School aged kids mixed in with toddlers!?

[little rascals]

I have two toddlers in my care at the moment. I will have a three year old starting soon and the parents have asked me to take care of their 7 year old for the summer. I agreed to provide care for him but dont know how to plan with such an age gap. Anyone have this in their dayhome? Any ideas how to make both age groups happy?

[giraffe]

I've done older kids in the past and its just not for me. I find that the bigger kids just get bored being with the litles all summer long. my only advice is to use the 7 year old as a "helper" have him help plan and prepare activities for the littles. Give hime special privlidges because he is bigger (movie at rest time ect.). Hopefully it goes well!

[michellesmunchkins]

I've never had any luck mixing the two. I now choose NOT to ever take on school aged kids. Sometimes that means I lose the little one too if they are siblings but I just couldn't handle the added stress that came with the school agers! Love the little ones, but the attitude and disrespect from the school agers are not welcome here lol

[Inspired by Reggio]

Totally depends on the personality of the older child ... I have had success because I had a 6 year old her last summer here (she was a January baby so she was in SK and turned 6 mid year) and she was awesome because A) she had been here since wee and new the ropes and B) she was a helper personality and loved helping the small ones .... this summer I have another 6 year old who is already got me counting the days until August 31st She is bossy and likes her own way ~ fortunately she loves to do crafts so I can set her up with something creative and she will keep herself busy!

[Naftafia]

On a positive note, I have done it for three summers and it went very well, altough tiring. I found that the best way to make everything work is to mainly organize activities in which both age groups could participate. This will make it easier to keep everyone busy and happy, without feeling torn between the age groups. My older kids loved all our activities including circle time, reading time, crafts, dancing, creative play etc.... They would teach the kids things they learned in school and help the kids with their crafts or game. I would simply give the older kids extra challenges with whatever activity, ex: build a robot with blocks, kick ball on a target, do laps 1 1/2 times and beat the kids etc ...
I had to change the schedule a bit to reduce the time alloted to free play, as this is typically when things could quickly get out of control as the big kids are louder, quicker and without wanting to be "bad" they sometimes teach the young ones things they are not ready to learn, or things you are not ready for them to learn !
As you would with any other kid, make sure to establish the rules from day one and stick to them! As much as you do not want the eldest to feel a responsibility towards the others, I find myself remainding them that the little ones are learning alot from them and mimicing their actions, so they should teach them nice things and good behaviours.
For your sanity, make sure to plan a variety of quiet time activities so they could respect the little ones' quiet time and yours! And play outside as much as possible.... the older ones have so much more energy!
I found having them around aloud me to teach the little ones new games, that I could not quite get them to understand on my own. Things such as what's the time mr wolf, on the avignon bridge, red light/green light, obstacle courses etc.... The little ones love having them around for parts of the summer and pd days. The dynamics of the group change, but change is good!
Good luck to you with this new challenge!

[apples and bananas]

I have a 7 year old in my mix. I do before and after during the school year and now she comes full days in the summer, but she's only part time. I'm lucky because my daughter is the same age so it works, but there are still times when my daughters not here. At that age you really have to get a feel for what the childs into. Mine will craft until the cows come home. She costs me a fortune in crafting supplies, but it keeps her busy. Quiet time is the worst! by the age most parents are ok with them using a video game or they have their own DS or PSP or something equivilant they can bring with them.

My daughter used to the older one in daycare and she was the helper. But that's her personality.

[eoinsmom]

I am struggling with this situation too right now. I have twin 7 yr old boys full time over the summer, and the rest of the kids are between 1 and 4. They have such different "likes" it drives me crazy. One boy would sit and play video games all day if I had any kind of game system (he has wii, ds, etc at home), and the other wants to play with other kids but none of the younger ones can keep up or understand how to play! He also likes to craft, but now only wants to do creppy/scary crafts since he is too "old" for everything. Bottom line - both of them say they are bored because there are too many little kids here. Younger kids are so much easier to entertain! I am scrambling to keep thinking of ideas of things we can do with the age mix. Too many kids to go anywhere, and even if we did go out, they age ranges are too vast to pick an acitivity everyone would enjoy or be able to do. Any suggestions for what I can do for the last month of summer with these "big" kids?

[little rascals]

Well since my initial post, I have had the 7 year old here for three weeks now. Hasn't been as challenging as I thought it would be. He is great with the younger kids and loves to be a helper. I let him pick out themes for each week and then I picked activities that could be done with all ages. So far so good. They love playing in the water so we do a lot of sprinkler play and slip and slides. We also have done a scavenger hunt and bug hunt. Everyone loved it and were all able to participate. Hope this helps you. Good luck !