They would be fine to look after themselves at that age but just would probably be bored so might enjoy some days in holiday club if they had friends going too.
You could also arrange something with friends like parents take turns to have the kids over, at 11 they don't really need much supervision.

Yes next year shouldn’t be too much of an issue as the childminder will still take her at 11 (although it’s very boring for her). The only holiday club only takes till 10yo. I didn’t explain that well, sorry.

My eldest two have been left for half a day the summer between year 6 and high school.

Half days not really an option for us. DH works 7-5 locally and I work 8-5 (30 mins drive away). WFH not an option either.

I'm worried about this ds is in yr 5. He has additional needs there's no way he will be able to get himself home after school in yr7. I will probably have to change job.

DD seems to be of the opinion that next summer she'll be left entirely to her own devices to do what she wants, that's unlikely to be the case. She's going in to yr 6 in September so it will be the summer between primary and secondary. She'll have some days each week where she entertains herself while me and DH work from home, then we'll book her on a couple of the 3 day courses run by a local outdoor pursuits centre about things like bushcraft, target sports, water sports etc.

Currently she goes to their holiday club for about 4 weeks out of 6, I take first and last weeks of the holiday off, DH takes first week too and we go away somewhere.

Those types of courses sound brilliant but there is nothing like that here. The holiday club we currently use is in the town where I work. And this summer is the last time we can use it.

When I was a teen my local youth club ran amazing holiday activities, would be perfect if there was something similar locally.

We've found some good ones in odd places and not advertised on any of the 'childcare' sites.

One of the trampoline parks in the city centre doesn't holiday club, 8am-6pm if you want all day and they have access to the trampolines, climbing wall, get lunch and there is a room set up with crafts, TV and video games.

The museum in town runs a couple of week long programmes, as does the local university in conjunction with the botanical gardens/wildlife trust doing outdoorsy stuff.

There's a youth centre near us that does 10-3, they have video games, an outdoor obstacle course thing, pool and table tennis.

One of the private schools runs drama camps.

Absolutely none of it is on the council childcare site or childcare.com

I have researched everything in our “town” (more like a village) and the town I work in.
There are no museums, university’s, private schools, trampoline parks or similar near us.
There is a youth club in our town but they only do a Wednesday eve session sadly.

There are several theatre school summer schools in the town where I work which do a week summer school but the times don’t fit in with my working day unfortunately.

I think I will have a rethink again next year and see how I feel about leaving her alone for the day then, I’m sure her maturity can change a lot in a year 🤞