Anonymous wrote:FLEX at Watkins was terrible--aside from pay-for extras, there appeared to be essentially no programming other than having the kids go outside, letting them play together inside, and screen time. We have found Polite Piggy's to be fantastic, with tons of included specials in addition to pay-for extras.

FLEX at LT was similar and equally terrible AND it was massively understaffed just post COVID and they lied about it. LT moved to internal providers (K teacher runs the aftercare and PK teacher enrichment) and everything is much better.

FLEX at Watkins was terrible--aside from pay-for extras, there appeared to be essentially no programming other than having the kids go outside, letting them play together inside, and screen time. We have found Polite Piggy's to be fantastic, with tons of included specials in addition to pay-for extras.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school uses Polite Piggys. It's around $400 a month, though they also have drop-in options and a sliding income based scale. They offer care on days off (but not federal holidays) and breaks at an extra charge. They have some specials included and have the option of adding on outside specials for extra fees. My impression is they spend a decent amount of time outside and I've never heard my kids mention the use of screens. My kids have generally enjoyed it. We also have experience with Champions and the free DCPS care and PP is far superior to both.

I'm curious---why is Polite Piggys so good? How is it better than the free DCPS aftercare for example?

Not the PP but we used Polite Piggy’s at our old school and while I have affection for a couple of the staff (and abject disdain for one of them) I don’t find them any better or worse than Champions at our new school. It’s more about the individual staff and how nurturing they are, and both companies have staff that are and staff that aren’t. I thought Polite Piggy’s communicated well and the site director especially was really open to supporting my kid when she was having a hard time (there was a lot of bullying type behavior). I didn’t like how they seemed unable to prevent kids (first and second graders) from having and using smart phones during aftercare, showing my kid fight scenes from Black Panther and other movies (in the end just glad it wasn’t p*rn). Haven’t had that issue with Champions but my feeling is more parents at the new school are anti-phone.

Anyway, not sure if this helps with your question. Curious as well why the PP thinks they are superior.

I'm the PP who prefers Polite Piggys to Champions and free DCPS. We had a horrible experience with free DCPS. Too dependent on screens, teachers weren't willing to take kids outside to play as frequently as we would have liked, and, in our experience, one teacher in particular had unreasonable expectations of kids' abilities to sit still and would punish the kids who acted out by making them lay face down on a rug in the classroom. Sounds lovely, right? I appreciate that this is very teacher dependent, but my kid had no interest of considering going back after that. Our school then moved to Champions, which was a lot better, but we found them to not be as willing to work with outside enrichment providers. Also, we didn't appreciate how they had a habit of giving kids candy as rewards and let the kids eat them during aftercare, even though school leadership asked them to stop. Our school then moved to Polite Piggys. We moved to another school that uses Polite Piggys and our experience was pretty similar at both schools. I like the option of having outside enrichment. Their website is easy to use and their staff is responsive. We haven't had any issues with phones or screens and they take the kids out to play a lot. There's structure and expectations for kid behaviors but there's no unreasonable punishment that I've seen. They don't give the kids candy or let kids eat candy that they may have brought in their own bags.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school uses Polite Piggys. It's around $400 a month, though they also have drop-in options and a sliding income based scale. They offer care on days off (but not federal holidays) and breaks at an extra charge. They have some specials included and have the option of adding on outside specials for extra fees. My impression is they spend a decent amount of time outside and I've never heard my kids mention the use of screens. My kids have generally enjoyed it. We also have experience with Champions and the free DCPS care and PP is far superior to both.

I'm curious---why is Polite Piggys so good? How is it better than the free DCPS aftercare for example?

