How do you keep younger kids amused while you homeschool older ones?

[Fillyjonk]

Background: I have a 7 yo who has recently come out of a Steiner kindergarten without much in the way of reading, maths etc skills, and the plan is to get him up to speed asap. So we are doing daily sit down work.

I also have a 5 yo, who joins in when she wants to, and...here is the thing....a nearly 3 year old.

TBH it goes against my nature a bit to give my kids things to "keep them quiet", usually everyone is just part of life, yk? But right now, just to get us through this, we need something. And of course, if there is any way at all she can join in, we find a way for her to do it.

So-how do you keep other kids occupied while you do the HS thing? So far my great ideas have been playdough...drawing....in extremis, tv. 

[sublimeliving]

With a literature based curriculum, that either you buy or develop yourself, the three-year-old can be a part of it. Pick plenty of read-alouds. This takes care of reading and history. For foreign language, the younger one can join right in. 

I would have plenty of puzzles, a sand tray, a water play area, block stringing, stacking blocks, picture books, and art center set up. 

[PGTlatte]

Our kids are 7 and 5, and the 7 yo needs a lot of academic help and is very easily distracted.  Our 5 yo has the choice of working on something quietly upstairs with us, or spending that time downstairs in the playroom, with a movie if he wants one.   That is usually what he wants.  He takes some action characters with him and sometimes a few other props, and spends the time acting out scenes with the characters, or taking a part himself.  Sometimes he shuts off the movie and acts out his own scenes.  He's not bored.  It gives me some very important time to help DS1.

[odenata]

I'd love to hear more ideas from folks, too.  I have a five year old that has math and phonics work to do, and a two year old that wants to be with his big sister every moment.  I offer him his own "schoolwork" to do, playdough, toys...but it's not working very well.  I'm always tempted to use the tv, but really, really don't want to do that.

Thinking now, maybe a special activity he can only do when she is doing her work would help.  Not sure what that would be yet, though.

[moominmamma]

My eldest three are two years apart and when I needed soem one-on-one time with the eldest we usually did it in the evenings when daddy was home to help, on weekends or after the younger two had fallen asleep for the night. There's no rule that says homeschooling has to be done during school hours.

Miranda

[lmonter]

What works for me may not work for you.  ;) 
We do the quieter stuff (read alouds, spelling, etc.) at night.  When the 11mo, 2.5yo and 4.5yo are in bed.  The 7yo gets to stay up an extra 30-60 minutes with me (sometimes me and hubby) and do school.  It's a treat for him - one on one time, fun stuff, and stories to boot.  :D  We do the more active things like hands-on math activities, some reading of shorter stories, household things, and such randomly during the day where I don't have to yell over the noise of kids to read The Cat In The Hat and so on.


ETA: The 7yo is also more apt to pay attention to me and what we're doing at night if he's had a chance to get all his wiggles out earlier in the day as well, which is nice.  I can only handle so much of him sliding down the couch cushions and talking to them when I'm attempting to read aloud to him.

[LemonPie]

Mine are 7.5, 5.5 and 2.5 :D  We don't do workboxes exactly, but I have a couple of these that I use for storage by subject, and I reserve a few of them to keep activities on my hand for my 2 yo.  Puzzles, paper, etc.  She loves stickers and will peel stickers for 30 minutes or more at a time sometimes.  She sticks them to anything that stands still for more than a few seconds (including mommy :lol) but it keeps her occupied and I figure it's good fine-motor exercise for her.  Today she was building towers out of these.  She's commandeered a Hello Kitty coloring book and calls it her 'Hello Kitty school work" and will sit at the table scribbling in it.  Sometimes she just plays with toys.  Sometimes she's on my lap or on the tabletop while we work.  It works out, and it's amazing the stuff she absorbs just being in the same vicinity even though I'm really doing no formal school work with her.

[Aeress]

I set out activites for the 3yr old, etsy has a neat seller, Time for Tots. I have ordered several of their sets and my 3 yr old really enjoys doing the actitivies because they are like what her sisters are doing. (Not trying to sell them, nor do I get anything from them- just like them).

I try to do an activity with her before or after i am done working with her sisters.

