The SSP Calgary Baby/Children Thread

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by lubicon

Pfffft. You're all sissies. Friend of ours live overseas with 12 year old twin boys and they travel from Canada to/from China by themselves (the kids I mean).

No flights involved, but, my mother had 5 kids in a five year span .... I was 5 and my brother 3 1/2, and my sister at 2 years old and then twin baby girls.....seems like a handful, but I apparently for mom it wasn't handful enough. She also babysat my two cousins at 4 and 2 years old! Good times

[Surrealplaces]

Figured it was time to bump this thread......


Kirby goes for a nap by Surrealplaces, on Flickr

[Wooster]

Little man is chillin'

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by Wooster

Little man is chillin'

You bet. Maxin n relaxin!

[The Chemist]

Aoife's now nearly 19 months old.

[Wooster]

Our Elise is 9 months old now. A little sleepy at the dinner table after refusing her afternoon nap.

• Video Link

[suburbia]

Thought I'd share something interesting that I learned recently.

Junior kindergarden at a private school can be cheaper than daycare. I was surprised to learn this, but private schools accept kids for junior kindergarten from 3 years and 6 months old (too young for public schools), and because private schools can get something like $7,000 from the government per child, fees the parents are responsible for are often less than what you'd pay at a daycare. In our case, we were at about $900 per month at daycare. We signed up at Asasa academy, at an age where our daughter would not get acceptance into a public school, and paid, in total, about $5,000 for ten months. It is from 8:30 till 3:30, but with $250 more per month, it can be 7:30 till 5:30. Even with that extra, it works out to $150 per month less than daycare, while at the same time, getting a teacher with a degree, true school facilities including a field and gymnasium, etc. I don't mind the uniform business either, as getting ready in the morning is pretty straight forward.

I plan on reverting back to public next year for our kid's kindergarten, but am pretty happy with this year's arrangement, including introduction to a real school environment.

It does raise the question of if Alberta should subsidize private schools (most provinces do not) but that is a discussion for another day.

[Cage]

Suburbia, thanks for the information on Asasa Academy.

I too am looking at the cost delta between dayhome, daycare, preschool, etc.

My daughter just turned three so we are about 4 months short of their admision policy of 3.5 years on September 1.

Pure cost basis analysis (and please don't take this as a criticism of your decision) I come up with the following:

Asasa Academy Fees:
Tuition $4500
Admin fee $250
Installment Plan fee $150
Total cost for Jr K $4900
'Daycare' Addon $2500 ($250 for 10 months).
Summer Care $1800 (essentially daycare rates for July and August)
Total cost of care/education/etc. for the year $9,200

Daycare Fees
$900 * 12 = $10,800

This puts daycare option at $1,600 more per annum.

Additional Asasa costs:
- From the schools operations policy manual, students must bring their own snacks and lunch. Daycare will include meals and snacks in their cost figures. Unable to cost out the snacks and lunch portion.
- Asasa requires mandatory volunteer work. Unable to attribute a cost to this activity.
- Asasa follows the standard CBE/CCSD calendar year. I am assuming that parents chosing the Asasa option would provide their own childcare for the Christmas, Spring breaks as well as professional development days and teachers convention. Did not cost the additional childcare to cover these days into the Asasa option.

Finally the 7k subsidy is avialable by the government to any qualifying family that has childcare expenses. The subsidy is income tested so a family income greater than 60K per annum will not get any subsidy. Sign up for the subsidy can be made through the Dayhome or Daycare association/company (e.g. cannot get the subsidy from private dayhomes.

[Surrealplaces]

lol! That's too funny.

BTW, she's got the exact same high chair as my son

Originally Posted by Wooster

Our Elise is 9 months old now. A little sleepy at the dinner table after refusing her afternoon nap.

• Video Link

[Surrealplaces]

My son's tour of the Bow skygarden.

• Video Link

[Doug]

^That's a lot of hand prints.

[RWin]

Cool!

What's the song you used? I like it.

[RWin]

Never mind. I figured it out.

[RWin]

Yesterday my baby became and adult (at least in Alberta). Can't believe how fast 18 years went by.

At first I wondered if the sleepless nights and dirty diapers would ever end. Now it seems like little more than a blip in time.

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by Doug

^That's a lot of hand prints.

The cleaning staff wasn't too impressed.

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by RWin

Yesterday my baby became and adult (at least in Alberta). Can't believe how fast 18 years went by.

At first I wondered if the sleepless nights and dirty diapers would ever end. Now it seems like little more than a blip in time.

I know what you mean. My daughter (in the video around the 1:00 minute mark) turned an adult not long ago and I just found out she's getting transferred to Australia for a year I can still remember the days when I used to feed her baby food in her high chair.

[lubicon]

Originally Posted by RWin

Yesterday my baby became and adult (at least in Alberta). Can't believe how fast 18 years went by.

At first I wondered if the sleepless nights and dirty diapers would ever end. Now it seems like little more than a blip in time.

I hear you. Mine can get the Learner's Permits now. It seems like they just learned how to ride a bike.

[Cowtown_Tim]

Great video Surreal. The little kid in the video has much less of fear of heights than I have lol.

[RWin]

Originally Posted by lubicon

I hear you. Mine can get the Learner's Permits now. It seems like they just learned how to ride a bike.

How is the learners permit thing going? My oldest got her permit when she was 16 and still hasen't bothered with her road test 2 years down the road. My youngest is 17 and still hasn't bothered getting a learners.

I just don't understand. When I was 16 (and living in BC), I got my learners on my birthday and did the road test 3 months later. Everyone wanted to get their license back then. It seems that today, my kids, their friends, and even my friends kids just don't want to bother.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by RWin

How is the learners permit thing going? My oldest got her permit when she was 16 and still hasen't bothered with her road test 2 years down the road. My youngest is 17 and still hasn't bothered getting a learners.

I just don't understand. When I was 16 (and living in BC), I got my learners on my birthday and did the road test 3 months later. Everyone wanted to get their license back then. It seems that today, my kids, their friends, and even my friends kids just don't want to bother.

1. You didn't have graduated licensing (I'm assuming, but maybe BC had it decades ago?).

2. Cost. Are you buying her a car and offering to pay the $4000/year insurance?

Things are just different, and much more of a pain. I feel bad for kids today. I understand WHY we've gone this route, 16-21 year old males are something like 500x as likely to have an accident, but still...

I do wonder how this coming generation expects to get to work though. As great as transit is in a city like Calgary, the reality is that most entry jobs will need a car to get to. I guess Mom&Dad Taxi Service will be a booming business in 5-10 years.