I have a 4 year old. A very busy 4 year old. His name is Creed, and he is cute as a button (which has saved him from being eaten many times), but he’s always on the move, and often at the expense of his brothers and sisters.
Not too long ago, the older (more mature) members of our family had a meeting all about our little “Crazy Creed.” We needed to structure his day, and we needed everyone over the age of 10 on board with the plan. If you follow me on Instagram (@amyraisingarrows), you might have seen the photo of my journal with Operation Occupy Creed and his schedule written in it. If not, here’s that photo…
Creed’s morning is filled with morning chores, breakfast, listening to the family read alouds, and playing. If he gets rambunctious, his 11 year old brother is there to occupy him. Keian’s school work does not take as long as his older siblings, so he can wait until later to do it if need be. They can go outside, play inside, or grab a Busy Bag from the cabinet.
I want to take a brief moment to talk about these Busy Bags, because I think you are going to LOVE these the way I do! (You can watch the video here!)
I got the book Busy Bags Kids Will Love by Sara McClure. It was full of very easy, very inexpensive busy bag ideas made from everyday items. My intention was to take some time with my 16 year old daughter and make several of these bags, but with Mercy’s issues and Creed’s craziness, I wasn’t finding the time.
And then my friend Cinda stopped by and asked if there was anything she could do for me.
YES, PLEASE!
I immediately thought of the Busy Bags book because I was worn out from managing Creed, and I was certain if I had some of these on hand, I could more easily divert and redirect his attention when he was having a rough day.
She was more than happy to help me out, and she told me later that she and her older kids (she doesn’t have any littles left at home) had a blast putting them together!
Note: You could also get together with some friends and put these together – each of you bring the items for 3 different busy bags, assemble, and go home with a whole basket full!
The Busy Bags have been EXACTLY what I was looking for! And not only does my 4 year old love them, so do ALL of my younger crew, ages 8 and under!
Creed actually considers the busy bags part of his school day. And, honestly, they are! Most of the activities are VERY educational, and I am more than happy to pull out a bag and call it school!
I do most of Creed’s “school” after lunch. Now mind you, until Creed came along, I would have told you I was NOT a homeschooling preschool kind of mom. I would have pointed you to this post for my philosophy on homeschooling the younger years, and that would have been that. But, Creed requires more. MUCH more. He NEEDS guided play, focused activities, and structure to his day. I did end up buying curriculum for him, but I’m not quite ready to reveal all that I’m doing there…soon, I promise!
Find out what we ended up using for curriculum here!
Another thing I put together for Creed are Toddler Boxes. Now, I’ve had a Toddler Box for my little ones since my last busy toddler (who wasn’t quite as busy as Creed). But, my Toddler Box was one big box. After reading The Homegrown Preschooler, I decided to try her method of individual Toddler Boxes. What a difference it made! (To see more about these individual toddler boxes, watch this video or listen to this podcast.) You can get The Homegrown Preschooler from the author’s site (which is worth checking out) or from Amazon.
At 4pm, we have movie time until dinner is served. This keeps the kids busy while I cook. Prior to implementing this, it was crazy town. I decided an hour in front of the tv a day was worth it to be able to focus on making dinner without all the chaos. When the weather is nice, the kids will often head outside during this time, but right now that’s the heat of the day at around 100°! Creed does really well (most of the time) with either one of these options. If he does start to crater, I will often bring him into the kitchen with me and let him “help.”
After dinner, my 12 year old daughter and 19 year old son become Creed’s buddies. Similarly to the morning buddy, it is only if he needs help, and they are also the ones to help him get ready for bed.
At bedtime, I step in and make sure he and his brothers are lying down. We say prayers and then I sit on my older son’s bed and work on my laptop, shushing the boys as needed, until they fall asleep (or at least 2 of them fall asleep). Creed struggles to settle down for bed, so having me in there is the best way we’ve found to get him to calm down and finally sleep…ahhhh…peaceful sleep.
It is my firm belief that God has big things for this little boy! His name is Creed after all! Until he’s all grown up, it’s my responsibility to keep him headed in the right direction. So, we are keeping him occupied and focused, and lovin’ on him all the while!
Do you have a busy preschooler? How are you keeping your little one busy? I’d love to hear your ideas, tips, and tricks! Leave them in the comments section so we can all glean wisdom from each other!
Ashley says
Thank you. I have a 3 year old, Owen, that would get along well with Creed. He has 2 older sisters who were so different as his age. I homeschool and have always held the belief that preschool is for the birds. Owen has changed that. He has made homeschooling quite the challenge. Thank you for a starting point for helping keep him busy in a productive way.
