Working parents considering school with many days off
Hi Parents, I am interested in TRIS and am very impressed with their academic, music, arts and trilingual program and am looking forward to enrolling my child there. However, the one thing that is giving me pause is the amount of time they don't provide child care. I saw their latest calendar and I counted 11 weeks (one week short of 3 months) whereby no child care is offered and that doesn't even count the days that have early dismissal. The school does not provide any back-up child care. Both myself and my spouse work full time and won't be able to take that much time off to look after the child. We don't have any relatives or a care taker who can look after the child. I would like to hear from current and former TRIS parents how they managed to handle the school taking 3 months off a year and working full time? We really like the school but for this challenge.
Thanks very much in advance.
Parent Replies
I think most schools have breaks for Thanksgiving, Winter, Spring, and a long break over the summer. Many parents sign kids up for full-day camps during breaks and over the summer. Since many families have 2 working parents, there are a lot of different options. The camps are a lot better than just child care, and they can be high quality enrichment programs. My kids really love camps, as they get the opportunity to learn new sports, play, and make new friends. The only downside is that popular camps fill up quickly and can be expensive.
For one-day holidays or teacher in service days, you can try finding a new friend at school and trade-off full day playdates so you don't have to use up so many vacation days.
Good luck!