Summer breezes are a welcome breath of fresh air for school-weary kids.

But for parents, this is the all-too-familiar season of scrambling to find educational -- but economical -- summer child care. This year the task is tougher amid a bad economy.

"All parents, whether they are of means or challenged -- as many are now by the economy -- face the challenge of finding accessible, high-quality care that is also affordable," said Dr. Mark Ginsberg, executive director of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

For families on a budget, there are no easy answers about which child-care option is best -- or about which is the least expensive.

"When it's full-day care, you can't do it cheap," said Linda K. Smith, executive director of the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies, or NACCRRA.

What are parents to do? Here's a comparison of options.

Day Care Centers

One advantage that day care centers tout is that they roll out special summer programs heavy on outdoor play, field trips, outdoor art and music programs and swimming.

But child-care centers aren't cheap; parents of school-age children pay up to $8,600 a year for part-time care in a center, according to NACCRRA.

Parents can keep that cost down, NACCRRA's Smith said.

One option is seeking federal child-care subsidies; the federal stimulus package increased the subsidies from $2 billion to $4 billion, Smith said. Child-care referral centers and the Web site Child Care Aware can help you find out more, she said.

Another option parents have is negotiating with their child-care provider to pay for exactly the number of hours that they need, Smith said. Parents also can seek a tax break; many employers offer special accounts that allow parents to set aside up to $5,000 of their salary to be free from tax if the money is used for child care.

Community Centers, Schools

Local government aid for child-care programs has been drying up, but many neighborhoods and cities still operate child-care programs, often in connection with schools and city park and recreation programs.

Parents might find that stringing together a summer's worth of programs -- from tennis lessons to math camp -- together with a flexible baby-sitter can be an affordable way to a child engaged and entertained while they're at work.

The YMCA still claims to be the nation's largest provider of child-care programs, which emphasize healthy relationships and diverse activities in summer programs.

The Y gets $1.6 billion in public and private support that helps make financial aid available to those who need it -- check with your local chapter.

Camps

Parents might be surprised, but many camps offer a cost-competitive alternative to other care options and can even cost less than day care, said Marla Coleman, past president of the American Camp Association, who runs a camp on Long Island.

Camps can cost as much as $800 a week but as little as $100 a week, Coleman said. Every year, 12 million children head off to camp, she said, some of them with the benefit of federal subsidies through the Title XX funding program.

Camps often offer a lot of variety that day care doesn't, Coleman said. Camps also get children away from TV and video games into the outdoors, where they connect with nature, get exercise and build real face-to-face relationships, the ACA says.

"Kids really get to explore first-hand outdoor experiences in a living, learning laboratory," Coleman said. "In school, you have the three R's. At camp, you learn different R's -- respect, responsibility, resourcefulness, resilience."

Nannies, Students

Many families turn first to relatives or close friends for cheap child care, especially in the bad economy, Smith said. Among grandparents with grandchildren age 13 or younger who live within an hour of them, 40 percent provide the child care while parents are at work, according to the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies.

Outside the family, babysitters get pricey. A full-time nanny typically earns $350 to $1,000 a week, and part-time nannies charge roughly $7 to $20 an hour, according to the International Nanny Association.

The cost has made nanny-sharing with another family fairly common, Smith said.

Finding the best nanny for your family has a lot to do with preparing for the hiring process, the international association says. The association offers a $55 guide to navigating the process, but a number of guides are available free online.

Hiring a student is usually cheaper. There's a bigger, more talented pool of responsible students open to baby-sitting gigs this year amid the tight job market. (An online salary calculator can offer an estimate of what sitters make in your area.)

In addition to being more mature than high schoolers, college students might be willing to put together a special summer program based on their areas of study. Is junior a budding piano prodigy? Find a music major. Or maybe your kid loves dinosaurs? Go put up a "childcare provider wanted" flier on the bulletin boards of the science departments at the local college or university.

Neighborhood Co-op

One "free" option for child care is to get together with a few other parents to form a day care co-op.

Co-ops work in different ways, but the general idea is that parents share day care duties for the summer months, each taking a turn, or several turns, watching the children for a week or more, depending on the number of families.

Careful planning and communication are key, co-op veterans say. Resentment takes root when parents who expect other parents to offer their child some exercise and an educational experience are sorely disappointed to learn their kid played video games all week. Well in advance, parents should agree on details about everything from snacks to transportation and what kinds of activities the children will be doing each day.