Childcare Excursions and Extracurricular Activities

I love my Childcare centre, but since DS moved up to the Toddler Room, I feel like I am forever forking out for 'extras'

I already pay $65 a day for child care, on top of this they have a Dancing Teacher come in every second Monday for some toddler dancing program which works out to about $50-60 per term. I paid for the last two session of last term as DS came in at the tail end of it, and as he was sick one of the days he missed out (and we don't get a refund), they've also had an excursion to TriSkills (which is like a childs circus training thing - eg trampolines, balancing poles etc etc).

While it's all a great idea, I guess I resent being asked to pay more ON TOP of my childcare fees. Seriously!! Put a Wiggles CD on and my DS will dance up a storm, and there is already plenty of great equipment at childcare to climb, bounce and play on. At age 2, it just seems a bit OOT to me. I don't want to be the one stingy Mum though whose kid misses out though IYKWIM?

Are these types of activities normal in most centres? I think I need to just chat to the director - I guess my expectations are that I expect for my $65 fee the carers should be engaging DS in these types of activities?

I dont mind the odd excursion or activity, eg like a Zoo visit once a year etc, but the regularly planned ones (eg fortnightly) seem silly, especially to me as DS only goes twice a week anyway

Extracurricular activities for Toddlers?

**shakes head**

My kids have been at CC since feb and have had nothing like this!!

They did for the centres 1st birthday have a party with a petting zoo come and kids from all days not just day they came were invited but was no extra cost! (we did not go as we were busy and it was raining)

Seems werid to pay and pay more.

I pay $82 a day per child hence why they go 1 day a week!

We pay $69 a day, the centre organises for music and dancing once a month and they do other activities like wild animals, having a Chinese dragon etc throughout the year at no extra charge.

I've never heard of that before.
Ds goes once per week and they have the hey de ho girl come to sing with them, but that's about it.
They had a movie excursion last week that I would have had to pay for, but it wasn't his usual day so I didn't bother.
On one hand it sounds like an awesome programme and I'd love ds to do something like that. But it does seem quite expensive, especially if it's not something you've sought out.
I'd be interested to hear what the director has to say.

Yep, pretty normal to bring in a specialist teacher to do these things. There's actually a little bit more to it than just putting on the Wiggles and jumping around.

And $65 for centre based care in a city is cheap.

They do have extra activities where DD goes but they are included in the cost these are more like one off type things than regular events (they may happen on days DD isn't there) - but the fees at our place are going up to $90 a day in July!!!! :-( which seems pretty normal for round here.

No extras that I can think of at our Childcare. We pay $63 per day, going up to $70 (council run and in a rural area). I think they have had petty zoos in the past and maybe a visit from a fire truck, those costs would be covered by the general fundraising they do.

The local kinder does get in specialist teachers for things like music and does excursions to concerts. We had to pay an extra $100 for the year and do fundraising to cover those costs.

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And $65 for centre based care in a city is cheap.

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Hmmmm, here in Adelaide, I did a lot of shopping around and $60-70 was the going rate, perhaps we are a bit luckier than the easter states

I have no issue with occasional extra costs for special things, but practically every fortnight is a bit OOT

we pay $70 a day and DS goes 3 days a week. We do have a teacher to comes and does dancing every Wed but it's included in the fees.
We have occasional excursions in the big kids room, 3-5. We went to a wildlife park but we paid for the entrance and bus fare. But these are occasional, though.

I realise it's not the issue you have raised, but I would be very unhappy with my kids taken outside the child care centre (an environment I had assessed and considered safe) on on excursion. An INcursion, all good, but not an EXcursion.

Yes, sometimes I am overly safety conscious, I admit. I also feel anxious when my kids go on excursions now that they are older and at school.

The childcare my ds goes to does have extra activities, I am actually subsidized though due to ds's carer allowance but up until last year I was paying $79.67 a day for 3 days.
We have every Wednesday kinder dance, then we have the one off zoo and reptile visits etc.
Every month there is something new but I dont mind paying, and even before I still used to pay, I like that my son is being opened to new experiences and is getting used to what will come once he starts kindy.
I too, get frustrated that I'm constantly paying things on top but can't bear the thought ds would miss out Itms?


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DS's kindy has occasional extras but they are usually things like having the Ditto program (sex abuse awareness) and they only cost $5 a time. Whilst I agree that for specialised programs they may require someone specialised in that I would definitely question both the frequency and the appropriateness. For me actual dancing classes (as opposed to everyday activities that encourage physical development) are in my view an extracurricular activity and if parents are keen for that - great but then they should pursue those classes. Having it in the kindy makes it so that the kids who don't go are missing out on something the rest of their class participates in. I wouldn't be very happy with that. It also makes me wonder why I pay the teachers when I am paying another teacher on top. I would enquire if I were you.

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I realise it's not the issue you have raised, but I would be very unhappy with my kids taken outside the child care centre (an environment I had assessed and considered safe) on on excursion. An INcursion, all good, but not an EXcursion.

Yes, sometimes I am overly safety conscious, I admit. I also feel anxious when my kids go on excursions now that they are older and at school.

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when the kids at DS's day care go out, they request for parents to attend. And the ratio must be 1 parent to 2 children. So if a parent can't go, another parent is responsible for their child and another. If this ratio is not met, not even parents/carers to a child then it is called off.
We all have to fill up forms etc. so we are fully aware of what the procedure and who is taking them and the contact details of the carers/place they are visiting etc.

