We had feedback from DS's teachers that he is becomed bored at the moment. DS turns 5 this month, and when we spoke to the staff at his centre last year, they said he would cope if he went to school this year but would always be working to keep up, so we decided to keep him in childcare another year. While I think we made the right decision at the time, I'm wondering what we can do about this situation. For example, when the other children were colouring in easter baskets (colouring in drawings on paper) DS decided he wanted to build his own basket from scratch. When the others are playing games etc he wants to learn how to write, so they are teaching them all their letters at the moment. His writing skills have improved significantly recently. He's always been a talker (sentences at 15 months and hasn't stopped talking since ) but has started talking about more complex subjects and telling elaborate, creative stories. Hilarious, he has us in fits a lot of the time

Fortunately, his behaviour is not a problem, and the centre is working at keeping him challenged, but I am wondering if there is anything else I could be doing? I really want to avoid any behavioural issues. The director is on leave at the moment so I will talk to her when she gets back, but does anyone have any suggestions? The centre is great, so I think they would be really open to any suggestions I make.

What makes them think he'd always be working to keep up? From what you've said about him, I would definitely have put him in school, or pre-school at least.
Maybe buy some work books that he can do at home, educational pc games etc.

Eta: DD's daycare also suggested I start her the following year but I didn't see the point, besides the fact that the daycare got another years worth of fees!

Sounds like you have a wonderful team of carers on your side.

Perhaps you could try asking his carers/teachers for the "syllabus" as far in advance as possible. That way, you can already start planning some extension activities ahead of time (including providing some special materials -- like work books, mazes, or puzzles -- if needed).

With my daughter, I used to send along math workbooks and math related puzzles for the times when the rest of the class was working on basic numeracy. Or if they were working on mastering a particularly letter, then DD got the assignment to write a brief story featuring a character with a name of that letter, or make a list of 10 things that start with that letter.

Of course, her carers and teachers had some great ideas themselves, but no one had a better idea of my daughter's interests and capabilities than I. I found that if I was willing to do some of the leg work (in partnership with them, rather than ramrodding my ideas down their throats), it made their jobs easier and ultimately made my daughter happier.

ETA: Per suggestion above, if feasible, you might want to look into a more formal preschool program that has a clear "school readiness" component.

Thank you for the quick feedback. From my understanding, this centre offers the preschool program & I know they do the school readiness activities (admittedly, I don't know much about this yet) but will look into both a bit more. From their feedback last year, DS was certainly socially ready but behaviourally I had questions as to whether he was ready. I didn't want to push him if I wasn't absolutely sure & the fees weren't a determining factor. As it turns out, he's needed two surgeries in the last month (day surgeries only) and I was relieved I didn't have to have him miss out on school during his recovery (a few weeks in total).

In the last month or so, though, he has really matured. I've noticed he's gone through a growth spurt and he is emotionally so much more mature. He can control his emotions much better and does not get frustrated anywhere like he used to. We have moved in with my partner and I think this has had an incredibly beneficial impact on my son, I watch the way the two of them interact and play and I can see the changes in him, from having a caring, interested male role model (his father is unfortunately just not interested). DS is just delightful. And I want to help him stay that way, and not to start playing up if bored.

I like the idea of workbooks, I think I might ask them if they can recommend any particular resources. I've also got some friends with an educational background, so I'll see if they can recommend anything. We are getting started in soccer soon, so some team sports to keep him balanced. I'm sure the centre will have other suggestions too.

Thank you again.

My daughters kindy wanted to keep DD back a term so that she had six terms of reception instead of the three that she had. I told them in no uncertain terms that she was more then ready and I thought keeping her back from her peers would have a bad effect on her. They thought due to her speech she should stay back. Seems I was right, even her speechie said she had never had a child prove her wrong. I believe she was more then ready as she was writing her name knew most of her letters etc, we had done a lot of work at home with her, we still do now. I at the time believe the kindy's view was a bit biased due to her being a speechie kid and them not getting that funding. She is the youngest in her year, this was put to me as a negative but some one has to be the youngest and someone the oldest.

Look at the book section in Big W they stock preschool writing books, then more first year and up work books for reading, writing and maths. My DD has these at home and in her own time when she doesn't want to do her reader does one of these, it's maths at the moment, or she goes online to one of the learning games sites she uses at school. She also loves reading and is currently reading the BFG.

Find what interests your little one and add some things at home, the childcare should be able to accommodate his needs and give him stuff to do that is more challenging then what he is doing now.

Thanks for sharing that OP, I knew there was a reason behind you deciding to keep him back. Sounds like he has a good future ahead of him and happy to hear he has a good male role model in your partner

I'm starting to have a similar problem with my DD3, even though she isn't even 5 year (5 in Sept), and starting school this year wasn't even an option. She has actually been getting teary and not wanting to go to preschool, saying "It's too boring!". It hasn't impacted her behaviour at preschool yet, although the teachers have noticed that she seems unsettled, not really interested in staying with any of the activities.

After speaking to the staff, they are now attempting to extend her a bit, to try nd get her interest back

And it can be a problem that last year of preschool with a lot of kids. With a single point of entry in most states, there are always going to be children who are ready well before the start of the next year rolls around.

Talk to the staff, work with them. Sounds like they already on top of it at the moment. The challenge is just keeping up with for the next 3 terms
Workbooks are great. You can get them covering all sorts of things - handwriting, letter recognition, maths starting right from counting 1-20 into real maths work, even things like colours and shapes, and patterns etc. They have sticker rewards, you can even get disney character ones etc to make them more fun.

Does the room at childcare have any computers? You can get some great educational games for kids. And they aren't expensive - EB games have all the learning ladder games for $10 each, which start at kinder level. Great for not only learning the skills like reading and maths, but also for the general computer skills. And again, fun for the kids.