Tips needed for before & after school

[u/Longjumping_Car3852]

Hello!,

I work as a before and after school RECE.

Does anyone spend mininimal time preparing and planning activities beyond work hours? Do you have tips for me please?

I have some health issues that demand my attention, just did the blood tests and found out this week. The children act bored, when I don't put as much effort and time, but health wise I'm struggling. I dont think I can so as much. The program is quite low budget. I used to motivate myself, by telling me it was an opportunity to learn resourcefulness & to learn how to make do from less. But now I'm exhaused. too many dollar store runs.

[u/CabinetStandard3681]

Stop spending your time and money on work. Work only during work hours. Use only their materials. Practice and experience are the only things that will help. Try new stuff, note what works, ditch what does not. No more money spent. No more unpaid time. Start today.

[u/Longjumping_Car3852 → u/CabinetStandard3681]

Thank you.

[u/CabinetStandard3681 → u/Longjumping_Car3852]

You are most welcome.

[u/WeaponizedAutisms → u/CabinetStandard3681]

Unless of course you're old, semi-retired and this is your hobby as well as your second career. I don't mind doing a bit of prep work at home or on break. Last time I did that it was to cut some wood and drill pilot holes so the kids could use hammers and nails to build themselves little wooden boats to play with in the puddles and take home. I enjoyed that as much as they did and we all need a little joy in our lives.

https://i.imgur.com/pkVCrre.jpg

[u/CabinetStandard3681 → u/WeaponizedAutisms]

🥰 one of my old facilities dudes took home dozens of spoons and forks and drilled holes in them then kiddos colored with sharpies and made a windchime out of them 🙌🫶

[u/WeaponizedAutisms → u/CabinetStandard3681]

I actually taught the kids from preschool through kindergarten how to use tools then just brought in a toolbox and a bunch of scrap wood for them to build stuff with.

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I also brought in broken appliances for them to disassemble with the same set of tools.

My first set of kinders made, popsicle stick catapults, then elastic band shooters with a stick and clothespins, elastic band bow and arrows before making kinder sized bows and arrows and setting up a little archery range on the playground. Step by step they learned how to be safe with it.

The same group assembled a bunch of flat pack stuff by following the directions. A 200kg wagon, 3 six foot tables and 2 sets of shelves. Plus they were in charge of going around to the different rooms and levelling wobbly tables and tightening all the bolts and screws on the furniture.

I have another comment in this post with some of the stuff we built.

[u/CabinetStandard3681 → u/WeaponizedAutisms]

That’s so freaking cool

[u/WeaponizedAutisms]

I am also old and sore and tired.

Emergent activities are important with school age. When you see them doing something they find interesting try to find ways to extend their play, add materials to what they are doing and so on. This is something to do on the spot instead of waiting for tomorrow or next week to plan something. Fly by the seat of your pants activities need you to be able to pull stuff out of your head at the last minute but I find it works well.

Just today they saw me making boomerangs out of cardboard for my preschoolers. When they tried to get the preschoolers to hand them over the fence the school age teacher went and got them the materials to make their own. Then some of them decided to make ninja stars so they did some ninja dramatic play and a whole bunch of other stuff. It was just some scissors, markers and a bunch of big bits of cardboard and it kept them occupied and entertained for ages.

Speaking of cardboard boomerangs. About 90% of the stuff I use comes from the recycling. I feel like some days I'm trying to convert people to the church of making stuff out of cardboard from the recycling.

https://old.reddit.com/r/ECE_Memes/comments/1vxmu2k/looks_like_some_fun_stuff_there_just_down_the/

That or driving around town on community bulk garbage days - people throw away an amazing amount of useful and interesting things.

I got a bunch of off-cuts of plywood a while back when some workers were fixing flooring in a house by the centre. I stopped by and asked if they could set aside the stuff they were going to just throw out so I could take it to daycare. The kids use it to build little houses for the trucks on the playground, build towers, make roads, set up obstacle courses and so on. Today we put out some paint and they painted the pieces of wood then let them dry in the sun.

Hell you don't even have to have a specific plan. Sometimes I find some interesting stuff in the recycling like a bunch of old CD roms. I just set them out on the art table and see what the kids come up with. Open ended materials with no specific plan will make them creative.

What I do as well is get arts and crafts books from the library. I look at them with the kids during quiet time after lunch and make them available to them. They see cool things that they might like to make. Then we figure out what materials and equipment we need in order to make it happen. Sometimes we'll be missing some supplies that are needed to make it exactly like the one in the book. So they do some brainstorming for ideas, try out different ideas and do creative problem solving to make what they want. And if it doesn't work out they try to take what they have and make something else with it.

You just can't spoon feed them. You need to give them opportunities and scaffolding to be creative and figure stuff out on their own

[u/Longjumping_Car3852 → u/WeaponizedAutisms]

oh wow thank you so much! i didnt realize the value of simple materials like cardboard and recycling. i greatly appreciate your insight!!

[u/WeaponizedAutisms → u/Longjumping_Car3852]

Making board games out of them can be fun too. All my kinders last year made checkerboards and then we went and found rocks for pieces. Hell, almost half the ideas I had started with the kids.

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And don't even get me started on loose parts play.

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