New to Playcare?

Welcome! Please review this handy guide for new Playcare families to prepare for your child’s entry:

Guide for New Families - Download PDF

All new families must also complete the Emergency and Informed Consent forms prior to their first session. Please submit your completed forms to bicr@bimbc.ca.

There will be NO PLAYCARE during July and August.

About Playcare

Playcare is one of Bowen Island Community Recreation’s longest-running and most celebrated services. This weekday morning child-minding program is designed to help facilitate socialization, transitions, friend-making, and cooperative play in preschool-aged children. Playcare is not a licensed childcare program, and our goal is to improve pro-social interactions and outcomes for children preparing to transition into more formally structured care (pre-school, kindergarten, etc). Our care providers, Sharon Sluggett, Rebecca Ander, and Keslsey Knipe-Hagert, each have many years of training and experience in providing supportive, developmentally-informed care to young children.

Schedule & Fees:

SEPTEMBER-JUNE: All sessions located in the Community Use Room (CUR) at BICS

  • Session 1 = 9:15am - 10:45am

  • Session 2 = 10:45am - 12:15pm

  • $10.00 per 1.5-hour session

There will be NO PLAYCARE during July and August.

Registration Info!

Please note that our registration process has changed. Playcare no longer operates as a drop-in program. Additionally, we are no longer offering full season advance registration. Please review this section carefully before proceeding with registration.

Weekly Registration Limits:

We aim to serve as many Bowen families as possible. Playcare staff always reserve the right to reduce or increase registration limits for individual children based on program capacity, children’s needs and abilities, developmental best practice, or other special considerations.

Waitlisting:

Families may request to be waitlisted for any unfilled spaces after advance registration has closed for the next week (every Thursday afternoon). Recreation staff will contact waitlist-requested families on Fridays to offer these additional registrations, if available.

Age Rules:

  • Playcare is not currently taking infants under 12 months of age

  • Children older than 12 months younger than 5 are welcome to participate

  • A maximum of eight (8) children are admitted per session, based on the following BC Ministry of Children and Family Development age ratio calculations:

    • Every child between the ages 12-24 months is equivalent to 2.5 registrants

    • Every child between the ages 24-36 months is equivalent to 2 registrants

    • Every child between the ages 36 months to 5 years is equivalent to 1 registrant

*Please note that age equivalencies do not mean that you will be charged for two spaces - it means that the total numbers of children able to register for each session will depend on the combined total of age equivalencies!

How to Register:

  • Families can only register for two weeks in advance at a time, and must contact the Rec Office directly:

  • Registration opens on Monday at 9:00am, and closes Thursday at 4:00pm, the week before the program window starts. Playcare does not run on statutory holidays or professional development days.

Refunds:

A 10% administrative fee will apply to all program withdrawals, except for medical reasons (documentation may be requested).

Full refunds (less the 10% admin fee) will be issued when notice is given at least five (5) business days in advance. Refunds will be pro-rated at 20% per day after that, as follows:

  • 80% with four days’ notice; 60% with three days’ notice; 40% with two days’ notice; and 20% with one day’s notice

Our Staff

Sharon Sluggett – Playcare Supervisor

Rebecca Ander — Playcare Assistant

Kelsey Knipe-Hagert — Playcare Assistant