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I have an infant under 1 year, a 3 year old and I'm getting a 5 year old sibling plus two other children for the summer (ages unknown - likely school age).
I only have a limited amount of baby/toddler toys.
any ideas for the school agers? I'm fearful of them pouting all day because they want to be with friends and/or play video games and watch tv all day. I cannot be a source of constant entertainment all day.
Thanks! I really need ideas
I understand... I will have 2 school age, plus my own 2! The nice thing is they're all very helpful with the little ones. Everyone takes a foot when it's time to put shoes on.
I do a lot of water activities! Slip in slide, sprinker, washing the play equipment. They also enjoy painting and leggo at quiet time. I have a very imagionative bunch, they will play with building blocks and train tracks for hours and hours if i let them!
The older 2 (7 and 8) will go off and make up skits and preformances and preform them for the little kids after quiet time.
We do a lot of trips to the park and the splash pad. Picnics for lunch.
The odd time we'll do movies. They build a fort in front of the tv and go to it!
A lot of crafts! lol The nice things about the older kids is they will often tell you what they want to do based on their interests.
I do not allow hand held game devices. There's too much risk of them getting broken, but my daughter does have an old nintendo in her room that I'll allow for a short period of time.
oh and board games! For rainy days. Go to once upon a child and pick up a few cheap age appropriate board games. Show them how to play it once and they'll pick them up quickly... and puzzles.
Thank you! I had my first school ager today and all she wanted was crafts - more and more crafts! I will have to find more craft ideas and use them outside. It just doesn't work well inside with little boys using hoards of glue and babies eating beads
LOL, I have a seperate room for the big kids where they can get away from the little ones for a bit during the day and work on their own stuff. Some days my son spends the entire day in there with his train tracks because the babies can`t destroy them when he`s in there.
I take a break from offering a 'program' in the summer :o
We spend most of our time at parks, local outings and field trips and in the afternoon in the yard keeping cool....my backyard has all the same 'staple' materials as inside program wise so if they want to curl up under a tree with some books they can, if they want to build we have outside blocks and so forth
I have found that after a year in school most school agers just want to PLAY so being outside allows them to run off steam at parks, splash pads, hiking for nature treasures to bring back to the yard to either create a 3D art project with or just explore further. If it is yucky outside than we head on a field trip to a museum or other indoor adventure for them to explore.
I do not plan 'crafts' for them either, outside of special occasions where a gift for the parent is traditionally offered, so like any other time of the year I just set out open ended mediums that they can use as they see fit but that an 'infant' can also explore based on their development ... so the school agers might be building something with 3D materials and glue and tape and the infant might be sitting in their booster exploring just the 'tape' and how it feels and sticks.