[sarahtar]

I currently HS a 6 year old first grader and I have a 2 YO. The 7YO and I sit down to do school stuff for 2-3 hours every morning after breakfast. This is when everyone in the family is typically in the best mood to make this work. I try not to let them get too riled up before we start (so, no running around, only quiet play before breakfast, and we move pretty swiftly from breakfast to school) - because if they start to get wild, it's tough coming back down from that for the 2YO.

Ideally, the 2YO is still eating breakfast when 7YO and I start school - we eat breakfast in the same room where we keep our school stuff. I keep toys in bins she can reach, and she has several shelves of books that are just hers, and these are usually where she starts the day. Once she starts acting bored and starting to pester her brother to play, I get more active with her, and pull out any of the many activities I keep close at hand - playdough, painting, drawing, stringing beads, lacing cards. Her favorite is my small paper cutter (no, she cannot slice off a finger, it's perfectly safe) and some glue. She makes a huge mess, and I clean it up when we're all done. She has her own table and we try to keep her working there instead of at the big table. Sometimes she sits in my lap and looks at books, but this usually just leads to begging her brother to read to her (which we do, and plenty).

She does not excel at finding new activities on her own - her preferred activity, any time, is her brother. (which is sweet, but inconvenient.) I've noticed, incidentally, that huffing "ugh, 2YO, your brother is trying to work!" doesn't actually typically have the desired result, lol.

Typically, there are several periods when the 7YO works independently, and when he doesn't need me with him, I make it a point to either do something one-on-one with 2YO, or to leave the room with 2YO.

Despite all this, the fact remains that the 2YO remains a fairly regular distraction. That is what 2YO are best at.

[phathui5]

Our children are 10, 7, 5, and 3. At this moment, all four of them are coloring a picture from the Story of the World activity book. On Mondays, we read a chapter from the book, then the kids do things from the activity book. The youngest likes to feel included, so I make copies for him too.

We have a box of "Trio" blocks in the living room that Grandma gave them for Christmas. The 5yo and 3yo both like to play with those.

[Savoir Faire]

I have a boy who just turned 5 and a 6 year-old. We don't do much TV...but let me just say...older kids? Gonna be a bit ticked if the little one is getting TV while they're hashing out phonics.

Just include the 3-year-old. Get her a writing workbook. Make little worksheets for her...coloring pages...you name it. My son had incredibly good handwriting at just 4 because he was used to tagging along when sister did work.

Just give yourself some time to adjust...and don't be afraid to try something new if it doesn't work!

[Fillyjonk]

thanks all. Plenty of good ideas here!

we've been working with it now a little longer and things have evolved. The big thing is that I have streamlined stuff so we are only doing around an hour and a quarter a day with both older kids working. They then take it in turns to read to her while I work with the other one individually-this buys me about another hour. Its working ok, she is getting used to it. Thinking back the older two both  had baby siblings when they were 3 and consequently got pretty good at entertaining themselves-this is a skill that it won't hurt her to develop.

I'm also looking at what we do when, and I try to make sure that we have as much music practice going on as possible for her to listen to, as she loves anything music related. Aside from the fact that she is absolutely desperate for piano and violin lessons, and will start outlining various cunning plans to get some, she's fine so long as there is some music around somewhere.

 from savoirfaire"We don't do much TV...but let me just say...older kids? Gonna be a bit ticked if the little one is getting TV while they're hashing out phonics.". We don't do much tv at all either, which is why its there in a pinch. I don't actually find this is much of a problem. I mean, yes they'd probably like to watch tv but they don't because they do get that they need to do the work   before we can do whatever fun thing is planned for that day. Haven't really found that to be much of a problem, tbh. We use it maybe once a fortnight, if I need to do something with the older two together and she is in one of those moods and I can't borrow another 3 year old for her to play with. 

I envy those of you whose 2 and 3 yos will do workbooks. My 3 year old wants to do EXACTLY what her siblings are doing. In this case the Miquon books (but it would have to be the SAME Miquon book). TBH a lot of work atm is about gentle discipline with her. But I couldn't palm her off with anything she could actually do, and she can't do her older siblings actual work (we have of course tried this ;-) )

Working at night somehow doesn't work, we just find stuff doesn't happen if it doesn't happen in the morning.

And I tend to use the times when dp is around to do other things which are harder then, to let the kids do the things they really want to do (astronomy and board games for ds, anything violin or piano related for dd1). TBH he isn't around a huge amount atm.