Is one of your younger kids a 4-5yo?

[plain jane]

I'm looking for input from other parents who have a 4-5yo child (boy, preferably) and homeschool (several) older children.

 

What does your 4yo do all day? What sorts of activities do you have for them? How do you keep them learning, engaged, and having fun, especially when you have kids in upper elementary and junior high who need to be at a table all day? (Meaning no last minute park days or play dates)

 

I try to spend time with my 4yo first and that works but he very much wants to do school all the time. He's not picking up the reading thing too well (and I'm totally ok with that) and letter formation is good but he needs supervision. This takes a lot of workbooks out of the equation. I'm looking for more hands on and fun activities anyways. :)

 

I'd love to have a list typed out for my schoolroom... Maybe 101 things your 4yo can do during the day. LOL

[*Jen*]

I don't have to keep my almost 4 yo boy occupied long since I have smaller kids and school doesn't take us long but things that will keep him occupied for awhile.

 

Letter mats and playdoh

Lightbright

Lauri Alphabet puzzles and number puzzles

Gears

Balance scale and bears and a whole bag full of odd things to weigh

Magic School Bus DVDs :blush:

Playing on my laptop - Starfall or PBS kids

 

I also tend to keep a few things that can be done on the go for the end of our time so that way if he is really wild we can take some of our seatwork outside and do it on the deck while he plays.

[UrbanSue]

My third is 4yo. He like puzzles, stickers, play doh. Usually one of the older kids is free to play with him. He will sit for quite awhile with Cuisenaire Rods or a white board practicing drawing or "writing". He sometimes will open a pre-k workbook. Until about a month ago he was a terror and we hardly got anything done. He's just really turned a corner.

 

For working on fine motor stuff so that he can do other school, you might get play doh or workbooks/printables that focus on scissor skills. And if he's been not into puzzles, give it a try every month or two. My kids tend to very suddenly develop the aptitude for puzzles and then that's a good way to entertain for awhile each day.

[emcap]

Lauri pegs and puzzles, moon dough with different tools, paint, a list of odd ways to travel up and down the hallway (animals, on one foot, etc), baking soda on a tray with vinegar in an eye dropper (loves this), food coloring to drop into jar of water and watch the swirls, cutting scrap paper, sticking stickers on scrap paper, ask constant and annoying questions, a bunch of different haba and plan wooden stacking/building puzzles (must be rotated or they get boring), driving car on road rug, marble run, rolling marbles across the floor, drawing pictures - these are some things that occupy my almost four year old boy during school.

 

I glanced through a book at the library that I'm interested in buying, something like a giant encyclopedia of activities for four year old preschoolers.

 

Good luck, it can be so frustrating when you just need them to be quiet!

 

Wanted to add drawing on the big whiteboard, this can be a lifesaver for us, as well as carefully cutting carrots with a table knife while closely supervised (but I am still at the table for the older kids) then sharing the great snack he just made!

[NASDAQ]

My second is a four-year-old boy and I'm schooling an older girl who is six. We do academics the morning and her music practice is in the afternoon.

 

He does some academics each day -- SM Essential Math A, and some phonics (Lippincott Pre-Primer). I generally do one of these two first thing in the morning, before the others really get going. My 4yo is my early riser.

 

While 6 yo does her computer program (Funnix 2), I do the other activity with him.

 

For the rest of the time, my 4 yo just runs about playing with the younger kids. I rarely give him specific activities. He really isn't all that much trouble . . . although that might just be in comparison to my 2 yo, who is a little academic terrorist.

[edeemarie]

Here is a link to a ton of great ideas for keeping both toddlers and preschoolers busy during school http://www.mamaslearningcorner.com/2012/08/ultimate-guide-to-occupying-toddlers-during-school-time/. I have used several of them with my ds4, but even more so for ds2. My 4 year old is very content to play with just about anything (just an easy going child). So if I take some time to get some toys out for him (like trains, blocks, puzzles, coloring books, etc.) he does well playing while we do school. Sometimes he comes in a tries to get involved with schooling, but typically I try to get his little bit of schooling done first thing in the morning. I think that helps him too because he gets his mommy time before everyone else:)

 

Here is another link that has a list of 100 ideas of things to do instead of watching TV- it may be a good jump start for your list:) http://naturalparentsnetwork.com/100-ways-to-avoid-tv/

[Embassy]

How about coloring or cutting sheets? What about getting a bunch of art supplies and let him create?

 

My 4 year old mostly plays on her own when I am not doing something with her. She will sometimes get on the computer or iPad. Rotating toy boxes have worked great for us too.

[lil' maids in a row]

I have a set of about 8 small tupperware containers that REALLY keep my 3 and 5 year olds entertained (though they are girls so YMMV).

