Before / After School Programs in Irvine

[ipoplaya_IHB]

Ipop: I thought I read in another thread that you have a nanny?

I do, for now, but she needs full-time employment and with one child starting K and the other starting preschool, we won't be able to keep her.

Are you in TUSD or IUSD?

If you are in IUSD, check out this Irvine Child Care Project. It has a list of all the on-campus care sites open 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday including holidays and summers.

Thanks SoCal. I found that list last night. That's what prompted this thread as I couldn't find much on similar off-campus programs.

 

[ipoplaya_IHB]

Happy MLK Day!!!

Hah... revenge is so awesome on the Internet.

Anyways... my question is more towards the nanny angle. Does anyone know where to get a good part-time one? I'm thinking an afternoon nanny for both my kids might be better than after-school daycare (and I can cut my youngest's pre-school to half-day).

After the last few years in pre-school... it might be better for my brood to get some more quiet time rather than running around with other kids since they've done that most of the day already.

Looks like this thread should spawn an after school program and some kind of nanny sharing deal for people too...

 

[irvine123_IHB]

one of our good friends hired a decent one from a nanny agency. But she doesn't drive, $12.5 a hour full time. You can also hire part time ones who drive. They want around $15 / hr. Then you have to pay the agency for one month equ. of salary. It is my understanding there are a lot of laid off nannies for hire now.

 

[irvine123_IHB]

Happy MLK Day!!!

Hah... revenge is so awesome on the Internet.

Anyways... my question is more towards the nanny angle. Does anyone know where to get a good part-time one? I'm thinking an afternoon nanny for both my kids might be better than after-school daycare (and I can cut my youngest's pre-school to half-day).

After the last few years in pre-school... it might be better for my brood to get some more quiet time rather than running around with other kids since they've done that most of the day already.

Looks like this thread should spawn an after school program and some kind of nanny sharing deal for people too...

I am hoping so... Nanny, afterschool program, when kids are sick at home are the among the biggest headaches we face.

 

[ipoplaya_IHB]

Happy MLK Day!!!

Hah... revenge is so awesome on the Internet.

Anyways... my question is more towards the nanny angle. Does anyone know where to get a good part-time one? I'm thinking an afternoon nanny for both my kids might be better than after-school daycare (and I can cut my youngest's pre-school to half-day).

After the last few years in pre-school... it might be better for my brood to get some more quiet time rather than running around with other kids since they've done that most of the day already.

I have used both of these sites to locate a nanny:

http://www.nannies4hire.com/index.asp

http://www.enannysource.com/

Had better luck with Nannies 4 Hire.

I know people that have used Craigs and also the Penny Saver to find a nanny...

We got ours through personal referral. Paying agency fees sucks.

 

[SoCal78_IHB]

The City of Irvine has a list of all the child care facilities with a map for school-aged children. Maybe this could help in locating the type and area you want.

 

[tmare_IHB]

I'm in Santa Ana, the nannies find you! Seriously though, my mother in law found ours at her church. She speaks English (Spanish to my kids) and drives. We've had her since my son was 4 months old and he starts Kindergarten in September, we feel very fortunate. We've seen our friends go through 3 or 4 nannies. A neighbor found hers through the Pennysaver, the fee was one week's salary but she never paid it. I thought it was kind of cheesy but she arranged with the woman to hire her without the agency. I don't know what safeguards the agency could have in place to ensure this doesn't happen, it seemed pretty simple with my friend.

 

[kcmkane_IHB]

We have used the Rainbow Rising at Westpark Elem. for our Kinder this school year. We don't love it, but it has been plenty adequate. I don't like that after 2:30pm all the younger kids are mixed in with the older kids (up to 6th grade). But they do have some fun activities, especially during the camps at break. Camps have a field trip every week --- this year they have done Knott's, LA Zoo, Aquarium of Pacific, the beach, etc. The kids seem to have a great time there. We also assessed the off-campus options like IPO listed, but were no more impressed with those than we were the on-campus Rainbow Rising. Rainbow cost was competitive as well --- I believe we pay $620/mo for after school care (11:30am - 6:00pm). I think that drops to around $500/mo once they hit 1st grade.

