Post by icedcoffee on Sept 3, 2021 20:19:41 GMT -5
I’ll add that we’ve tried sending our tablet but they couldn’t get it to work on the school WiFi. We may try to upgrade to an iPad that we know will work but I kind of don’t want to.
Post by purplepenguin7 on Sept 3, 2021 20:25:47 GMT -5
Ugh I am dreading this for my 3 year old who doesn’t know how to be quiet. Can you send the color wonder markers that only draw on the special paper or those magic ink pads so that he can’t make a mess off the paper, or are all markers out?
I’ll add that we’ve tried sending our tablet but they couldn’t get it to work on the school WiFi. We may try to upgrade to an iPad that we know will work but I kind of don’t want to.
I would be 100% opposed to paying out the ass for daycare...for a kid to sit in front of a screen.
My kids love search and find. We had a jumbo pad from Costco that took us a long time to get through. My youngest has a 10-book set of Highlights search and find from Costco that keeps him occupied for a while.
He uses a lot of stickers, washi tape, and we only buy Crayola's "ultra-washable" markers so I don't care if he gets it on himself. A dry erase board and markers also keeps him occupied for a while.
Yeah. He borrowed the daycare iPad last year and all summer when enrollment was low. I was not pleased but it was better than getting angry daily reports that my kid was an ass during quiet time. But now enrollment is up and they don’t have enough iPads for everyone and ours doesn’t work on their WiFi. It’s all super annoying. I’ve tried really hard to make this not my problem. LOL
Ugh I am dreading this for my 3 year old who doesn’t know how to be quiet. Can you send the color wonder markers that only draw on the special paper or those magic ink pads so that he can’t make a mess off the paper, or are all markers out?
This seems like something for their staff to figure out, no? If they insist on him taking a nap or having quiet time, then they can figure out a quiet activity. Coloring pages? Blocks? Duplo? 2 hours is a really long time. I don’t know of any 4-year olds who are capable of napping for that long, or really capable of quiet independent play for that long either.
This seems like something for their staff to figure out, no? If they insist on him taking a nap or having quiet time, then they can figure out a quiet activity. Coloring pages? Blocks? Diploma? 2 hours is a really long time. I don’t know of any 4-year olds who are capable of napping for that long, or really capable of quiet independent play for that long either.
I don’t disagree. They say the staff needs quiet time to prep for the rest of the day. And the 2 hours is required by the state. They say 10 of the 20 kids do rest but yeah idk. Almost 100% of my kid’s bad behavior at school is during quiet time. I’ve tried very hard to make it not my problem and they keep pushing it back to me. We otherwise love them but it’s annoying.
How is he with scissors? My 4 year old would make confetti all day if I let her 😈
LOL I do have a scissor skill book thing in my cart. 😂
Haha. Just a note - if it’s the Melissa and Doug one the scissors that come with it are like super safety scissors and don’t work very well. DD who has pretty decent scissors skills due to the aforementioned confetti creation gets frustrated with them. You may need to swap them out for whatever your child usually uses.
My dd loves these puffy sticker books. Lots of tiny bits. I think I bought her first around her 3rd birthday? She is 6 and they will still occupy her if I pull them out.
Not sure if this is too advanced but we just got canoodle for my 4 and 6 year old love playing it at restaurants. Also tegu blocks, or a small Rubbermaid with kinetic sand?
We had this issue with DS and we ended up sending in a discman (lol) with headphones and a few cds, which helped keep him quiet while he looked at books / played quietly.
Wiki sticks and water wow books. My sons would also like to have a little set of figures, like all the Sesame Street characters or all the paw patrol characters and then they could play for a while with the little figures and then the wiki sticks or blocks or whatever building homes or battle scenes lol for them.
I would push back and insist that this is their problem to deal with - not yours. If they need to raise tuition to cover an aide to supervise non-nappers, fine. But I would be incensed if daycare even so much as hinted that it was my responsibility to occupy my while he/she was in their care. (and I say that as someone that used a childcare center as a parent for nearly 10 years, and as the former director of a center)
But to answer your question, magna tiles and play sticks are what would keep my kid occupied
This seems like something for their staff to figure out, no? If they insist on him taking a nap or having quiet time, then they can figure out a quiet activity. Coloring pages? Blocks? Diploma? 2 hours is a really long time. I don’t know of any 4-year olds who are capable of napping for that long, or really capable of quiet independent play for that long either.
