Spin off (sort of): Question about older kids and daycare/"camp"

[ALLGIRLS]

The post (from Kendra) about staying home vs. working (what do most Catholic moms do), got me wondering something. Like I mentioned, I stay home now, and really have zero desire to ever go back to work, but my husband wants me to, be we really are financially struggling (but making it. Barely). I’m putting it off. Currently, I have 3 kids in elementary school (ages 10, 8, and 6), one in preschool (4. He’ll have one more year of preschool before starting kindergarten. His birthday is in September, and Missouri’s cutoff is July 31st. All my kids have late summer through fall bdays, so are the oldest in their classes, but I digress), and a 2 year old who still has another whole year before he’ll even be in preschool. Around here, daycares have a cutoff age of 11 or 12. I don’t think that’s old enough to be left alone all day (especially for my kids!). Our grade school has before and after care for all the up through 8th grade, but during the summer they’d have to be in a “day camp”. What do you all do with your kids in the summer? We don’t have any local family that could watch them or even check in, and there’s just no way I can leave my kids all day until at least age 13, if not 14 (when I hope they could get summer jobs babysitting someone else’s kids!)

In Christ,
Ellen

 

[jmcrae]

Is there something you could do from home to earn some pocket money? Maybe type papers for University students, or something like that … ?

 

[mommy_k]

Adverise in a local college for day nanny- preferably education major.
Check with guidance about character etc. Just call the college.

 

[sharmin]

Summer Camp is an awesome thing for kids. It’s a child care of sorts, but it’s all summer fun! Many will have day trips, water play, outdoor activities, etc. I know my kids had a much more active summer at camp than the summers they stayed home with me. Definately a good investment for your money, in my opinion. At least the few I saw were.

 

[ALLGIRLS]

Summer Camp is an awesome thing for kids. It’s a child care of sorts, but it’s all summer fun! Many will have day trips, water play, outdoor activities, etc. I know my kids had a much more active summer at camp than the summers they stayed home with me. Definately a good investment for your money, in my opinion. At least the few I saw were.

The problem is they don’t take kids (at the ones in my area) who are 12 or over. I don’t think that’s old enough to stay home alone all day. I agree they’d have a great time (even though we’d probably have to save up the other 9 months of the year to afford it!)

In Christ,
Ellen

 

[Kelfa28]

My sister and I did summer day camp at a YMCA. I’ve always had great memories of camping trips we did through Girl Scouts or the Y. Swimming, hiking, horse-back riding, camp fires.
My mom worked part time as a ballet teacher and would pick up a side job in the summer working at these camps when there was a break during the summer.
It was just my sister and I and I believe we started the Girl Scout camp at age nine…which meant my sister was 8.
We’d see her everyday while she was working…but we enjoyed the camping experience too.

Clearly your children are still quite young but I’m in a similar predicament as you too. Hubby is unemployed but he wants me to stay home. We are scraping by on his unemployment checks but that may end soon when time runs out.
I want to consider looking for a job just to help out.

Right now we are selling lots of things on Ebay to help with expensive essentials such as gas and groceries.
We’ve gone through most of the junk we had around the house that is collecting dust and now I’m tapping into my crafty side and making things to sell.

It’s an idea at least. You never know what you can make or sell. We sold an old brass door knocker for $30 that we found in the basement after we moved into our house. My husband also became a bit crafty himself after a hurricane tore down a tree limb in our yard. He carved a home-made bow that looked like a decorative piece and someone actually bought it for $40.

 

[Kelfa28]

The problem is they don’t take kids (at the ones in my area) who are 12 or over. I don’t think that’s old enough to stay home alone all day. I agree they’d have a great time (even though we’d probably have to save up the other 9 months of the year to afford it!)

In Christ,
Ellen

One more thing.

My mom was in this situation and found specialty programs for older kids at day camps. I went to two of these programs at 12 and 13. Sometimes they have leadership programs or adventure-style programs.
I did the latter and we went camping in the woods, went off camp to the beach and other day activities like mountain biking.
We weren’t tied down to the program the younger kids did…especially with things like swim lessons and canoe lessons.
We could go swimming whenever our counselors let us and go canoeing when we wanted to without taking the classes.

In fact, we’d take out the younger kids on short canoe trips around the pond when there weren’t enough counselors to do so.
You might be able to squeeze out another year or so from these programs until the kids are old enough to be at home alone.
My mom took advantage of this.

 

[sharmin]

The problem is they don’t take kids (at the ones in my area) who are 12 or over. I don’t think that’s old enough to stay home alone all day. I agree they’d have a great time (even though we’d probably have to save up the other 9 months of the year to afford it!)

In Christ,
Ellen

Ahhh, I see your predicament. Call these camps and see if they can take your 12 year old in some sort of “leadership position”. This is what they did with my son last year . I think they should always take kids until age 13, when it’s more reasonable for them to stay home. I bet the reason it’s always 12 is because in most states that’s the age when it’s “legal” for kids to babysit. I wasn’t comfortable with it at age 12, though, either.

 

[smswife]

Our Y day camp takes older kids as “Leaders in training” and then “Counselers in training”. I would check into that.

Or better yet, maybe you can get a job that coincides with the school year: bus driver or aide, teacher’s aide, cafeteria worker, etc.

 

[Wackotrad]

We’re going to be in this same position next summer, so I’m watching this thread closely! Most summer camps in my area cut off at age 11, which I think is ridiculous. There are a few that offer “teen camps,” but they lump 12-16 year olds together, and I really don’t want my 12-year-old hanging out with 16-year-olds all summer.

12 and 13 are such awkward ages from a childcare standpoint. Too old for a babysitter, but too young to drive or to get a job.