Preschool schedule

[Anonymous]

Our preschool works like this too. There are a number of families with a SAHP but also many nanny families. Then there’s a surprising number of families making it work with part time schedules, unusual work schedules, or heavily involved grandparents. Some families with a lot of flexibility can make it work, but the simple answer is that traditional preschool is not designed for working families.

[Anonymous]

MSM has Summer Camp options, week by week, for most of June & July, but there is a 1 week gap between end of school and start of MSM's camp. Nothing for August.

Parents currently at MSM get early access to apply for the MSM camp. Smart MSM parents book their DC's summer camp immediately when offered, as it will fill up quickly.

Other camp options might exist at other preschools or at Langley School (little Langley).

The whole US school system is still designed around the idea that moms are able to stay home and do child care anytime schools are closed. Scandinavia is different and better supports 2 working parents.

[Anonymous]

This is only normal for half day mommy needs a break/mommy's day out type of preschools. Real preschools operate on a more school-like schedule - ours has a one to two week break at Christmas-time plus federal holidays. They do teacher conferences during a regular school day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s normal for a preschool schedule for a 3 year old?

We have our child starting at MSM. I wanted to know if the calendar for the school year is typical of preschools and how to manage the coverage with full time work.

-2 weeks off for winter break, 1 week off for spring break, and 3 months off for summer break

-8 professional work days, 4 teacher conf. days, 7 federal holidays

It seems like a lot of days I’m going to have to take off work or find coverage not counting sick days.

We’ll plan on a camp for the summer and a trip during spring break, how do folks handle the rest of the days?

How do 2 working parents deal with so many breaks? Our daycare does a preschool curriculum starting from age 3. The preschool kids we know all have one parent staying home or grandparents who help.

I am keeping my kid at her (large, corporate) daycare facility, as they have a preschool calendar that works better for working parents. Our facility is also great about letting us know all of the closed days at the beginning of the year, so my husband and I block off/split up what we can and tap into grandparents well in advance.

I see how that is fine for now.

But what can one do once the child starts K or 1st grade somewhere ?

The same coverage gaps will exist. I am genuinely interested in hearing solutions, because we can't figure it out for our DC. (If people want a higher birth rate in the US they need to create better child care options for school breaks.)

[Anonymous]

You need day care, not preschool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s normal for a preschool schedule for a 3 year old?

We have our child starting at MSM. I wanted to know if the calendar for the school year is typical of preschools and how to manage the coverage with full time work.

-2 weeks off for winter break, 1 week off for spring break, and 3 months off for summer break

-8 professional work days, 4 teacher conf. days, 7 federal holidays

It seems like a lot of days I’m going to have to take off work or find coverage not counting sick days.

We’ll plan on a camp for the summer and a trip during spring break, how do folks handle the rest of the days?

How do 2 working parents deal with so many breaks? Our daycare does a preschool curriculum starting from age 3. The preschool kids we know all have one parent staying home or grandparents who help.

I am keeping my kid at her (large, corporate) daycare facility, as they have a preschool calendar that works better for working parents. Our facility is also great about letting us know all of the closed days at the beginning of the year, so my husband and I block off/split up what we can and tap into grandparents well in advance.

I see how that is fine for now.

But what can one do once the child starts K or 1st grade somewhere ?

The same coverage gaps will exist. I am genuinely interested in hearing solutions, because we can't figure it out for our DC. (If people want a higher birth rate in the US they need to create better child care options for school breaks.)

Those school age kids go to summer camps or winter camps. In competitive places, you need to prepare to sign up in January of that year for summer. How are you not figuring it out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The same coverage gaps will exist. I am genuinely interested in hearing solutions, because we can't figure it out for our DC.)

Those school age kids go to summer camps or winter camps. In competitive places, you need to prepare to sign up in January of that year for summer. How are you not figuring it out?

So far, I still don't see how to cover all of August, plus a week of spring break, plus xmas break, plus random school days off.

The summer camps mostly start in mid-June end in late July, so August is not covered. (I am not a Fed, so I do not get many of the Federal holidays.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s normal for a preschool schedule for a 3 year old?

We have our child starting at MSM. I wanted to know if the calendar for the school year is typical of preschools and how to manage the coverage with full time work.

-2 weeks off for winter break, 1 week off for spring break, and 3 months off for summer break

-8 professional work days, 4 teacher conf. days, 7 federal holidays

It seems like a lot of days I’m going to have to take off work or find coverage not counting sick days.

We’ll plan on a camp for the summer and a trip during spring break, how do folks handle the rest of the days?

How do 2 working parents deal with so many breaks? Our daycare does a preschool curriculum starting from age 3. The preschool kids we know all have one parent staying home or grandparents who help.

They choose daycare. Kids benefit from consistency, so I wouldn't choose a place like this for a kid with 2 working parents unless I had a nanny home with an infant sibling or a teacher parent with the same schedule. I think that cobbling together childcare for 3 year olds isn't a great approach.

+1 preschool at our daycare has been great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The same coverage gaps will exist. I am genuinely interested in hearing solutions, because we can't figure it out for our DC.)

Those school age kids go to summer camps or winter camps. In competitive places, you need to prepare to sign up in January of that year for summer. How are you not figuring it out?

So far, I still don't see how to cover all of August, plus a week of spring break, plus xmas break, plus random school days off.

The summer camps mostly start in mid-June end in late July, so August is not covered. (I am not a Fed, so I do not get many of the Federal holidays.)

