Advice for a friend regarding child care

What would you do?

I am looking for advice for my friend regarding the number of days to send her DD to daycare.
She has 3 children 4 years (just about to turn) 18months and 6 months.
She's not working so they are watching where they spend their money and she is torn as to what child care options she chooses.

She is trying to choose between sending the 4 year old and 18 month old to day care for 2 days each or whether she should send the 4 year old for 3 days. If she chooses this option she won't be able to afford to send the 18 month old. At present her eldest daughter will almost definitely start school in 2015 - she will be 4 on 4th Feb BUT there is a possibility she would be held back and go the next year.

The 4 year old can be shy in new or busy situations - even when she is with friends at a party it will often take her quite a while to "warm up" and join in the party / activities. She is the same in Day Care - every day - but once she's settled her carers have to speak to her about being too bossy. This socialisation is one of the reasons why she is thinking she should do the 3 days to get her as "ready" as possible.

The 18 month old is, for want of another word wild. She doesn't believe she is 18 months also and is super active, running climbing trying to do things that are more suited to an older aged child. She is full on and I think she will really benefit from the structure of Day Care and she'll love the activities. As she is mainly with older children she doesn't realise she is only 18 months old and is constantly trying to copy do what the others are doing so its very hard to manage when my friend also has a 6 month old to look after. She's a very clever little cookie and knows her own mind as only toddlers can so can be hard work (in the nicest possible way) especially if you don't have your hands free.

The 6 month old will definitely benefit from having Mum to herself for 2 days and this I think will also be nice for my friend as she is missing out on her youngest (and last) being a baby as she has to run around after the 18 month old so much.
I think having two days with only a baby will also be good for my friend as she has had a very rough trot with her middle daughter and is still often up for 2-3 hours in night with her. (That's a whole other story that I won't go into her).

when I type out this way it seems obvious that she should do the 2 and 2 however she is concerned about whether 2 days will be sufficient for her eldest going to school next year.

what would you do? Any comments feedback or opinions would be great.

(Apologies if this is a duplicate post - typed this morning but appeared to have disappeared).

if she isnt working or studying she will only get 24hrs per child ccb.. so the 3rd day for the 4 year old would be at her own full cost...

personally I would do 2 day each per child and then find a playgroup on other days

What about play group and kinder, they surely would be better financially(I am guessing here) & she could still do 3 days (although shorter) for the 4 year old and they can all do playgroup.

Thanks girls -

She wasn't able to get 3 days of a real pre-school in our local area only 2 and she felt that 2 full days in day care which would be running a pre-school programme in the class she is in would be better. Issue with the pre-school too was that while the shorter hours didn't bother her it was the fact that it runs on school terms so left her with approx 15 weeks per year where she would have all 3 at home.
When she weighed those options up and looked at the child care rebate which doesn't apply to pre-schools the child care seemed a better option. She gets the child care rebate at the moment as she is on "mat leave". Gets a bit complicated here as she went from being payg to being self employed when she was on mat leave with DD2. She was made redundant from her PAYG job and as it had been on the cards set up her own business as a qualifed migration agent. (Ex lawyer so made sense) and from what she's explained when the "mat leave" year runs out - she will qualify for continuing child care rebate as she's self employed. I'm not sure how it works regarding proving you qualify for the extended rebate cover ie over 24 hours - do you have any knowledge of that Beatrix? That might be the clincher. As having to cover the full cost for day 3 might make it out of their reach.

Thanks again for your input.

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Paid or unpaid parental leave
Maximum of 12 months leave:
- for a single parent (1.1.P.10), or
- combined parental leave of both parents.
Example: Kelly takes 52 weeks maternity leave without pay. Kelly's husband, Mark, is in full-time employment. Their commitments satisfy the work/training/study test for this period.
Note: If Kelly's regular working hours prior to maternity leave were less than 15 hours per week, or 30 hours per fortnight, and Kelly undertakes no other work related commitments and does not have an exemption, paid or unpaid parental leave does not satisfy the work/training/study test.

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so in that regards yes as long as she is still employed by the company and was working more the 15hrs a week


infor taken from : 2.6.3.10 Eligibility Requirements for Up to 50 Hours CCB

Send 4 year old 3 days and 18 mo 1 day?

You're right with pre-school v daycare and funding/rebates (not to mention the fact daycare is longer hours and covers food as well, plus the convenience of multiple children at the same centre!).

Has she done the online calculator to see how much it would actually cost after the benefit/rebate? She might be surprised...

Also is there occasional care near her? The flexibility might be just what she needs...

My 4yos do 2 days/week in a preschool program at long day care.
2 days is plenty, IMO. I think the 2 and 2 would be a great arrangement.
DD1 transitioned to school from 2 days at long day care without any problems at all.

Id send both for 2 days. Our daycare also runs a kindy program so is it worth looking into that?

I would send 4 year old 3 days. this would give mum time to spend with baby and toddler. local council activities such as library rhyme time may help the toddler. playgroup could also be an option.

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Send 4 year old 3 days and 18 mo 1 day?

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I agree with this :) 4yo 3 days and 18mo 1 day. Then once the 4yo is in school you can up the 18mo days to 2 days or so :) in some centres the younger ones are more expensive whatever the reason, so it might work.more in her favour that way? If not, its still the same amount of days in total, but more geared to the 4yo to cope with the transition for now :)