How do other parents organise School holiday cover for their children?

iwilldoitthistime

My husband and I work term time between us - he has 8 weeks off a year and I have 6. We cover the holidays and manage to have 2 weeks together with DS to go away.


This way we have time with DS - even though it costs us a lot more in lost earnings than the childminder or holiday would cost!

Spendless

Some schools have wrap around care that includes holiday club. Your child doesn't always have to attend that school to go, though they might prioritise kids from 'their' school - so ask around. The private school here has a holiday club that follows their holiday pattern, which is slightly out of sync with state schools so can be handy for the odd added on inset day, as they take kids from any school.

Nurseries still sometimes take children in holidays - places dependant. My nearest private one used to take children until their 6th birthday (as their registration was 0 - 5). Later they changed to include a wrap around care service for children up to 11/yr 7 due to demand within the area. I'd ask the nursery your child attends if they know of options.

When older I used a leisure centre holiday playscheme, but they didn't take kids until aged 7 or 8 so for a while I had to have kids at 2 different places. I discovered last year they had taken away the 5pm extended finish though so unless you can pick up at 3.30 you're stuck, even if your child is old enough to make their own way home as they have to be signed out by an adult.

My daughter's Junior school often runs a sports club in the hols for a week, she can make her own way to and from there but the hours are 10-3 so I used to have to find someone to have her until drop off time.

Her drama club runs a summer school in August for a week, can drop her off ok, but need someone to pick up at 3pm for 4 days - not 5th as they are at theatre late doing a show.

Other than that it was ask relatives or friends to help out, take as much time off separately.

Not meaning to freak you out with this, but have you also considered Christmas plays, sports days etc? Is your work flexible that you can work or go in later or do you need to consider AL days for these too?

Seanymph

I'm surprised no one has mentioned babysitters - Universities and Colleges are off school holidays, so there is a plethora of teens looking for something to do.

If you have a family friend with teens or know someone in your area usually you can plug the gaps with a decent babysitter.

Aupairs are cheap - but live in. They cover the bits before and after organised activities.

And I used to send mine (when they were older) for at least one activity week away (PGL or DoIt4Real) - and in one particularly poor year for holiday from work I seem to remember them doing two - one at easter and one in the summer.

fluffnutter

smithyjules wrote: »

It has dawned on me today that now we are both working full-time (I work 9.30-4.30 mon-fri) that we are about to embark on the exciting journey of co-ordinating our holiday to cover the school holidays. What a drama! I have been blissfully unaware until now.

I hope you get things sorted but I can't help thinking this ^^ is a bit odd. I'm forever reading about people on here who suddenly realise that school kids have holidays and that they'll need childcare/holidays are more expensive at this time/schools get narked if children have unauthorised absences and a whole host of other 'Well! Who knew that?!' epiphanies. Don't get it. There's no secret - surely everyone knows that kids have long holidays. Parents seem perpetually surprised about life with children like they've just blindly popped a few out without considering what they might mean. Bizarre.

smithyjules

fluffnutter wrote: »

I hope you get things sorted but I can't help thinking this ^^ is a bit odd. I'm forever reading about people on here who suddenly realise that school kids have holidays and that they'll need childcare/holidays are more expensive at this time/schools get narked if children have unauthorised absences and a whole host of other 'Well! Who knew that?!' epiphanies. Don't get it. There's no secret - surely everyone knows that kids have long holidays. Parents seem perpetually surprised about life with children like they've just blindly popped a few out without considering what they might mean. Bizarre.

Fluffnutter, I understand that you don't know me personally, but if you did you'd know that I tend to say/write everything with humour so this post was a bit tongue in cheek I suppose. I am well aware of terms, school holidays etc and also support the rule of no holiday during term time (which I am sure lots don't agree with). I tend to exagerate points for comedy value in real life when talking with friends...not to lie, but it's just my nature to be dramatic in a comic way I guess. My husband's eyes are permanently rolling and he often uses the phrase "hold on I'll just get out the world's smallest violin".

I hope that makes sense, I just thought it made for more interesting reading than "how do you cover school holidays?"

I have got some really good ideas from this thread so thank you all for your posts.

onlyroz

The holiday club that I use charges £23 for a full day (8:30 - 6) or you can do half days or ad-hoc hours if you prefer. I previously used a club that charged £29 a day but this was more sports oriented and my son hated it. But for two kids this is still £46 and so usually ask my mum to take them for a few days in each holiday if she can. She finds them exhausting though, and so I wouldn't ask her to do an entire week.