I don’t disagree. They say the staff needs quiet time to prep for the rest of the day. And the 2 hours is required by the state. They say 10 of the 20 kids do rest but yeah idk. Almost 100% of my kid’s bad behavior at school is during quiet time. I’ve tried very hard to make it not my problem and they keep pushing it back to me. We otherwise love them but it’s annoying.
I would ask them to cite the regulation. In my state it's a two hour maximum and if the kid doesn't fall asleep in sixty minutes they shall be "helped" with an activity that doesn't wake the other kids. I wonder if they are putting their own spin on the regulation.
At my school, this is a challenge during Covid. When we closed for 3 months, some of our kids got so out of a routine. Even though we reopened over a year ago, we all know things are still wonky in many households. Pre-Covid, we could have a nap room and a non-nap room and could mix groups. We can’t do that now. Also, staffing is a major issue in just about any childcare setting these days. Most centers rely on “rest time” for teacher lunch breaks and planing time. So, we can’t mix kids/teachers, we’re understaffed, and we don’t want to take breaks away from teachers who are already burnt out.
That being said, I don’t get how it’s on you to provide an activity for this time of day. You’re paying them, it should be on them to come up with a solution.
This was my headache...beads with pipe cleaners to make bracelets or candy canes at the holidays. Books, letter tracing books, how to tie shoes, lacing activities.
I don’t have any advice but I just switched my 4 year old son’s daycare for this exact reason. The old daycare would force him to lay quietly for 2 entire hours. He’d either get “in trouble” for not being quiet or sometimes fall asleep and then be up until 10 or 11 at night, only to be woken up at 6am the next morning miserable. It was honestly ruining our family, and my poor 4 year old was so anxious over school and nap time. The new daycare/preschool does a rest time for just 20 minutes, and then whoever is not asleep is moved to a different section of the room and provided alternate teacher-led activity. We also toured a daycare that didn’t even have their 4 year old room lay down at all. All in the same state (NJ) so I don’t know how they all interpret the state regulations so differently. I know switching daycares isn’t practical, but it’s also not practical to force a 4 year old to lay quiet for 2 hours. I’m sorry; that rule is ridiculous!
I worked in a school teaching kindergarten but they had ages 2.5+. Even then they had a room for nappers and a room for awakers. Some kids were awakers right at beginning of the period. Some would start in nap room but if didn’t fall asleep after xx time would quietly be walked to awaker room. This was all done in cooperation with parents so if they really wanted kid to take nap we would work on it and if they didn’t we would help them move away from naps.
I’m shocked to hear that they make kids lay down for 2 hours!! Seems like you are just asking for trouble!!!
As a side note - as a kid myself in daycare I once smuggled little tiny pebbles in my pocket into where I was taking a nap. I then stuck them up my nose and had to be taken home to have them extracted. Idle hands!!!
DS is 3.5, hasn't napped since 2.5. In his previous classroom they said I could send a book, nothing else. In the classroom he joined back in June, it seemed the book was ignored but a lot of things were getting ignored because they had like 18 kids with DS among the youngest. I think he just rolls around in his sleeping bag for 2 hours. I will have to ask the teacher for an update now that the current classroom is smaller.
DD also stopped napping a little before 3 and we used to only send her for half day because we knew they made the non-nappers roll around for 2 hours. It's also part of the reason I moved her up to the Kindergarten classroom ASAP because that was the only classroom that did not have mandatory nap; that year was the only year she attended for the whole day. But for DS, bringing him home and having him jump on us for the rest of the day is not an attractive choice so oh well kid #2. .
I don't even understand how a daycare, that presumably claims to understand children, would expect the ones who don't nap to play independently and quietly four TWO WHOLE HOURS. And then label the ones who didn't follow this ridiculous requirement as "bad." My older daughter was a quiet, obedient kid and there's still no way she could occupy herself for two hours with no input from others. Just forget about it with my rambunctious younger kid.
I'd be temped to send deliberately annoying toys to push this issue.
This is timely as DS's daycare provider yesterday was complaining that he would not sleep or listen during nap yesterday. He's freaking 5 and you make him be quiet for 2 hours (I have been told that this is mandated by our state (PA) but I don't know if thats actually true). He's BORED. Anyway, I commiserate. At least they have not asked me to send in activities for him, they just complain, lol.