Why do they get so distracted?

[edwardsmom]

I can get my kids to do boring things easily: workbooks & worksheets.  They don't enjoy them, so I try to minimize that kind of stuff, and do more science experiments, history projects and math games.  The problem is that as soon as my kids get excited about the current activity, they get completely distracted and start jumping around, acting silly with each other or horsing around, and throwing or playing with any objects  they can reach.  They're 5 & 7 and I'm asking for their attention for 15 to 20 minutes.  Does anyone else deal with this?  Any advice?

Thanks.

[AdinaL]

Interesting.  When I started reading your post, I was going to say maybe it was too long a time, but 15-20 minutes isn't that long.

Is the distraction coming from being excited about the lesson?  DD does something similar (but she's an only, so no sibling to play off of) where she gets excited and then has a million idea about what to do with the activity and other things that could be done.  It takes some time to focus her back on what we are doing and sort of home in on what the task at hand is.  I think that's very normal for this age, but I don't know if that is what is happening with you.