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How do you get you four year old to stop making noise?


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I have a four year old daughter, and there is ALWAYS noise coming out of her. She wakes up talking a mile a minute. She talks the whole way through breakfast, I tell her to stop talking and start eating. So then she starts to sing, when I tell her to stop singing, she starts to hum. At that point I say no noise until your food is done. She is quiet for about 15 seconds and then starts again. :svengo::banghead:You get the idea. All day long, and she doesn't nap. I know this is normal, but here is the problem, home school.

 

So, we have a nice play area right outside the school room, she doesn't want to be far away while we are doing school. She will play by herself happily for about 90 min in the morning while we homeschool. That is great, I know I am lucky. What seems like every minute (probably closer to 5) I have to stop and tell her to be quiet. So I am not achieving what could be achieved in that 90 min.

 

She gets one on one, we do circle time, and then her "school" while her brother does independent work. Before seems to work better than after, I have tried both. I have tried getting her to watch a DVD (I know good mom points) Every 5 min she pauses it, comes in and says "excuse me mom...." Everyone thinks that it is cute that she is so polite, but when you hear "excuse my mom 500 TIMES A DAY. Always legitimate reasons, I need to go to the bathroom (thanks for sharing, go, I need to blow my nose etc...):toetap05::toetap05:

 

Am I missing something, or do I just have a four year girl?:lol:

:nopity:I know this is a minor problem compared to what other people are dealing with, but it is driving me crazy. Are there any ideas out there, or should I resort to good old fashioned duck tape? (and as this is a board and people don't know me, that is a joke).

 

Thanks in advance, any constructive advice, or funny stories of your own chatty four year olds would be appreciated. If I can't stop her noise, maybe you guys can make me laugh.

 

Nicole

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:lol:Yes, sorry, family thing. We live in Oregon, there are a lot of ducks around. My baby sister thought that duct tape was for ducks. So we all started calling it duck tape. She is 31 now and at least one of us still send a duct tape related gift to her every Christmas.

 

Soundproofing... I like that idea.

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I've been telling my 4yo all morning to "keep it down"; No, it's not time to play the baby piano, no let's not use a megaphone right now, Thomas the train is going through the house, all the church worship songs..... I think it's just a kid thing! :)

 

That being said, I like that my son has to work to concentrate with noise going on. I think that's a valuable quality. :)

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It's just that particular child and their age. Yours sounds like my 3 & 4 yr olds. Take advantage of nap time and bedtime (letting the older kids stay up to school...my oldest used to school between 9pm and midnight when he was 5-6yrs old; DH was a 2nd shifter, so he was sometimes up when daddy came home and other times he had just gone to bed).

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Just because she doesn't nap, doesn't mean that you shouldn't introduce MANDATORY QUIET TIME. That's what I finally did when DD9 was that age. Everyday from 1pm to 2pm, in her room.... she could listen to audiobooks and read or play quietly.

 

Totally saved my sanity. That and giving her an mp3 player with headphones to listen to when I couldn't stand to hear her any more talking at me in the car. I think DD made noise just to fill up the silence. Often, I would turn on music in the house (quite loud!) so that I had something else to listen to other than her voice....

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At least you all get words. All I get from my ds is blaster and gun sounds....all day long!!!!! I think the child could have had a huge career in sound effects in the days of radio. My sister thought a sound he was making this past weekend was actually coming from the toy he was playing with. He's that good!:)

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Just because she doesn't nap, doesn't mean that you shouldn't introduce MANDATORY QUIET TIME. That's what I finally did when DD9 was that age. Everyday from 1pm to 2pm, in her room.... she could listen to audiobooks and read or play quietly.

 

Totally saved my sanity. That and giving her an mp3 player with headphones to listen to when I couldn't stand to hear her any more talking at me in the car. I think DD made noise just to fill up the silence. Often, I would turn on music in the house (quite loud!) so that I had something else to listen to other than her voice....

 

:lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

Yes, yes, yes. Quiet Time, and loud music occasionally!!!