Suanna Sears says
Thank you for sharing about Creed. I like your idea about buddies. I may need to think that through with my 2 year old twin boys, one of whom is very busy. We use toddler/preschool boxes and have a list of boxes and other activities to rotate through, but I need to revamp that for age two as it has “grown up” with some of my other kids.
Lisa says
Great ideas! My three year old son is also super busy and I love the idea of buddies. And the busy bags, I’ll have to get that book and have my kids help me make some.
Bethanie says
I have 4 children that are 4 and under…4 yr old, 3 yr old twins (that are each much busier than any of my other children), and a crawler…plus an 11 yr old and 15 yr old. I have struggled to just survive with the little ones. ? I haven’t been able to help the older ones with school nearly as much as I want. In fact, they struggle to get school done for helping me. I will definitely look into the toddler boxes and busy bags. Thank you for the ideas! I cling to the promise that “this too shall pass.”
Kelli says
Hi Amy,
Creed (love his name btw!) is a lot like my son, Luke. Luke turned 4 in January and he is very different from my other kids. I have 3 other kids besides him and they’re all teenagers . So they’re is quite an age difference. He needs the structure and guided activities/play. We chose a different solution for now – he goes to a christian preschool close to our home a few days a week and it’s been wonderful! One of our teenagers is on the autism spectrum and has a complicated mental illness as well. This solution has worked out really well. It’s quite different than what I did when my older three were younger, but I can see how God led us to doing something completely different for him.
Abby says
I LOVE your kids names, what are some of the other ones? Creed and Mercy are SO cute!
Marilyn says
Glad you have found a solution to keep Creed occupied and busy
Marion and Marilyn.
Reggie says
Oh, those pics of Creed just killed me! I am ‘blessed’ to have two little ones who could match him step-for-step. As my mom-in-law says, “What one doesn’t think of, the other one will.” Obviously she’s watched them a time or two. My ‘Operation Occupy the Duo’ is still a work in progress. Right now it consists of LOTS of outdoor play, slightly more TV time and duct tape. Yes, duct tape. For me. I wrap my wrists together so I can’t pull out too much hair at once.
Natalie says
We used ABCmouse for a season when my oldest was 3yrs (and I had a nonverbal 2yr old, a newborn, and was packing to move). She loved it and did really well with it. The 2 yr old wanted a turn, but didn’t have the motor skills to manipulate the mouse. We stopped using it because I didn’t like the arcade style of earning points. She earned them too quickly and always more than enough to spend frivolously. I would’ve preferred being able to teach her to save for something bigger/better in the future. I think we turned the points feature off, but then she completely lost interest.
I’ll be curious to see what you reveal as your preschool curriculum. After following your posts for a few years now (I think we were pregnant with our now 4yr olds at the same time), I’d adopted the preschool mindset of play learning and life lessons. But my Z also needs/wants structure as he sees my older two doing school.
Right now I’m struggling with, in the midst of multiple moves, him being afraid of being alone in any room of the house (including his long visits to the potty for doing business). My oldest is only 7, and is helpful when asked, but if she’s the one I’m working with on school, he can be very interuptive.
Mrs.Momof8 says
I have a preschooler just like Creed!
He has never ending energy, and just cannot sit still, or go to sleep without alot of my focus. He runs wild, and jumps on furniture and rough houses till he’s blue… but still he isn’t tired.
On top of a strict structure with activities (like your plan), we have found that manual labor, hard “man’s work”, is very helpful at actually tiring this kid out. In fact, when my life is more organized (we just remodeled and moved and had baby 8), I intend to put this boundless energy to work for me!
Your idea of sitting in the boys’ room at bedtime is brilliant. I have done that in the past , but recently forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder.
Elishia says
I use ABCMouse for my four year old rambunctious son. I tried ReadingEggs and ABCMouse and from what I have observed of him is that he engages more with ABCMouse educational pieces than the ReadingEggs just yet. ABCMouse also has all those basics other than reading to get them a good start. Just my opinion and my child 🙂 Others may be different 🙂
Maya says
My ‘Creed’ is Luke, aged 3. He’s sixth out of seven children and he is gorgeous but wild! I love his cheekiness and energy but it’s wearing me a bit thin lately. I’m so pleased to read this post and know that I’m not the only one out there with more than two or three children with a ‘wild’ one :).
I think I’m going to start asking my eldest children to take turns playing games with Luke while I read and do school with the others. Sometimes he will sit on my lap, but most of the time he needs structure and things to be on the GO! I’m currently looking up quick easy activities I can pull out for his brother and sister to do with him.
Thanks for the encouragement to use those older siblings as needed……..and that we’re not alone with our sweet wild little men 🙂
Abigail says
Everything about this post was adorable… God bless tiny Creed.