Name: Spreading the Feast Gathering
Start: 2025-07-11T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-07-12T23:59:59-05:00
Location: LaGrange, KY

Tagged: preschool, scheduling, young children

This topic has 15 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 9 months ago by mama_nickles.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 16 total)

1 2 →

Author
Posts
August 3, 2013 at 5:27 pm
Rebekahy
Participant
I have four kiddos with one more coming mid-september. In the past I have trained my youngest to nap in the morning as opposed to afternoon – so I’ve been able to get school done with the bigger kids and then had my preschooler with me – she’s SO EASY!!! This year, I’ll have a 9 year old who can work almost totally independently, a 7 year old – who can complete work independently but is easily distracted, especially by the little ones – a 5 year old and a 3 year old – both of whom have a little “school” work that they do with me (cutting, learning letters, numbers etc….) My 3 yo needs constant supervision and is best with structured activities. So, I put together some ideas for 7 different stations/centers for the 5 and 3 year old – each station I have 4-5 different activities that would fall under the station “theme”. For example – the imagination station would be dress-up/kitchen, magnetic dressup dolls, play doh, and regular baby dolls. The creative station would be dot markers, cut and paste, water colors, etc… None of the activities require my direct participation just supervision. Some stations would be ones where the 3 or 5 year old would work independently of the other, some of the stations they would work/play together.
Has anyone else done anything like that? Am I overthinking this? Should I just grab something for them to do each day and let them play with it til they are bored? How many stations should I do in a day? Should I let them choose from the 4-5 activities when they go to the station or should I have an activity out already for that station and then rotate to something else the next day they do that station. I would only have them planned to be at a station for 15-20 minutes. What do I do with the 7 yo that will inevitably be distracted by what these younger ones are doing?
I’d love to hear any and all ideas as I have nothing set in stone!
Thanks,
Rebekah
August 3, 2013 at 7:40 pm
ServingwithJoy
Participant
Obviously, you are a great Mom and teacher to your kiddos! But, I think I would be a little less structured with the ‘stations’ and not expect kids of that age to be in one focused ‘zone’, then move to the next, etc…In my house this would create stress. Maybe your kids are a lot more cooperative than mine, however!
Do you have a seperate area or a partition where your 7 yo could work? We do desk work at individual desks in the bedroom, while the little kids are occupied in the living room or play area. Personally, I think it has been good for my kids to learn, “Brother is working now, we need to respect his work by staying out of this room.” And there is some degree of distraction which an older child should be trained to overcome. Distractions are going to be a part of life – he should be learning the mental habit of attention to the task at hand despite them.
Anyway, in the end it is your family and you are the best judge of what your kids will need. I would just encourage you to stay flexible :). I am impressed by your forethought and committment! Have a blessed school year!
August 4, 2013 at 1:13 am
saramarie5
Participant
Have you ever heard of workboxes? They might be a good idea for your littles. I am going to start using them with my 4 year old son. The original set up is 12 plastic shoe boxes on 3 shelves and you put something in each box. Some moms have modified it to drawers or even 1 big box. For the littles, you can put coloring books, playdoh, puzzles, etc. The creator is Sue Patrick. I’ve used workboxes in the past with my older boys and put their school assignments in each box. Now they use assignment books, but it’s a really good system. Just a suggestion…
August 4, 2013 at 2:28 am
Michelle
Participant
This is our first year. I have four 5 and under. I have made baggies for my very “busy” 2 year old. They include 1.Chalk slate and chalk, 2. Pipe cleaners and beads, 3. Crayons, paper, and safety scissors, 4. Play-doh, 5. Modeling clay, 6. a homemade color wheel using matching pins, and add books and puzzles to the mix. I hope this keeps her busy! I tried to schedule reading time with her first. I’m also going to attempt “room time” during reading instruction because that is what I feel needs the most attention by both myself and my DD5 (almost 6). Room time is going to be the 4 year old in family room playing, 2 year old in bedroom with door open and baby gate up, and 10 month old in crib or playpen with toys. I hope to give them freedom to play but enough structure that we can accomplish something. Last year we toyed with “schooling” during nap time but my daughter seems to be too tired to engage her thinking skills in the afternoon. Reading literature at that time goes well though.
Play stations wouldn’t work for us because I’m positive that my 2 year old would balk whatever play station she was at if it wasn’t her idea! 🙂 She has a strong-will to see things her own way right now…we’re working on that habit!
