Frustrated with school aged kids

[mattsmom]

I am so frustrated! I find that every p.a day or day off that the school aged daycare kids have, that they act worse than the little preschoolers do!
Have any of you found this to be? The 2 dcg I have are 3 and 3.5 and they know what the rules are during the day and they play great. But the 3 dcb I have, who are grades 1 and 2, act as if they have never been here before! Doing a simple craft or activity for a short amount of time is way too much for them...they fidget, try to fight or wrestle, and they can't just do the activity. Meanwhile the 3 yr old girls are sitting nicely and concentrating on the activity. And it's not the gender difference either because it's it's happened the other way around as well.
It makes me dread days off for the school agers.

[godsgirl]

I have no suggestions for you really but I do feel your pain. In my experiences I too have found that the older ones are more difficult than the younger ones. They have attitude and I find they get the younger ones wound up or get them to do things that they know they shouldn't be doing. I have just found that I have to keep age appropriate things around the house for them to keep them busy. Simple word games work well because you can do them with nothing, on the spot, all the while being able to be with the younger ones too (e.g. name things that start with the letter 'B' that are breakfast foods, list types of animals that start with the letter 'T', etc). They like things like hangman or activity books too. Definitely a challenge though because they seem to need more attention than the younger ones.

[Crayola kiddies]

that's why I don't do school age kids ......I have three of my own school aged kids and that's enough to send my stress level soaring .....they have no idea how to be quiet during nap time and im constantly shushing them ...makes me dread summer ...I have no answer for you except maybe put a movie on for all the kids that is age appropriate ....my daycare is tv free.....but if yours is not then go for it . maybe make up a scavenger hunt and hide things in the play room with simple clues and get them all working together or do an obstacle course ...get them to help you make it and then get them to do it ...that would take up most of the morning if the weather was not favourable to go outside.

[5 Little Monkeys]

I've had a few school aged boys. While I did find them loud, they were actually pretty good kids! It probably helped that their younger brothers came here at the time too. They enjoyed being the "big kids" and helping me with them. They would pass out the sippy cups, plates of food, clean the table etc. They liked to push them on the swings, pull the wagon, play with them. If they got of hand and were doing inappropriate things than they would have a time away from everyone in different areas. This usually stopped the behaviour pretty quick as they were both social kids and liked to be involved with the group.

When I worked in centres, I dreaded the school age group usually. As they get older (more like 9-11 tho) they feel like they are too big for daycare and get bored easily because there is no electronics allowed. I've noticed that the electronic stage is much much earlier now. I would allow them to use their ipods and tablets during naptime and that seemed to help some of their loudness.

[Sassygirl]

I feel your pain. I started with school agers when I opened and quickly learned my lesson after 2 months. They eat WAY more, are always "bored" or "hungry" and its especially worse if you are trying to keep an electronic free home. Nooooo thank you!
You may have to look into bringing out the Wii or tv unfortunately until the winter is over and you can all play outside.
Good luck!

[mattsmom]

Oh yeah, they are fine at quiet time because I do allow them to bring ipods, ds and such for that reason...as long as I don't hear the electronics, then I'm fine with it. I think the problem is that the younger ones are so used to the routine during the day and are really good for "going with the flow". I try to keep them busy with crafts, games and activities, but as someone else said, they get bored very easily.
I think I will just hope that the nice weather comes fast so I can get them outside for longer periods of time to get some of that energy out, lol.

[bright sparks]

I appreciate what you are saying in respect to it not being a gender thing if you have experienced it with girls also but I'd hazard a guess that that was a coincidence. The fact is that a boys brain works differently and I'd hazard a guess that they can't stay on task because a boys attention span is different than a girls and crafts are probably boring to them. Programming for grade 1 and 2 is very different than for 3 year olds so it's my opinion that the problem lies there. Those kids are bored because there brains aren't being challenged enough and also depending on what they do for fun, meaning they are happy on their ds and other electronics, they likely have lost the ability to actually play with cooperation in a group especially with such significant differences in developmental stages within your age groups resulting in entertaining themselves by goofing off, wrestling, and generally causing havocecause your activities don't have them engaged at their level of interest. This is more common than not in boys of this age group. People may have experienced this with girls to but it is likely coincidence and the girls are just at the age of sass and attitude so are playing up for a different reason all together. These boys are likely like this in the classroom too but can try it on more with you as it's just 1 day. I personally don't think a home daycare program can meet the needs of a school age child. We don't have the resources to offer them what they need socially or developmentally while also running our regular program geared towards the 3 and under age groups. Now one great school ager on their own is easier to work with on occasion as they can be the big kid, helping the younger ones by showing them how to do things and being given some big kid responsibilities but then I only know my own kids to be in that role as I won't take school age kids, even just for the odd day. If I had no choice, the kids would experience my wrath if they misbehaved lol I'm nice really....separated from each other, disciplined when not following rules and constantly watched like a hawk. My younger group are on auto pilot for the days activities and routine so I could do this on an occasional day. I'd make your day as simple as possible and if you have to, make it a movie day and tell those kids to come in pj's and bring their favourite DVD.