I am looking at a kindercare for the fall for my 4 and 5 year old.. The center director was telling me all about their special classes they offer.. Music $50 per month. cooking $100 per month. active adventures $50 per month...
I think the center should provide these activities as part of the high price they are already charging ...Does your day care do this and if so are the classes worth the money? Would you pay for this? I dont want my kids to be sitting there in the classroom while all of the other kids go out to a special class. I can see why full time working parents would really like this option as they dont have time to run their kids around to activities every day.
yes, (we don't even go to kindercare!) and it's driving me crazy. Especially when they bring in the instructors for a preview day and get my daughter all excited about a class I can't afford to pay for for her.
The reason they charge extra for those classes is they bring in special teachers to teach these classes. kind of like you pay extra for band at the gradeschool or extra for a sport. they are not part of the regular curriculum. My son started taking computer classes at kindercare about a million years ago (really about 20 years ago) they are fun but if I was you I would skip them. they mostly just play and will learn the same stuff in kindergarten. the kids doing it get pulled out and the classes only last about 15 or 20 minutes.
FYI kindercare is not a school it is a daycare. it is good and they have a curriculum but they are not really a school. they do offer preschool and kindergarten curriculum but it is not the same as a regular school
Hi Lisa,
I left Kindercare for this reason. My daughter is going to a new day care called Children of America. All of the extras that you have to pay for at Kindercare is part of Children's curriculum and its a very good school. The teachers are degreed teachers and they teach in a fun way. My daughter has learned so much since shes been there.
Kindercare is a very good school but like you I think they activities should be included in the price.
Not Kindercare, but our Mother's Day Out program offered dance and Spanish classes for an additional charge.
We don't use a Kindercare, but my youngest son's preschool does offer extra classes for extra money. He takes a sports and coordination class called Play Ball that he LOVES and he's learned so much! It's worth it to us. If he didn't take extra classes, he would still be playing, singing, doing art and learning. The extra classes are just if you want to supplement the learning.
if the activities are during normal staff hours, then they should be part of the weekly rate. Talk about gouging....
Yes! They just started offering Spanish lessons at my son's daycare -- for $150 for just eight weeks, one hour a week! We're not signing up.
Ours charged for outside teachers like music and gymnastics. We never did it and our child accepted that. It was during school time which should be included I think. I would have paid it gladly had the gymnastics coach come after school and had a female with him.
When my eldest was at Primrose Academy, they did have some extra classes. Daycare paid for the normal stuff you expect, what you see when taking the tour. Computers, a once/week Spanish lesson (loved that lady), and a once/week music lesson (that taught the basic stuff like what the names of the notes were, and practiced keeping a beat, hearing the beat) was all included. They did have activity time and got normal exercise through games and 2 times/day to go outside and play.
BUT they also had extra enrichment classes for extra money. You could get a computer class that was more a full on class instead of taking turns with everyone in the class on just 2 computers. (We didn't do this, he uses my computer, started out on my lap, then I'd put his booster seat in my desk chair....we play on nickjr.com, pbskids.com, and starfall.com for free at home). There was a Tumblebees class (tumbling, the beginning of gymnastics....at 4-5 yrs old, that might be gymnastics). I didn't do that, because we've got our own schedule of what we're doing with him (started with a mommy and me class and gymboree, then mommy and me tumbling at the local gymnastics place, then swim lessons, soccer, kung fu, awanas, horseback riding lessons). Now when I had my 2nd baby and he was an infant and I was REALLY tired and occupied, he ASKED me to do some extra basketball / exercise type class. I let him do it because he asked, and it was an extra 45 minutes one day a week, and he got a shirt to wear on those days which he thought was so cool. He did that for half a year, and that was actually sweet (but then we moved away). I've heard of language classes as well (like a real class) but it wasn't at my son's daycare. But we do Rosetta Stone at home with the family. Never heard of a cooking class, but that's something I love doing with my eldest son.
Ask how many kids stay behind vs how many kids go to a class. At my son's daycare, about 6 kids out of 20 were actually enrolled in the enrichment classes. And the kids that weren't enrolled just continued on with their regularly scheduled activities during the day while a few kids just "disappeared" to another class for a little while. The exception was that basketball / fitness thing where 90% of the children were enrolled in it, but it was immediately after mother's day out ended, and was 45 minutes long. It was worth it. They put on little shows at the end of the month and learned games, and it was fun.
No, these activities are not part of their normal services. You'll find this to be the case not just when you're kids are small and in daycare, but all through their schooling. My 9 yr old daughter just came home this week all hyped up about the school band. They had all of the kids go down to the band room, and try out all of the instruments. They actually sent a letter home saying "Congratulations, your child was tested for music aptitude skills and would be very well suited to play the DRUM"! The sad part is, the band program is over $100 per month and we can't afford it. We're already paying big $$$ to send her to this school, and she already does a ton of other activities including piano lessons! Then 2 days later, we get a letter about an exciting new Chess Club. A lady went in to each classroom to get everyone all worked up about it. The cost for that is $80.00. I don't think the school should be allowed to sell these programs to the kids. They should only address the parents. It's really unfair to get kids excited, then disappoint them. So anyway, get used to it because it never ends!
My child's pre-k and child care center does offer these and while they are offered during regular hours at a cost, I really appreciate it. It keeps me from running after work to and fro to get two kids to a soccer practice, music class and spanish, etc.
These centers do this for parents who are interested and while it feels frustrating when you can't pay, it is to enhance the environment for those who want it.
If the alternative was raising everyone's tuition by $50 a week and allowing it for everyone, it would be a massive failure for the business.
I may be rambling a bit, but it is pretty par-for-course with a lot of competitive child care facilities these days because the parents are asking for it. . .sorry it is such a struggle for your daughter, but a good lesson now that they can't always do everything:) (a conversation I have with my kiddo's frequently - LOL)
My daughter was in preschool last year and they offered all kinds of extracurricular classes (gymnastics, martial arts, ballet, ball handling/sports, acting, music, spanish, etc.). Each class was held once a week and you had to pay a separate fee for each class. You could sign your child up for as many classes as you wanted, or none at all. The fees for the classes were betweeen $20 - $40 per month and went to the people who came in to provide ther services, not the preschool. My daughter is in kindergarten now and they offer music lessons (piano, percussion, woodwind or brass) in the afterschool program - $65 for group lessons or $85 for individual lessons once per week.
My daughter did ballet in preschool and she enjoyed it. The ballet was a little bit much for us though because there were lots of performances to attend on the weekends (at fairs, parades and other events). As you mentioned, I signed my daughter up to do this at her preschool because I'm a working mom and I thought it would be something she would enjoy and it would be easy for us because she would be doing it at school. I was wrong. I had no idea how much extra time we were expected to commit to outside of school. Also, with my daughter's ballet class, there were extra costume fees and recital fees. If I were you, I would check into all of that before you sign your child up for anything. If I had it to do all over again, I would have chosen another class that didn't require an outside commitment or additional fees. All in all, my daugher liked it a lot. Me ... notsomuch.
My daughter went to Kindercare on Middlebelt for a couple of years - while we were very happy with the day-to-day activities and learning, I never signed up for any of the additional stuff (except her last summer there, I added the cooking program as it was reduced $$ and she enjoyed it). Don't feel bad about not signing up for anything, most of it will be taught in kindergarten.
