Entertaining a 1st grader when older kid is not done with school

[athena1277]

I've read (and sometimes commented) on the many, many threads about what to do with toddlers and preschoolers while trying to do schoolwork with another child. I've got that down. Except I no longer have a toddler or preschooler. I have a 1st grader. He's done in an hour. Big sister is in 5th. School takes much longer for her. I'm busy working with her and taking care of household chores. He's not interested in helping me. He doesn't want to play by himself. We have a 1 hour quiet time in the afternoon, so it's not like he has never played alone before. He's just never had so much time to play alone. I wish I could send him outside to play, but we don't have a yard, only a common area shared with neighbors and while we live in a safe area, I don't trust a 6yo out there alone. What do I do to keep him from being bored all day?

[Tess in the Burbs]

My kids know, and did at that age, that if you cant just go play during school there are baseboards to dust

[TheReader]

Oh, I feel your pain! Similar situation here (my boys are finishing 9th grade, 6th grade, and 1st grade).  Some things that I use, with varying success -- 

 

--math manipulative toys. My 1st grader can play for ages with these, if he's in the same room as someone when he starts. So, while I do dishes, he can play at the little kitchen table or island, with this, or play dough, or washable paint, or pen/paper/crayons, etc. For math stuff, we have geoboards, dominoes, counting bears, cuisenaire rods, pattern blocks & tangram sheets, linking cubes, etc. He invents all sorts of games with these; the key is, he wants me in the same room while he gets started. 

 

--water play. If you don't have an area for him to do this outside, let him play in the tub with some toys, either no plug in and water running, or just a small amount of water. So it isn't "a bath" (gasp, the horror, LOL), let him wear his swim trunks. Let him take water colors in, or bath toys, or funnels, buckets, cups, baster/cooking syringe (no needle), etc. If you can trust him to not need help cleaning up after. Let him play with shaving cream in there as well. Fun stuff. 

 

--puzzles, either the normal kind or dot-to-dot books, mazes, simple origami/paper airplane book, etc. 

 

--would he listen to books on tape? I'm going to start doing this with mine soon, now that he's listening to us read chapter books. Worth a try, anyway.

 

--computer games. I'll admit, Minecraft gets a lot of game play during the "I am so bored waiting on my older siblings to finish school" part of the day. He goes on creative mode and builds the most amazing things. 

 

--indoor scavenger hunt; you'd want to prep this once and then use it as a last resort/feeling creative/whatever. But it's worked here. I gave the boys a camera to use and a list with drawings of what I wanted them to find (the 2 youngest did it together one day) and off they went. You can do all sorts of variations on this, but it does take prep-ahead work on your part. 

 

--the dreaded TV/Video. I know, I know. Get something educational if it makes you feel better, but we've used it here. 

 

Hope some of this helps! I do find that starting him on something while he's in the same room with me helps a lot on the "not wanting to play alone" front.

 

Also, not too early to work on getting your oldest to work more independently, so that you are free some of the time to help him transition from one thing to the other.

 

One other thing, get creative with the schedule. If you can, have your 5th grader start school before the 1st grader, so he has some free time before he does his school, then do his stuff midway through hers, then he has free time after (if  you can stagger your involvement with them both in that manner). This way rather than one big, long, unending stretch, he has two smaller stretches of free time. It will feel more manageable to him.

[JessReplanted]

I would give him a few suggestions, and then let him know that if he can't find a way to stay busy, you can always give him more school work (or chores)! This seems to work for my kids.

[athena1277]

I did this. Both dd and ds received FP Tough digital cameras for Christmas. I decided to put them to good use when they were in K and have them go around the house and look for the shape of the day. It could be words or numbers or anything you are doing currently in school.

That is a perfect idea for ds! He got a Nintendo DS for Christmas and he loves to take pictures with it.