Is it about control with 4 yr olds? or what..?

Bathroom trips don't have much if anything to do with controlling you. Just be extremely thankful that they use the toilet and are not still in diapers. It's preschool. They've gotta go. It's particularly normal for kids with siblings to get an urge to go whenever they see someone else going. They're only four for pete's sake. If you didn't want to deal with helping kids as though you were their mother, you should have probably picked a different job.

It may be about control or it may be about boredom, it's hard to tell with 4 year olds. There is nothing wrong with restricting the number of kids who go to the bathroom at a time. In my preschool classroom there were 2 toilets so only 2 kids could go at a time. Lining up was not allowed unless it was time for a bathroom break or washing hands before eating. I don't think it's fair to restrict the number of times each child can use the bathroom in a day because the kids are only 4 and they have small bladders.

My suggestion: let them go 1 or 2 at a time, and don't make a big deal out of it. They are going to copy other children, that's what children that age do. If it help, remember that there are worse things the children could be doing. I had a kid with ADHD that used to run around the classroom and jump on furniture. I was very thankful that the other children chose not to copy that behavior.

Kids this age only have an attention span of about 5 minutes. Maybe they are bored, or maybe they do just want to do what another child is doing. One good rule of thumb is, before you say no to anything a child does or asks, think, "why not?" If you don't have a good reason, don't stop them. If it's disruptive, have a bathroom time before story time so everyone is set, and give them a choice whether to stay in story time or go to the "quiet corner" to read alone (most will stay). Learning to make choices is important for them. And, don't make yourself a dictator by not allowing the children to speak during storytime. Have them raise their hands when they have something to say relating to the book, or if they have a question. Give everyone a turn to talk who wants it at the end of each page. Teach them that you respect their ideas and that they are important to you.

First thing is to make story time more interesting, you obviously haven't caught their attention and therefore they aren't paying attention, are bored and need something else to occupy their time. You also need to make a rule about how many times a day a child can go to the bathroom and how many children are allowed to leave at one particular time. So like, if little Bobby asks to go to the bathroom and then 3 more kids raise their hand you can say, OK 2 at a time. You can start a little chart, also, to keep track of who is going, when and how often. Each time a kid goes to the bathroom move an object to the chart or stamp it with something; this will give them a visual idea of how many times they are going to the bathroom. This of course excludes children with verifiable bladder control problems. You can even make a bathroom break where all the kids get up and wait on line to use the toilet. That's what we did when I was in kindergarten.

Before story time, take the ones that always ask to go to the bathroom or just see about changing storytime and bathroom breaks so everyone goes right before you sit down for your story, so no one has an excuse. Then make story time as fun and animated as possible. Make your voice sound excited, use body movements, point things out about the pictures on the page. make the book and adventure. They won't want to miss a thing. Once I started doing that with my kids they can't wait to read stories. If they still want to get up...try a different book.

I was an assistant/student teacher for 3 year olds and they did the same thing. I think it's because they're at the age where they don't really know any better and just copy each other.

If certain kids repeatedly ask, it may be because they want attention and alone time with you.

I was taught that any time children are "using water" on you they are manipulating you. "Using water" is asking to go to the toilet, to get a drink, whining, and/ or wanting to get off their mat at nap time. Get the children ready for story time by taking them to the potty before the time they usually ask to go. Watch their reaction when they ask to go again at the usual time only minutes later. Laugh...They may need more time with you. I found older children seemed to play a game on field trips. When the first one asked to go to the bathroom, they all had to go. It seemed like they wanted to see what the bathroom in each place looked like. I thought they were telling each other interesting stories about what the fixtures looked like. So they wanted to go see for themselves.

They're still only tiny & learning what life's all about. Part of that is copying what others do & learning what is acceptable behaniour.

If it is happening during the same session every time it may be that that session is boring them or that it's too long. 4 year-olds don't have a very long span of attention.

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