What do you do with your reception children after school

[TheEveningSun]

My DS (4.5) started reception on Wednesday, straight in full time 8.15-3.30, he does couple of after school clubs till 4 o’clock. He’s so tired and emotional after school. I take him to the park for a bit but if we stay at home He demands the TV. I try to do things with him and play but he just ends up crying or fighting with his sister (2yo) or asks about the tv every 15 min.
I’m happy for him to watch for an hour whilst I’m cooking dinner but watching till bed time (7pm) is too much imo.
What’s your after school routine if you’re home by 4 o’clock?

If he's tired, I'd just allow to much TV for a few weeks, he'll soon adjust to the school day.

My reception age DD is a September birthday and did the the same school days in the schools nursery, so she hasn't really been affected by the tiredness. She has activities afterschool 3 days a week (swimming, rainbows & trampolining), that cut down on TV time, without me having to explicitly ban it. If it's not raining she'll go in the garden for a bit, or draw / potter with toys on the other nights but as it's only 2 nights, if she wants TV, I'm OK with it.

Snack on way home or on arrival at home. Then chill, some tv, I think CBeebies do a good job of winding down to bedtime (even though quite aimed for younger children it works).

I pre cooked dinner, so it was quick reheat or throw on pasta, then I could be available for cuddles and chat about the day. To get them talking we did “best thing about today, worst thing about today” for all of us. Read them a book before bed, maybe start a goodnight song?

6.45 bedtime that I expect to move earlier to 6.30pm as the week goes on. That means 5.45pm dinner, and at 5.20pm both (I have one in Y2 as well) can watch 20mins or so of TV (two episodes of a kids show). Bath time therefore starts at 5pm. So for the 1h we have, it’s playing/Yoto/flicking through books and helping me get their uniform ready for the next day - and our school will start sending a reading book that we’ll do then. Agree with starting with a snack. Also the bath /TV/ dinner is our immovable routine which helps with decision fatigue and arguments.

My DC always come out pent up and hungry. I throw a UPF snack at them (they eat very well otherwise) and then we walk to the park where they let off some steam. Once we’re home they have dinner and watch some TV usually. Before bed. I can’t remember how I coped last winter when it was too dark for the park - I’m not looking forward to it.

Used to go to the park for hours after school when DC was in reception it was quite a big park tbf with lots of other children though. Then come home at about six eat dinner then bath then reading school books then bed.

He was never tired after school but every kid is different some just need to relax and settle into the school routine

He probably needs the down time at the moment. Both mine were exhausted after coming home the first few weeks and definitely regressed in behaviour!
He'll get used to it after a while so for now maybe just let him cuddle up on the sofa with some tv. Or you could read to him?

When settled in mine had a snack then usually did some play or crafts then had a bit of tv while I was making dinner. If the weather was nice we sometimes stopped off at the playground on the way home or they played in the garden.

Surely by the time you’re doing dinner, a bath, reading some books, having a little play he’s not watching tv from 4-7pm anyway? An hour or so of tv is fine.

No we've never done tv in the morning but 2h in the afternoon wouldn't bother me especially at the start of term.
Mine used to get bored and start doing something else after a while anyway unless they were tired. He'll have had a busy day doing lots of stuff in school

I love the „best thing about today/worst thing about today” idea, thank you.

Our bedtime routine is already book reading and lots of cuddles till he falls asleep.

@SunQueen24 "I throw a UPF snack at them" 😍 Mother of the year award. Not being sarcastic. I love your honesty this being mumsnet (and England) with lots of holier than though parenting. Needs must

My just turned 4yo has just started school has been a bit frazzled with change for the last few weeks. When she wants more TV than we want her to have we avoid kids TV. She enjoys watching the sewing bee, the great pottery throw down, the secret life of the zoo and the Olympics games. They don't hold her attention in the same way that kids TV does. She will happily watch them with us and on her own she will dip in and out of them going off to play for a bit and then coming back. The biggest thing we want to avoid with TV time is binge watching lots of episodes of short kids shows. We would much rather she had an hour of the zoo than 6 episodes of paw patrol or any other 10 minute cartoon.

