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How do you teach your other children when you have a highly distractable child?


Cherryanne
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I tried searching the forums but couldn't quite find what I was looking for. This school year we have been using a specific room for homeschooling, rather than using the dining room table like we did last year. It seems to really help my DS focus. However, whenever I try to do anything with my daughter-workbooks, coloring, etc. he can't help but pay more attention to what we're doing than what he's supposed to be doing. I hate having to do everything with them in two separate parts of the house. It's really starting to feel like my daughter is getting left behind. He's not old enough to work independently on everything so I often find I have to let my daughter watch a video in the living room while I'm trying to teach him. As she gets older and starts "real" schoolwork this really isn't going to work. And most importantly, I don't want her to feel like I'm neglecting her needs during school hours. Has anyone found a solution for this kind of problem? I can't imagine how people manage with more than two children. You all are my heroes!

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I'm in the trenches learning with you. :) I'm all :bigear: for the advice you get. I'll tell you what we're trying to do, while bumping your thread up so those with more experience can chime in. :)

 

We do a lot of reading aloud together in several subjects, so it is challenging...ds is not quite old enough to sit and listen along. Still, we manage to get through. I try to read a lot while they are eating breakfast. That helps. Just today we separated dd to another room for her seat work time. She's able to do a lot of things independently with a little instruction. I was worried about dd thinking being isolated today was some kind of punishment, so I explained to her that this was for her benefit. She actually welcomed the idea. Thankfully, with the absence of distraction, her seat work took much less time to complete today. For the times when I'm giving lessons to dd, we make great use of Leap Frog Letter Factory or Starfall for ds. I have seen that these two things have benefited his learning, so I don't feel guilty about using them to give me time to focus on dd.

 

We've started using Friday afternoons or Saturday mornings to work on ds's bigger projects from his letter of the week time. That way dd is able to participate. She loves helping him and "teaching" him. Since he is so young, I don't spend a great deal of time daily on academics. We are learning the letters and their sounds through the use of flashcards, and he does a couple of pages (definitely not daily) in the three/four-year-old series from R&S. When he finishes that series, we'll move into the R&S ABC series.

Edited by Dawn E
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What Kumon workbooks do you use with your 3 year old?

 

I have 2 year old and 5 year old. I have separate times with them. I have preschool time mon, wed and fr in the morning for an hour. Then those days i study with my 5 year old right after that. Tues and Thu is our regular hours with my 5 year old.

 

IF she wants to have preschool time when we are busy i give her playdo, or buttons to sort or rocks to sort...

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Hahaha! I was just about to start a thread asking the same question. :bigear: I don't think my oldest is highly distractable, but I'm constantly fussing at her to do her own work. She'd so much rather do kindergarten math with her brother than work on long division. or Latin. or.... :tongue_smilie:

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I have a distractable (not highly, but definitely up there) 10 yo. I only have two dc and find the most successful school times these days are when I school them separately. I do some read alouds together, but even that can be hard. My biggest issue is that we school in a room that is centrally located. I try to keep others from walking through, but it doesn't always happen. Even dh, who is not working these days, has been hard to train on this one. Math, which ds does not like very much these days, can be completely shot if someone walks through. I am attempting to schedule that when I make sure others have something to do.

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My 3rd grader is just like you described - she is constantly looking over to see what the 1st grader is working on. I think I have to remind her a thousand times a day to keep her eyes on her own paper! :lol: Anyway, the only thing I have found that helps is to set a timer with the time I think necessary to complete a subject so that she gets her work done in a timely manner - the motivation to beat the timer is very strong, especially since the penalty for not completing her work before the timer is to finish that subject in the afternoon while her sister is doing something fun like playing with barbies or watching a movie! I have also threatened to pull out her old 1st grade stuff and erase the pages and have her do the work again if she is that interested in it :tongue_smilie:.

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My oldest is like this. We do school at the dining room table. I have her workload organized so that I work with her first and give her a list of assignments. Then I put her on the couch to work by herself. She can call me if she needs me but she is not distracted by what I am working on with my youngest.

 

So if I was you, I would maybe look at giving him a desk in the corner to work independently at while you work with your younger child or get one of those presentation boards so that he is sort of cut off from what is going on elsewhere and can just focus on his work.