Not the PP but we used Polite Piggy’s at our old school and while I have affection for a couple of the staff (and abject disdain for one of them) I don’t find them any better or worse than Champions at our new school. It’s more about the individual staff and how nurturing they are, and both companies have staff that are and staff that aren’t. I thought Polite Piggy’s communicated well and the site director especially was really open to supporting my kid when she was having a hard time (there was a lot of bullying type behavior). I didn’t like how they seemed unable to prevent kids (first and second graders) from having and using smart phones during aftercare, showing my kid fight scenes from Black Panther and other movies (in the end just glad it wasn’t p*rn). Haven’t had that issue with Champions but my feeling is more parents at the new school are anti-phone.

Anyway, not sure if this helps with your question. Curious as well why the PP thinks they are superior.

Aftercare at Janney is $26 a day

REEF at YY is pretty chaotic for the youngest kids but IME is great once they get a little older. $500 a month.

Ours is $260 month (and discounts for siblings, so 3 kids is $505) for afterschool (until 6) only. Also, flexible fees if you're just adding on care after clubs (which are separate). 1-2 specials a week chosen from a menu. Kids seem very happy. Lots of outside time and some reserved schoolwork/homework time. Some days have a themed activity; otherwise free play. Separated by grade, except for the specials which are clumped by age range.

I’m jealous of all of you. We are at lamb. Aftercare is terrible and almost no one gets in after teacher preference and FARMS Preference. It costs 500 for before and aftercare and 440 for just aftercare. Glorified babysitting at best. Terrible!

Anonymous wrote:Free at DCPS! There's some programming, like soccer once a week, and maybe dance/theatre, but mostly it's playground or free time, which i like. No coverage for days off, we don't have half days, and no coverage the day before a holiday (so like on Wednesday before Thanksgiving).

Same. They get 1 activity a week like art of music.

But it’s snack, an hour of HW, then an hour on the playground or inside playing.

Wow, I’m jealous! Apollo at Lee is significantly more for 5 days per week (I think it’s around $500).

We use the free DCPS program. It is free due to gov’t funding. Because of that thru hey are required to do academic enrichment. I wish they could just play outside but not enough to pay the $450 a month for the alternative program. I like that the DCPS program has the actual school teachers and staff so find the interactions with students more consistently high quality than the random staff for the private program.

Anonymous wrote:Our school uses Polite Piggys. It's around $400 a month, though they also have drop-in options and a sliding income based scale. They offer care on days off (but not federal holidays) and breaks at an extra charge. They have some specials included and have the option of adding on outside specials for extra fees. My impression is they spend a decent amount of time outside and I've never heard my kids mention the use of screens. My kids have generally enjoyed it. We also have experience with Champions and the free DCPS care and PP is far superior to both.

I'm curious---why is Polite Piggys so good? How is it better than the free DCPS aftercare for example?

We have Flex and it matches what OP describes. It’s just playtime and crafts but the staff is mostly nice and my young kids like them just fine. Standard 10% discount for #2 means about $650 a month for both and care runs till 6 (though we pretty much always get them earlier).

We have half days included and pay extra for coverage on maybe 2 PD days a year. Our school does a lot of half days so that being included in the rate is big.

Our school uses Polite Piggys. It's around $400 a month, though they also have drop-in options and a sliding income based scale. They offer care on days off (but not federal holidays) and breaks at an extra charge. They have some specials included and have the option of adding on outside specials for extra fees. My impression is they spend a decent amount of time outside and I've never heard my kids mention the use of screens. My kids have generally enjoyed it. We also have experience with Champions and the free DCPS care and PP is far superior to both.

Anonymous wrote:Champions at a DCPS. ECE.

It’s $100 a week which seems super reasonable for care from 3:15-6pm for five days. That’s like 7 bucks an hour.

They have a snack (included in the price), play inside for a while in a PK classroom or the gym, then play on the playground. No screens that I’ve heard of (and my kids are quick to say when there are videos at school, so I think I’d know). Honestly my only “complaint” is that I wish they did playground first because I usually pick up a little after 5, so they only get a short time on the playground.

I’m quite pleased.

If I were you, the only thing that would bug me is the screens.

PP to add - no coverage for days off. I’d love it if they offered that, even if it was at significant cost!