School age kids and activites

[pumpkin]

I have run my daycare for 5 years so far and things are starting to change. I am getting alot of school age children now and I really don't know what toys or activites to keep them busy. Alot of my toys are for 2-4 year olds. I find they don't keep the kids amused and everything ends up all over the playroom.

I am thinking of maybe putting a computer with games in the playroom...thoughts?

Any other ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[mamaof4]

do they have homework? Crafts? Stringing beads is a huge hit for girls, my 5 year old son LOVES trains and cars

[lilac]

I have the same problem, what a difference even only a year makes! And its become more apparent now that school is out and I have all my kids, all day, 5 days a week. The beads, as already mentioned are a hit with my girls (who are 5yo). I bought some different construction activities that are a hit with the boys (6 & 7 yo). They love, LOVE this one called Straws & Connectors and will play all day with them if I let them. We do a lot of playdough. The girls are still into crafts but the boys not so much, unless its just straight painting or something like that. Sometimes I just put out some random craft materials and let them go to town, and the boys usually will join in with that. When we go to the park I bring a whole wagon full of stuff, the boys LOVE LOVE LOVE the construction vehicles and again usually spend most of the time at the park playing with them in the sand. They love LEGO, the smaller ones, which is insanely expensive, but if you can get some 2nd hand sometimes its a bit cheaper (and totaly worth it if you ask me!!LOL!). I've recently started allowing them some time playing our WII system on rainy days, but surprisingly they arent all that into that. I allow them to use our computer in the playroom which the girls love (there are a lot of fun games on Treehouse.com) but the boys dont seem to be interested. I also have a Marbulous set (they can build different tracks to run marbles through) and a set of Bendaroos, (waxy strings that you can model into diffrent things and then reuse another time).

My girls are easy to occupy, the boys, I find are engrossed in anything they can build, but I needed to have specific sets or things for them to use otherwise, they'd start building things with my kiddy tables, chairs, dressup clothes, baby toys, storage bins etc pretty much anything they can get their hands on and the playroom would be a complete right off! Or they would go nuts and more or less trash my playroom! I sometimes have a hard time containing the boys energy... to put it nicely!

[mom-in-alberta]

Most of my school age kids (when I had more) loved "making stuff" (call it crafts, whatever!).
Playing outside, always a big hit. Definitely Lego, for the boys especially.
A computer would probably go over well, but set up the rules in advance. ie; each person plays for a certain amount of time, there are specific sites/ games set up for them to play, etc.