 

1. Syrofoam block with golf tees and a small hammer

2. Box full of pony beads with a small muffin tin (for sorting) and pipecleaners (for making bracelets)

3. A box of rice with funnels, spoons, little rhinestones to bury and did up, small animals and trees and little cups and jars

4. A puzzle box with colored bears and sorting cups and a couple wooden puzzles (that require no back) all jumbled up

5. A magnet box with a bunch of magnets and paper clips and fun metal stuff to play with

6. A craft box with half sheets of construction paper, stickers, glue sticks, scissors and colors

7. A water box with eye droppers, little cups, jars, sponges, funnels etc.

8. A pom pom box with tons of pom poms and a couple jars and tweezers to move the pom poms back and forth with.

 

They get one to play with when their schoolwork is done each day. It cost about twenty dollars to make them, and they always spend a good 45 min - 1 hour enjoying them.

[kiwik]

Does he get a trip to the local park or a walk most days?

[Lilaclady]

My 4 yr old will write her letters, play with play dough color, she likes cutting but I have to supervise or else she starts cutting her sisters papers. She also does the wood puzzles, dot to dot puzzles and tracing

[ElizabethB]

When mine was that age, he liked Legos and wooden train sets, like Thomas, but we got the cheaper IKEA ones. He also liked matchbox cars, but they were too noisy for school work to get done. He also liked drawing on his own white board.

[Clarkd]

Put marbles or small trinkets in a big ball of playdough

Egg cartons with mini animals he can place in with tongs

Eye dropper with water to put in small cups

Water play time in tub

Sand table

Magnet blocks

Duplos

63-100 pc puzzle

Kumon tracing wkbk

Kumon cut and paste wkbk

Kumon puzzle cut out wkbk

Bin of cars

Marble ramps

Train

Practice writing name

Play with shaving crean on table

Write letters in sand on cookie tray

Audiobook with storybook

Magnetic letters

Play hut with small toys inside

Beads

Waterbeads in bin of water

1-10 simple dot to dot

"paint" with bingo dotter

Color

Sticker booksSimon game

Have one of older kids spend time with him during their "break" time

Stencils

Have sets of these set aside and rotate every fifteen minutes

[....]

My 4th is 5. It is hard. Not sure if this is an option for you, but my middle school-aged kids have decided to get up at 6am during the week and do their schoolwork in pajamas - before the younger set wakes up. We've been doing this for about 2 weeks and it makes a HUGE difference. It's much quieter, so they can concentrate. No one is competing for attention.

 

As far as what my 5 yro does during the day - usually plays with the 8 yro. They're buddies.

 

Like a previous poster said - make sure you guys are able to play outside every day. That helps, too.

[ChicoryChick]

My 5yo boy likes:

 

Puzzles

Carson-Dellosa Preschhol-Kbooks:

Captial & Lowercase letters books mostly has them coloring with a short line if they want copy the letters

I also like their beginning math book. He did skip most of the writing but now that he is almost 5.5, he does try to copy some of the numbers and letters

 

Magnadoodle

Cuisenaire Rods & Shapes

Coloring Books

 

[2squared]

My 4-5yos play with their sibs pretty much all day. They often hover around me, and they like to play with math manips or write on the white board, but mostly they just play.

 

I don't expect that they are quiet and still, though, with their play. I eject them from the downstairs when things get too rowdy. I'm not sure what to do when my youngest reaches these ages. He won't have a full-time play buddy like the others did.

[fairfarmhand]

Generally, he hears things like this. "E, you need to quiet down." "E, if you cannot play more quietly, you must go downstairs." "E, go downstairs."

 

Seriously, I must say that at least once a day during school.

My guy will color for awhile.

He likes to draw maps and cut paper into a million tiny pieces on the carpet. \

He plays with the pattern shapes and makes pictures.

He watches his sisters play educational games.

He likes to draw on the marker board.

He likes to sweep, so I tell him I will pay him a dollar to sweep the garage. But he has to do a REALLY GOOD JOB. This takes awhile, so I can get like 30-40 minutes quiet this way.

He likes to do dot to dots that I find for him on the internet, and mazes too.

 

When I am desperate, I let him watch a movie in his room.

He also plays starfall.com and pbskids.com

 

Sometimes, I let a big kid take a break for 30 minutes to play with him while I work with another kid.

[2_girls_mommy]

I have a 4 yr old niece with us daily. My kids spend most of the morning at the table at work. She has to play on her own most of that time. Once I have a moment, I do some R&S workbooks with her. But she plays with toys like blocks, Barbies, squinkies, playdough, a bowl of water and a box of small figures to 'swim', etc. I try to send someone out to jump on the trampoline w/her for a few min. each morning at some point. And after lunch I send them all out for a bit.

 

We do maybe 2 out of the house days a month at the zoo or museum (which my logic stager then has to make up work on weekends and evenings to cover those..) so it is different. When mine were younger we spent days at the park, and a couple of mornings a week at the library, and the rest of our time at the zoo and on playdates.

