ideas for after schoolers pls

[mushpea]

Hi , sorry , am sure this has been posted on here before but need some fresh ideas for afterschool play. obviously i have toys , books, board games, wii, and computer avalible, the boys love the wii but the girls dont want to play it nor do they like to chill out with the tv on, they are quite active and prefer to play which is fine by me but it gets awkard cus they dont like 'toys' as such but prefer make belive play and crafts, last week we had a 'cafe' using the toy kitchen, table and chairs and the week before was a shop so need some insperation on other themes as when i ask them i get the ususaly 'dont know' answer!! also what i can do for the themes, like the shop i kept empty box's and made pretend money and we used the toy till.
also some ideas for some easy 'let them get on with it' crafts, they are home by 3.15pm and dont go till 6pm, tea takes about 20mins so quite time to fit stuff in, their ages are 2,3,6,6,9,11. the older two are mine and ususaly disaper to their rooms so not such a problem.

[RedDragon]

dressing up,


mine also like to play school - 1 is the teacher, rest are pupils

[FussyElmo]

Ok the project for the after schoolies is making pom poms and they want me to learn them how to knit:rolleyes:

[fionamal]

Mine like to play at teachers, postoffice where they make up pasports, stamps etc and they love to stamp things with the stamp and ink pads :laughing:

They love the hama beads and the aqua beads

[claire bear 72]

Mine like to dress up and put on a show....................high school musical...abba.....micheal jackson:rolleyes: lots of microphones/music/dressing up clothes print words for the songs of internet and have cd alongside its great and also little ones love being involved i.e. set designers/ wardrobe/musicians/ audience etc I let them choose then help as the Director lol :laughing: Its amazing wat they come up with!!!! hope this gives u a few ideas??? let them run with it!!!!!!! :clapping:

[helenlc]

My daughter likes to play schools too - she loves note books and pens and she makes a register. She also likes to use work books to do work and get her "class" to do some work. You can get them from the cheap shops sometimes and then just photocopy the pages for use over and over again.

Coming up to xmas, how about giving them some salt dough or clay and they can play around with it and then leave it to dry in shapes for decorations. They can then decorate them the next day or later in the week to continue the craft.

Decorating cookies - you could make them earlier in the day with the little ones and then put decorating bits out on the table?

Make up some fruit salads for after their dinner?

My cousin's little one is 6 and her favourite thing at the moment is to cut up magazines and catalogues and make collages. As long as you supervise the using of scissors, they could pretty much be left to get on with the rest. Or maybe you could spend 20-30 minutes selecting and cutting out pictures, then remove the scissors and leave them to do the sticking bit by themselves.

What about individual chalk boards and some chalks? The possiblities are endless - they can just draw by themselves or do classes again, maybe tic tac toe, hangman etc?

Hope some of those help!

[claire bear 72]

Mine like to dress up and put on a show....................high school musical...abba.....micheal jackson:rolleyes: lots of microphones/music/dressing up clothes print words for the songs of internet and have cd alongside its great and also little ones love being involved i.e. set designers/ wardrobe/musicians/ audience etc I let them choose then help as the Director lol :laughing: Its amazing wat they come up with!!!! hope this gives u a few ideas??? let them run with it!!!!!!! :clapping:

[nell57]

My two after schoolies both 6 also like the dressing up role play games.

Our routine when we get in is, snack time, then some type of art & craft, then free play until pick up, which is mostly role play. And the favourite theme is mostly school or big sister, little sister, which always leads to squabbling who is who :rolleyes:

[mushpea]

thanks for the ideas folks, have dug out the dressing up box from the bottom of the shed:blush: , gonna let their imaginagiton run wild (i hope), if that dont work i have also found a teepee type tent i got for free and had forgot about so might try that later in the week.
thanks
wont object to further ideas though cause its always good to have some in reserve:)

[Twinkles]

Dressing up is a favourite here too. Making dens with chairs and blankets.

Our craft tomorrow will be starting salt dough Christmas decs.

If they finish that we have an ongoing craft project using shoe boxes that they are making into 'rooms' with smaller boxes etc stuck inside and covered in fabric to look like beds etc. They've done bedrooms and are going to start on living rooms now.