What after-school/holiday childcare for 9 and 12 yr olds?

[annh]

I am returning to work to do a maternity cover, probably just after Christmas. I haven't worked for 2.5 years and previously had a Hungarian nanny. She was with us for four years and became almost part of the family. Now I need to think about childcare again and am wondering what other people do with children of this age?

DS2 is going into Yr 5, obviously still needs collecting from school, supervising of spellings, etc. DS1 is now in his 2nd year of secondary school, gets himself to and from school, music lessons etc and is quite independent. He doesn't need help with homework, doesn't particularly need to "play" with a nanny and will probably resent any attempt on her part to do so. I realised how the childcare dynamics had changed when we had our last babysitter and he towered over her, said hi, wandered off to his room and I think that was all she saw of him for the night!

Soooo, I am wondering what the best, new arrangement would be? Aupair? Student? After-school nanny? Maybe aupair only in the summer and nanny during the year? Please tell me what you do and what works for children of this age?

Cat64, I will be commuting into London, about 30 mins on the train so I will need somebody dependable in any emergency as I can't get there quickly. I would arrive home at 6.30, 9 yr old finishes school at 3.15, 12 yr old will get home about 4.15, later if there are after-school activities. I agree 12 yr old would probably be fine on his own but I couldn't have the combination of both of them in the house alone (not that I would want to anyway!). There seems to be ONE after-school club in our whole area, council started one in our local leisure centre which folded very quickly, I think because it finished at 6 p.m. so no use to anyone who is commuting or working any distance away. For holidays, I think I would definitely rather have someone look after them at home most of the time as after a number of years of organised holiday activity they are a bit resistant to the idea and just want to hang out at home - hence my idea of covering long holidays with an aupair. Half-terms etc I will mostly take off anyway.

I would look either for an Au-pair (who also did some cleaning) or a student who would just collect DC2, and be around to cook and supervise.

I have 14, 11, and 7. & will be going to after school club, with 14 year old picking up if I am late (but it is at her school). The other two will be getting themselves home and looking after themselves until I get in, with mobile phone check ups from me.

I will rely on friends for emergencies and DH of course.

The student is possibly a good idea. There is a third-level college a few miles up the road which offers courses in childcare. If someone there finished early enough to collect ds2, it might be a good job for them and relevant experience. I think I'll phone them and find out, maybe not today though, I presume term has just started there as well!

Shamelessly bumping this as I realized my target audience for information-seeking was probably at work when I posted this morning and of course nobody mumsnets when they are supposed to be at work, do they?

Do you have room for someone to live in? You have best pick of options if you do.

We don't have the room, so we have a live-out after-school carer, who has years of au pair experience, during which she put herself through college. She's now a freelance illustrator, but our job (which in term time is not much more than 3 hours a day, but is full time in the holidays) is her year-round, live-on, reliable income. We 'smooth' her pay between term time & holidays - so if you looked at her term time hourly rate it would look wildly generous (but once you factor in full time in holidays it is no more than normally crippling). However to be able to do the smoothing pay you have to have an element of trust that the person will stay for more than their handsomely paid single term!