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Wish I knew the solution!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I can't get my 10 yr old autism spectrum son to be quiet even for a minute. He is always making noises. He is usually acting out a video game in his head and he has to either hum or make the imitation noises all.day.long.!!!!!!!! And if anyone is in the same room as him, he has to explain every.single.thing about what is being acted out.

 

I literally can not home school him because of this. The rest of the kids can't get any school work done when he is in the house.

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At least you all get words. All I get from my ds is blaster and gun sounds....all day long!!!!! I think the child could have had a huge career in sound effects in the days of radio. My sister thought a sound he was making this past weekend was actually coming from the toy he was playing with. He's that good!:)

 

LOL, same for Ds#3 here. He is always making sound effects as he acts out whatever is going through his head (which is constantly going).

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Sorry to break it to you but I don't think it is just a stage she will grow out of :tongue_smilie: I have a 4yo DD who is the same -except much less polite and a lot of her noise also includes screaming, tantrums, shrieking and yelling :001_huh: Being an introvert myself it drives me insane.

 

I know it is my DD's personality rather then a stage because her two younger brothers together don't make as much noise as she does on her own :001_huh: Seriously - my DD goes to public Pre-K 3 mornings a week and with just the two boys at home it is almost silent- even when they are making noise it isn't loud. The second my DD walks in the door - the noise level increases 10 fold.

 

We bought a DVD player for the car last christmas - so worth it. It is a lot less annoying to listen to Dora over and over then listen to my DD talking, screeching and informing me every 2 seconds that her brother -looked at her, breathed on her, put his hand near her armrest, didn't eat all his snack :glare:

 

My DD is my oldest so I don't have the same homeschooling issue - luckily my 3yo seems to be able to concentrate through the noise. The trouble I have is keeping my DD on track - it takes her forever to do one task because she has to keep stopping to inform me that - her pencil is crooked, her friend at Pre-K has a new puppy, there are ants on the floor or DS is not cutting with the scissors properly. Miraculously despite the constant stream of chatter -when she finally gets down to the task she does it effortlessly - she seems very adept at multi-tasking:D

 

I have not found an effective way to turn her off. I guess I should just be grateful that her younger brother is the strong, silent type. I'm so greatful for bedtime (and t.v. time:blush:)

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I've offered to overnight FedEx my 4 year old to my Mom a few times just to get some quiet! So no suggestions here either. I am really hoping it is just the age, but since my 2 year old talks almost as much as him, though she is slightly less annoying about what she talks about, I am thinking that the best solution is waiting 15 years or so for college!

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Oooooh, I feel your pain!! My dd4 switches on in the morning and off well after bedtime. (I can hear the whispering and her sister shushing her all the way down the hall.) And the things she has to explain/describe to adult visitors - whoa! A good school morning here is when dd7 only says twice, "Sister, stop it!" Which, of course, brings up the discussion;

 

"What?"

"I said stop!"

"What?"

etc. ad nauseum until I step in. Aaaaaaaaaah!

 

My solutions have been:

1 1/2 hours of Rest time in the afternoon while dd7 and I do Science, History, or Art. It's not as if dd4 is actually quiet. Her singing (soooo tuneless! <cringe>) often has to be toned down so it doesn't wake dd20mo. in the next room. But it gets the noise down the hall.

 

No singing or humming at meals. That doesn't stop the talking, but at least she's not supposed to talk with her mouth full. Chewing and humming are perfectly compatible, you know?

 

Sometimes I just have to tell dd7 to get over it. "If you were in public school, you'd have all sorts of distractions. Now, read the math problem quietly aloud and focus on it." And I do try to keep dd4 out of the schoolroom (kitchen) when we're doing dictation or running a spelling test or something requiring "timed" focus.

 

I am encouraged that all this will sometime end because dd7 was much the same at that age. What shuts her up now is the fact that she can read to herself. Dd7+good (long) book=blessed silence. If only dd4 can become somewhat fluent before dd20mo. takes up the talking baton . . . !

 

Mama Anna

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