Being at home with a preschooler

[lyraray]

Ok my DS only goes to preschool in term time and he only does mornings & lunch until the schools shut. I've been struggling has it only been a week ? I'm finding it hard because he's turned into my shadow and doesn't want to do anything I suggest. He constantly asks me to play with him ( same game of cars) and asks to watch his iPad every 10 minutes ( I've always limited this and now is no different.) I do have a 3 month old baby and I think DS is regressing spending all day with us. My DH is not working from home and works long hours unfortunately.

I was really enjoying having DS at home in the afternoons before this, but all day he winges, wines and is bored. Help me, anyone else having the same issue? We are going walking daily with the dog and playing in the garden a bit. I feel like today has been another repeat of a weekday with DH busy doing a few house jobs me trying to juggle both kids and do sometime wholesome.

I’m in the exact same situation - it’s hard.Theres been a lot of screen time I’m ashamed to say.

I imagine a lot of us in the same situation. I’m a lone parent so always on
My own anyway. got 4 at home. Was thinking of getting them some garden toys to keep them busy. Is that an option for you?

I feel your pain. Have a 3 year old and 5 year old. The start of the week was okay but they are just so bored now! I want to enjoy my time with them but they are both becoming clingy and argumentative 😢 they were both very settled at school and nursery and it feels like their behaviour and independence is already deteriorating 😢

Basically fuck wholesome. Put the TV on, give him the iPad. Just get through it.

Yes. 2 preschool age DC and fucking hating lockdown. Struggling.

Solidarity 😬

I feel disappointed too that DS had made really good progress at preschool and now it's going to waste. I usually think the holiday break is good for him with seeing friends and a few trips out, but this is not a holiday. When he started he was going in to preschool not really talking and now chatty and confident with the staff. He's certainly a threenager.

I don't think 12 hours of watching iPad would benefit him. I actually think he would watch it all day, in his little screen trance if he could.

I keep seeing people sharing ideas to do with your child and my child says no to them all or too boring. I've even tried starting something on my own to see if he joined in, but he didn't, just moaned. Id love to use this time
to help him work on some areas like
his counting or holding a pencil
probably, but is like wading in treacle without trying to throw in some educational bits.

Schedule everything.
Cut time into small manageable chunks. Never let one chunk morph into another.
For example, if you allow a few sweets as a daily treat. They have to sit down and eat sweets. It's an activity in itself.

When all else fails, shove them in the bath. Keeps them happy for ages.

I make an activity basket for the next day, each with a daily theme. At the moment we are working on the alphabet, so we focus on a different letter everyday. I have a tracing sheet for her name, the alphabet, and numbers 1-20 that stay in there everyday. And then I try and add as many different activities as I can find relating to that letter. Some of them are more obviously educational than others.

So for letter a I put in there: letter a worksheet, adding up workbook, children's atlas, various animal books, colouring pages of different animals begging with a, craft pieces to make an ant from an egg crate, Spanish book of animals.

Letter b: letter b worksheet, bubble machine, building bricks, blackboard, sound bingo, baby signing, Spanish book of colours, blue crayons and pens, ball, baking and various books.

We have also have a weekly theme bingo. So some of our themes include nature, music, shapes and colours. So my daughter gets to chose the weekly theme, and we cross it off so next week she chooses from the remaining themes. So we do things relating to those as well. We also aim to use different materials where possible too. So one day will be paints, next will be pens,. Next will be chalks, then it may be using yarn. We find aiming for different stuff everyday helps to maintain the interest. And keeping it relaxed without pressuring her to do it, actually encourages her to do it

My daughter doesn't have to do everything from the basket, I pop it on the floor and she rummages through and picks and chooses what she wants to do. Sometimes she will sit and do most of it, even the more obviously educational stuff. Other times she barely looks at it. I wouldn't worry too much about educational stuff, they are always learning stuff from everything around them anyway. Even things like Lego or play dough can be educational. They are learning about building, colours, making shapes, all sorts.

I have a 4 month old so I do find it easier having a basket of stuff ready to go so I can sit with her and play with the baby while she works her way through the stuff. Because it is hard, especially when the older one wants to do everything with you.

I also find rotating her toys keeps her interest in her toys. If she has access to all of them at the same time, I find she tends not to play with them so much.

If my daughter doesn't want to do any of the activities I have made available or play with her toys, I will ask her what she wants to do. If it's a reasonable request and something we can do, we will do it. If she just keeps asking for TV I will suggest a couple of other activities, if she doesn't want to do them and can't think of anything else, I tell her she will just have to be bored then. At that point she usually finds something to entertain herself with.

It would be quite an unusual three year old who’d watch an iPad for 12 hours. They get bored and move on to something else. But the 15 minutes it gives you to breathe is important. You can’t be Mary Poppins all day. I’ve done all the wholesome cooking, crafts, tracing letters, counting, stickers, chasing games, singing, playdoh. All of it, this week. And I’m bloody grateful for screen time giving me a break.

We have found having a routine each day has helped. We have been doing cosmic kids yoga on YouTube every morning which is great. Then breakfast, dressed and teeth and only then is he allowed to watch some TV. We have a list of activities he can choose for morning and afternoon and TV is only in the morning so that helps him not to ask all the time.
If he's clingy and whingy I would try talking to him to see if he is worrying about things? My 3yr old was very challenging last week and when I sat him down for a hug he started to cry and say he was really worried about the virus spreading around the world and about it coming to our house. We have explained the virus in simple terms to explain why his life is so different but haven't talked about it in front of him but he has obviously still picked up on the anxiety etc. I checked in with him again this morning and he told me he was really sad he was missing grandma so much etc.
They pick up on so much more than we realise and often this has a big effect on their behaviour.