Supply teacher childcare dilemma!

[RubyCharlie]

Hello, I was wondering whether anyone out there has a practical solution for our childcare problems! My husband and I have spent hours going round and round in circles and never come up with a solution!!

Here is the background.... I have a 4 year old son who attends nursery three mornings a week from 9:30-1pm. He loves it here and has only got until end of July before the summer holidays/he starts school. I have a 2 year old who goes to the same nursery just on Mondays.

My husband is a full time teacher. I am a supply teacher on an as and when basis. I ideally would work on average 2 days a week but these days vary from week to week and are not always the same two days. Some weeks I have nothing, others I have 3 days.

Until now I have been relying on my parents to look after my sons on these days. But they live a long way away and due to ill health are now no longer to help. We have no other family help or support.

Does ANYONE have ANY ideas to how I can work this out!! I have tried phoning nurseries and they say that they can be flexible to come extent but it would mean paying for 2 days a week even if there is no supply available for me.

I hope this makes sense! Obviously ideally I would have family help or have a permanent 2 day a week job but neither are available at the moment.

Many thanks in advance :-)

My daughter's childminder has a lot of children on her books whose parents do shift work. Have you requested a list of childminders from your family information service? Hopefully there will be a few who can offer ad hoc cover rather than you paying for childcare that you might not use.

Also, is your elder son not entitled to 15 hours free childcare hours a week? These can often be used with a cm too so that may save you some money as it looks like he's only doing 10.5 hours at the mo.

have messaged you.

Do you have space for an au pair?

oooh, wow! Thanks for all the replies! I've messaged you back iluvkids. Rita, unfortunately we don't have the space or the money for an au pair. Wedo - that was something we hadn't thought about - the extra hours we're not claiming. I will check a list of cm and see what we can come up with. Thanks for the fresh ideas :-)

Is the cost of childcare worth what you get fromsupply?

I never looked at it before DD started school as it seemed too difficult unless I signed DD into a nursery 1 or 2 fixed days a week and then looked for supply only on these days. Once she started at school I was able to do supply on 2 days a week using parents for before and after school care. I then was offered some supply in a PRU and was able to negotiate 10-2 hours so was able to do 3 days a week and still do the before and after day care although the compromise was that I was paid by the hour so got a little less money but with much less hassle. Am now working 4 full days a week with childminder for before and after school care. So eventually I got there but the fact that I had time out of the profession really didn;t help me get back into it as I was an expensive teacher with not much recent experience. If I was to do it again I think I would have organised nursery full time for 2 days and then marketed myself for supply on these days- so long as I was able to get work for half of it then I would see it as OK
Good luck

I'm not a supply teacher but do work on an ad hoc basis. DS goes to a CM and I pay for 5 mornings a week, however on the days that DS isn't with her, my CM only charges half her usual fees.

Might be one way around it?

i was going to suggest what sunnylabsmum

that is is pick days
get child care arrange for these days
the child care would need to bomb proof as you dont have back if child is sick so a live out au pair/nanny/mothers helper might be need for wrap around care if your parents are too sick to look after a sick kid.
and just take work on these days
gives the kids and you a routine if you dont have work on those days you could do house stuff /look for a permanent day week job /have me time

Hope I can help :)

I'm a supply nursery nurse who uses a term time only childminder. It works great for us and she is flexible so although I normally do Tues/Wed, she can change my days when I get different days.