Finding Primrose in East Richardson Not Up to Par, Any decent Alternatives?

[ddavid1101]

Originally Posted by JTC Mom

If you are happy with your former daycare snd it is near your office, I would go with that.

DIS is great but the lower school campus is in Preston Hollow, not Richardon, so probably not that conveniently located for you. To answer your question about what people do during school breaks, most cobble it together. There are several on demand sitter services, plus drop off daily daycare options (e.g Adventure Kids) and lots ans lots of camps. It takes effort to scout out the ones thst start early and run almost through the start of the new schvool year, but they are out there. And of course people take vacation days to cover school holidays too. It's an effort to cobble it all together for sure, but can be done.

its a 35-45 min drive every day one way to work and equivalent to daycare. I would like to minimize risk of accident etc.

DIS is pretty close to my work as I'm also south side of 635 and its prob a 5min drive from the office to the school.

I have no experience with Private school as I never been etc but I only want what is the best for our child. But with no reliable / consistent care during off days, I dont think it can be a reasonable option for us. Just too may days, and we prefer to spend time off together as a family vs 1 take off. We also dont have any relatives in the area (Canada and Brazil only).

[ddavid1101]

Originally Posted by Dad0118

We loved Children's Choice at the Shire when we lived in Richardson. Great staff and great Director.

its now Bright Horizons. It's on my way to work! I might have to check it out.

[ddavid1101]

Originally Posted by jbla34

i can't speak to the schools in the area you moved into but as to your question about private school "no class" days, we have 2 in private school, both under the age of 5 and since there's usually no spots available for their ages (3&4) at the local Y or rec center we either will one of us take the day off, leave with relatives or do drop-in care at one of the hourly daycare centers (Kiddin' Around, KidsPark etc.). Other than that there aren't alot of options until they turn 5.

Can I ask? What drove you to Private school vs public/daycare?

[Waterdragon8212]

Originally Posted by ddavid1101

For those of you with your kids in private school, how do you deal with all the days there's no class (winter, spring, summer breaks)? I know there's summer school but even with all the other breaks, its well over 5 weeks. We really dont want to take fixed vacations every year like that. Thoughts?

Any thoughts?

Ah, yes...the breaks! The running private school joke of "the more you pay, the less you go." Breaks can be challenging but there are great options available for summer (Hockaday, Greenhill, Parish, ESD and probably others all have summer programs for all kids, not just kids admitted to those schools.) Other breaks are trickier. Most privates have an extended care program for younger kids (typically extending the school day until 6 for working parents) and frequently, if enrolled in those programs, your kid can go to extended care for school in-service days or conference days. Thanksgiving, Winter, and Spring break, as well as holidays are often more limited. This past winter break, there were camps offered at some of the privates, but we also had friends that found various full day, weekly camps around town at gymnastics places or other extra-curricular type agencies. Sometimes these camps advertised as age 6 and up, but would really take anyone 4 and up. There were a number of days this year where the privates were closed on a holiday Monday, but it was a minor holiday where we had to work. Those were the trickiest and a few times, one of us had to take off. But all in all, most of the breaks were covered by care of some sort, so a few days off work now and again looks much better than than the initial sticker shock of seeing all the gaps in the yearly calendar. Though, you still have to factor in the cost of these camps on top of tuition .