Childcare for Earlham College trip

Childsitters Wanted: Earlham trip

• Dates: (2006) May 5-7 (F-Su); ability to cover Monday (May 8) if needed would be a big plus, in case we are delayed coming back.
• Last update: 2006-05-01 20:55
• See also: for anyone entering the site via this page, we have other childsitter needs as well, and you also might want to read more about Josh, who is autistic.

Status

We've found the necessary sitters to cover the whole trip, yay! Just hoping now that nothing goes wrong at the last minute.

General Description

This involves childsitting for 3 kids (Benjy, Zander, and Josh) for a long-weekend trip the first weekend in May.

We need to drive to Indiana to attend Mel's graduation from Earlham College and pick up his belongings, and we will need overnights (for the 5th and 6th) and pickups from school (3 different ones; takes 45-60 minutes) on Friday.

Schedule

• (Fri) May 5:
  • Us: we leave in the morning, and arrive at Earlham in the evening.
  • Kids: We'll need care for Zander all day, and pickup of Benjamin at CPSC (downtown Durham) between 3:00 and 3:30, and Josh at Lyon Park anytime before 6:00. Josh will need hot-dogs microwaved; B & Z may need minor assistance preparing their meals, but we will make sure there are microwave foods for them to cook (see #Food).
• (Sat) May 6:
  • Kids: Everyone just needs watching all day and periodic help with feeding. If the sitter felt inspired to take them on a walk somewhere (Duke Gardens, or one of the trails in Duke Forest, or whatever), that would be nifty (and B&Z would definitely enjoy it) but this is entirely up to the sitter. (We may be able to get a supplemental sitter to help out with some of this stretch, if the main sitter needs to take a breather -- or we could leave the main sitter with the supplemental sitter's contact info as a backup.)
  • Us: we're in Indiana all day, and should (I hope) be reachable by cell phone (if Virgin Mobile's signal covers Earlham...)
• (Sun) May 7:
  • Kids: Same as Saturday, until we get home
  • Us: we should arrive sometime in the evening, possibly after bedtime (depending on how early we're able to set off; there will be packing to do, and it's a 9-hour drive).

General notes: bedtime is 8:00; Woozle almost always reads stories until a little past 8:30 (currently Narnia for Benjamin and Star Trek for Zander, where one chapter of Narnia takes about 15 minutes and then fill the rest of the time with Star Trek until there's a good stopping point sometime around 8:30). At that point Benjamin sometimes asks for a drink of water; if we were better at this game, we would remember to bring one up ahead of time, but Woozle usually ends up going downstairs and getting him a cup (one of the colored plastic ones with a straw-lid).

Food

• Josh can subsist on microwaved hotdogs, which have to be cooked for him, and can snack on veggie-chips (he has to have a new bag fetched from the laundry room and opened when he runs out). He drinks orange juice, diluted approximately 50-50 with filtered water from the fridge. If there are leftovers (chicken, turkey, or pizza), he can eat those too, but he will need his hands washed afterward. Everyone likes popcorn, too; we have a popcorn maker and popcorn. Somewhere. (There's also microwave popcorn, I think, but we tend to discourage that because of all the chemicals they put in it.)
  • Hotdog "recipe": microwave at 10% for 8:88. Open package, split off 5 dogs, microwave on "def" for 2:22. Serve. Microwave & serve remaining 5 dogs when Josh has finished the first batch. (He has been known to eat too fast and end up coughing up hotdogs on the floor if you give them to him all at once; 5 at a time seems to work well.)
• Benjamin and Zander can usually fend for themselves on microwaved meals (Lasagna and Chicken Penne) or toast/sandwiches (Benjamin may need help with his sandwich, and Zander usually likes American cheese. which has to be fetched from the basement, on his).

If the sitter would prefer, we could get some chicken or turkey to cook in the oven (very simple recipe, posted above the oven); this takes care of Josh, too (chicken is his favorite food, with turkey a close second).

The sitter would be welcome to partake of any food we have in stock; if there are any foods the sitter would like us to stock up on, we just need to know a few days in advance (the more days, the better).