What do you do with toddler siblings?

[Mama Bird]

I am homeschooling our 1st grade daughter. However, our son is 2 1/2 and he is ...well a toddler boy. :P I've tried some things to get him involved. We school at our kitchen table, and I put him in his chair and give him a pencil and some worksheets, just like sis! He'll do them for a few minutes, then insist that I write his name..."here, and here, and over here." :D We've also tried a rice box. It's a large Rubbermaid container filled with rice and sand toys. I hide magnetic letters in there for him to find, etc. But he gets the rice all over the kitchen floor. Our floor and cabinets don't quite meet, and rice is getting between them. I'm afraid it'll welcome mice.

So, I'm going to get a rolling three drawer cart and fill it with things he can play with ONLY during school. Things like puzzles, a special box of crayons and paper, blocks, beads to string (the big wooden ones...) etc. Do you think this will work? Do you have any suggestions for things? I'd like to switch them out every now and then, so it never gets old. So...suggest away! :highfive

[lumpofclay]

What a great idea to have a 3-drawer cart for him!

What about discovery bottles? Essentially, you can fill a plastic "water bottle" with a liquid (water, baby oil, gel, etc.) or sand and fillers (like magnetic letters, glitter, small toys, etc.). Do a web search and you'll find tons of ideas. You hot glue the tops on, so he can't open them and spill them.

How about lacing cards, manipulatives (even hot wheels cars would work), blocks, letter or other shaped sponges, color wonder markers and finger paints?

[icesmom3]

My youngest is 3.5 and often joins us for lessons----although he is quite a talker and my oldest likes it quiet :lol so sometimes this doesn't work!!
So I let him use safety scissors and cut and a glue stick to glue paper---he makes a creation! I have made a shape with glue and let him put beans or macaroni on it or even pieces of yarn.....it is fun when he is at the table but often more work for me! :monster

[blessedmomof4]

We school during my youngest's naptime. :tu

[Sara]

Haley,

I'll be interested in reading the responses that you get because we definitely struggle with this issue at our house. My 2yo is a constant source of frustration when we are trying to do anything organized be it baking, school, craft projects, etc. For a period of time earlier this year, I took someone's advice to do school while dd was napping. I think that can work for some moms. But not for me! I definitely need to use that nap time to recharge, plus we are much better off if we do school and get it out of the way in the morning.

As far as finding different things for dd to do, this is sometimes frustrating as well because she has the attention span of a gnat. Seriously - I give her something and she doesn't stay interested for more than a few minutes at the max, so I feel like I'm playing this game of "keep-the-baby-entertained-while-simultaneously-having-a-meaningful-conversation-with-dd-about-History."

I think your cart idea is a good one. I'm also trying to work with my dd, in a very gentle way, on playing by herself (right by us). I'm trying to teach her to play quietly. She has started saying "Skoo, mama (toddlerspeak for school)...shhh!" with her finger over her mouth when I pull out our book basket. It doesn't always work, but we are having more days that are good than we used to!

[allisonintx]

We have a setup similar to a montessori school in our classroom. It has many of the 'works' which are easy to put together with household items. The smaller girls love to do their 'work' alongside the big kids. The works are on the shelf and the children use trays or carpets to set up their work (depending if it is a table work or a floor work) so that if they don't finish, their work is in a contained space so that they can come back to it undisturbed. Even toys are 'works' and all the activities are treated more respectfully than their normal playing toys.

[Mama Bird]

Such wonderful ideas! Keep them coming...please. I am interested in this idea of "works." Can you go into a bit more detail please?

It did work fairly well today, and I discovered a hidden benefit of using the cart. Before he's allowed to open another drawer or tub, he must put away the things he was playing with. We sang the "clean up" song. I had a few wooden puzzles for him to do, a tub with a wooden memory game in it (good for blocks and matching!) a drawer of board books, a drawer with legos, and a drawer with paper, fat crayons, a glue stick, safety scissors, foam cutouts, cutout pics from a magazine, etc. in it. That was his favorite! When he had exhaused his resources, he watched a video (it's one of those "I can go to the potty now" kind...because he does!), then played on starfall.com.

We had so few distractions today that my DD was done with everything by lunchtime, and they spent the whole afternoon outside in the backyard!

I LOVE the idea of lacing cards! I'll make some up soon. I think I may include his Leap Pad tomorrow. I'm going to switch out the activities daily, with the exception of things he really loved playing with.

