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[Nm.]

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Edited May 27, 2023 by Nm.

[Lori D.]

22 hours ago, Nm. said:

I’ve always had more than 1 young one and now that my 2nd youngest is wanting to do more school and less playing- I’m not sure what to do with the youngest.  The older ones don’t want to babysit him or play with him regularly.  They want to finish school and play their own stuff without him.  I’m considering pre-k (it’s a few hours).  But wondering what other options there are.  I’m not totally comfortable sending him unless I’ve exhausted other options.

Are you looking for regular down time/time away for you?
Or a way of keeping pre-K child occupied while homeschooling the others?
Or are you looking for social time and friends/activities for the pre-K child?

Ideas, depending on the need and time of day:
- as part of the homeschool schedule, schedule each older child  for 20 minutes during the homeschool time to do an activity with the youngest -- read a book to youngest or look at one of those "search & find" books together, play a game, build with blocks or use other toys, use crayons and a coloring book, explore with Geoboards or other math-y activity or manipulative, explore/play outside, build a blanket fort together, make a snack together and serve it to everyone, dress-up/imaginative play etc. etc.
- hire a teen as a to come in for 2 hours 2x/week in the afternoons
- join a homeschool support group with all ages of kids that meets for social time 1x/week
- make a rotating 1x/week "pre school" with several other moms -- each mom hosts all of the other (3-4) preschoolers  for 3 hours once a month

Edited May 27, 2023 by Lori D.

[Clemsondana]

The OP is gone but from the excerpt that I can see in Lori's post...she has a lot of good suggestions.  There's also nothing terrible about using a preschool if that would be a better fit.  I've homeschooled my kids from K until now (I'll have a 9th and a 12th grader next year), but both went to 1/2 day, 2-3 day/week preschool.  Locally there are church preschools like this and also mother's day out programs that are less structured.  I looked for something that wasn't particularly academic - letter of the week and singing and circle time were done, but mostly it involved a lot of supervised play and time outside.  

[Nm.]

Yes it’s two and a half hours every weekday and right by my house!  I want him to have more interactive play instead of me just trying to keep him busy (and safe) while we do our math/La.  I probably will try it!  Sooo nervous.  I never did this before.  It sounds like it’s mostly just supervised play.  I’ll definitely look over loris suggestions too.  But we’ve tried so much and quite frankly they are tired of it.  I think in a year he’ll be less destructive with their legos and they will be more likely to enjoy playing with him.  Right now it’s constant screaming that he broke something. 

Edited May 28, 2023 by Nm.

[Lori D.]

1 hour ago, Nm. said:

Yes it’s two and a half hours every weekday and right by my house!  I want him to have more interactive play instead of me just trying to keep him busy (and safe) while we do our math/La... It sounds like it’s mostly just supervised play...

This sounds ideal for all of you! 😄 

[Nm.]

It’s also free through the school district and it’s a super small class.  Ugh I just hate the idea of it but I do think it will be fine once we try it.