 

I still have her nap each day. That time is spent on the bed with me reading her preschool books. Then I exit and my older kids lay with her. We rotate days, and they can lie next to her and read their science or history or literature until she falls asleep, so two birds w/one stone.

 

The rest of the time she has to listen in to our read alouds and watch their school documentaries. There is no more Barney or Sesame Street here like my kids had. Luckily for me she is a girl and can play quietly and quite still when I need her to. She can color while we are discussing things. She isn't an active boy type at all which works in my favor.

[AngelBee]

Great list!

[TracyP]

Most of the time my 5, 3, and 2yo occupy each other pretty well w/o much assistance from me. I'm wondering if this is your youngest, that would change the dynamic a bit. I do 30-45 min of school with the 3 and 5yo and then send them to play. I implement an afternoon quiet time which gives me time to work 1-1 with my oldest.

 

I do have a list in the schoolroom of things they can do:

markers

play money

lincoln logs

kitchen

balance and beans

legos

farm animals

c-rods

dolls

puzzles

candyland

chutes and ladders

froggy feeding fun

enchanted forest

putty

play-doh

 

I love the ideas in this thread!

[Guest abgriffith]

Love this post, I have a 4 and 2 year old and and older child too. This really helps.

[rieshy]

I have a 5 yo boy and 6 older children.

 

5 yo likes to vacuum with a little vacuum.

He likes to dust.

Build with legos/blocks/trains.

Play outside with siblings who are taking breaks.

Help me cook.

Do "school"- especially math activities.

Older siblings take breaks and read to him or play with him.

Oldest sister gives him piano lessons.

Oldest (commuting to college) son will sometimes take him on errand runs during the school day- or take both he and his 6 1/2 yo brother to the park while I work with other kiddos.

He makes messes.

He spends some time pestering the dog, and annoying siblings who are trying to concentrate.

He loves to draw.

He listens to some read-alouds.

Play-dough.

Paint.

muffin tins with little fine motor activities with tweezers or water droppers.

[T'smom]

My oldest is five, so I'm not your target audience, but I had one idea that I didn't see mentioned that keeps my 5 yo busy for a long stretch. He sets up stuffed animals as a zoo or a safari and then goes and takes pictures of them. He does this with superheroes too. He makes scenes with the action figures and then photographs it. If you have a cheaper camera he can use or a tablet, leap pad or something, it's an activity that can be modified for lots of interests.

[LMV]

Our next to youngest just turned three. She really enjoys hands on art projects [lots of clay, painting, and some early drawing--or maybe "drawing"]. She can work happily, quietly, and independently for a brief periods interspersed with parent or older sibling interaction so this has worked well. For example she will do her own thing for 10-15 minutes and then for another 10-15 minutes after a few minutes of parental discussion about her amazing masterpiece. She also loves to be read to [and we will often take her into another room and read while her siblings finish up some reinforcement work]. She seems to be on the cusp of figuring out the whole reading thing herself and we've been letting her do a lot of exploring with books lately. Our plan is to just let her develop at her own pace in this.

 

We also have a four year old (who will be five this spring) foster daughter who just joined us ten days ago. She is still trying to adjust to being in our family and has slept much of everyone else's normal waking hours. . We've done some reading with her just because it is a pretty sedentary and passive activity for her and we're hoping that will foster the beginning of a connection. We're praying that some of this cloud of sadness will dissipate and we will start to see the child she was before. At that point, I think we will try to involve her in the things our three year old is doing and adapt from there as needed.

[Dustybug]

I have a newly turned 5yo boy and while I do minimal schoolwork with him right now, he is really into trains(building all sorts of elaborate tracks), cars, coloring with markers, drawing on the chalkboard, playing with building toys (Legos, Kid K'nex, Lincoln Logs), playing with reusable sticker books, playing with math counters, playdough, making things with pipe cleaners, etc.

[sleeplessnights]

My youngest is 4 and I always feel a bit of guilt for him. We've got a system worked out where we work from 8-10 and then take the rest of the morning off. He knows that he can join us in the school room and work on his "work" or he can go play elsewhere until 10. I am usually cycling through kids, so there's usually someone free to play with. He also has his reading lesson during this time. My older kids finish their work during his quiet/nap time in the afternoon from 1-3. Luckily school still doesn't take too long.

[NoseInABook]

My 4 year old boy will do Handwriting Without Tears PreK and random preschool math worksheets before moving to coloring, lacing boards, play with math manipulatives, play with Legos, build with blocks, play with his toys, look at books, use Play-doh, do some random craft, use Starfall, watch a movie on Netflix, play with his 3 year old sister and baby brother...

 

I'd like to do a little more with him but he's going to wait until the Fall when he's an official K-er.

