Churches offer summer child care programs
Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008
When school is out, some families struggle to find day care for their school- age children. Some children will stay with relatives, others will attend the Boys and Girls Club or the Rogers Activity Center day camp, but a few children go to church.
Several churches in the area have daycare available for school-age children. First Christian Church has run its Summer-Shine Day Camp for years. Director Matt Wood said it began as an outreach for the church and is closely connected to the after school care program," Character Care."
More than 100 children from kindergarten through seventh grade are participating this summer, Wood said. There's also a waiting list of more than 40 names. Because the program is state licensed, the number of children who can participate is based on the space available at the church. He hopes to expand someday because the need is obvious.
"We stay very active," Wood said, explaining that the group takes a field trip almost every day. Sometimes they travel to Tulsa, Okla., for the aquarium or zoo. Other times they stay closer to home and bowl or swim in one of the area pools.
There is an inside game room, but Wood said it's only used for short periods in between other activities.
The program is nondenominational, but there are daily Bible stories and prayers are said before meals, Wood said.
The weekly fee is $ 85. Wood said the after school program helps pay some of the expenses of the summer program and the church helps as well. Families sign up for the whole summer, but can take a week off without paying the fee if they set it up in advance, he said.
At First United Methodist Church in downtown Rogers, the childcare program is called Construction Zone. Like their Mother's Day Out program for younger children, Construction Zone is a flexible program that allows parents to pay by the day. The fee per day is $ 20. The number of participants varies day to day, acting director Norma Gilchrist said.
There are almost daily field trips, but they often stay close to home and take advantage of free activities like library programs and the splash park at the Rogers Activity Center.
Participants have a chance to look at books in the church library and occasionally see a movie rated G or PG. Once a week they go to chapel.
"We encourage Christian behavior," Gilchrist said, but the program is nondenominational and open to all children.
"We saw a need in the community," Gilchrist said, explaining that it all began with a Mother's Day Out program that was offered two days a week. That program has expanded and now preschoolers can come five days a week between 7: 30 and 4: 30.
Some mothers who work part time need a flexible program so that they pay only for the days their children actually attend, she said. Some of the preschoolers have older brothers and sisters in the Construction Zone program.
Across town the pastor of Millwood Christian Church knew there were children at nearby Bellview Elementary School who needed daycare, Adam Jackson, staff member of the Millwood day care program, remembered.
At Millwood they started with an afterschool care program, and when those children needed summer day care, that was added as well, he said.
About 90 children are signed up at the church and there are a few spots left, Jackson said. Like First Christian, Millwood day care participants attend all summer, but can take a week's vacation.
"Some kids have been here all four years," Jackson said," They just keep coming back."
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