Anonymous wrote:My 11 year old goes to aftercare and loves it, she is a people person, so loves to socialize. She'll continue next year.

Ditto. My 11 year old 6th grade daughter goes to aftercare. She gets her homework done and she likes to socialize. They don't offer aftercare for 7th grade unfortunately. I'm hoping she'll join a sports team or something by then.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you. I noticed that many of the 4th graders walked home themselves and I was wondering if that was the norm.

Those who go home, what do they do at home? How long are they typically home alone?

Only about 30 minutes to an hour in our neighborhood. The bus doesn't drop off until very late (after 4:30) in our neighborhood and the parents I know who do this usually get home by 5:30, and many only are out of the house less than all 5 days (hybrid schedule or they're taking siblings somewhere or picking them up).

No, ours started walking home after 3rd grade There was a group of kids that walked together to our street. The neighbor is a close friend and has kids coming home as well so she always checked to be sure they got home and often invited them into her place for a snack etc. They knew they could go next door anytime they need anything. In return her kids spent pretty much every Saturday all summer in our pool and house!

Now the kids are middle school so they just bus home on their own, get their own snacks and do what they want until we are home. Same neighbor is still next door but the kids aren't really friends anymore so they don't mix much.

Our 5th grader goes to aftercare with their younger sibling. But we live far enough away from school that we're not comfortable with them walking home. If we were closer, we might consider allowing them to come home (I work from home). However extensive screen time is already a problem with the time DC has a home, so even if we were close we would still probably do aftercare to have some non-screen after school activity.

My 10 yo 5th grader is in aftercare at school. Given age and maturity level, I’m fine with my kid being home for a couple hours alone, but she’d rather hang out with her friends in aftercare. There are very few 5th grade girls in aftercare, my kid tells me most of the 5th & 6th graders in aftercare are boys, which makes sense to me.

My 4th graders go but this will likely be their last year. There are still a handful of kids their age who are there and they seem to run in a pack. I don't think there are more than 1 or 2 5th graders, though.

We use it less than we used to, as they often have sports or other activities in the late afternoon/early evening, but it's really helpful on early release days.