[myfunnybunch]

I don't currently have a 4-5 year-old, but I had a 4-5 year-old to occupy and teach for several years of homeschooling. When I began homeschooling, I had a newly pulled 7th grader, a 4 y.o., a 2 y.o. and an infant, as well as a 5th grader with autism in ps. (Oh my. I'd forgotten. That was....wow. I am going to sit here for a moment and appreciate how much easier everything is now. Whew.)

 

So, back to the matter at hand.....

At that age, I made the preK child a "school box" that looked just like the box or bin that the older children used. In it, I kept puzzle books, manipulatives, quiet learning toys and games, preschool workbooks that did not require reading. (Think tracing, cutting, mazes, coloring and matching, picture sequencing, etc.) I rotated items frequently and tried to keep preferred items in the box as much as possible. Actually, I did the same for the 2 y.o. too, filled with quiet(ish) activities. I also found ways for everyone to be included in any hands-on science or history activities.

 

During the quiet study/individual lesson part of the day, I'd say, "Time for school!" to everyone, and everyone, including the preschooler, would bring the school box to the table and start working. If he got bored, I'd ask him to finish his current activity then he could wander off to play with cars or Legos or whatever.

 

Other activities:

Starfall

Dominoes

Building activities

Train set

Playdough, playdough, playdough

Little chores to do

Call Grandma

Activity boxes--a measuring box, a sorting box, a box full of different rocks and a magnifying glass, a box of tape and scissors and paper, math boxes, a box of sandpaper letters and crayons and paper for letter rubbings (which inexplicably kept them occupied for hours....really? I thought it was kind of boring myself.).

Sidewalk chalk

 

:)

[EppieJ]

"treasure boxes" - anything that can be counted, sorted, patterned....(buttons, colored paper clips, links...)

unifix cubes

tangrams

pattern blocks

play dough with letter cutters

sensory tubs (sand, cornmeal, beans, rice...and stuff to go with them)

file folder games (a google search will give you some good ideas)

Kumon workbooks

jigsaw puzzles

magnet sets

a box of art supplies that he can use relatively unsupervised (pipecleaners, for example- he can make all kinds of creatures, shapes, etc with them no glue or scissors required)

sticker book / stickers

 

if you like computer edu-games, I like Reader Rabbit and Dr. Seuss' ABCs for that age

[LittleIzumi]

We use MFW K at 4. It's basically a fun Pre-K program with some phonics, lots of gentle science and basic Bible, nature walks, art, etc.

[happypamama]

My third (soon to be middle) child is a 4yo boy. I have tried spending time with him first, but in reality, I need to spend time with the big kids first, so that they can do math and other hard work while their minds and bodies are still vey fresh. Also, the 4yo and 1yo are usually pretty happy to play on their own with toys for a while first thing, whereas even if I spend time with the 4yo first, he'll still get bored later and want to bother his big brother.

 

So, after I help my 4yo brush his teeth in the morning after breakfast, I give him a kiss and hug and remind him that it's schoolwork time for the big kids, and that his job is to play nicely. I make a point to tell him that if he can play and not bug big brother (whose work is fairly short), I'll have time to spend with him later.

 

4yo has his own workbox, and I keep crayons and markers and paper in it. If the big kids have a printable (like a maze) that the 4yo would like, I might give him one of those, or DD or I might write some letters on a paper for him to trace (he desperately wants to do school himself and begs for stuff like that).

 

We have the workbooks from Rainbow Resource, as well as a big preschool-K workbook of basic skills that I picked up cheaply somewhere. He has free access to those if he wants. He also has chalk, stamps, stickers, paper, scissors, etc. I want to make him some feltboard stories to play with; he likes retelling stories and would love to do that for his little brother. Sometimes I get out watercolors or play dough for him.

 

We have a bin of preschool-appropriate activities, some of which are from the Activities in a Bag thing: pattern blocks, objects to rub, numbers/shapes/letters to match on paper, memory/matching cards, the Fit-A-Space puzzle from Lauri, sewing cards, magnet animals to stick on a board, puzzles, beads to string on string or pipe cleaners, magnetic dress-up toys, sticker books, collections of things to sort. . . I pull out a couple of them every so often to rotate into his workbox, but he will also get them out on his own.

 

Somewhere online I found a bunch of pictures of various dogs in different sizes, with little pockets so the child could sort them according to short or tall. (I can't find it right now, but it was a printable to go along with Angus Lost.) That is a big hit with my 4yo.

 

When it's the 4yo's turn with me, we do reading lessons, read picture books, do his workbook, read Bible stories, read a few pages from the "Can You Find Me" book by The Critical Thinking Company, whatever he wants to do. The promise of that time with me really does help him to keep himself entertained while I work with the big kids. :)

[Shellydon]

My 4 year old attends preschool 2 mornings each week.