Summer options for preschoolers?

[Anonymous]

I'm thinking of moving my daughter from her current 12 month daycare/preschool to a 10 month preschool. My husband and I both work full time, 12 months of the year. I'm wondering about the local options for summer care for preschoolers. I don't know if I would need the whole summer - between grandparent visits and vacations, I'm sure we can cut down on the number of weeks needed, but I don't want to make the move without knowing that there are options. What have others done for their preschoolers?

Thanks!!

[Anonymous]

Where do you live?

[Anonymous]

Sorry...that would be helpful! I'm in Montgomery County, MD.

[Anonymous]

How old is your daughter? And where in MoCo are you looking?

[Anonymous]

My daughter is 2 now but this won't be until she is almost 4 at the earliest (summer 2012). I would want to be in Olney, Rockville, Bethesda areas.

[Anonymous]

Norwood has a good summer camp that includes preschoolers. Extended day option, runs almost the whole summer. Real teacher in every preschool classrom instead of the high school/college-aged counselors that so many camps use.

[Anonymous]

Winchester School in Silver Spring (but right across the Rockville line) has a nice little all-day camp for 3 year olds and up. It's also on a weekly basis from the time school ends (mid-June) through mid-August. The last 2 weeks of August are usually the hardest times to find camp.

[Anonymous]

Another option is to find an in-home daycare or center-based daycare that has an opening for the summer months. I know my daughter's home daycare in Bethesda has taken in youngsters sometimes for a few weeks or months if there's space. I know of at least 2 center-based daycares in Bethesda that also accept "drop-ins" if there's room (for however many days/weeks you need).

[Anonymous]

Children's Learning Center in Rockville has a 'summer camp'.

There are a bunch in Rockville, near Town Center - ECC (Early Childhood Center), Georgetown Hill at Woodley Gardens.

[Anonymous]

You may want to look at the Jewish Community center in Rockville's camps. You don't have to be Jewish.

[Anonymous]

As long as your DD will be 3.5 or 4 you should have lots of options. We did Norwoord because I was not comfortable with horses or a pool. Some friends did Bullis in potomac and liked it. Most of the private schools have camp programs and some have junior programs. You can look at each private school's website to see if there is a camp and the age range.

[Anonymous]

to the 22:54 poster. The JCC camp is only 7 weeks long. My kids went there for preschool. It ended June 8th. Camp began 2 weeks later. Then there were 3 weeks at the end of camp before "school" began again. They have week long fill in the gap programs at the JCC to cover those weeks, but boy are they expensive. Just filling in the info that I know about since we have gone that route 2x already. I normally take 2 weeks off, then we do a vaca at the end of the summer also. The camp is really terrific though.

[Anonymous]

When we were looking at summer camps for my 3-4 year old, it was easy to find coverage until August. So depending on when your child's school starts in the fall, you might need to go on vacation/call in the grandparents in August. But the rest of the summer, you should be able to find options that work.

[Anonymous]

We did St. Andrew's Episcopal School's camp with extended day last summer (at the River Rd campus) and it was fantastic. Extended day goes until 6pm, if I remember correctly. As a PP said, most if not all of the school-based camps run June through early August. Good luck!