It's all change here! - Ideas for afternoons

[Memina]

Hi all,

From the new term I have a lot of change occurring within the setting with some moving up to nursery and my LOs dropping their afternoon naps.

Typically my day is morning heavy, we attend playgroups, go out and generally do all our activities in the morning. Then lunch, then sleep. However in Sept I have 3 going to nursery and on other days my LOs dropping their afternoon nap. So while I'll continue to be busy in the morning I also wanted some ideas for the afternoons where there are no local groups to attend.

Any ideas??? its probably simple but as I've had the current routine for so long its hard to think outside the box.

Thanks

M

[Angela234]

We have hardly any groups here cm once a month and wed morning.
We go out for walks to feed ducks, parks, just to collect things, see animals
We don't go out everyday but do play outside
I just change activities in pm if play dough out change to painting/cutting, set up role play outside shop/home/garden centre, my activities are often child led mine are all under 2.
You'll be surprised how quick the afternoon will go

[loocyloo]

we still have a quiet time after lunch!

the LO sit and read books, listen to a story cd, maybe watch a dvd - just half an hour ( usually so I can get on with the few bits and pieces I need to do like prepping tea etc and if anyone needs a quick power nap, they often sleep during this time) then it is still quiet play with puzzles, construction, drawing, painting, playdough etc. again, this is usually free play. sometimes we play on the computer or play games that the sleeping LOs are not big enough to play.

I have other LOs who sleep for an hour or two, which is why we carry on with quiet play.