Before and After care opens at 6:30 A.M. closes at 6:00 P.M respectively.
Montessori School St. Clair offers a Before and After School Program to meet the needs of our busy parents/guardians. We provide this service for our students because we realize how increasingly difficult it has become to find quality before and after school care that facilitates parent’s schedules. With your cooperation and our adherence to the Montessori guidelines, we will provide that quality care. Before and After Care is $6.25 an hour per child. A flat one hour fee is billed for the first hour of care, for each child attending Before and After Care. After the first hour of care you will be billed in 30 minute increments (in our favor).
GUIDELINES Registration:
Our Before Care is available from 6:30 am to 8:20 am. Our After Care is available at 11:50 am till 6:00 pm
Before Care arrival:
Every morning at 6:30 A.M., each child will be met by our Before Care staff member. The room will be open for the child’s pleasure and comfort and a loving and homey environment is provided. We require that an adult accompany the child to our Before and After Care room, greet the staff member, and sign the child in. The same procedure is required when picking up the child. Sign-out and notify the After Care staff member that you are picking up your child.
Breakfast snack ideas:
Children’s nutritional needs vary considerably so it is perfectly acceptable for parents/guardians to include supplementary breakfast snacks in the child’s lunch box or separate sack. Some snack suggestions are cereal, milk, fruit, toast, hard boiled eggs, bacon strips or granola snacks. Please note that our Before Care staff will not be able to prepare breakfast for the children. They are only able to assist the child in warming food that is already prepared
Lunch:
Students are required to bring a lunch box with a simple lunch including water, milk or 100% fruit juice. Napkins and eating utensils are provided for the children’s use. At lunch time, emphasis is placed on proper nutrition, the effects of food on the human body, the cultural and historical aspects of different foods, eating rituals, grace and courtesy. Parent cooperation is needed to make the Nutrition Program a meaningful and enriching experience. We ask that no candy, cookies, junk food, etc. be sent in the lunch boxes. Read labels carefully! Please note that there will be no refrigerator to store lunches. A microwave is available in the classroom. We also encourage you to send fruit that is cut in bite-size pieces if your child does not eat fruit whole.
Rest Period:
A supervised rest period is a daily routine for the younger children. Padded mats and cots are provided for each child’s comfort. In addition, we request that parents/guardians send a small blanket and small square throw pillow with your child for added comfort. The blanket and pillow will be marked with your child’s name.
AFTER CARE
After school dismissal:
School dismissal is at 11:50 a.m. or 3:00 p.m. Any child who is not picked up from class by 11:50 a.m. or 3:00 p.m. will be directed to After Care and charged accordingly. Each child will be met by a staff member. The room will be open for the child’s pleasure and comfort and a loving and homey environment will be provided.
Afternoon snack:
An afternoon snack will be supplied for all students remaining in our After School Program after 3:45 pm.
ACTIVITIES
It is important to understand that, as Montessorians, we are attempting to aid life. The child in our Before and After School Program is experiencing life under somewhat different social conditions than the child who goes home after school. We want to create a family and home-life setting rather than an institutional one. A neighborhood/home experience is an essential one to develop–always utilizing the Montessori principles and guidelines. Activities available to a child in the Before and After Care room includes family and role play, arts and crafts, block building, playing with toys and puzzles.
In order to accomplish these activities, we provide a homey environment in a room that is decorated with brightly colored shelves and has an area for reading and table activities.
We use the playground often – weather permitting. During inclement weather other rooms in the school are utilized.