Preschoolers activities

[alison]

M will start preschool in the fall. It's only 2x/week, and I'm wondering what to do with the other days of the week. Saturdays, I think we'll keep her in tumbling with her dad. I think we'll leave Sunday as a family/do-nothing day. What do you do with the days the kids aren't in school?

Jack is in preschool 3 mornings a week. The other weekday mornings we either do a playdate, library storytime, the park or the zoo. He does a tumbling class and is about to start swim so that is 2 late afternoon activities. In the early afternoons when DD is napping we either do a craft, bake or play in the backyard. Or just play Legos or something.
Weekends are more of the same! DH is usually unavailable. We keep busy!

[MrsK]

Lots of things! Is there a Parents As Teachers program by you? We also do reading time at the public library, play groups, crafts, children's museum, Pump It Up, toddler services at our temple, "helping" in the kitchen, puzzles, blocks, coloring pages and mailing them to grandma, books, dvds, blowing bubbles, blowing cottonballs across the coffee table with bendy straws, silly dancing, sorting socks, McDonald's/BK/mall play grounds (on cold days), swimming at the YMCA... Some of these are group activities, some at home stuff, some on his own. Out of the house activities only have to last an hour or two. Getting ready to go/getting home is part of the entertainment and he usually takes a long mid-day nap. We usually get one out-of-house activity and one in-house activity per day.

[MrsK]

Oh, and be sure to count trains and school buses on the way to/from outings. BabyK loves to "help" me drive by letting me know if there are any school buses on the road. This can keep him amused all day. He also laughs and cheers when we drive through the city's only tunnel.

Also, taking him to the grocery store and letting him ride in one of those plastic car carts counts as entertainment too.

[Gwendolyn]

Harper goes twice a week and two of the other days are storytime at the library and little gym. The fifth day we use to head home and putz around or we make a playdate or run errands together. Weekends are off-limits for activities...as long as I can maintain it.

[SuzySunshine]

A goes 3 mornings a week, on the other two days she has dance one morning and nothing set planned the other morning. Some weeks we stay home and some weeks we go out to an activity but its usually an open gym type activity or the play area at the mall, nothing scheduled. She currently also has swim lessons two afternoons a week but that is only for a couple of months. Next year hopefully she'll go 3 days a week 9-2 and I'll be able to find a dance studio to continue her dance classes.

Next year R will do a Parents Day Out assuming I can get him in which will be 9-2 once a week. On other days I usually try to sign him up for a sports like class through the local parks & rec.

Otherwise they're stuck with me. I'm not a crafts type person so at home we usually just have free play with toys, once in a while we'll get out the paints for the easel but usually its just markers and paper or the wipe off board. We watch a movie or so each week and they watch a cartoon in the morning while I'm getting dressed.

I don't like to schedule to go go go so we don't do things on the weekend either but once DH has a more regular schedule I hope to have one parent/one child dates regularly on the weekends.

And we did a lot more playdates and playgroups in Roch, hopefully we'll get back into that next year as well.

[spotty_dog]

We clean house. Go to the grocery store. Play chess. Ride tricycles in circles in the back yard. Build trains. Build Legos. Go to the library. Read. Play with Cuisinaire rods. Bake. Build forts with the couch. Dance and wrestle with Daddy. Garden.

DH always asks me what I'm doing today and half the time I don't have a single thing planned, but the day fills itself! For the most part I go about my business and leave the kids to tag along, chip in, or fend for themselves. I intersperse interaction or lessons (for the big boy).

[alison]

Thanks, everyone. I'm trying to get an idea of how many classes to sign up for. I don't want to overschedule M, but it is nice to get out of the house at least once/day for something.
I think I'll schedule one more class during the week in addition to preschool, library storytime, and Saturday tumbling.

[spotty_dog]

Ooh, thanks for the reminder, I was going to try to get N into swimming soon, if I can figure out the logistics of getting her 20 minutes away to the pool while DS is in preschool...

[Tenacious_D]

YMCA!!! We live there and E goes to preschool there. Swimming, open play gym, kids yoga etc. I also do gymnastics with E so we have no formal commitments on the weekend...classes are less packed during the week.

[Vishenka69]

I'm not a very crafty person either and with the cold weather (and her refusal to wear boots or hats), I kind of gave up and signed her up for day care 5 times a week. On Saturdays we go to Little Gym and then Sundays are free. I'm thinking of possibly adding swimming sometime in the spring/summer.

[Pollyanna]

We clean house. Go to the grocery store. Play chess. Ride tricycles in circles in the back yard. Build trains. Build Legos. Go to the library. Read. Play with Cuisinaire rods. Bake. Build forts with the couch. Dance and wrestle with Daddy. Garden.

DH always asks me what I'm doing today and half the time I don't have a single thing planned, but the day fills itself! For the most part I go about my business and leave the kids to tag along, chip in, or fend for themselves. I intersperse interaction or lessons (for the big boy).

This is us too. I'm sure my older kiddos had more planned activities but then you realize that in short order their days will be so busy with planned activities that it's nice just to enjoy the days and see were they take you. But I'm kind of a slacker that way

This is us too. I'm sure my older kiddos had more planned activities but then you realize that in short order their days will be so busy with planned activities that it's nice just to enjoy the days and see were they take you. But I'm kind of a slacker that way

I love this in theory but I find the days to be oh so incredibly long if I don't get out with them. It's easier on my mental health to have an activity most days! Maybe when they can entertain themselves a little better we can just hang out more but right now it would mean me coming up with things all day long for DS to get bored of in 2 minutes...Obviously the amount of scheduled activities depends so much on both the kid and parent personalities.

[spotty_dog]

Obviously the amount of scheduled activities depends so much on both the kid and parent personalities.

Definitely. And the co-parents' work schedules! It's just so hard for me to wrap my head around committing to something with a set schedule, when our household routine revolves around a shift schedule that's anything but predictable.

[MrsK]

Yes, what Lamorna said. My toddler gets stir crazy if I don't take him out and I just go insane if I have to come up with dozens of 15 minute amusements all day. Even if I just drive around and let him count school busses, we have a better day.