Breakfast / After school club or Childminder

[summerlovingvibes]

Currently have a childminder who does school drop offs and pick ups, so usually can drop DD at 8am and collect at 5, then she is taken to school 9-3.

Primary school offer breakfast and after school club that would cover these times.

Pros and cons / previous experiences please? Can't decide which one to do.

She knows child minder well (have used her a few years) and also likes school.

What are you going to do in the school holidays and training days?
Does your child like a quieter time after a long day?
If she has a falling out at school will it be too much to spend after school time with the same people or to go to a home environment?

When I had the choice I went with a childminder. I wanted my son to have a home to go to rather than staying on at school for extended hours (albeit a club). I wanted him to be able to have downtime if he needed it and a cuddle if his day hadn’t gone well for any reason.

@jannier such a good point and exactly why I wrote this post - my brain just isn't functioning at the moment! School holidays - of course! What would I do?!?! Childminder it is!

@Laylalow that's a really good point too - I think a "home" is nice after school.

I have another younger child too who will be at the childminders, so it all makes sense. I just worried I was missing some reasoning for school clubs as opposed to CM. Thanks both x

It depends on what your childminder is like and what they do.

I have been put off by using childminder for wrap around as I saw first hand how my previous childminder picked up older kids and they were just made to sit on the sofa and watch ceebeebies and being ignored as the childminder was still looking after toddlers and babies.

You're in a great position to suss out how the childminder manages young and older children after school, as you're there picking up your small child at 5pm. Ask to come in for a chat, or to use the loo, and see what the bigger ones are doing. At my childminders they'd be reading or drawing or hamma beads or playing uno at the kitchen table, while the smalls played or watched some TV (which I know is not on all of the time).

As long as your childminder is good, I'd pick that a million times over kids club. Or do a mixture through the week; we did that for a while when my kids wanted to go to after school club.

Childminders can be an expensive option for school holidays AFAIK. Clubs obviously don't get ill or take holidays.

I suspect people who use nursery tend to move to clubs and people who use Childminders stick with them.

Ask to visit after school.....maybe not the first time as they may want to have time for you without distractions. See what activities the children are doing. Today it was pouring down and we were soaked so it was a bit of a strange one but normally we have games and craft going on and children dip in and out depending on mood. Often it's a massive den build. The children aged 1 to 10 know each other really well so it's like a big family atmosphere the older ones often read or play with the smaller ones but sometimes want to chill.