Does your Classical Conversations have Nursery?

[monalisa]

I'm trying to decide whether to do CC again & at what campus. I have a few options. The one we're at this year may end up being the best fit, but one issue for us this year was the little siblings in the classroom . Sometimes we'll have 4 children 2-3 years old, and sometimes a 10 month old too, and the noise level can be incredible with their talking, playing with toys, reading books etc. I even wonder at times how the kids in the class can hear or focus on the tutor. The other moms seems to be oblivious to the noise being created. The tutor is very laid back and has somewhat wild kids of her own (not in our room), so I think she tunes it out.

 

I feel like this is not a good environment for learning (plus, it makes ME insane). I've since found out that other campuses sometimes have a nursery. I asked our director about it, and she said she doesn't want to organize one - it would be up to the moms that need one to set it up. Plus, she didn't think the moms w/ little kids felt a need; my reply to that was they probably are so used to chaos in their house they are oblivious to the disruption.

 

If you've been in a CC with a nursery, can you tell me how it works? Do you have paid workers, and rotate in moms who have kids in there? Do the moms w/ little kids then pay an extra expense, or is it built in somewhere else?

 

I'm just debating if its worth it to tough it out at this campus & suggest ways to get a nursery started here, find another campus, or drop CC altogether and do the memory work on our own.

[JessMcG]

:bigear:

[gemrae]

Although I don't have a little one in the nursery, I can let you know what our campus did.

 

Last year was our first year and we had moms rotating in and out on a weekly basis. This year we have a paid worker in there all the time. I'm guessing this is better for the moms who want to be in the classrooms with their other ones.

 

Again, since I don't have one in the nursery I can't speak to what works best but it seems I've heard less comments and confusion from the moms who can now come and enjoy their kids who are in Foundations.

 

I'd suggest talking to the director and helping to find someone who would be willing to work the nursery. Definitely having the little ones in the room would be too disruptive to the program.

[Chris in VA]

Ours has a nursery with a paid attendent. The moms are supposed to be in their child's class if at all possible. I don't know what they charge.

I do know that it is mostly for teacher's kids, or used by them mostly, anyway. Just the way our families seem to fall. Oh, and our campus includes 5's as first year students. Don't know if that is normal.

[Woodland_Mom]

Our campus has 3 nursery rooms for 17 little ones! Each room has two paid workers. Some of the workers are high school homeschool students who do not do CC. Two of the workers are grandmas who are happy to have a little bit of extra money and an opportunity to minister to and bless young moms. When ever a paid worker is absent, a CC mom subs for her. We have a schedule and if there is a need, then the CC mom works in the nursery as a volunteer. I don't know what the workers are paid, but it isn't much!

 

I think the nursery is a HUGE blessing to moms who have bigger families or moms with young children. It gives them an opportunity to focus on what is taking place in the CC classroom.

[VA6336]

Of the two CC groups in my town, one has a nursery and one doesn't. The one that doesn't is a huge group and there's definitely some chaos! My group is the one with the nursery and it makes a big difference for us.

 

The way we'll do it next year is this: the Director pays a nursery attendant for her children and her Tutors' children. Parents who use the nursery for their young children pay a small fee (think $1-2 a week or so) per child and they rotate (one mom per week unless there's a bunch of them and we need two) through as the assistants. Depending on the number of families in the group, a mom might only have to assist (missing being in the older childrens' classes) once in the whole year. I believe the nursery fee will be due at the beginning of each term for the 12 weeks.

 

My friend's group in OK does it this way (or something very similar) and it works out really well for them.

 

Good luck!

[SonshineLearner]

Ours has a nursery with a paid attendent. The moms are supposed to be in their child's class if at all possible. I don't know what they charge.

I do know that it is mostly for teacher's kids, or used by them mostly, anyway. Just the way our families seem to fall. Oh, and our campus includes 5's as first year students. Don't know if that is normal.

 

You don't have 4 year olds in a 4's~5's class?? Where are the 4 year olds?

[SonshineLearner]

You can't, as a Director, have State Farm insurance and have a nursery that you run. It's just not allowed. Now, what's allowed and what's done are sometimes different. If you have to file for an accident, and they find that you are doing a nursery... it can cause serious problems. At our group, I stayed completely out of it... and the tutors hired a person to babysit for them. I have absolutely nothing to do with it though... Trying to stay above board... to protect myself...

:-)