Wish Me Luck..

[daycarediva]

I opted not to close tomorrow, and I will have a full house. My sa dcb who is QUITE the handful needs care all day, this rarely happens and is HIGHLY frowned upon, but grandma is sick. I was sooo tempted to just tell her no, but that sounds horribly unprofessional, since she knows my other SA kids will be here, and my own sa kids, too.

Sooooooo....

16yo dd
14yo ds
10yo ds
7yo ds
6yo dcb
5yo SA dcb
5yo dcb
3x 3yo girls INCLUDING a brand new part time kiddo
23mo dcg
19mo dcg

Just typing it makes me want to call in. ::

I have been separating the youngest dcg's as they don't nap well in my playroom. Can't do that tomorrow.

Also- it's supposed to downpour starting now (already started) and not stop at ALL until tomorrow evening.

I have already asked my 16yo to help tomorrow- I'm paying, too!
I have already asked my Dad to take DS/14 (special needs- Dad is retired, waiting to hear back from him)

Any ideas to occupy everyone on a nasty, rainy day?

[Thriftylady]

Get out as many recyclable and arts and crafts supplies as you can find and turn them loose with that. That is always a hit here and keeps them busy quite awhile. Also play doh is always good for quite awhile. How often do you do TV? Could you do a movie? If you don't do TV often a movie would be a special treat.

[Unregistered]

Take paper lunch bags and put stuff in them..straws.. pieces of paper plates... napkins ...Styrofoam cups any kind of craft item..popsicle sticks. Etc... have them make something that has to fly...2 ft...one big kid has to measure 2 ft in the floor..one tapes the distance....great for math skills! Get a tray...cover with paper towels....put 15 random items..a spoon...a toothpick...a bottle cap..you get the idea...have the kids look at it all..
Eye spy it....Take it into another room.and remove one item..bring it.back and they have to figure out what it is.
For the toddlers cut "feathers" out of construction paper....hide them in a room and plaY find the turkey.feathers. give them paper bags with their names they can decorate them too...after they find them they can count and.sort by color! Good luck!

[childcaremom]

If your group would be into this and you have a video recorder that you would be comfortable with them using....

Give them a suggestion (or what I have done is have them pick 3 pieces of paper from a hat with different ideas. eg: dragon, mountains, birthday) and then have them write, direct and record a play incorporating these ideas. It could of course be a live performance, as well.

They could design costumes (have a pile of stuff that they can sort through), make props, etc etc.

If you have an old blanket they could paint a background.

One thing I learned was to have a time limit for each stage (writing, costumes, design, etc). I did this for my dds when they were bored one day and they spent the whole day doing the actual writing of the play. They were fine with that but I wanted to see what they could come up with

The littles could have parts but could also be part of a live audience. Different 'jobs' could be delegated out easily enough so that each age group had something to do.

[childcaremom]

Another thing for the older ones....

Challenges: Using these materials, can you:
*build a bridge that will hold this car.
*build a tower that is a ruler tall
*build a zip line for this lego man

Etc etc. They could divide into teams or work together in a time limit.

Minute to win it. I haven't done these, personally, but have seen a group of kids go bananas for this. It works well with mixed ages.

[childcaremom]

Rest time ideas for older ones who need to be quiet:
*similar to the play idea, pick 3 things from each pile (person, place, thing) and write a story about it. Share them with each other. Maybe switch stories and illustrate a friend's?
*card games

[Play Care]

CALL OUT SICK!!! ::::::

J/K ... Sort of

It's 8:00 now, how's it going?!

[daycarediva]

This is the first time I have had to do ANYTHING.

My hat goes off to you ladies who do these numbers daily. My crew of 6 is ENOUGH. PHEW!

I ended up having SA boy picked up just after lunch. He actually climbed onto the table and was trying to stand on it. He was running, jumping, pushing, taking toys from the 2yo. NOT COOL. I told Mom that from now on, before and after ONLY. The option for any other time is not available. If she needs to find someone else, so be it. He is here for 1 hour in the am. I keep him busy the entire time. He eats breakfast, washes up for school and then I set him up with a table activity. In the PM he comes in, eats snack, does homework, reads for 20 minutes and then gets a table activity. If we go outside, he has ONE set thing he can do (eg. basketball) Any free time and he is a M O N S T E R. WOW!

DD was a huge help!

New girl is having an awesome first day- she is quiet and shy, but she got the flow of the day and is fitting right in.

My saving grace? Dh rescheduled his service calls and stayed home. He took our boys outside and put them to work. :: They raked leaves, mulched with the wood chipper, cleaned out the garage, and now they're playing football outside with dh. lovethis