Originally Posted by Janet:
I have had school age kids and I haven't had problems with entertaining them during naptime for the simple reason that I won't do it. Long ago I had a school age girl who had a younger brother and a younger sister and she expected me to entertain her during naptime. I gave her a ton of things that she could do quietly and independently but she wanted to be up my butt during naptime. I set up tons of arts & crafts projects and I set up a movie for her to watch. I put out books to read and I put out madel magic clay for her. She still was coming to be every few minutes asking me to play with her. This is probably going to come across badly and I'm fairly certain that I'll get flamed for this but I'm going to say it anyway. I need my time during the day to regroup and I can't do that with a school ager who talks too loud during nap and is capable of entertaining herself. I do not get paid to entertain school age kids during naptime. Naptime is a time to rest and regroup for everyone. Not just me. I interact with my kids the entire time that they are here. They get all of my attention and I an 100% tuned in to them. I very seldom get the chance to even eat lunch because I make sure to meet their needs. I don't do much cleaning throughout the day because I am more interested in interacting with them. I am present with them for the entire time that they are awake. It's not asking much to expect a school aged child to be able to entertain themselves during nap time. Maybe I'm alone in feeling that way, but I need the time for me.
I'm not going to flame you on the nap time! I need my time too! The mom said that they've not took naps since they turned like 2. She even at the old sitters. She told me she got on the sitters about giving them a nap. The 5 year old I had in the fall took a long nap every day.
She wants to get them workbooks to do during quite time (which is about 30-45 mins for them...which is quietly sitting to read or just sit) I just hate to tell her that I'm not going to sit there and read to the 5 year old how to do this workbook during 'my' quite time!
I love my nap times...I need the quite from my son...who never stops!