August 4, 2013 at 11:00 pm
Rebekahy
Participant
In the past, I haven’t been as structured, I’m HOPING that because the things I’m offering to them will be fun and a little out of the ordinary that it WILL keep their attention and that the five year old could help in moving the two of them from one to the next – should I be busy with baby or helping an older.
I’ve also heard of workboxes and this would be somewhat along that line except that everything they do can’t be contained in a box, so instead the “stations” where the night before I could just place components for the day’s activities on each station. We have a very large finished basement that would provide us the opportunity to manage that.
I HAVE tried separating my older girls, but right now for them to be in their bedrooms would put them on the second floor and us in the basement and that’s just a bit too far for me to be peaking in on everyone. I’ve also tried putting my distractable one in the laundry room (also in the basement) with a door that closes to help keep her on track, but she REALLY doesn’t like being in there and while I want to encourage her to be able to concentrate and work independently – I also don’t want her to feel like she’s being “locked up”.
August 16, 2013 at 2:20 pm
Rebekahy
Participant
Just wanted to bump and see if any moms used a more structured system for their little ones and were successful with it – if not I don’t want to spend lots of time planning trying to break the mould!
Thanks!
August 16, 2013 at 2:34 pm
Tristan
Participant
I think it really depends on you and your little ones. We did workboxes at one point for little ones using magazine holders on a shelf. Basically each was like the stations you mention except they chose which one from a shelf and took it to a spot to use. It worked okay for the littles I had then.
Now I have lots more kids and am less structured for littles. This year I have 4 school age (7th, 3rd,2nd, K). I also have four littles ages 4, 2, 1, and 1 month. We have tubs with lids filled with puzzles, manipulatives, art supplies, etc. They just grab from these. Or play randomly. Or pester older siblings…LOL.
August 16, 2013 at 5:22 pm
Carla
Participant
Michelle,
Is there a link to the colour wheel you made? It sounds fascinating!
I’m moderately structured for my small ones. I’m tipping heavier on to the older kids side now, as I will have a 16 year old, 14 year old, 12 year old, 10 year old and 8 year old as well as my 5 year old, 2 year old and newborn. I need the little ones to be in my sight and constructively occupied, but I don’t tend to divide up our time ridgidly because I like to stretch their attention spans when possible. I’ve done things similar to a “workbox” approach and for my littest ones, I tend to set out 4 activities on shelves for them to do in order.
August 16, 2013 at 5:36 pm
Alicia Hart
Participant
We have used work boxes in the past, but once I got to three kids using them at the same time, for me, it was WAY too much work.
Then I went to just my pre-k using them. I finally just dropped them all together as God sent more blessings to us.
We had to start doing as many things together as a family as possible – which is why I LOVE SCM!
Just my .02. 🙂
August 16, 2013 at 5:44 pm
HollyS
Participant
My DC are 11, 8, 6, 3 (and one on the way). This year I’ve been printing notebook pages for all 4 of them. My 3yo just colors and scribbles on hers, but it keeps her busy and makes her feel included. When I’m reading aloud, I have her play quietly in the room (we’re still working on the “quiet” part). I’ve been meaning to pull out a few basic toys for her, but haven’t gotten around to it. It will probably be some blocks, baby dolls, Little People and/or playfood. I also keep a few preschool activities in our school closet: lacing puzzles, counting bears & cups, dry erase board, I-spy bag, etc. I am way too unorganized for workboxes, so I just pull something out when she needs some direction.
At some point during the day, when all 3 of the older DC are working independently, I pull out my 3yo’s preschool program. We’re using HOD’s LHTH and we get through as much of the lesson as we can. Usually we read a Bible story, do a fingerplay, and play with numbers or letters. Today she had an art project as well. It takes about 15-20 minutes to get through it all and she loves having her own school time. I love having it all planned out for me. I skip some of the more involved lessons and just complete what we can easily fit into the schedule.
Last year my then 5yo played with her quite a bit. Now that I only have one “little”, I’ve found it best to keep them all at the school table as long as possible. So far it’s been easy keeping them together, but we have a long year ahead!
Another thing I’ve done is have the older ones work in another room when they need quiet. My oldest especially needs quiet when she works on her math lesson. She goes into the living room or her bedroom. You just have to make sure they are actually working…my 8yo struggles with this, so I usually have him work nearby me.
