Ideas for older children please (c.m's)

[MUM2BLESS]

I look after seven children. 2 under fives and 5 over.

What do you do with your older ones say 10 yrs plus? Would love some ideas.

Duirng the day I can focus on the younger ones (others at school).

At present we do lots of lego, board games, some love drawing. In process of planning and would love to try some thing different,

Thanks you lovley people.

Mine just enjoy playing they tend to stay away from organised activities with being at school all day they bow tend to ask if they can play etc etc unstead of me saying were doung xyz today

My 12 year old mindee enjoys parks, swimming, soft play etc, he also loves playing on the wii/ds' and generally anything my 6 year old ds likes, he also loves baking.

Thanks

Why not ask them what they would like to do, they could plan the sessions for you. If you give them some guidelines, a whiteboard and let them sort out what you need to get.
Why not let them have a look online at the yellowmoon website, give them a budget and see what they come up with.

Thanks lesstalkmoreaction,

I will ask the children what they would like to do during cm time. This will also include the older ones. inc in my planning.

What age group do you childmind?

I honestly never realised secondary school children would need minding? Is this because the parents do shiftwork?

I also want to plan more outdoor activities with the children.

I have different finsihing times, so sometimes its not always possible to do outdoor things.

Gumby the older kids are yr 6s at Jnr Sch. There at the stage where they want to do something a bit more grown up.

They are not yet ready to be left home alone.

I'm not a cm but have older kids of my own iyswim and after school they like to ride bikes, roller skate, play football, play on wii/xbox. 12 yr old girl likes to use sewing machine/do craft projects. If we are taking younger ones somewhere like softplay older ones will usually just bring ipod/magazine/sketchpad/mobile phone.....

I ask the children to write down the things they would like to do. some interesting staff.

How do you handle a child who said they are bored but does not have any suggestions when asked the above?

Some of the children would perhaps like to sit in front of the tv when they arrive. What is an acceptable time for the tv to be on whilst cm'ing? I guess some of the children are at school all day and just want to chill!

my children will often complain of being bored but have no suggestions! I think it's a combination of not being able to think of things and being told that they cannot just watch tv/play on consoles!

Another thing our boys enjoy is model kits - yo know, the planes/tanks etc. They will often do those while the younger ones are doing crafts

Lego is very popular with the kids. I have moon sand and moon dough and cutters. Playdough is always popular with all ages.

I would like to get some more lego people.

Anyone know where I can get some pipa dolls (some of you may be too young to remember them)

Thanks

Ah Pippa dolls! Someone stole mine from me in yr1 on show and tell day. I am scared for life! Have you tried Ebay? (If you should happen upon some in a rather fetching 70's plastic suitcase - they're mine! )

Back to the kids. When I minded yr6's, we'd start with Countdown! They loved it. The little ones used to enjoy too, as their job was to either spot letters or make 3 letter words depending on their ability.

Lego was probably the best thing. I used to give the older ones projects to make. Like flags of the world.

Just asked DD what we did and she said she enjoyed looking at the stock and shares page on Ceefax too! We would choose a company and then check them every couple of days to see how our money was coming along!

The only thing she remembers is making their own board games, complete with Monopoly style Chance cards.

If I can remember anything else, I'll let you know.

I started a similar thread last week.

I usually have either 1 or 3 mindees plus my 9yr old ds but the last three weeks I have also had another two mindees. So, a couple of afternoons a week, I've been looking after 6 mindees aged between 3 and 11.

They arrive and leave at various times so we have to be at home. Tv is no good because the younger ones just want to wrestle the bigger ones and it gets too wild! One of the 9yr olds finds everything boring but can't suggest something he'd like to do. The little ones want to be doing the same as the bigger ones because they are so in awe of them .

The week before last we made giant paper planes out of a3 sized paper then they decorated them.

Last week we made Chinese dragon puppets (a bit early).

Today, thanks to a MNer suggesting it last week, they made structures out of marshmallows and cocktail sticks. They loved it and the only one to nearly get injured by a cocktail stick was my own ds . The only problem I had was trying to find vegetarian marshmallows for two of my mindees!