childcare in school holidays

[turkeyboots]

My DD will be starting school in Sept and I'm wondering what to do over summer holidays? She's been at nursery since she was 6 months, but won't be able to go back as they only go up to age 5. There are some local nurseries which do after school and holiday care, but DS (8 monts) has just settled into nursery now and don't want to move them, or be doing 2 drop offs. I can take a few weeks off over summer, but need to save holiday to cover half terms, christmas and easter holidays.

Are school holiday clubs good? Ours is in the school hall and doesn't seem like a nice place for her to spend 6- 8 weeks. I get loads of flyers for summer courses, but they are all for a week and expensive. Do childminders take kids over the holidays? Would a nanny take such a short term job?

Questions, questions! Anyone have any ideas?

What about not during school holidays, how will you be dealing with:
School staggered entry, is your school does that (children start mornings only, only go full-time after half-term)
Taking to and collecting from school?

A childminder could do before and after school care plus some of school holidays. The childminder would probably want some time off themselves, so you would need to take annual leave at the same time that the childminder takes off.

Some children like holiday clubs while others do not. They can often be sports based. Times they run vary.

A nanny with their own child may be looking for part-time work, though if going to the cost of a nanny then consider having a full-time nanny and not having DS in nursery. Nannies don't get paid per child so its better value the more children you have.

I work from home, so in school term(once she's full time) she'll be at home with me before and after school. School is a max 5min walk away. And for the first few weeks have come to an arrangement with work, so thankfully thats not a problem.

Its really just the long summer breaks for the next 14 years which worry me. And have no family in this country, so thats no help.

I think it's quite common to hire a summer au pair / nanny (probably nanny in your case). If you have a room for him/her this is probably the most economical. Otherwise, as you say, I would think it's down to holiday clubs.

Hi turkeyboots! Whereabouts are you? I'm a nanny, and am due to begin a ew job in september, so am looking for something temporary over the summer.

Feel free to a-mail me ([email protected] - please ignore the silly, unprofessional address...it's the only email account I have without my name!).
Take care!

Sorry, its next summer I'm already worrying about!

Hehe! No problem! But, as I am testament to, there are definitely nannies out there looking for short-term contracts. If a nanny is the most appropriate option for you, I'm sure it will be fesable. Teaching assistants might also be looking for work to cover holidays... Might be worth approaching either DD's school staff or DS's nursery staff?

Hi, I am a registered childminder and take children on for school holidays only

they be other parents who have the same problem so you might end up doing what I do which is swapping care. Last year(dd's first year at school) ds went to his cm as usual then I put dd into a gymnastics club for a week, then had a mixture of my friends, family and her friends parents sorting out the rets of the time.

This year dh is taking time off for 2 weeks as the cm is off and i'm only part-time so he doesn't even use a week of annual leave to cover my 2 weeks work! Then I have the other 4 weeks covered by family, friends and am swapping a few days with dd's friends parents.

Try not to worry about it now. I know that's hard as i'm the sort of person to worry like mad a year in advance but it will sort itself out. Once your dd has started and you get talking to some other parents you'll hopefully find some of them would love to swap care. Helps keep dc entertained too plus they miss their friends over the long summer break.