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-   -   Activities for School Age Kids (https://www.daycare.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10062)

lmdc 09-29-2009 05:33 PM

Activities for School Age Kids
 
any suggestions for activities for school aged children? i'm specifically looking for ideas for 1/2 days, vacations/school closing...

thanks!

tinytotzdaycare 09-30-2009 05:32 AM

Schoolagers
 
After several years of sturggling with this same situation we changed our policy to not include children over age 8. We found that our center was geared more towards infants and toddlers and found it hard to keep those schoolagers busy. With such a wide agerange we had the same issues on keeping them busy. I would love more ideas on this issue!! I cant wait to hear what all of you have to say oln this!! Great topic by the way! :D

mac60 09-30-2009 08:42 AM

I typically do not have kids much older than 8 either. It is tough enough with the ages of infant thru k, let alone throwing schoolagers in the mix. I have a first grader that has been with me for 7 years, she is starting to cause "little tiffs" among the younger children.....trying to be their boss, being in their face, etc. I wish I had the guts to tell them 6 and out. lol

tinytotzdaycare 09-30-2009 08:56 AM

6 and out
 
lol, thats funny. I revised my program a few years ago when all of my then schoolagers went into Kindergarten. I know dont take any children after they finish 1st grade. It makes the daycare run smoothly.

I do know in my area there is a HUGE need for b/a school care so ideas on how to run a better program for that age group would be great to know. There is a lady a few blocks away from me that ONLY cares for schoolagers.
She has a great set up for them and only has kiddos during the day on school inservice/vacation/weather related days out and obviously b/a school. She loves it, but is always looking for new activities to keep those guys busy.

mac60 09-30-2009 09:35 AM

Doing schoolagers only here would not be profitable. I only charge $35 for b/a school care. Now if I could make $400 a week doing schoolagers....hmm might do it. Here our rates are about the lowest in the country. :mad:

laundryduchess@yahoo.com 09-30-2009 10:00 AM

I dont actively pursue school kids. I have three from the neighborhood that are here, I get 40 a week for the one, and 20 for the other (the 20 is here for about 15 min a day. 4 days a week.) During summer I keep the one and I charge them my normal rate. For activities, we bake, work on homework, sew, build things, help me out with the babies, play basketball. My program is geared more towards a second home for the kids, instead of a daycare one. So they do more home type activities.

ConcernedMotherof2 09-30-2009 12:12 PM

I'm not sure how well it would work for an in-home dc, but the center my children attend has great summertime activities that keep my kids so busy, they're ready for bed by the time I pick them up. They go on a lot of field trips (extra charge for the parents, of course), like the movies/parks/museums/swimming/etc... They also arrange activities such as renting a big bouncer for the day (also extra $$ for the parents) and have had a slip n slide/sprinkler day. You could also have a day where you ask each of them to bring in water toys (balloons and squirters) and take them outside to go at it. Summer activities, I know...

On snow days or inservice days during the fall and winter, you could have them outside collecting leaves and make an art project out of them, building snow men/forts, or give them an assignment inside to come up with a play they could put on for the little ones. Help them make sock puppets and give a puppet show... just some ideas :)

Unregistered 09-30-2009 06:35 PM

Great topic because I have 4 school age daycare kids and my own 3 school agers. I would like to get some more different ideas from others.

Things I have done with them so far is a penny hunt (I hid pennies around the house for them to find...may be hard if you have little one though because if one gets left behind that's not good, bigger objects will work also)....scavenger hunts (just hide certain objects and give them a list of the things they need to find...you can team them up if there is enough and give each team a different list to find, first team finding all their items wins). Use a hula hoop on the floor for a target, stand back, and use an object to try to get it in the hula hoop circle (in the summer we used a paper plate, today I had a small blow up pumpkin that we used)

Find printable templates...print them and trace them on cardboard to use it as a stencil for the kids (I used a cereal box for my cardboard)...printed out Halloween templates....a bat, ghost, pumpkin, ect...traced the templates on the cereal box cardboard to make a stencil so all the kids can use it to trace a shape.....cut out and let them decorate it.

I have a craft cart full of things that keep them busy on a whim...stamps/ink pads, construction paper, foam shapes with sticky backing to make pictures, beads, crayons, glue, coloring books, string, googly eyes, ect.

Now having said all that, my school kids STILL cause a lot of chaos and some argue A LOT and I wish I could find a way to contain them all. They get loud and I find myself reminding them over and over to settle down....or I will have 2-3 issues going on at once and someone else is tattling on another. It gets crazy at times.

lmdc 10-01-2009 03:41 AM

thanks for the ideas everyone! keep them coming...

i also have an almost 3 year old, a 16 month old and a 9 month old, so it makes it difficult to do certain things with the older kids that are either too "energetic" or involve too many small/messy parts...not impossible, but difficult =) i just started doing daycare a few months ago, so am still learning the ropes


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