I agree the short episodes with loud bright theme songs are awful at drawing them in. I don't go as far a sewing bee, but tend to put kids films on. Mine will usually watch about half a film (about 45m), then want to do something else for a bit, then we watch the other half after tea/before bed. Whereas with kids TV, they could zone out for hours.

Mine was at after school club until 1700 because I have an almost full time job. He is in year 2 now and stays until 6 some days. He has half an hour telly or tablet when he gets home while I'm cooking dinner. A bit of tv decompression is fine.

I SO agree with this. Imagine yelling an adult they couldn't watch tv for half an hour after work.

Just put the TV on.

I'm personally not a fan of forcing tired, grumpy children into doing lots of nice, wholesome activities after school - if they want to, great, but if not, a couple of hours zoned out in front of the TV is perfectly okay.

In terms of younger siblings - it's up to you to entertain them or keep them away from the TV if you don't want them watching it.

I agree with you OP and wouldn’t find 2+ hours of TV ok at all. There’s other decompression methods that don’t involve staring at a screen. Maybe listening to music or the yoto players a couple of PP have mentioned.

DC2 isn't full time yet (staggered start) but when he is I have no problem with him watching TV between the end of school and dinner time. They need to decompress. No TV after dinner though.

Hoping to get him going to wraparound care a few days a week once he's settled in to the school routine.

How about puzzles/craft?

I've had a snack ready on the table for when mine gets in this week, with some paper/crayons on the side (if offered the choice to do colouring it's a resounding 'no!', but he'll do it if it's just there.) if I'm lucky he might even chat to me about how his day went at this point! I try to have a different low key activity also set up in the living room ( books, cars, Lego etc) for him to play with next, as otherwise any kind of choice about what to do is met with demands for TV. This can normally use up an hour before the telly goes on if we're lucky!

Could you bring dinner forward. Mine are starving after school and we have dinner about 5. They watch tv whilst I’m making it and then afterwards have a bit more energy to then play until bath and bed at 7/7:30 Mine are 8 and 4. They get so tired after school to start with so you might find everything needs adjusting and they may need an earlier bedtime. I think you just need to do what he needs to start with and then when he has built up some resilience you can manage the tv time.

When my daughter first started Reception, we used to walk home from school and stop off in the park for a while most days. Once we got home, I always got her to get changed and then we sat and played with her toys for an hour or so before tea, and then read before bath time. It was a lovely period for us. She had only been to nursery on a very part time basis for six months before starting school, so it was all very exciting for her and she loved telling me about her day.

It's all so new for him - he's only been going three days! It can be very tiring for children at the start and things get better as time goes on.

I'd be cautious with the TV because it will become a habit you'll struggle to break him out of. In a little while he probably won't be so tired after school and there will be better things he could be doing with his time than watching television, but it probably won't feel that way to him. Also, even right now, small children do not actually need TV to relax and I think it's a mistake to treat it as the only option.

I am all about reducing UPF and a nutritious diet but my eldest comes out so pent up something palatable with fat and sugar is exactly what he needs!

After school we have an hour of TV then after dinner, running around in the garden or DC does projects / crafts / games. Then it's full steam bedtime routine because bedtime is pretty early 7pm.

DC does have one hour of TV before school too. They wake up at 6am and I am not 'awake' for s while.

If / when bedtime is later than 7pm I'm absolutely fine with more TV time. I'm just fussy about iPads/tablets and phones because they are so addictive.

Exactly. Thing is, its good to avoid them when you can. But we cant martyr ourselves to health eating. A little bit here and there might save our sanity. I give mine hot cocoa with a teaspoon of honey or horror, sugar. With a crumpet, or Sainsbury's bakery pasty. Or as yesterday he wanted my best dessert ever. I have made fantastic cakes, tarts etc but apparently the best dessert was two days ago when I mixed Greek yoghurt with scissors-snipped marshmallows topped with colourful sprinkles. Now he wants it as afterschool snack. Go figure