Relocating - Child Care Questions? Help?? (Colorado Springs: daycares, home, schools)

[mrharris32]

My family and I will be moving to Colorado Springs in a few months. My husband (30) will most likely arrive in early May and myself (37) and daughter (8) will be arriving in early to mid summer.

We've just recently moved to Santa Fe, NM from Kansas City. The Springs will be our last stop on this "moving" frenzy that we've been going through the past 10 months or so.

We both have great jobs. My husband will be going through some rigorous training for management, 6 days a week, 12-13 hours a day for a solid year. My schedule will flex depending on when I'm needed (I work part time for Lowe's)...our biggest concern right now is childcare.

We've done some research and found that after school care is available at most schools until a certain time during the day. Getting our daughter (2nd grade, 3rd when we arrive) to school will not be a problem. The days that I work past the cut off for after school care and on some weekend days we will however be left with a serious need for childcare.

I'm looking for any information that might be available. We plan on calling Colorado Springs our home for many, many years to come. I guess we're also looking to maybe meet up with some down to earth decent folks before we actually head that way

Please help us to acclimate to your beautiful city!

Thank you!

[lurtsman]

Have you compared the costs for commuting and paying child care when you are working at lowes? After taxes and mileage I would be surprised if working those hours actually pays enough to cover the child care.

[hollyt00]

I wish I could help; I am not aware of any weekend daycares or daycares that last past 6:30... I would suggest looking for a neighbor when you move in or see if the school can help out.

There are community centers around, now that I think of it, that you can look into, depending on where you live. I don't know the hours of those community centers.


Lurtsman: the cost for care of a elementary aged student is much less than that of full-time daycare. Though I do see she is part-time as well and that would affect things. I know that if I had three children in full-time daycare, the costs of the daycare would outweigh my salary.


Another idea is to look at weekend camps at the zoo, or anything similar. I know there are commonly weekend science camps or nature camps around.

[cjmeck]

Not judging...but I cannot imagine a part-time job would pay enough to justify the cost of childcare, and gas. But maybe I'm wrong. To answer your question... you will not likely find any childcare that goes past 6:30pm. If its a necessity for your family then perhaps check out sittercity.com and you can hire a babysitter in your home. Sorry you are faced with such tough hours; that's a long day for a child to be away from home.

[otowi]

My friend is a single mom and she found a great resource for child care to be here: Local Child Care | Pikes Peak Library District