Keeping 18 mo old busy while schooling 4 year old

[Wendy HS]

I need some suggestions. I am homeschooling my 4 year old son using the sonlight curriculum. It takes us about 1-2 hours to do all of it, and I need some suggestions on how to keep my 18 mo. old daughter busy. My son gets distracted by her playing, which I can't say I would expect anything less. I really want them both in the same room with me as we are doing school, just to keep a eye on her, but she comes over and trys to participate. In some cases this is possible, but in others when we are doing writing or worksheets it is hard. What do ya'll do with your younger children while you are working on things that need listening skills and concentration? I am also due any day now so I will have a newborn to work around too!!!! YIKES!!!! I know I can do it, but any suggestions to make it go smoother would be much appreciated. I'm pretty laid back about it all and we enjoy doing our school time. The only thing is I can't homeschool him during her nap time (they take a nap at the same time). I also help my husband run our business and I need their nap time to get caught up on bills, phone calls, e-mails, housework, etc..... And if I am lucky I may get a short nap!!!! No one can ever say a SAHM doesn't work. ha ha

[kgianforti]

Which Sonlight are you using? My 21 month old sits and listens when we read P3/4 books or from our Peak With Books booklist. Would she sit and listen to the stories? Even for a short amount of time?

ETA: Congrats on soon to be born baby!

[Mama Rana]

I have a 15 month here. We take a lot of breaks: do some reading, take a break to deal with the toddler, do some math, change toddler's diaper [or whatever]. Yes, it takes us most of the day to get through my minimal objectives for the day. I also squeeze in chores between lessons [we call it "home economics time" ]

The other thing I did was get some activity boxes ready for the toddler for those times I really need him out of my hair. I got some plastic shoe boxes, and filled them with different things that he can do in his high chair or on the floor near us. I have a thread around here somewhere titled "activity boxes" or something like that. My goal is to only pull those out during true times of need so that they remain "novel" and exciting.

Oh, and I save certain things for his nap time, like when we did our archaeological dig in our sandbox, so that he wouldn't ruin it for my HS-er.

Good luck! I should probably disclaim that this is my first year HSing, and we are only in our 2nd week. So far most days we make it through without too much angst re: the baby.

[Wendy HS]

I'm doing the P4/5 with the LA 5 so it adds more to the day. I am able to get it all in and most of the time my DD is okay, she plays quietly. She loves to do the reading with us, we all crawl up on the couch. It is usually only a problem when we are doing the worksheets for Get ready for the code and the core 4/5 worksheets, that she tends to get in the middle of it. I will try to get together some boxes of stuff together to just give her while we are doing those, and see how that works. My DS is also doing Handwriting without tears and we all love that program, she sings along with us on the CD music and while we play with the capital letter pieces. I guess sometimes it is just going to take more time. It is good to hear that you also take frequent breaks and it takes longer sometimes to get all the school done. Thanks for the suggestions.

[onyxravnos]

give her something MESSY those times that you really need to be doing something with your older one give her something really messy outside if you can or inside in the kitchen. now given then you have to clean up but i assume you have running water so just pop her in the bath. normally good for 15-30 minutes of work