Willowpop

Janepig wrote: »

My two are 8 and 10 and me and DH are just sorting out our leave up until September at the moment. We have enough leave between us to cover all the days (I think), but that leaves us with pretty much no time off together. For instance, February half term I'm taking Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off and DH is taking Thursday and Friday. He's taking the first week of Easter, I'm taking the second. Etc...

We used to use MIL for childcare up until about a year ago, I'd book a Monday and Tuesday off, DH would book Thursday and Friday, and she'd have them on a Wednesday, but we don't do that now. DS is also now old enough to go to sports club at the leisure centre with DD, but it costs a bomb so I'll be using that as little as possible, maybe just the odd day as a treat.

Jx

This is pretty much what we do. I book Mondays and Tuesdays off, DR has weds as his day off anyway and then he books Thursday and Friday off as well. This is what we do for every school holiday.
We have 1 week where we are all off during the summer when we have our holiday.
We don't have family nearby and can't afford childcare clubs so this works out the best way for us.
The local council do run some free clubs but we don't find out about them until June time so it's too late by then for booking summer holiday leave so we just get it all booked up in advance.

smithyjules

Spendless wrote: »

Some schools have wrap around care that includes holiday club. Your child doesn't always have to attend that school to go, though they might prioritise kids from 'their' school - so ask around. The private school here has a holiday club that follows their holiday pattern, which is slightly out of sync with state schools so can be handy for the odd added on inset day, as they take kids from any school.

Nurseries still sometimes take children in holidays - places dependant. My nearest private one used to take children until their 6th birthday (as their registration was 0 - 5). Later they changed to include a wrap around care service for children up to 11/yr 7 due to demand within the area. I'd ask the nursery your child attends if they know of options.

When older I used a leisure centre holiday playscheme, but they didn't take kids until aged 7 or 8 so for a while I had to have kids at 2 different places. I discovered last year they had taken away the 5pm extended finish though so unless you can pick up at 3.30 you're stuck, even if your child is old enough to make their own way home as they have to be signed out by an adult.

My daughter's Junior school often runs a sports club in the hols for a week, she can make her own way to and from there but the hours are 10-3 so I used to have to find someone to have her until drop off time.

Her drama club runs a summer school in August for a week, can drop her off ok, but need someone to pick up at 3pm for 4 days - not 5th as they are at theatre late doing a show.

Other than that it was ask relatives or friends to help out, take as much time off separately.

Not meaning to freak you out with this, but have you also considered Christmas plays, sports days etc? Is your work flexible that you can work or go in later or do you need to consider AL days for these too?

Hi Spendless,

I am very lucky in that my Manager usually wiggles things around so I can go to these sorts of things without having to book holiday. Either I use accrued toil from occasional Saturdays or she turns a blind eye and I come in late/go early. She does the same for others too. School often only give us a couple of days notice so I am lucky she is so understanding.

GreenQueen

I use a combination of things for DD aged 8:

- Holiday club at a local school operating 8-6 (£28 per day:eek:)
- sports clubs offered through school (around £12, 10-3), disadvantages, not a full day and often struggle to find info early enough
- spending a few days with granny and grandad
- using leave
- church holiday clubs - which are usually only half a day/ 2-3 hours, supplemented by half day's leave

I do have some friends who share childcare - parent of one looking after own child + friend, and then parent of friend looking after the two on another occasion - whether that works depends on the children/parents involved - doesn't really work for me

Depending on the child and your workplace, it may be possible to take child to work for short time, but this is not ideal - I can't really do that for more than an hour, as she wants my attention, so I don't get any work done!

quidsy

I'm self employed & my oh only gets 4 weeks hols a year so we mainly use a combo of childminder, local kids club (barracudas) and nan, although my neice since turning 15 has taken the odd day to top up her pocket money & give nan a break, down side for me, nan is free, neice is not

I don't take any time off during Februaury h/t or easter except a couple of days around my bday which usually coincides with ds last week of holiday. Summer holiday he breaks up a week earlier than everyone else so we take the opportunity to go away for a week together in the UK, the rest of the time is split between the other options.

It costs alot but not as much if I weren't at work. Also I find the combo of nan, barracudas & childminder keeps him from being bored, he gets quiet relax days with nanny, crazy fun activity filled days at barracudas & somewhere in the middle with his childminder.

me & OH usually try to take an extra week during the summer individually with him, me after the first week & he at the end.

It's a juggle, I printed the holiday months off my outlook yesterday for the whole year, highlighted the school hols & marked where me & oh would be covering, now I just have to stick everyone else in, a feat of co-ordination in itself & I will have the year sorted. Also helps me work out just how much it is going to cost me too.