My daycare, including my outdoor space, is primarily set up for a toddler/preschool age group as that is who I will have the most of at any given time. With summer approaching, I have had some interest from a couple of families who have school agers as well as children who are preschool/toddler age. I'd really like to take them and I've heard that school agers can sometimes be helpful in a lot of ways, but I am worried that they will be bored with the toys and activities that I have.

For those of you who have a wide age range, do you keep special toys for your older kids and if so, what do they enjoy? Do they play with the younger kids much? Do they seem happy/content with your program? How do you keep them busy throughout the day and when the littler ones are napping?

It's just me right now and my age range will be from 3 months old all the way up to 7 years old. Just looking for ideas as to how I can make this work! Thanks!

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I don't care for school-agers any more on a regular basis. When I did, I only took children who grew up in my care. They understood the rules and reasons for the rules and were a wonderful set of informal helpers
But in my experience, children who have not grown up around small children often forget to be careful of them. I'm sure it's somewhat dependent on the child though - some children have a heart for little kids.

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I am working during naptime right now (ok, no I'm not...I'm on here) filling my school agers' "Bored Bags." A "BB" is a bag with their name on it filled with things to occupy themselves. I don't allow any electronics here, so they get bored within 30 seconds of coming in my door. The bags help a ton, because I hardly ever hear "I'm booooooored"...they just go get their bag! It is filled with art supplies, puzzles, worksheets, and games.

I also have a bored jar, so when I do ever hear "I'm boooooooored" they just pull a slip of paper out and follow the instructions.

You can see a list of examples here:

http://www.shabbybeachnest.com/image...Depressors.pdf

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I have toys and games for the older kids like legos , magnets , sorry , clue , etc...
They still get bored especially at nap time and they are hard to keep quiet . I do allow electronics for the sa kids during nap time . I also end up buying special arts and crafts for the older kids to keep them occupied .

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Great ideas, thank you! And thank you for the other responses as well. I definitely want to spend some time with the older children before deciding to enroll and make sure that they will be safe with the littler ones.

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I have board games and puzzles esp. for the older kids, but they rarely use them. They use art supplies the most (we have free access to many types of drawing tools, papers, glue, recyclables, paints, etc. They esp. love paper of all sorts, good markers (I keep a special set of Pentel markers for them), glue guns, and stuff to glue. They also love the mud kitchen, blocks, dress ups, puppets, light box, and kitchen set--all stuff the little kids use.

Yes, or try to teach them things or help me with them.

Love it; ask their parents when they can come.

Through the main part of the day, they keep themselves busy. At nap, I've done various things. At this point, I've narrowed it down to three things: "You may read, write, or draw." Their "drawing" often morphs into larger art projects, but as long as they stay quiet, I pretend not to notice. I set up a shelf of books selected especially for each of their reading levels, and at naptime, I'll put a few tempting ones on the coffee table along with their journals and some fun pens. They're fine with that. I also have headphones and audiobooks, which quiets them down if they start to get too noisy.

My advice: take only the kids you've had before, who know you and your routines/expectations. It works beautifully here--they're like rock stars to the little ones, who are thrilled to have them back, and they are generally pretty good helpers to me.

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I forgot to say, several of my older kids (8,9) love to cook. So if they're getting antsy during nap, in the last half hour I'll give them a recipe (usually muffins) and ingredients and let them take it from there. Voila: afternoon snack. (Again, these are kids I've had since they were toddlers, so I know what they can do.)

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Maybe I'm in the minority, but I like older kids in the summer. I'm always cautious of who I take on, of course. I have four SA starting my program when school ends. Two are part time, so they take up 3 slots.

We work on school basics, reading, gardening, they help with the snacks and lunches, and a ton of crafts. I do have a lot of toys for them - mostly imaginative play. Imaginext, Legos, I just got some of those wonderful Magnet things, puppets & a puppet stage. Oh, and music! The younger and older ones really get into music. I have tons of instruments.

We do a lot of journal writing and making books, too

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I wish I could fill my dc with either/or sa's or little ones. It's the mixture I have a hard time with.
Nomorejuice, thanks for the boredom jar idea! I'm going to try that, although I can already foresee some of them fishing through for a different stick.

Naptime is hard for me. I have a 3 yo who naps maybe 2x a week. And if she knows the older dcks are in a different room, she's going to be super disruptive.

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