Kindergarten children

[Littlecottage]

How do you charge for kindergarten children? Part time? as they will be with you for part of the day, 5 days a week.

[Busy ECE mommy]

Do you mean before&after school care, or do the kids only go 1/2 days in kindergarten?
For before/after in ontario, I charged $25(3.5 hrs) if it were kindies that go 1/2 day, I'd charge about 80-90% of the daily rate for preschoolers. I guess it depends how many meals&snacks you are serving? Do you have to walk them to school, or just a bus pickup? All of those things factor into cost. See what the rest of your area charges, and go from there.

[MommaL]

I know that in my area where Kindergarten is only half-day, 5 days a week, many daycares charge the same for Kindergarten students as they do for full-day kids. For those who do charge less, it's not by much (maybe $100-$125 less a month).

[5 Little Monkeys]

I'm looking at this issue come next Fall. I'm hoping the 2 kids I have can get opposite schedules and share a spot otherwise I'll be charging each of them their full time rate as I can't afford to loose pay. They will either have to keep our current agreement or find alternate care

[Littlecottage]

Thanks everyone for your input! This really helps, I don't have kindergarten children as of yet. But I just wanted to make sure I was prepared for those types of questions. I can now feel more confident in what to charge and not feel like, did I charge enough, am I too high or am I just giving my sevices away.

[Suzie_Homemaker]

I not take PT child myself as it hard to find other client want opposite to make up full fees and parent in my market not willing pay for FT place/day unless they need all day care.

Most part-time half day program available in centres not dayhome and focus on school-readiness. Listening, simple instruction, pencil holding, colouring, use scissors, alphabet, counting, write name and simple words recognising - which is common in daycare here anyway. It typically used by SAHM or children who dayhome do less of this type activity. Few parent in dayhome move child to this program year before school as need care all day if work and hard have flexibility in day to transport child from regular carer to preschool program.

They tend offer two program - One on Tue and Thur for either morning or afternoon only, and second program which 3 day a week on Mon, Wed and Fri again for either morning or afternoon only. The lesson plan for morning is repeated for those come in afternoon and the lesson plan for the 3 day children vs 2 day just has more detail/time.

They charge half normal day fee as less cost with no lunch provision. Morning children go from about 8am until 11am and afternoon children go from 2pm until 5pm so three hour sessions. Snack provided, no lunch, no pickup or drop off affect all day children at nap or lunch time.

[MommaL]

I know that several provinces now have full-day Kindergarten. For those of us who still have half-day, it can be tough to know what to do with Kindergarten students. However, you have to keep in mind that in most cases, you are still feeding them lunch and at least one snack. If the child is in afternoon kindergarten, you might even be offering them two snacks if you give them something after school. And even though it may only seem like the child is with you part time, when you consider the amount of time they are with you either before school (if in the morning class) or after school (if in the afternoon) class, they are often there much longer than just part-time (possibly up to 6 hours a day). You also have to consider all the days that they will want full-time care because of there being no school. And these days, it seems like every couple of weeks they have a day off (at least). My daughter had 5 days off from school this month! So two Kindergarten kids can't really even share a day if they expect to come full days when there is no school. It is for all these reasons that many daycare providers in my areas still charge the full-time rate (or close to it) for kindergarten students. And I think many parents are understanding of this.

[5 Little Monkeys]

Our city has schools who do half days and schools that do full day. Until it's closer to next Fall, I'm not sure which program they'll be in. However, I just found out today that one mom is expecting!! They'd always planned to have another one once she was in school so it worked out perfectly! Just gotta wait and see what the other mom will do.

I knew it was likely coming but I'm sad already and it's now fully hitting me that this will likely be my last year with the girl. She's been here 3 years and honestly, the whole family is just amazing. Man, I'm gonna miss them!! :(