We are transitioning to Myford in TUSD (we moved) for 1st grade, and are considering both their on-campus CDC as well as the after school program at the Irvine Chinese School (behind Albertson's at Trabuco shopping center). The Chinese School told us they pick up from most IUSD and the TUSD schools in Irvine and Tustin Ranch, and it sounds like their program is a bit more academically oriented, as well as offering some interesting enrichment classes.....But we also like the security and continuity of having our child stay right on campus all day.

Good luck.

 

[irvine123_IHB]

so here is the math on costs:

public KG + afterschool care (lunch included? until 6pm included) = ~ $650 a month

or

Private KG ( day care, lunch included until 6pm included) = ~ $1050 a month.

Difference is about 3.0 hours of extra learning..for $400 extra a month.

 

[ipoplaya_IHB]

so here is the math on costs:

public KG + afterschool care (lunch included? until 6pm included) = ~ $650 a month

or

Private KG ( day care, lunch included until 6pm included) = ~ $1050 a month.

Difference is about 3.0 hours of extra learning..for $400 extra a month.

I think the extra bucks are worth it if you have a private K program you feel good about.

I think many people go that route. It's very tough to get into K at our preschool and the program is only mediocre... They have more than enough kids coming out of pre-K to fill out enrollment each year.

 

[irvinesinglemom_IHB]

I'm on the Stepmill and don't want to sweat all over my laptop so I'll keep this brief. My son is at Plaza Vista CDC where he attends kindergarten. I have two strongly enthusiastic thumbs up for PV CDC. No reservations - they are very good as far as I'm concerned.

 

[JoonB_IHB]

Regarding CDC/Rainbow Rising, etc

Is there a waiting list? What if the school your kid is assigned to is full to capacity for the before/after school program?

I had my daughter in private kindergarten and she's still in 1st grade at the Montessori. I really liked the private kindergarten- I have no regrets. I would have liked to have put my daughter in public IUSD for 1st grade but since we won't buy where we rent currently, i didn't want to keep on yanking her out of schools.

However, regarding kids repeating kindergarten- i think it's because of the age limit. There are many kids in my daughter's classroom that were in the kindergarten class but are gifted and were only 4. So, because of the CA age requirement- they can't test out to 1st grade.

 

[tmare_IHB]

From Ipoplaya (moved from MLK thread)

"Fortunately with our schedules, I can take care of the boys in the morning and get them to preschool/daycare and my wife can pick them up after school. Tough to both be teachers with early days… Nice to have all that time off with the family though!

I just calculated and we spend $31.5K per year, on an after-tax basis, for daycare currently. That’s around $50K in salary or so gone to care providers. Next year’s reduction of $1145 per month in spend on daycare is equivalent to around $350K in additional mortgage and property taxes on an after-tax basis at current rates. Amazing…"

I'm curious how much everyone else is spending on childcare. I calculated $29,650 for this year and it will go down $4500 next year when my oldest goes to Kindergarten. I have to agree, the amount we pay is amazing. It seems that once you have two, a nanny is a bit more affordable but then comes the inevitable preschool on top of the nanny costs. I've never been to into all day daycare but it doesn't really work for us, I guess it works for others. The time with family when you are both teachers is fantastic!

 

[irvine_home_owner_IHB]

Yes pre-K is expensive, whether you have a nanny or use pre-school. Calculating how much we've spent the last 4+ years... we are in the same boat as tmare and ipo... which is why I'm trying to convince the boss to put our oldest into IUSD... that's what we pay the premium in housing for right?

 

[ipoplaya_IHB]

Yes pre-K is expensive, whether you have a nanny or use pre-school. Calculating how much we've spent the last 4+ years... we are in the same boat as tmare and ipo... which is why I'm trying to convince the boss to put our oldest into IUSD... that's what we pay the premium in housing for right?

