We have a teacher's aide that is paid about $10.00 hr. for childcare. We hold our meetings in the evening and any age is welcome. Usually there are only about 7-10 children. The aide gets paid wether or not there is a meeting.
They go into a room that is reserved for parent/teacher confrences. It has toys, games, etc.
We provide childcare to any student who is school age. We also get either a board parent or a teacher to supervise our eighth grade volunteers who do craft projects or games with the younger students. We use an empty classroom, and we show vidoes as well. We ask people to RSVP so we know we have enough activity sheets, projects and people to accomodate the children.
We allow siblings age 3 and up. Any child younger just stays with the Mom (or Dad)at the meeting. We make sure that the meetings are held to one hour long, so the children don't get too antsy. We have a table with crayons and puzzles for the little ones...and the kids that are two and up have fun with their older brother or sister with the teachers. The four year olds really like it, because they have a chance to meet some of the teachers that they'll be seeing around the school next year when they're in Kindergarten.
We have our meetings in the evening and offer childcare for all children of parents and teachers who attend. In previous years we have hired sitters(high school and college age students). This year we are using parents. So far we have two dads who have been doing it(for free). They don't particularly care to come to meetings, but they don't mind playing with the kids in the gym for a couple hours. Their way of serving the organization!
Our teachers rotate monthly. They only volunteer once per year, and supervise activities for the children during our meetings. We try to do a different theme each month, such as physical fitness, arts and crafts, holiday, etc. The parents LOVE it, and the teachers don't mind since it's only 1hr-and the children can have FUN with the teachers outside of the classroom. Also--it helps to put the "T" back in the PTA (or O, etc). We started this last year, when I became president and it's working out beautifully!
