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I have a Kindergartener and an infant. Infant goes to daycare, Kinder gets dropped off at school at 720am and attends aftercare at her school. I like that because I know where she is all day and I don't have to worry about her traveling. She attends Spanish 2 days per week after school and then goes to aftercare if DH isn't there yet. All this in the same building. The other 3 days she goes straight to aftercare. It is so awesome, the lady that directs the after care program also directs the after school enrichment programs and is the school's science teacher. So my daughter has continuity all day long. She will attend summer camp, either sponsored by her school, the local public school, or the conservation district (wherever we can secure a spot ).

@winter_wonder: I think both situations are workable. They have their pros and cons. I would add the following to your list of considerations:

1) Do on-campus after school care program spots get harder to come by after Kindergarten? Spaces at some of our school's are ridiculously hard to get and priority goes to re-enrolling students, then new Kindergartners, then to not previously enrolled 1st-5th. I thought my school was competitive but in the neighboring district parents literally line up in the middle of the night for spots. I hope it's better other places.

2) As much as I want to believe Covid will be contained by Fall, I would compare how both schools handled childcare during this year to anticipate any closures.

My 2nd grade DD did well with the on campus after school care. This year both my kids are doing virtual school at the day care run by what is usually the after school care. It's working ok and it has a lot of up sides but if I had the option to keep my Kindergarten son in an in person Kindergarten at his preschool/daycare I would have done that in a heart beat.

I wouldn't want my little kid going in a van. So I'd do whatever to avoid that. I'd look into a little nanny for your new baby and just see if you can make that work somehow.

If you love the center, my vote it to stay there. Like someone else said, another branch of the same center may not be nearly as good, so I just wouldn’t want to risk it. DH handles the mornings, but has been doing two drop offs for a few years now and it doesn’t seem to be a problem for him.

I have one in 1st grade and one in pre-k (in a private daycare). The first grader goes to after school at the same daycare where pre-k is. There is a van that drives him there, but it's like a 1 minute ride and I think it's a lot safer than the school bus - less kids, direct ride.

We like this arrangement for a few reasons. Having both kids end up at the same place makes it easier for pick up, also the daycare does care on a lot of the days when the elementary school is closed (like most of winter break except for a couple days of holiday).

Over the summer the daycare does "camp" for school age kids, which we did last summer. I'm not sure if that's what we want to do again this summer or not. But it is a high possibility. So then we just have both kids in one place.

Next year we'll probably use the same daycare for after school even though it's a tiny bit further to drive because we like using them for non-school days and it makes it easy.