Easy Daycare Activities
One of the most difficult things about the childcare business is coming up with creative and easy daycare activities. This is especially true if you have a wide range of ages. Obviously, you want the activities for each child to be age appropriate, and at the same time, promote learning or some other positive result. You also want to make them fun, or you'll never keep the child's interest.
You will most likely be participating in many of the activities with the children, but you also want to have activities ready that will keep the children busy and allow you to tend to some of your other duties as well. With all of these things in mind, it often seems like you get in a rut of doing the same daycare activities all the time. Here are some easy ways to mix things up while making it fun and beneficial for the children as well.
Most daycare centers should provide at least some free play time. This allows the children to develop their creativity and learn some social skill at the same time. In addition to this, you'll also need to set up some more structured daycare activities. Allowing the children to write and draw is important, but doing it too often will become boring for the children and they won't stay interested.
Choose a Theme
Any theme based daycare activities will be fun and popular with the children. You can base your activities on any kind of theme you want. The possibilities are endless. Some ideas to get you started would be holiday or seasonal themes, animals, careers, colors or anything else you can think of. These activities could be crafts or maybe a drawing or coloring contest, for example.
Act Out a Story
Another neat idea is to come up with some type of story line and have the children act it out. You come up with the idea, and let the children create the story from there. This really lets them show off their creative side, and children of any age could participate. You could also take it a step further and allow the children to create their own costumes and props. This is a great way add some variety to your daycare activities.
Another thing you can do if you're out of ideas is simply ask the children what they would like to do. Maybe you could pick one day a week that could be kid's choice day. This would eliminate the worry of doing something the children aren't interested in. Have each child suggest an idea and take turns until everyone's ideas are used. This is not only fun, but it gives the children a sense of accomplishment and confidence.
Helping Out
Some of your daycare activities could be incorporated into your daily chores as well. Many children love to help adults with certain tasks. It gives them a sense of importance when they do big people jobs. It could be something as simple as setting the table or arranging a book shelf. It really doesn't matter what the task is, as long as the child is actively involved.