The average API for my elementary, junior high and high school as of last year is 643. One of the reasons I continue to pay the Irvine premium is that the worst IUSD schools are light years ahead of the schools I attended. I figure that if I got a decent enough education to score 1200 on the SAT, go to college, have a good career, etc. via some pretty crappy schools, how can any IUSD be a bad choice?

 

[tmare_IHB]

Yes pre-K is expensive, whether you have a nanny or use pre-school. Calculating how much we've spent the last 4+ years... we are in the same boat as tmare and ipo... which is why I'm trying to convince the boss to put our oldest into IUSD... that's what we pay the premium in housing for right?

The average API for my elementary, junior high and high school as of last year is 643. One of the reasons I continue to pay the Irvine premium is that the worst IUSD schools are light years ahead of the schools I attended. I figure that if I got a decent enough education to score 1200 on the SAT, go to college, have a good career, etc. via some pretty crappy schools, how can any IUSD be a bad choice?

I believe that the children in Irvine are going to get a great education no matter which school they attend, when schools are good (or even just decent) and parents are involved, kids do well. My #1 consideration aside from making sure that my child is in a good school is that I will be able to afford college and my child won't have to work full-time to afford tuition like I did. I just can't see spending his/her college education money on private education in the elementary school years when there are perfectly good choices all around. Unless you have an unlimited money supply (and who has that) or a rich relative who insists on paying for private tuition (I have a friend like that), put your kid in the public schools. Maybe this argument might fly with the boss IHO.

 

[ipoplaya_IHB]

My #1 consideration aside from making sure that my child is in a good school is that I will be able to afford college and my child won't have to work full-time to afford tuition like I did.

Amen tmare. We have $30K set aside for college, in education IRAs and 529s for our 4-year old and 2-year old today. Assuming we want to fully-fund a UC education for both, we are already behind... We put away around $10K per year for them which should yield around $250K by the time the first goes to school, so we could very well end up under-funded by $100K.

I'm hoping for a couple of years of JC!

 

[tmare_IHB]

My #1 consideration aside from making sure that my child is in a good school is that I will be able to afford college and my child won't have to work full-time to afford tuition like I did.

Amen tmare. We have $30K set aside for college, in education IRAs and 529s for our 4-year old and 2-year old today. Assuming we want to fully-fund a UC education for both, we are already behind... We put away around $10K per year for them which should yield around $250K by the time the first goes to school, so we could very well end up under-funded by $100K.

I'm hoping for a couple of years of JC!

Wish I could say that I had that much saved already, but you know, both teachers. We put in about $4000 a year and started with 10K when our first was born (they are 4 and 3 now). The stock market hasn't helped at all, but I figure we are at least doing what we can. I'm sure we'll be able to do more when the nanny goes. I wonder how many people out there who sent their kids to private schools wished they had some of that money back when it came time to pay for college. JC's are great and the general ed units they provide are often better taught than the general ed at the major universities.

 

[QH Renter_IHB]

I'm curious how much everyone else is spending on childcare. I calculated $29,650 for this year and it will go down $4500 next year when my oldest goes to Kindergarten. I have to agree, the amount we pay is amazing. It seems that once you have two, a nanny is a bit more affordable but then comes the inevitable preschool on top of the nanny costs. I've never been to into all day daycare but it doesn't really work for us, I guess it works for others. The time with family when you are both teachers is fantastic!

$10 a month for birth control co-pay. Zing!

 

[ipoplaya_IHB]

I'm curious how much everyone else is spending on childcare. I calculated $29,650 for this year and it will go down $4500 next year when my oldest goes to Kindergarten. I have to agree, the amount we pay is amazing. It seems that once you have two, a nanny is a bit more affordable but then comes the inevitable preschool on top of the nanny costs. I've never been to into all day daycare but it doesn't really work for us, I guess it works for others. The time with family when you are both teachers is fantastic!

$10 a month for birth control co-pay. Zing!

I guess you are just spending on pre pre-school...