T.A.
We can bring babies up to six months in a front pack. A lot of parents watch each others children, or have their husband stay or work from home on their work day at the school.
For those of you that have a toddler in a coop and an infant....
Do you get a babysitter for your infant when you have to volunteer at the school? Does your coop have a rotating babysitting group for this type of need? Or do you take them with you?
I don't have family close by and the thought of hiring a babysitter a couple times a month is not appealing. I don't see this mentioned anywhere online but I'm sure I'm not the only one with this problem.
We can bring babies up to six months in a front pack. A lot of parents watch each others children, or have their husband stay or work from home on their work day at the school.
When mine were little, I used to trade babysitting with other moms in the co-op. Of course I had my neighbor watch my son a few times until I could get to know the other moms well enough. When I felt comfortable about it, he stayed with another co-op mom on those mornings. Then I watched their son when they had to help in school. It worked out well. We weren't allowed to have siblings with us when we volunteered.
All the parents just bring their baby with them. There were some parents who wanted their little one to stay home bc they felt they were being too disruptive to the class and they set up a watch sibling exchange with a couple other moms with younger siblings.
Talk to the other Moms in the group or ask the Director.
Many preschools, even if it is a coop, have rules.
At one in my town for example, even the Volunteers, have to be background checked, they have to take certain classes in order to meet State guidelines etc. and be approved.
It is not just anyone who can just drop in and Volunteer.
There is a process to go through, and an approval process.
Every Preschool, has rules.
You need to speak to the Preschool itself, and ask them.
Have you checked with the school to see how other mothers handle it? I know that one school I checked in to encouraged parents to swap sitting for each other. There was even a message board where you could sign up if you were interested in doing this (oh boy I am dating myself, this was back in the pre internet 90's lol!)
We didn't end up doing that kind of school but we did swap babysitting with some other families we knew back then and it really worked out well, free for us and fun for the kids!
I suggest that you ask the co-op what they expect. It could be that you could bring the baby or it may be that you definitely can't. They can also tell you what other moms do and if these moms have a babysitter who they'd recommend. Find out the rules for your co-op. Find out what other moms at this co-op do.
My coop school had policy of 7 months and under they can come. But after that it was kinda up to teacher and how active the baby was, as long as the baby will stay with u and not being disputed then most teachers were good with it. But I did like getting a sitter ( a friend did it for free) because I got one on one time with toddler.
Our co-op had a policy that you could bring the sibling as long as you could wear them. What we did was I worked on Monday's and she worked on Wednesday's. So on the day that I worked, she took my son and on Wednesday's, I took hers. It worked great!!!
Good luck!
My kids go/went to a co-op preschool. Younger siblings are not allowed in the classroom when a parent is working and there is not a babysitting group. At our school, each family figures out their own child care. Many have husbands with flexible work schedules so they can stay home for the morning (or work in the class themselves), others have grandparents nearby to watch the kids. No one I know hired a babysitter, since the expense typically negates the benefit of an inexpensive coop school. We only have to work once every few weeks, so it usually isn't a big deal.
If you have a friend that you're comfortable trading babysitting days with, go for it. But my guess is you will need to make arrangements yourself and not to rely on the school to set something up.
I do have to say, I LOVE being part of a coop. Being so involved in the school and getting to know both the kids and parents is a wonderful experience.