We're still going around in circles on the question of after-school care for the kindergartner. Or rather, transportation to the after-school care. Although I suppose we should also be looking at alternatives to our chosen after-school care as well.
So basically, the school won't bus to our kids' daycare, 1.4 miles away. It's out of their zone, which goes for 2+ miles in the other direction but only about .6 miles in the direction of daycare.
We've already signed a contract with our current provider; $320 per month for after school on school days, as well as school closure days that the daycare is open. (Daycare is open a lot more than school is.)
The school has an after-school and non-school day program that supposedly doesn't fill up, so it's a possibility. $13.05 per day for after-school; $42.20 per day for non-school days. So cost-wise, it would end up similar to daycare; a bit cheaper in months with no school closures, more expensive in months with school closures.
The daycare lady is very willing to work with us, even though she doesn't have a car. Her sister lives close to the school and she mentioned having AA bus there, then the daycare lady or husband could come get her. My daycare lady may charge extra for this service as it would take away from her normal daycare activity.
AS works from home M, W & F this fall, and all days once the class she's teaching is over (assuming she doesn't do it for spring semester). However, she really WORKS and has a profitable business, and I know she gets a great deal done in the afternoons. And I know our kid doesn't like to play alone, so it would be mean to bring her home only to ignore her. Or, if she picked AA up at school and took her to daycare on the bus and came home, she'd lose about an hour of productive time, because that round trip takes about that much time on buses. And again, that would only work on days she wasn't teaching.
A daily taxi from daycare lady's sister to daycare would cost $7-$7.50 per trip including tip. Not sure how I feel about AA being in a taxi alone, but I don't think it's high-risk. Don't know how taxi companies feel about a kid traveling alone.
An ideal situation for me, if I could find it, would be to have another school parent who's driving in that direction anyway drop AA off. I feel that it would be reasonable to pay $5 a day for the 5-10 minutes it would take out of their day. $100 per month (about) would only take our total cost to $420 per month, less than we pay for full-time daycare. I reached out to the PTO head, but she hasn't been able to find someone. I wonder if I can ask the kindergarten teacher to ask around.
Yet another option worth considering: could we negotiate a different contract with the daycare lady, where she covers school closures and summer vacation, but AA does after-school care at the kindergarten on regular school days? I don't know if she'd be up for that, but she might. I'd really like AA to still go there as much as possible, and on non-school days, it would be ideal to drop off and pick up both kids at the same place vs. having two trips for no good reason. Plus, she really loves the daycare and all the kids that go there (including her sister).
For next week, if we haven't found a permanent workable solution yet, we're looking at maybe having a friend pick her up the first day and take her to daycare, or NT might be able to get off work early that day. AS could pick her up the second day, and one of our downstairs neighbors could possibly get her Friday. So if I hear confirmation from the friend and the neighbor, we might have a stopgap solution for the first week, which could buy us more time to figure it out.
Who knew it could be so complicated to figure out how to transport one person for 1.4 miles a day?
1.4 miles = infinite headaches
August 23rd, 2015 at 09:17 pm
August 23rd, 2015 at 10:05 pm 1440363939
I personally wouldn't put my child in a taxi not knowing anything about the driver. I'd definitely inquire with your daycare lady if she is willing to change the contract. It's either yes or no, you just need to know which it is.
August 24th, 2015 at 02:06 am 1440378384
Make a deal with the daycare lady to cover school vacations, and then use the school wrap-around plan. It's the easiest way.
We've had to rejigger our childcare multiple times over the years, as the kids have grown and the schools have changed. Complicated arrangements with too many working parts always go wrong. You don't need anything extra to worry about every day. Just keep it simple!
August 24th, 2015 at 04:08 am 1440385735
August 24th, 2015 at 04:15 am 1440386100
Although there were nonrefundable fees for signing up, it doesn't look like there's a fee or penalty for canceling as long as you give two weeks' notice. So it's good to have this in place, but it's not a long-term financial commitment if we find a better option at some point. (Which is good, because if no other option does come up, AS will be able to drop her at daycare 5 days a week once the teaching gig ends [January].)
MM, I'm really hoping to find a nice parent who can do this for us and could use a few bucks. It would be the same cost to pay someone $5 a day to transport her 5 days a week, as it will to have her in 2 days of school after-school care at $13 per day. So it won't make any difference in cost, but AS won't have that obligation interrupting the end of her work day.
I looked and looked for a child-transport service. I found one in St. Cloud (another city) and mentions of ones in NYC (of course). But nothing in Minneapolis that I could find.
August 24th, 2015 at 05:49 pm 1440434948
August 25th, 2015 at 02:23 am 1440465822