My oldest starts K later this year and while the after school program is less than daycare (just barely), I have no f-ing clue what we will do during the summer. Maybe that is when I will throw up my hands in defeat and exit the workforce.
millions do it I'm sure. I think my friends in Mountain View always had a nanny. There's this:
https://www.bayareakidfun.com/summer-camps-in-the-bay-area/We've pieced things together.
- Our kinder/1st/2nd grade after school program actually runs for most of the summer (all but a week or two). Full days. 7:30-5:30 includes food. About 2x the cost of the after school care.
- For our bigger kid, we had a similar drop in program at the schools that we did for 2-3 years. That was free. Budget cuts though - only 2 sites now and there are income limits.
- Nanny. Once in awhile a friend's daughter would be home from college, looking to pick up dough.
- Summer camps. These can be very competitive, as in - March 1 the city camps opened, and if you weren't online at 9 am trying to get your slot, you are screwed. But these generally aren't the ones that we have tried to get. There are a few very popular, very well priced camps that are almost full day. 9-4. Those just go really fast. The more expensive camps are slower to fill up.
So we tended to fill *most* of our summer with lower priced full day camps - the UC camp (run by students) - lots of outdoor time, send sunscreen! Swimming. Sports, etc. Not very educational, but the cheapest around. About half of the summer was this. Sometimes we'd throw in a slightly more expensive YMCA camp.
Then we'd fill in with "almost full time camps", 9 to 3 pm. Lego camps, programming camps, baseball camp.
Because we work FT, we aren't often competing with people who want the fun 9-12 noon camps. Now that big kid is older (almost 13), we can do this. Last summer, half the summer was just half day sailing or volleyball or programming camps, then he just chilled at home rest of the day. That's totally doable when those camps are $125-250 per week. If you have a 6 yo (like my younger kid), and have to fill in both morning and afternoon, then you are getting into $500-600/week territory. And...no.
Then we usually take 1-2 week vacation of the 10 total weeks.
And yes, every summer I have a "summer camp spreadsheet", with each kid in a separate column, a row for each week, the camp they are in, the hours, the cost, etc. I call it "Summer Camp Tetris". Welcome to the fun.