This was a major reason we did not take my DD out of daycare until K. My daycare was open 355 days/year, all day. I couldn't find a preschool near me that was open more than 44 weeks/year, and the hours were not as good.

Now that DD is in ES we deal with the school schedule and it's fine -- but on the other hand there are a lot of camps for ES kids, or she can self-entertain for a couple hours. There are very few options for little kids.

Sitter/family care/took leave. It’s a huge downside of you have two parents with FT jobs.

We arranged with the daycare to send our kids back during school breaks just paid per day

Anonymous wrote:We are thinking of switching from our daycare center to a preschool that is on a regular school schedule. I’m wondering what people do in these situations during all the breaks. Do you just take off from work or do you find a sitter?

Combination of the both. Vacations are planned to coincide with the closures.

When mine were in a traditional part-time preschool, all the parents either had a SAHP or a nanny or a parent with a very part-time/flexible job (that was me - did freelance consulting work + a small PT job when DH was home)

Anonymous wrote:Camps, sitter, take off.

Every activity place under the sun will offer a "school's out" camp. It's very easy to find alternate care.

Not true (current parent of a 4yr old)
1. Many school holiday camp offerings are not currently available due to Covid. Who knows what will be in business next year.
2. School break camps are often limited to kindergarten or older.
3. Camps not affiliated with the preschool tend to be aligned to the local school system. My preschool has parent conferences and teacher work days that are not aligned to the public school system.

Our full day preschool is open during the summer - but they do more play and crafts and less numbers and letters.

They have different early release days, teacher conference ans training days from public school - and we cover those like a snow day - movies and activities for the kids at home while we try our best to work. Or we take the kid to grandma’s.

We did not do Arlington public schools pre-K because that program doesn’t offer extended day care for kids under 5 - at least at our school - and that didn’t work for us.

Kids can go to many camps starting the summer before kindergarten. Unless your kid is like mine and doesn’t turn 5 until late summer.

We never used preschool instead of daycare. We sent our kids to preschool part time in the year before kindergarten so they'd get a little school experience under their belts. We still kept paying our nanny full time, so when school was out, the nanny was on duty.

Breaks during the year tend to coincide with times we are taking time off or traveling anyway.

Most PKs will do a summer camp and give preferential enrollment to kids already at the school. I also know people who will hire a nanny for the summer— if you are on top of it, you can find a college kid or recent grad who is a good fit and will be happy with full time temporary employment.

It’s the same stuff you will deal with when they start grade school, so might as well get used to it and get some systems in place.

Camps, sitter, take off.

Every activity place under the sun will offer a "school's out" camp. It's very easy to find alternate care.

Camps through the school or outside the school, grandparent help, taking time off

We are thinking of switching from our daycare center to a preschool that is on a regular school schedule. I’m wondering what people do in these situations during all the breaks. Do you just take off from work or do you find a sitter?