Wurthman2014

Hi everyone,

We are looking to move out to Canada next year as my husband has dual Citizenship for both England and Canada.

We have two children and were wondering if anyone can help with what options there are for them during the summer break if we are both working full time. Our youngest will still be in kindergarten which I assume open all year? However our eldest will be due to start school.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

snowhugs

It depends on your finances and where you live and of course what you are comfortable with. there are endless camps and day care facilities, these can work out to be expensive. In a small town, some of the local teenagers will babysit for the summer...then there is the option of an aupair/nanny...or get family to come over for the summer. It will be the same every year so satrt planning!!
It is hard to get your head round as it is so long, the positive side is you do not have to worry about endless half term weeks you have in the UK. Every body is in the same boat and people help each other out. ..its actually only 2 weeks longer then UK summer so what would you have done in Uk ?

Aviator

[QUOTE=Wurthman2014;11326282Our youngest will still be in kindergarten which I assume open all year? [/QUOTE]

They are not.

Dashie

Kindergarten is part of school so runs to the same calendar. My youngest has just finished jk and is off now until September. From what I can work out, most people take time off, send their kids to either day or residential camps or use babysitters, usually teenagers for the summer for school ages kids if they can't arrange something with family. Daycare for younger kids stays open, some will take older kids too.

DandNHill

I don't know about the whole of the country but we sent our 8 year old son to a boys and girls club last year. Think it was about $50 per week from 8am to 5pm... He really enjoyed it!

Piff Poff

There are loads of summer camps from a couple of hours a day to summer long overnights, from affordable to OMG how much????

As has been mentioned kindergaten is term time and quite often only half a day for the 1st year too.

Dashie

$50 for a week? Wow! Most seem to be around $140-150 a week here. And up of course.

Oink

I thought most people just dropped their kids off at the local Cinnabon in the morning and picked them up in the evening.

MillieF

When I came here my son was 11 but my neighbours still told me I couldn't lave him alone ( I was planning to go on foot to the supermarket)

I cannot believe child care costs here....I don't care what you 'all' think...but it does show the governments "flim flam" attitude towards working women. In France (age 10 to 17) a kid can be picked up by the village at 7.30am brought back at midday in the same bus and do a whole host of sport and craft activities for 60 Euros for the whole summer....not per week...but for the 'whole' summer!

If we don't invest in women and families...nobody will think they are important...why is that such a big shock

Atlantic Xpat

I have no idea what childcare costs in UK but for us (2 kids, 2 & 5, the youngest with a disability) its a cost larger than our mortgage and car payments combined. The saving grace is actually the summer as, the Mrs is a teacher so has the summer off & our childcare provider is happy to work one day a week & take most of the summer off herself.

As has been mentioned, Kindergarten is part of the school system so will not be available during the summer. So be prepared for hefty childcare expenses for the 10 weeks or so of summer holiday. (Plus Christmas and Easter of course).

Kids eh? Who'd have 'em.

Dashie

And March Break.

Dashie

I was actually chatting with a friend in New Zealand the other day, she pays $16 per day for her daughter in a licensed, subsidized home daycare.

The costs here negate anything I could currently earn.

ExKiwilass

Before we got after school care, we put sprog in camps (avg 130-350 per week).

now we have a daycare lady so she is going to take sprog for a few weeks, there'll be camps, and I'm taking off 4 weeks to be with her.

Yes, summer is expensive for working parents.

Hey Millie - I get what you're saying about working women, but imo childcare is not just a women's issue - it's a parents issue.

Cedar3

We recently moved to BC with two kids born 2006 and 2008. I googled from England and was able to get a list of registered childcare providers from an agency (no charge) and I called and lined something up before arriving - the options were few. Soon after we arrived we met with the childcarer and knew she wasn't the right fit for us. We found one more option and this also wasn't a good fit. In both cases I was 80% confident our kids would be safe but not so sure they'd be stimulated and enjoy their daycare. Thankfully when I reconnected with the agency there were a number of new options and we are very happy with what we have now. In the process i discovered that most daycare was already full and holding waitlists. Children known to the setting were prioritised so that may help us in future years. Full time places were also prioritised over part-time, as you'd expect. There are lots of summer camps and summer programs near us but our kids are too young for the residential ones and most of the others run for less than a full working day. The fees are less than we paid in the UK as it is 30 CAD per child per day for up to 10hrs in a group daycare. Childminders quoted us similar rates. I certainly felt I had fewer options here but that doesn't have to be problematic. Our daycare needs will reduce once school resumes thanks to my much more family-friendly employer compared to the UK. If we had ongoing needs I would probably look into getting a nanny (or an au pair if immigration rules etc make that straightforward). Any stress we've experienced so far is more than offset by how amazing it is to live here so i wouldn't let it put you off - most things can be overcome!

scrubbedexpat091

My neighbor is a stay at home dad, by the time they added up child care costs he was basically working just to cover the cost of daycare, so they decided one would work and one would stay home.

I meet more and more families on 1 income and usually not a real high income either, just because if 2 work, they need daycare and once daycare is paid for, one income is basically gone, so why work when one parent can stay home?

We don't have kids, but if we ever do have one, we already decided one us will stay home and not work, would make no financial sense for both of us to work and then pay for daycare.

The going rate in town is 1,000 to 1,300 per month for daycare for 1 kid. I do know there is 1 subsidized daycare run by not for profit community services, but they are still 800 per month.

(assuming 5 days per week.)