August 16, 2013 at 7:22 pm
jmac17
Participant
I run a home daycare, for which I have to have activities planned in certain areas (literacy, numeracy, gross motor, fine motor, dramatic, etc.) For the past 5 years I have always had 3 -4 preschoolers. Right my own kids are 8, 6, and 4, plus we care for 2yo twins. For us it has always worked better to have activities available, but not necessarily expecting them to do any one thing at any specific time or for any specific length or time. So, with your idea of stations, I would put things out, but then let them just roam and chose what to play with.
We have a shelving unit with about 25 shoebox size containers with craft supplies or table-top activities (beads, lacing, stickers and such). The preschoolers know that during school, they can sit quietly at the table with us and use some of these materials, or they can play in the playroom, which is just around the corner from the area where we do school. Any time they get disruptive, I send them to the playroom. If arguments or other misbehaviours start in the playroom, they have to come be at the table. Otherwise, they come and go as they please. I rotate which toys are available in the playroom, so it doesn’t get boring.
I’ve tried being more structured than that, but it usually doesn’t last long. The children don’t get as engaged in their activities when I try to direct things too much. It just works more smoothly to give them more freedom, within firm boundaries. This was true even when all I had was preschoolers and didn’t have to divide my attention between them and the school aged children.
I DO try to have a preschool “story and song” time, where we read stories, learn songs, tell flannelboard stories, do fingerplays, etc. It’s part of my school plan, because otherwise I get busy and forget. I also involve them when possible in school activities. For example, today we went on a walk to collect items to classify for our science lesson. My 4yo was the most excited to be picking up leaves, rocks, berries, and so forth. Then the older two and I sat down to discuss ‘natural’ vs. ‘man made’ materials, while the littles just played in the backyard.
Joanne
August 16, 2013 at 7:30 pm
anniepeter
Participant
I have done something a bit like this…not in stations , but on paper. Monday these activities are available (one activity from each category, similar to yours but only three or four categories). I think I just got out the supplies for each day’s activity at the start of school time and let them choose from there. It worked great to have the rotation plan, but only one or two things were needed each day (or more). Children are frustrated to have to stop playing something they are really interested in for no good reason. So while ti’s good to have a plan to suggest and/or provide before the first one gets old, it’s also good to let them go with it as long as they can enjoy an activity…it helps build their attention spans CM style.
August 16, 2013 at 7:32 pm
anniepeter
Participant
Sorry about the grammar…I hope that makes some kind of sense! Not so good at typing on the ipad…
August 16, 2013 at 7:43 pm
Michelle
Participant
I can’t find a site…I’ll keep looking. All I did was take a ruler and divide a paper plate into 8 pie sections. I colored each section with a basic color. I colored the end of a clothes pin the same color and wrote the color name on it. My 2 year old does enjoy playing with this.
I must add…since this was originally posted and I’ve actually had school for more than a few days…my activities are not keeping my 2 year old as occupied as I had hoped they would. I am waiting until morning nap for the 10 month old to start school. I also bought a used Playmobil set for the 4 year old that he ONLY gets to play with during school. This keeps him more than occupied; he adores this time. The two year old still seems to wander around aimlessly. She won’t stay focused on an activity for more than a few moments. I tried to do “room time” and she broke the baby gate down twice screaming so we really need to practice that more. I’m truly at a loss with her. I believe obedience and habit training is trumping anything with her. However, it seems life has to happen and I can’t stop everything because SHE is so demanding. She is very precious and sweet but is extremely “weak-willed” and emotional. Some days she does fine just wandering around playing; other days she can be distracting. Although she can be distracting, I think over time free play time is what is going to work best for her during our morning school hour (math, reading lesson, handwriting). Other stuff we save for her afternoon nap. (Literature reading, piano practice, composer study, etc.)
To quote Joanne “The preschoolers know that during school, they can sit quietly at the table with us and use some of these materials, or they can play in the playroom, which is just around the corner from the area where we do school. Any time they get disruptive, I send them to the playroom. If arguments or other misbehaviours start in the playroom, they have to come be at the table. Otherwise, they come and go as they please. I rotate which toys are available in the playroom, so it doesn’t get boring.”
I think this is where we are at with school.
August 16, 2013 at 7:44 pm
Michelle
Participant
http://planetoftheapels.blogspot.com/2011/09/busy-bag-swap-day-13-color-counting.html
Like this! Mine DO NOT look this nice though. :/