What do you do with your kids all day?

pinkclouds

Lalaladybird wrote: »

I have 2 pre school children and I am a sahm. We can't afford for me to take them to soft play etc. They don't seem too bored at home, they draw, dress up, play, watch tv etc but I'd like them to spend their time more constructively as they do seem to watch a lot of tv and if it is off I can't get anything done. Every day seems so boring and repetitive. What does everyone else with preschool age children do with them all day?

Send them to nursery school? My younger child goes part-time. Seriously, you do a lot with your kids already. If they're not bored and can amuse themselves for short periods of time then that is a good thing! Things I do (off the top of my head) that you haven't mentioned: baking, going to the park and/or feed the ducks, worksheets, reading, touchscreen computer games, etc. Tbh, kids find a lot of things way more amusing than adults do so don't worry too much if *you* find your days boring. For example, my two seem to get a lot of mileage out of "catching" bubbles when I blow endless quantities of bubble mixture for them. I can't keep going past 5 minutes but they could go all day...

skintchick

I don't stay in with my DD that much, we go out for at least half the day. We have a great children's centre which has activities, plus we have playdates, and I do a breastfeeding drop-in once a week that she comes to with me, and I run a mums group/playgroup once a week too so she comes to that.

At home, we do tend to get a bit stuck! I don't like her 'helping' with chores as it stresses me out, but she likes to bake, and we do painting and gluing at home, plus Duplo is very popular, jigsaws, reading, dressing up and that kind of thing.

Sometimes we go for a walk round the block to find treasures - take a basket and find flowers, stones, etc.

Mrs.W_2

We are lucky, we live on a common with a nearby wood and a duck pond. We often go on long walks. DD2 has a bag in which she stashes all her 'finds'. She's particularly keen on collecting stones and pine cones. Back at home we display her 'finds', then show them to the rest of the family when they get home. Overnight these 'finds' disappear.

We also love making salt dough. The making is wonderfully messy.
Salt Dough Recipe:
2 cups of Plain Flour
1 cup of table salt
1 cup of water

You can add food colourings to the salt dough so it looks like Playdough. Wrapped in clingfilm it keeps for days.

After all that has been combined and splashed around, a bath is recommended. Another great play time!

I also recommend looking at the goods in pound shops. They stock those thin plastic sheets used to cover the floor whilst decorating - ideal when making salt dough of finger painting!

They also stock a great many simple fall backs such as big colouring books, packs of stickers and plenty of craft goodies for rainy days.

Have you looked online to see if your town/village has a website? Ours does, and it lists all the free/penny pinching family activities in the coming weeks.

If you live in the country or a semi-rural area the National Trust website lists local activities for children of all ages.

As I found I detested most of the toddler groups I visited, I'll not say too much about them. But, as others have said, the church based groups are better than the others that, in my experience, were all about gossiping cliques and kids running wild and unattended.

If you are friendly with one or more Mums with kids of approx the same age as your own, what's to stop you organising your own little outings to beauty spots (carpooling saves money), or just enjoying a weekly rotated coffee morning in each others homes? Put out some toys, colouring books and pencils, put on the kettle. Easy.

Molly41

I was at home with my four. Have you looked to see if there is a toy lending library? Mine used to love going to that weekly as well as the usual library too. We also used to make dens out of the clothes airer and then have picnics. The better weather is coming now so a trip to the park and an out door picnic is a nice thing to do and one my kids loved. Also gardening and water play.

I found routine was the key so the kids knew what was happening. I always factored in a quiet time for everyone after lunch when I grabbed 5 minutes to myself. Although some days drag these days really are very precious because before you know it they are starting pre-school:eek:

hazyjo

Painting, drawing, fuzzy felts, toys - these are all the things I remember keeping me amused for hours. A simple colouring book would shut me up!

Or give them a crayon and paper and get them to do rubbings of things (presuming they're not too young) - if you don't have trees in the garden, there are lots of other objects. Once they have 10 or so, you or the other sibling can guess what they're of or something.

Kids love to count. Tell them the first one to count to a minute, or whatever they can count up to, will get a prize of some sort. Shuts them up for hours! I remember our brownie leader doing that with all of us and thinking once I was older what a genius idea! They had so much peace and quiet!

Jx

Racheldevon

Also make sure you're accessing the free 3 and 4 yr old child care entitlement (15 hours) speak to either you local children's centre or your council's early years team for more info

Barneysmom

Have you started teaching them to read yet?