Daycare/preschool that closes for the summer?
Hi BPN friends, I'm offered two spots at Pixar recently and have to make the decision by the end of this week. The only concern I have is there is no summer session. This means if I want to take kids to travel during the summer, I will have to continue paying for the tuition untill someone fill my spots. It is difficult to find a place that accepts both kids starting right away, so Pixar is a good choice. However, tuition for three months for two kids in the summer is a lot cuz we do plan to have a overseas trip next summer. I really appreciate any advice on this situation, or other daycare/preschool recommendation? Thanks!
Jul 12, 2023
Parent Replies
I strongly recommend Every Child Bay! The director and teachers there are super nice and the policy is very flexible. My daughter is 3.5 years old, we just moved here from another country 1 month ago. My daughter had a very successful transition there under their professional support and care. Do consider ECB, you won't regret! Here's the director Irene's email dr.irene.russo [at] everychildincluded.org
There are absolutely preschools that have summer breaks (for example, EB, EBI, EBGIS) however those preschools also tend to be pricier overall, so I don't know if that would save you much money. I would look at the cost difference of year round daycare vs school year preschool with camps for when you do need summer care before you turn that spot down! Also think about whether there is any chance you wouldn't be gone those full three months or whether there are any additional years your kids would be at the day care before moving to elementary school. I get MUCH more stressed out trying to figure out what to do with my kid when his preschool is closed then I do worry about paying for additional care I may or may not need.
Little Elephant Too in central Berkeley does two summer sessions that you enroll in separately, so you can opt out and not pay tuition for three weeks or so at a time. They do mixed ages 2-5.5 and there have been several sibling pairs in the mix over the past few years. We were really happy with it for our first kid and our second is starting in September.
Good care is hard to find and even harder if you are looking for two kids. If you have to pay until someone fills your spot then it would be a good idea to plan ahead and find someone that wants to take your spot for the summer, especially if you want to go back after the summer.