Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What daycare has summer camp for under 5s??

Our 12-month daycare used the term “summer camp” from early June to Labor Day. They also added seasonal outdoor activity, such as water play, on certain days, and they had “themed” weeks during the summer. Cost was same. and there was no separate registration. It was just trying to have “fun” labeling during the summer months.

This.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have toddler in full time daycare.

As of last week half the kids are no longer in his class, it went from 12 to 6 kids. The second teacher is also no longer there.
I asked why and didn’t get a clear answer where all the other kids went but I’m assuming they dropped out and started summer camp.

Is this a bad sign about this particular classroom or teacher? None of the other toddler classes seem to be missing kids.

Not necessarily a bad sign. Might mean that some parents are teachers elsewhere and can take care of their kids during the summer. Also could be that some families are relocating (e.g., corporate, military, and government relocation is often in June/July)

+1. Also is this DC? Maybe some families are moving on to PK3. We are in MD and most families stay during the summer but there are always a couple that take extended vacations to visit overseas family, etc. But you have to keep paying during the summer even if you don't send the kids. My sister is a teacher and her kids attend a daycare that has more of a "camp" model for the summer with more flexibility. She still sends them a couple days per week but at the part-time rate, then will go back to fulltime in the fall. I could definitely see summer enrollment dropping with that sort of set-up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe some parents work for public school, and they could stay home with kids in summer. Maybe some parents have long vacation plan in summer or send away their toddler and older school age kids to spend time with grandparenta. I know someone drops out at summer because they plan to go to home country to visit and spend time with grandparents.

Given that it’s only 6 families, I would assume it’s a mix of: parent taking summer off work so no childcare needed (especially if one or both parents works for any type of school system), kids go to grandparents for the summer (either as childcare for older school aged siblings or to foster connected to grandparents/heritage culture), families taking a shorter vacation in June before older siblings start camps.

Oh and if they have much older siblings/cousins, could be they’re expected to babysit in the summer. I wouldn’t do that (and couldn’t, I have twins with no nearby cousins) but if money is tight I could definitely see why someone would.