How do you keep kids from bickering constantly about things? I don't get what I'm doing wrong. The other thing that I'm having issues with is it seems that no matter what I buy for the kids all they do is walk around being obnoxious and flayle their arms all over the place. I just don't understand what I"m doing wrong. I am trying to set up new centers and I honestly don't think it will help. I have them find a center right now and literally they find something other than whats in the center to do, so for instance the kitchen, they don't play kitchen they play transformers instead. Its been a frustrating day agian.

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How old are these older kids?

As for centers I usually try to give them a goal. For example, in the writing area today one of the goals is writing some sight words in lower case letters. So I hang a photo of the words written in lower case letters printed on a card. The kids then must try to replicate the photo cards themselves. This includes finding the same paper (index card) and the writing utensil and then sitting down and writing the cards out.

In the sensory bin this morning is small rubber dinosaur erasers frozen in "snow balls" (planned and made ahead of time). There are 25 balls to crack, hammer or break open. Each one has a different color dinosaur in it. Their goal is to find 3 red ones and 2 green ones.

That kind of thing....^^^ I also set the timer so they know they have a limit and can't take anything else out or go to another center until it's time.

It does take a lot of practice and a lot of redirection to get all the kids to understand how the center play goes but once the older kids figure it out, the younger ones are pretty quick to follow. I also get pretty good at figuring out which kids to partner up together to help each stay on task or motivate each other etc. Limiting who plays with who when makes the day great or tough depending.

But that's kind of how I eliminate bickering and how I keep the kids engaged while learning/playing. HTH

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Thank you, that's exactly what I'm trying to work towards but it seems impossible to start and not really knowing how to "plan" such things and finding resources for things like this.

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Can you tell me where you get your sensory bin ideas? Also another question on centers. The bickering is usually between 3 4 year olds I have. They all like to play together, but when you set them into the centers say the kitchen center, do you ask who wants to be in that center and pair up 2 or how many? or say block center, do you ask who wants to and only allow a couple kids and what about kids who want to play together do you allow this at any time during the day?

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I usually limit the amount of kids to 3 sometimes 4 kids in a center (2 is ideal but I have 10-12 kids daily so...) and I try hard to never put those kids that gravitate towards each other together. Even if those kids that gravitate to each other in a positive way. I like when kids try different playmates. ESPECIALLY if two of them are like oil and water together...

Sometimes I do ask who wants to play where but it honestly depends on how well every one is getting along. Sometimes it's easy going and sometimes ALL the kids seem testy with each other.


As for ideas for sensory bins or even center play, I hit Pinterest up for all of that! It's like a Google goldmine for ideas! I'll PM you my info and you can follow me if you want...

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Thank you I saw your pm before this and yes I did follow you
I feel like I spend so many hours preparing for my daycare let alone the long hours during the day. I think part of that is my problem that I just can't do that I feel like on weekends I don't have time to search and search and then prepare so much so I'm hoping I'll find easy things but fun things to do.

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I remember Nannyde saying once that that kind of crazy, loud, obnoxious play that has no goal...is like the junk food of play. It nets them lots of boisterous fun, real quick, with little to no imagination (work). It takes work to set up the game, find the materials, decide who's going to do what, etc and kids get lazy too lol.

I second what BC said. My centers rarely have a end goal because we do stuff like that that for small group time. They are free choice...but I spend a ton of time in the beginning showing and explaining how to play with the toys. And separating indoor play from outdoor play.

BC also gave me another great idea of color-coding the centers, using the same color bracelets (I made mine from pipe cleaners) to remind them to stay in the center and of the rules. For example my sensory center color is pink, and there are only 2 pink bracelets because only 2 friends are allowed there at a time. I call one by one to pick, so I don't have the whole rowdy group of boys trying to pick the same center.

Hth.

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How long do you require them to stay in a center or switch friends? I have that issue now I will have a couple at the table and they can choose whatever table activity they want but they literally want to change within a few minutes and it's frustrating to keep switching only after a couple minutes,. As for what you referred to what nan said I agree however right now when I have kids in centers two will be obnoxious from across the roo with each other no matter what or where they are. Ugh

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My kids have no understanding of centers.they refuse to stay in them and if they do they leave it a mess for me to clean up. So frustrating. How do I help them stay where they need to be and clean up before leaving without me getting exhausted and screaming? It's NOT my job to clean up their mess

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I start with 20-30 minutes and then work towards the 60-90 minute mark.

The better the kids get at actually using the centers, the deeper their curiosity or need to explore, learn and absorb the lesson or concept of each area.

Last year my group of kids could go as long as 90 minutes to 2 hours playing in one center. This year I feel successful when I can get them to stay focused for 30+ minutes. This years group is young and the oldest two are "followers" by nature verses "leaders" so it's definitely more time consuming for me this year.

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That's exactly how my group is too, this is my older kids too and I actually think they are worse than the younger ones. So what happes if they say I want to do magnets and after 2 min they say I"m done I want to do a puzzle, you get out the puzzle then after a few minutes they say no I want to this is what my group does, it's constant assisting them getting out something.

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I am loving all these questions/suggestions for centers. My kids are the exact same way with not being able to stay content with one item for longer than a few minutes.

Today my 7 mo had a major blowout. While I was cleaning her up every child took a turn coming into the bathroom to ask me if I could get them something out. I told every one of them, "I'm really busy, be patient and wait until I'm finished with baby." Then when I walked out of the bathroom with naked baby (had diaper on) in hand so I could get her extra clothes out and get her dressed while keeping an eye on the other kids, 2 of the children asked me again if I could get them something out. By that point I was sweating, didn't know if I had poo on my shirt, needed to call for pick up and still had to go finish cleaning up the mess I left on the changing table. But yes, let me stop what I'm doing to get you a puzzle off the shelf because you can't play with the item I just gave you 10 min ago! Ok, that just went it a totally different direction! Rant over!

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I feel your pain lol. I spent a lot of time putting together different activity bags and same thing I want this bad dump out him it's later I don't want this one ugh and these are nice fun activity bags. I would really live to see how someone's day plays out with centers with my age group

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I allow switching around for the first 15 minutes or so while they figure out with what and whom they want to play. Then I shut it down for the next 45 minutes. I have at least 10 bins in the major centers (dramatic play, math and science, and small toys). In library you can read, or play puppets/stuffed animals, flannel board stories or potato heads. In art, you can use crayons, markers, stamps, coloring pencils, scissors and glue, chalk, dry erase, magic slates, etc. I am confident they have enough to do so I don't feel bad about saying no to switching.

No one is allowed to switch after i give the 5-minute warning because they're usually trying to avoid helping with cleanup. We dont move on to the next thing unless everyone center is clean and reset. Lunch, outside, whatever will wait and they know that. I do not clean. I may help of its something that has to be put away a certain way, such as blocks.

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Thank you, that makes sense. I was thinking last night that play dough and dinosaurs are the ONLY thing that they play with more than 5 min. They will play with playdough for over an hour and it's super nice.

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