To ask where your school children go in the holidays?

[Ansumpasty]

Ok, so I'm considering going back to work in September when youngest starts school after being a SAHM for 6 years.

We have 0 family members where we live and one of my children has bad anxiety and would no way cope with staying with a child minder (nor could I afford those fees). My husband works abroad so it's only me and the children, so childcare falls solely to me. It's got me wondering where on earth children go when they're too old for nursery and school is shut? Besides working in a school, does anyone have any ideas on ways around this? Thanks!

They go to holiday club at the local leisure centre,

I'm not in this position (school teacher), but a lot of DS's classmates go to holiday clubs. A lot of state and private schools around here run clubs and camps that cover the holidays, for their own or other schools' pupils. That could be worth researching in your area?

There are loads of places - out of school clubs, Childminders, activity centres. You just need to research your area. Most councils have a list of provision online.

It's not easy. Me and dh have all our annual leave separately spread over the holidays except for 1 week where we are altogether. I then use a mixture of holiday clubs, friends where we swap days with the kids and the occasional day with grandad. My work is also quite flexible so I can usually drop one of my 4 days work during the hols.

Will have a look into clubs, thanks!

Holiday club - different ones each holiday dependant on their interest at the time. They did football, tennis, music, science, cricket, performing arts and cooking.

DH and I take holidays from work to look after them
Holiday clubs normally sports based ones.
I also take 2 weeks unpaid Parental Leave per year.

My two do a mix of childminder and school run holiday club. My youngest is very shy and prefers the quieter environment of the childminders. We also take most of our annual leave separately in order to minimise the amount of paid childcare needed. Can your DH not take some annual leave in the holidays to cover some of it?

If your dc's anxiety is such that they 'couldn't cope' staying with a cm (where there will only be a small handful of dc and a home environment), how are they going to cope with a packed to the rafters holiday club?

In most families I know, the parents take turns to take annual leave in order to be at home with the kids. We were fortunate in that my parents helped out when dd was younger, and sometimes my sister visited with my nephew.

DD did a couple of summer camp type activities, but in her case, that was less about childcare and more about doing an activity that she was interested in. However, I think a lot of people use these as childcare over the summer.

Sometimes we swapped days with her friends' parents, so that DH or I would have the dd and her friend one day, and then the friend's parents would have them another.

If you can find a job with a generous leave entitlement, that helps a lot! I get nearly nine weeks including bank holidays, so it's easy enough to cover the other four weeks with DH, my parents and friends.

We do a mixture - I swap days with a friend, so dp and I will take a Friday off to have hers and she has mine on a Tuesday. Then other friends occasionally, grandparents do 1 day a week each and the remainder we do sports clubs, £12 per day each - bargain as long as it’s not daily