Please tell me this can't be right!

[perfectpeach]

My three year old is at a childminder 4 full days a week. I have apprehensions about sending him to the local school nursery in September as he is very sensitive and it is large, noisy and boisterous. The childminder said she is unwilling for him to have his free 15 hours with her as he will get better socialisation at the nursery. So against my better judgment I have enrolled him at the local nursery.

She has said she will still charge me for full days even when he is at the nursery as she will be taking him and collecting him and she won't be taking on another child and she will be free to collect him should he get poorly and it will keep his place with her open in the school holidays.

I am annoyed because even though he will be getting free hours, I won't be saving any money. I am a single, self employed mother. I would be better off on benefits but I don't want to give up work. It just galls me as I don't want him to be in the nursery anyway, given a choice. I am only sending him because of the childminder not giving me a choice. If she is going to keep his place open and charge me full price for the privilege then why can't he be with her full time and have his free hours with her and we will be better off? It's a saving of £50 a week which is a huge amount for me, it's the difference between eating cheap, but filling, rubbish or a diet that has fresh fruit, veg and meat in it. It means the difference between risking a food bank if work hasn't gone well, or me actually being able to buy food. I could go on to income support and be better off but I don't want to be on benefits, I want to work, and work will become more profitable in time, I am still getting established.

Is this standard practice for childminders? Because if it is I will lump it, if it isn't I will tell her I am going to look for alternative childcare.

Thanks

As others have said, it's a standard charge.

You need to decide if you would prefer your son to get his school nursery hours or if he'd get more out of being with the childminder, as it is cost neutral for you.

What do you think?

I think my son would benefit more from the better adult:child ratio with the childminder. He really didn't like the nursery when we went to look around and couldn't wait to leave. He might have just been having an off day, though he has been at a private nursery and enjoyed that, I think he just didn't like the school nursery due to the size and noise.

But another thing is, when I interviewed her the childminder said when they weren't at groups they did activities, yet he's not once brought home any arts and crafts or drawings, I would have expected him to.

And despite him having a hat and suncream, he has come home today with sunburn which I am not pleased about

Then you are perfectly entitled not to use his nursery place.

We have used a cm 2 days and nursery 2 days for some time when funding kicked in last yr we just use 12hrs of funding with the nursery it's just deducted off the bill doesn't save use a huge amount but saves some. Cm doesn't offer funded hrs many don't so we didn't use the remaining 3hrs.

Another little girl at cm doesn't use any funded hrs she attends full time and when her mum looked at nursery for couple days the funded hrs didn't save that much n childcare would have cost her more in a yr as cm cheaper than nursery n funded hrs only term time.

I would be spitting feathers if my child got sunburn whilst in the care of a CM! What did she say?

She can't charge you for a full day but refuse to have him for 3 hours!

If you want him to go to nursery then fine, but if you'd rather he stayed at the CM and you're paying for those hours, then you should be able to use them.

However, she doesn't sound great.

We do a lot of activities here, but the children don't often have something to take home. That's because, in my opinion, it's the easiest thing in the world to stick paper and paints in front of a child so they have something to show Mummy (one of our preschools does it all the time!), but pretty boring and limited for the child.

Likewise, I can tell when the preschool has helped them do a craft, also to keep parents happy

Now us...

We do a lot of exploring and experimenting. I can't send home the dinner we cooked together, I can't send home the worm hunts, the water and pulley experiment, the gravity and slopes investigation. Google Teacher Tom to see what I mean.

Do parents honestly want us to interrupt this learning just so they have something to take home and prove we've done our jobs?

Sunburn is not good and needs to be brought up with the childminder so she can address that.

Agree at the artwork the 'child did' and actually the adult did

And hate sunburnt kids / no need for it. See it a lot on holiday :(

Contrary to what some people think,we don't get 15 free hours whilst the little ones are at nursery.I drop off at nursery at 9.00. By the time I get home it's 9.30.I then have to leave at 11.30 to collect the child.So I only get 2 'free' hours.During that time,(as well as looking after other children),I am preparing activities/lunch/completing paperwork,learning journals,etc for the children in my care which includes the child at nursery.I can't fill those 2 hours with another child.I am also on hand if the child is ill and the space is also needed in holidays.Many minders don't offer 3 year funding because it's less than they actually charge per hour,but there's more paperwork involved.
I do believe that, for the year before a child starts school, a child needs to go to a nursery or pre school to help get them used to a group situation but if you don't want to use the free nursery place then you don't have to.That is your choice and I think she should respect that.
I actually think,after reading about our other issues with her,there is a bigger picture that you need to address.

I agree with Tanith about the pointlessness of doing crafts just to have something to show Mummy and Daddy, though I also think you can address that to a certain extent by taking snaps of the littlies doing interesting stuff (though not to the point that they feel they are making a documentary! ...and obviously not if you have your hands full supervising whatever they are doing). I also think there are occasions when a little help doesn't harm - they may not have stuck every sequin on every card they ever made, but with a bit of help here and there - not just from the adults but from each other - they will get more and more capable and do more and more themselves. Sometimes doing things together is the point, not the collage or whatever.

I think you've lost trust in your cm. I didn't like one and found myself worrying about a lot of things she was doing. She didn't like me or dd much either... It tooka while for things to come to a head but once we'd parted company I was so relieved. Should have done it way sooner.

So I would think hard about whether she's the right cm for you. And check out other cms, to see if you can find one you prefer.

Funded placements aren't child care no but they are a bloody bonus when you are on one or a low wage.
I was certainly glad to out mine towards my nursery bill.