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Hmmmm, here in Adelaide, I did a lot of shopping around and $60-70 was the going rate, perhaps we are a bit luckier than the easter states

I have no issue with occasional extra costs for special things, but practically every fortnight is a bit OOT

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Yep, whether it's 'cheap' or not - I think it's about average for a rural centre, you shouldn't have to commit to these extras if you don't want to - do you have the choice to opt out?

Our Child Care Centre has a dancing teacher come in. I don't pay as my Kids do not attend on the day she attends. It was an extra $2 or $3 I think. The Dancing Teacher also helped out at the end of the year with the Christmas Concert, as in supplied costumes and did the 'choregraph' for the kids. She was good, so when I did pay (when my kids went on that day) I didn't mind. They only did it for the older kids though.
They have incursions like the museum or the farm animals people or lizard man, which we don't pay for, they are funded by the Child Care Centre.

We have something like that. I knew I was changing DD's day off in the second term of this year and so refused to pay for the first term - along with the fact we also pay for DD to go to proper dance classes each week. When I spoke to the director, I was assured the children not partaking would do something special outside the room. This was important to me as my DD was desperate to partake. Mind you, they had three "trial" sessions early in the year to get the kids hooked.

During the entire term, my daughter was in the room for all bar 2 classes. Oh, and one week they had a lot of kids off sick so let the non-partaking kids partake! So of course DD came home proud as punch believing she was going to do it every week from now on! When I quizzed the staff they shrugged me off and said it was their problem to deal with when DD got upset the following week! In the second to last week, she (along with other children) were made to sit and watch the kids partake in the class. My daughter was very upset when I collected her. When I complained I was told it was because they were setting up the easter egg hunt outside. Right... so why couldn't they visit another room? For the final week, I had the day off and made the point of collecting DD 20 min before the class started and taking her to do something FUN. Oh, AND the teachers AND other kids picked on DD telling her she was "poor" and "not paid up" because we wouldn't commit to having money taken out of our account each week to pay for the classes and then have to deal with any issues in the second term when they still took them out.

So yeah, I have a problem with it too. If they want to bring it in, no problem. But at least have a proper set up for those who don't partake and do NOT pick on them. The reasons they don't do it have nothing to do with anyone else and the kids should never suffer. And since when is it ok to speculate on the financial situation at home or to comment on it to a kid? How unprofessional! Sorry - pretty peeved at my center at the moment.

MG

Wow MG - I can't believe what happened at your centre! That is totally unforgivable!

I think some centres get too caught up adding extra "education". Children are educated by living life. I worked with an awesome teacher in a toddlers room who did HEAPS of exdcursions. We were out at LEAST every month, often as much as weekly. All free. We walked to the park, we walked around the block looking at building sites and whatever, we visted the greengrocer, we went to the postoffic etc etc. I don't think your two year old needs specialist teachers but I do think excursions are really valuable (esp for full time children). But excursions should be about getting out not about going to another structured environment.

yeah, MG that's just plain mean!! obviously they are thinking of the business side and not the poor children's welfare. How mean of them to break their little hearts like that.
yeah, they could be outside playing or in another room etc. still i think it should be for all kids or none at all. to be fair.

meow, that's a great thing your centre. children don't need special places, just day to day things are fascinating enough for them. what they need is someone to invest the time for them to show and teach them things..

Meow - I just love that your centre takes the kids to the greengrocer!! That is exactly the sort of thing my little one would love.

I pay $59 a day for cc in the Barossa Valley and am generally really happy with the centre. No extra fees so far although he is only just moving up into the toddler room atm. I do however get sick of all the fundraising stuff that goes on. Plus extra requests like that we do gardening and washing etc. Fair enough for the kindy parents but not childcare (cc and kindy in the same place). DS is in care because I work fulltime - I don't have time, nor do I want to help out the centre with gardening. That is the sort of thing that should be included in the fees.

Our centre charges $91 per day (thank goodness I can salary sacrifice). Every now and then we have someone come in for something special and it's usually around $10 per "thing". Last term we had a few too many "things" and it was starting to tick me off. I would resent them going on excursions where it's costing me extra money. For them (babies & toddlers) I think it's just fun being in a different place and socialising with the other babies & toddlers - I don't think they need "extra" activities (particularly when they come at a cost to parents).

A dance teacher??? WTF????? Um, aren't the carers supposed to be au fait with all that stuff? At our centre, they dress up, sing songs (someone kindly donated a piano) and dance in the toddler room - without the added cost of someone coming in specially. For that I'm grateful. I can't wait til my LO moves up to the toddler room - the carer in charge of the toddler room is just amazing.

Mother Goose I am utterly appalled at the attitude from your centre!! We pay to have our children looked after by "carers" not spiteful adults!

Our centre does a lot of that sort of stuff, Italian teacher, music/dance etc once a week and then a visit from an animal farm etc every couple of months or so. We don't pay extra for it though, it's build into the cost, but we're paying $95 a day. TBH I'd rather be paying $65 and paying for the extra activities that pop up, cos DS is only there 3 days a week and I know he misses out on some of the stuff.

As a Director for a not for profit centre, I am always aware when we organise etxtra activities the cost impact this has on already struggling families, we often have a lot of incursions, so we have the zoo mobile come to the centre, which usually only cost each family $8 to $10. We also organise a lot of events that wont cost such as visits from the dentist, fire brigade, police and the RSPCA does a wonderful dog safety talk for children for the donation of a gold coin all educational and something different but not at a great cost to families, we have at other centres I have previously worked at organised excursions to the local library, and shoppping centre and the park nearby.
We also do a lot of other things such as planting days with plants in the garden, pyjama days, atheltics day and we even give them a team colour to dress in, things that are inexpensive but break up and expose them to new things.