 

Hope this helps.:001_smile:

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When my daughter is in the school room with us, my son feels it is his duty to teach her, correct her, explain things to her etc. I have to constantly tell him to focus on his work and let me do the teaching. Next year when she is there full time with us it is going to be interesting to say the least. And then add in my soon to be preschooler YIKES! Right now we have a four small IKEA tables put together to make one large workstation. I think next year I am going to have to pull them apart and give each child a desk/table seperate from the other to limit distractions. Our school room is just off their bedrooms as well, so I may send ds into his room for his reading etc. I am :bigear: for any advice you get. I think a lot of us are in the same boat. This age is challenging for sure!

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I second the use of workboxes, or some other system where he has a chart/list/something to follow and complete. I would also do intermittent time with him - together, help DD, attention to DS for a short time while DD works on something, help DD, attention to DS for a short time, etc. Have that intermittent attention helps the youngers.

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:bigear: as well. My 4yo doesn't do much yet but ds6 loves for his little brother to do his math at the same time and will ask his brother to join us. The only problem is that ds6 is much more interested in teaching ds4 his K math instead of finishing his own work. I can see this being more of a problem next year when ds4 is really doing school.

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I'm sorry for not responding sooner. Thank you all for your suggestions! Honestly, knowing I'm not the only one in this boat is super helpful. And it looks like there have been at least two more threads started since this one about the very same subject. :lol: We're not alone!

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I have a son prone to distraction. With a toddler in the room with us it makes life interesting. I've generally taken the approach to let the distraction continue and give my son opportunities to learn to work in a distracting environment. He is doing better the older he gets. Sometimes all work gets interrupted for a few minutes and that is okay - it is hard not to stop and laugh when the toddler rips up tissues and throws them on our heads telling us it is snowing. It seems like the more practice he gets the more focused he is becoming. Usually I have to stop and remind him to focus several times a day and sometimes I do need to block a particularly tempting distracting activity. Making his lessons more interesting than the distractions helps too.

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Good question! I have three big distractions when I'm teaching my oldest two. I usually have the baby sitting in the highchair, on the table or in the moby wrap, while my dd3 is playing with playdough or something else, and my ds6 is wanting to do the same work that dd11 and ds10 are doing! How did one room schoolhouse teachers do it? lol I'm constantly reminding myself that this is just a stage and in a few years there won't be so many distractions and we will have more productive days. Until then I'm trying not to stress out too much about it. We do school when we can. As soon as the baby falls asleep I try to get in as much as I can. I try to save tv watching for my dd3 and ds6 for when I want to work with the older ones but the little ones seem to always make their way to the table.

 

If it's being too much of a distraction for your ds, you need to try to teach your dd that when mommy is working with ds you must play quietly, possibly not at the table. There is nothing wrong with teaching kids that there are times when mommy's attention needs to be elsewhere and when mommy is finished she will do something with you. Try to set up a routine if you can so you dd knows what to expect when.

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I school three kids in the same area of the house, our very open living/dining/kitchen area. I mostly do school on the couch. While I am working with the boys (ages 10 and 8) on math, language arts, etc., the 5 yo is allowed to do anything she pleases as long as it is quiet. She can be with us in the room or elsewhere in the house.

 

Your three year old doesn't really need any "school" at this point, just something to keep her busy while you work with your older ds, imo.

 

As they grow older, things will evolve, everyone will get used to the other's little noises, etc., for the most part. My kids are able to tune out all sorts of noises. When the boys are dong their independent reading, they sometimes go to their rooms or on my bed for the quiet. One son needs more quiet than the other does.

 

Three is a hard age, not a very patient one. It will pass.:001_smile:

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Would workboxes help? Maybe he'd concentrate on finishing his boxes instead of what everyone else is doing? (Or maybe he wouldn't, but at least he would know what he was supposed to be doing next and wouldn't need you to keep telling him?)

 

Rosie

 

:iagree: This has helped immensely with my kids! Especially if it has more "fun" things mixed in. I make sure their schoolwork is in their boxes, but i throw in something fun like a puzzle, an educational computer game, a paint brush and paint, playdoh, legos, etc. It keeps my distractible kids busy for the most part. I even throw in a p.e. break and snack. We just started officially using these last week, and I had a morning appt. I left my kids, 14, 10 and 5 with their workboxes full, and when I came back they had completed them all!

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