Have you ever been connected with a school where someone answers the telephone until 6:00 PM and where your child can be found in a minute or two through walkie talkies? Welcome to the Indian Creek Extended Day programs.

Extending the Day for Early Childhood and Elementary Aged Students

Since moms first pulled out of the driveway and went to work outside of the home, families have been struggling with day care issues. A parent’s work day does not usually begin after the children have left for school or end before they arrive home in the afternoon.

Indian Creek was the first school in the State of Maryland to offer an approved and accredited educational program during school hours and licensed day care before and after school. Our morning program opens at 7:10 A.M. and our afternoon program closes at 6:00 P.M. We have offered our program continuously since 1973 and hundreds of children have had happier, healthier school years because of it.

We offer a program that employs a varied group of caregivers who greet their charges with pleasure and snacks, listen to their successes and woes from the day, help them become involved in low pressure activities -games, arts and crafts, outdoor play- and, in general, make their afternoon hours happy and productive. The only problem we have with day care is that some kids don’t want to go home when their parents come to pick them up.

Each of Us Needs to Belong- Especially if We Are Twelve! "Afterschool" is a Great Way to Help That Happen.

Come to visit us around 4:00 P.M. and you will see middle school students all over the building. They are sitting in groups in the halls talking with each other, shooting baskets outside, or participating in a variety of activities. Every afternoon we have between 25 and 75 kids who stay after school. The Middle School program is included as part of the cost of tuition.

Working parents face difficult child care problems when children reach middle school age. Youngsters may feel they are old enough to be at home alone; parents sometimes feel that the extra expense of day care is unwarranted. As a result, the group of older children who participate in a licensed day care type of program often narrows down and those who do stay find themselves associating with only the same few kids after school, day after day.

Yet, the dangers of having young adolescents at home in an unsupervised setting are very real. Risk taking is much higher. Adolescents who are home alone tend to experiment with alcohol, drugs and sex at a much higher rate.

In our attempt to solve the need for after school care and to support our active prevention program, Indian Creek developed an unusual program.

Every afternoon, there are teachers on duty until 5:00 P.M. to supervise middle school students who are here to play ping pong, do homework, participate in model airplane club or movie club, work in the library or in the computer lab, participate in athletics, or just hang out. Sometimes there are special events like a chess tournament or ping pong tournament. Always, there are caring adults around who have the time to answer questions, help with homework or just be a listening ear. Students do not need to be registered in advance; they need only to show up and sign in.

The program is available to all middle school students at no extra charge, and there is an after-school bus that travels to a few locations to make late pickup easier. “Afterschool” helps keep our students safe.