Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Any ideas for keeping DC occupied?

I know a lot of you out there have the same problem as me -- keeping our DC's occupied and out of boredom. It seems DD3 is bored a lot and coming up with new ideas and ways to keep her mind busy is exhausting. DH came up with a great game of putting magnetic words on the door, telling her a word to grab and having her race to the door to get it. But even that lost its luster after a few days.

So my question is what kind of things do you do to keep a preschool-age child busy? These are not typical kids, so typical activities don't cut it for long as I'm sure you all know. And I need some ideas to keep me sane!! Maybe we can all share an idea to help each other out.

My idea: the "Word Race Game" I talked about in the post -- magnetic words (from United Art) or letters or numbers, whatever the child is interested in placed on a door or refrigerator. We'd put 3 or 4 and gradually increase the level of difficulty as we went. For instance, first there were 3 words and she had to grab just one that we said, then we increased it to 4 words on the door and she had to grab 2 words. She liked that she had to race to get the word we said.

What you're describing is the reason I signed up for time4learning. It got to the point where it just wasn't possible to "keep up". Although I agree it's a little odd to put a 3 yo on the computer, it saved my sanity and made my DS very happy.

We have a teachers supply store near us (I'm sure you can buy stuff online too). My girls are 4 & 6 now but one thing I would do with my kids during free time is buy posters with facts, numbers, world and USA maps, language stuff and play games with them, they loved it, still do.

We do a bi-weekly theme and then everything we do centers on that theme. This week we're doing Rain Forests and I'm reading picture books and low-level science books on rain forests. We're doing a couple of crafts that are rain forest based (I printed out butterfly outlines, cut them out and the kids all decorated a butterfly that we attached to craft sticks to use as puppets), we explore a letter and number and I put those in context of the theme (as we read the books, DD looks out for words that start with this weeks letter or we try to find animals in groupings of this weeks number).

Its based on the lesson plans/ideas found here: http://www.letteroftheweek.com/index.html

DD2.5 loves it! I'm homeschooling my DS7 and also have DS5 at home until he starts K in the fall, so I really need things to keep her occupied and ideas already set out for me. She has been begging me for almost a year, since we first started homeschooling my oldest DS, for her own school work and this really fits her well. It's not too schooly, it's not really labor intensive (I just put the books I want on hold from the libraries website, sometimes they even have whole kits that fit our theme with books, music, and puppets or toys), and all the kids enjoy the stories and the boys love helping DD find letters and count.

DD6 loved/still loves starfall there are lots of different reading activities to do and as they become better readers they can read the things themselves and then do some of the more fun activities that go with it.
I am a big fan of painting the sidewalk with water and chalk and "sidewalk paint" (to make this put equal amounts of corn starch and water in a container with a cover, add some food coloring, cover and shake - do not try to mix with a spoon, as the corn starch doesn't allow this to work) then get a paint brush and you're good to go.
We tried to get a theme going for the sidewalk paintings, and this usually kept dd busy for a few days becasue she always thought of more things to add to each original picture of the theme.

Of course, having given you these ideas, I am also constantly looking for things to keep the kids busy, and it is exhausting.

I don't know how you feel about computer time. My dd started using the computer for educational games just before her 3rd birthday (obviously, for limited amounts of time). I highly recommend the Jump Start Toddler program. It responds to the child simply moving the mouse to different areas ... no need to click. Once your child has mastered that (and it's amazing how quickly they do) we have also enjoyed Jump Start and Reader Rabbit pre-school, k, 1st, etc.

DD3 has been quite proficient at the computer since a little over 2-y-old. She likes starfall.com and poissonrouge.com so we do those. We've tried some different computer programs, but nothing so far has really impressed us or kept her real occupied. She likes to do some stuff with Dora on the nick jr website or some games from pbskids.org.
I'm trying to come up with ideas that don't involve the computer since I feel like she gets enough (if not too much) computer time already. I liked the sidewalk paint recipe -- thanks for the tip. And I think our library has themed kits ready to check out, so I may look into that.
Thanks to everyone for all of your ideas and suggestions. These kids are so hard to keep interested. Thankfully she has just taken coloring and drawing back up now that she feels comfortable holding a crayon in a writing position -- she used to get so frustrated that she couldn't hold the crayon correctly that she just stopped coloring and drawing altogether. Sigh!

It doesn't help that I also have DD11mo crawling around trying to get into everything, too!!

My response is a little different from the others you've received. I'd suggest that you try to avoid getting into the role of being responsible for entertainment. Because a child is gifted does not mean it is your full time responsibility to engage their brain (or to assign a computer or TV to complete that task.) I see being bored full time in school as something that is problematic and should be fixed, but I don't think we need to carry that over into suggesting it is a parent's job at home to make sure the child is never bored. Some boredom is important in learning to self entertain.

Assuming you are providing a loving environment with some open ended toys (blocks, puppets, etc.) it should not be your job to constantly entertain and when you take on that role it has a way of over time lessening and lessening a child's ability to self engage and self entertain - which really are vital skills for learning.

So, my suggestion would be of course to provide some attentive time playing games or reading but once that is done offer for the child to join you in your world (yard work, sorting laundry or whatever.) If they aren't interested I'd offer an expression of confidence that they will find something to do. They may be cranky for a bit, but in time they will learn ways to make up their own games and they will feel more confident and better if they have this ability.

I agree completely, PTP!

I try to practice what I call "benign neglect" as a form of parenting. Of course I spend lots of time with my kids, but I do so because I choose to, not because they need me to keep them busy. Of course it's a gradual thing that you lead them to, not something you drop on them all at once. But by the time they were 3, each of my kids--even my extrovert--could keep himself entertained without me (within earshot of me) for a good 30 minutes.

The downside is that once in a while they find things to do that are...less desirable. But I think there is a healthy balance to be struck there between too much freedom and too much dependence.

Open-ended toys and non-destructive art supplies are the keys for us. They can spend all day creating and imagining.

P.S. Passthepotatoes: I sent you a private message--look for the blinking envelope and click on it.

DS4 is pretty responsible, so when he needs to be entertained he's gotten past the point where he can find an activity for himself or he's on a learning kick and we're trying to keep him from the activity that he thinks is a good way to learn whatever it is he needs to master.
Here are a few substitutions - we could use them a few days to a month entertainment wise but at least he didn't go back to the previous 'entertainment'
Grabbing drinks that fiz ->
Glass of Apple cider & cup baking soda with a bowl, (buy the gallon & large box this is good for hours with refills)
Disasembling the microwave -> The Way Things Work software
Rewiring electronics (phones, computer) -> Snap circuits
Doing laundry/dishes -> um, we just walked him through that
Pouring drinks on the floor (at 1) ->
Two pop bottles filled with seeds/beans taped together