Is your kid in aftercare? My aftercare covers the random days off and I take PTO when necessary for federal holidays I don’t get and Christmas week and spring break (yes, I hoard my PTO for these). Right now my kid is still young enough for a daycare summer camp that runs all summer but the last week when I take some PTO and we visit the grandparents (who do some baby sitting so I can get work done). When my kids age out of daycare camp, I expect I will try to find one-week camps to cover august or hire babysitters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s normal for a preschool schedule for a 3 year old?

We have our child starting at MSM. I wanted to know if the calendar for the school year is typical of preschools and how to manage the coverage with full time work.

-2 weeks off for winter break, 1 week off for spring break, and 3 months off for summer break

-8 professional work days, 4 teacher conf. days, 7 federal holidays

It seems like a lot of days I’m going to have to take off work or find coverage not counting sick days.

We’ll plan on a camp for the summer and a trip during spring break, how do folks handle the rest of the days?

How do 2 working parents deal with so many breaks? Our daycare does a preschool curriculum starting from age 3. The preschool kids we know all have one parent staying home or grandparents who help.

You still need a nanny bc if you add up the hours they are actually in preschool plus commuting time, it’s not possible to work and do that. If you only have one child a nanny share or part time nanny will work. We used a college student as a part time nanny when we had our first in preschool.

[Anonymous]

Not typical for daycare. Very typical for elementary school. Not all preschools are for all families - I say that as a person who sent her children to 8am - 5:30pm year round daycare until kindergarten because our family has 2 adults who work full time, traditional hours.

The difference with elementary school is that camps are available.

Federal holidays - you should expect to cover these. If you have a job where you work holidays, you need to figure something out on your own. There are no camps or classes.

Teacher work days - you probably need to take off of work. Depending on the size of your school system, there may be camps. Fairfax has camps for some teacher work days. Other parents are in the same boat - if you are lucky, you can find a family or two to trade coverage with.

Spring break, Summer, and winter - camps are available. Find out when the sign-up occcurs. They fill up fast and signup is much earlier than you might expect.

Extended day before and after school - you also need to sign up well in advance for this.

When your child is 3-4, start learning from parents with older kids what you need to do to plan ahead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The same coverage gaps will exist. I am genuinely interested in hearing solutions, because we can't figure it out for our DC.)

Those school age kids go to summer camps or winter camps. In competitive places, you need to prepare to sign up in January of that year for summer. How are you not figuring it out?

So far, I still don't see how to cover all of August, plus a week of spring break, plus xmas break, plus random school days off.

The summer camps mostly start in mid-June end in late July, so August is not covered. (I am not a Fed, so I do not get many of the Federal holidays.)

Are you in the DC area? My kids are in camp in August. Fairfax and Arlington county camps go right up to the 1st week of school. There may be no spots open now - but the camps exist. Sign up was in Jan and Feb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s normal for a preschool schedule for a 3 year old?

We have our child starting at MSM. I wanted to know if the calendar for the school year is typical of preschools and how to manage the coverage with full time work.

-2 weeks off for winter break, 1 week off for spring break, and 3 months off for summer break

-8 professional work days, 4 teacher conf. days, 7 federal holidays

It seems like a lot of days I’m going to have to take off work or find coverage not counting sick days.

We’ll plan on a camp for the summer and a trip during spring break, how do folks handle the rest of the days?

How do 2 working parents deal with so many breaks? Our daycare does a preschool curriculum starting from age 3. The preschool kids we know all have one parent staying home or grandparents who help.

I am keeping my kid at her (large, corporate) daycare facility, as they have a preschool calendar that works better for working parents. Our facility is also great about letting us know all of the closed days at the beginning of the year, so my husband and I block off/split up what we can and tap into grandparents well in advance.

I see how that is fine for now.

But what can one do once the child starts K or 1st grade somewhere ?

The same coverage gaps will exist. I am genuinely interested in hearing solutions, because we can't figure it out for our DC. (If people want a higher birth rate in the US they need to create better child care options for school breaks.)

In elementary school, you sign your kid up for after care - either through the school system or a private place.

[Anonymous]

2 working parents usually can’t deal with this kind of schedule.

The traditional “preschools” around the dmv seem to be closed more often than they are open. You forgot to mention all the random half days that are half days for no apparent reason.

Daycare for the win. My daycare is closed for major holidays only and the required 2-3 staff development days per year. And I think 1-2 days at the end of the “year” before the beginning of the “year”.

And for those who bring up “well what will you do when your kid is on a school year calendar that has all these breaks?” As someone who has 3 kids I can tell you that there are tons of “break” camps but they are only offered for kids 5 and up. Not to mention it is much easier to keep a school Ager entertained while you may need to work at home than it is to keep a 3-4 year old. It’s just a totally different stage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The same coverage gaps will exist. I am genuinely interested in hearing solutions, because we can't figure it out for our DC.)

Those school age kids go to summer camps or winter camps. In competitive places, you need to prepare to sign up in January of that year for summer. How are you not figuring it out?

DP but I have noticed that it is somewhat typical for preschool camps in my part of MoCo (Silver Spring) not to operate in August. Plus I hear from people with older kids that the last week or two in August is hard to schedule.
So far, I still don't see how to cover all of August, plus a week of spring break, plus xmas break, plus random school days off.

The summer camps mostly start in mid-June end in late July, so August is not covered. (I am not a Fed, so I do not get many of the Federal holidays.)

Are you in the DC area? My kids are in camp in August. Fairfax and Arlington county camps go right up to the 1st week of school. There may be no spots open now - but the camps exist. Sign up was in Jan and Feb.