BellaOnline Forums Family Addictions & Children Are all kids like this?

How is a parent or teacher supposed to keep an EXTREMELY active kid occupied?

I babysit for a family member and her daughter is the MOST active kid I have ever met. She gets bored within seconds of doing something. In a matter of an hour we coloured, we watched a tv show, ate, played with playdough, read 3 books...

and then she wanted to go to the park. So I brought a frisbee and some bocce balls and its a 10 minute walk to the park. So off we go. The SECOND we get to the park she says I want to go home. So I convince her to play a bit before we head back. She went on the swings for less than a minute, played with the balls for MAYBE 5 minutes, sat in the shade for a couple minutes, threw the frisbee once or twice and she kept saying lets go home... so after like 10 minutes of being at the park, we walk home. Now she wants to watch a movie so I just put it on for her...

Shes like this everytime I watch her. Her mom was saying that her daughter was excited for me to babysit her because Im fun.. but all day today shes been complaining about being bored. So I keep asking her what she wants to do, then we'll do it for less than 2 minutes and shes bored again. I dont know how to keep her interested. She is 4 years old. Are all 4 year olds like this??? I remember watching my other cousins when they were this age and younger and they werent nearly as "bored" or easily distracted... it makes me not want to watch her because it feels like chaos the entire time. She's whiney (which most kids are) but I just dont know how to keep her happy. In the past we've done everything from making crafts to going to the park.. and nothing ever lasts for more than 5 minutes! Any suggestions?

oh and about her being very active... she HATES just sitting.. shes CONSTANTLY moving about. You would think that walking for 20 minutes and then walking around a mall looking at pets in a pet store etc and then walking 10 minutes to a park and playing there for 20 minutes then walking 20 minutes home would tire out a 4 year old but not her! Thats what we did last time I watched her and She wanted more! when we got back from all that walking she wanted to play tag in the back yard and all this stuff that involves activity. Which is good.. but its not something Im used to with kids. She is out of the ordinary.. in my opinion.