[ACboysmom]

So glad to read this. I need to find our lacing boards. DS1 is 9 and ds2 is 2 1/2. 2 likes to practice his "writing" when 1 does his work. Practicing pouring is always a favorite with a long attention span, but the potential for a big mess. Start with beans, graduate to rice, then water. I was always afraid of beans or rice up the nose, so I skipped those with ds1. ds2 throws everything, so we have not done pouring with him in several months. I like the rolling cart idea!!

[allisonintx]

Works:
Lacing
Pouring
Puzzles
Sorting by color, number, size, shape...
Counting
Tracing
Drawing
Setting up scenes: Noah's Ark, Nativity, Hanukkah, New Life (life cycle of frogs, butterflies...etc), Barnyard, Savannah, Dinosaurs, House
For many of these, little people are great, as they have sets for all of these and you can get them on Ebay for a good deal if you watch for it.
Rice play
Sink/Float
Tweezer work (tweezing small items and placing them in another container)
Scooping (See tweezing, only use a baby spoon)
Blocks
Binomial Cube
Trinomial cube
Bead Stair
Bead Chains
Thermic Tablets
Baric Tablets
Color boxes
I have found many montessori works on www.littlecitykids.com for MUCH less $$ than other places, but Ebay is still where I've gotten my best buys

[Mama Bird]

Thank you, Allison! :hug

[Sara]

These are some *great* ideas! We had a difficult time getting school done this morning because of my 2yo, so these suggestions are very timely! :)

Haley - I hope that things are going well for you!

[lotsomama]

This is not an issue for us yet, but WOW you are all so smart! Great ideas for things to start collecting for ds arriving in June.
Thanks

[TestifyToLove]

I do a few things. First, a portion of our schooling is read alouds. The little ones (1 toddler and 1 preschooler) are free to sit and listen, or they are free to wander off to play. I do require the 4 year old to sit and listen to our daily chapter from the Bible and through morning prayers. But, otherwise, its always a toss-up whether they'll sit or run and play.

During actual school work, I open the school cabinet, which is full of lots of options. Art supplies are a HUGE hit with the little ones, as are puzzles, lacing beads and anything they can color. If they are having a tough time finding something for themselves, I dig out something they haven't played with in awhile. The 4 year old can often get so intriqued in a project that he's EASY to distract. He can spend an entire day comparing things on the scales, or counting, sorting and making patterns with the counting bears, or lacing beads or any other project he finds. The 2 year old is a bit harder. But, we have lots of options for her to keep her happy.

If there is something that needs solid concentration, or I really can't have the toddler's fingers involved with (science experiments for example), then we save those for when she goes down for naptime.

[Mama Bird]

Ugh. My son is almost 3 and doesn't nap anymore. :rolleyes

[findingjoy]

I'm enjoying reading the responses. We have similar issues. My youngest is 20 months old. My son is almost 5 and although I haven't done many structured things with him, we do FIAR. I have tried to do it while my daughter is napping, but it just doesn't always work out. If she is awake when we sit down to read she usually crawls up on the couch with us, which is fine, but about half-way through the book she starts to fuss and wants the book closed. She usually wants me to read her one of her borad books and ends up crying hysterically if I insist on finishing reading my son's book first. This of course, is not a pleasant learning environment for any of us! She does pretty well when we do crafts though. I just put her in her high chair and give her the same or similar supplies my son is working with. It can get meesy though! Anyway, I need to get more organized and have some activities to keep her occupied. I know a lot will change as she grows older. We are just in a very difficult stage right now because she is so demanding of my time and attention.

[Quietspirit]

I love all these ideas! :clap Especially the "works" concept....love that! :tu I'm going to start collecting and setting up works centers for my little one who will begin toddling next school year. Thanks a bunch for asking the question!

[Gailmegan]

This is a freat thread. Thanks for all the ideas. I'm planning to start something more formal with ds1 this fall (I know he's only going to be 4, but he is beginning to read and asking to learn more addition/subtraction, etc.) and ds2 will have just turned 2, so I'm sure I'll need lots of these suggestions.

[Sara]

I just read this very helpful article today and it reminded me of this thread. Hope you can find something helpful here!
http://www.homeschoolhighlights.com/01_preschoolers/

:)

[lmgeenw]

One more idea might be to have a mother's helper come once or twice a week. Right after my son was born, I had a 16 year old who was homeschooled come in the afternoons and just play with the kids so I could get things done. If you had someone to play with your toddler then you could do the more difficult work with your older children.

[3BlueArrows4Us]

Great thread! I love these ideas. We used to do most of our more intense (handwriting, math) when my 2yo was asleep...but now he is 3yo and doesn't nap. Soooooo, we are changing things up a bit and I really appreciate these great ideas! HSing is all about being flexible! Thanks!!! :)