La Condessa Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 A vent/ invitation for suggestions. I have been "doing preschool" very occasionally with my three-year-old, and am planning on getting more regular with it in a few months. But I'm not sure what else I can try to occupy the little sister during school time. She no longer naps in the morning, and my older daughter still naps in the afternoon, so I can't do it when she's asleep. She desperately wants to do school, too, but she is way too young. She doesn't want to play with toys, even special toys reserved only for school time; she wants to do what her sister does. If I give her coloring things, that might help for a minute, but soon she is trying to sneak up and draw on the math book, or climb up into my lap and snatch the book away from her sister, then start pointing at the pictures and randomly saying numbers, or yank the handwriting notebook away and run off with it screaming. She is obsessed with letters right now, and she really wants to do Starfall like her sister, but she hasn't got the manual dexterity to use the mouse yet. She loves Leapfrog Letter Factory and Talking Words, but there is no way I could get my older daughter's attention while her sister was getting to watch a movie. When possible, I try to do activities that can include her, like art, c-rods, dancing to music, and reading stories, but I want to be able to do math and phonics with my older daughter, too. Does anyone have suggestions for me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briartell Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Can your older do Starfall while the younger is watching letter factory? Can they do playdough together with letter and number cookie cutters? You could have your older make words are find a certain letter or number. Print math worksheets that are the same. Could you do phonics with the older one after you put the younger one to bed. Just a few minutes a day at this age would be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Things that have worked for us... Water play of all kinds (have her take a bath with bubbles and you all sit in or near the bathtub so you can keep an eyer or her or put a bowl of water on the kitchen floor and have her practice pouring) Rice in a tub to play with Doing things that need more focus while the little one has a snack A spray bottle of water and a paper towel and letting her "clean" the kitchen Doing school outside on a blanket while the little one runs around Getting some "school workbooks" for her (coloring books or Kumon) so she can sit and scribble while you do something with the older one. I'd say though that the best thing that has worked for us is really just training them both to realize that school is a part of life. I've done a lot of school with us all sitting on the sofa or the baby on my lap. She's wiggly and distracts us but over time she's gotten used to it as part of our routine. The older ones have to learn how to deal with distractions and have to learn that sometimes the baby gets to do things like watch a video or play with something special while they have school. With your oldest still being so little, I wouldn't overdo that but in my good for kids to learn even early on that it isn't always "fair". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanikit Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 I am still trying to figure out the same thing and I have a wider gap than you do and my toddler is also younger though determined to be involved in the action. I have been finding it slightly easier at times: firstly I give the baby her own time for stories and she also plays with LR by herself and when I start starfall with her she will get her own chance - can you not supervise your youngest and give her her own turn perhaps before the older one starts so that she is less interested in it when the older is busy? I am trying to give my baby a box of writing instruments and some paper when my DD does math though it seldom works it may give us a minute before she grabs the things my older one is using. I use bath time to teach them both as usually they are both better behaved in the bath - so we have some flashcards for letters that are laminated and also some words - I tell the baby the word first and then ask my 4 year old if its a noun or verb (cause we covered that the other day) We count the bath animals for the baby and then ask some addition/subtraction sums with stories for the four year old (who will do anything if it in a make believe way) I actually taught my 4 year old phonics in the bath too - I have phonics cards (all laminated so they can be stuck in the bath and and also stuck on the tiles when wet without damage) and then I'll tell the baby the sounds, spell a word for the 4 year old and get her to sound it out. That way they both learn and are both involved. I have no clue what the baby is taking in as she is not even talking yet, but she likes feeling part of the learning and is happy just holding laminated cards in the bath while I work with her sister. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 I made each of my children a box with workbooks, etc. in it and made one for the toddler as well. Now he thinks the stuff in the box is his schoolwork. I also let him play with a dry erase board and marker or a magnet board and magnets. I've learned to read with a bouncing toddler on my lap... DD lets the baby sit on her lap while she does learning games on the computer and is teaching him how to move the mouse. He thinks he's big stuff. We have a TV in a separate room so he can watch a DVD and I can hear what he's up to, but the older kids can't see the TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 It gets easier as they get older. My almost 3 year old can usually be appeased now by giving him a used math workbook. I also make sure I do some special reading with the younger ones. I just started doing regular daily school with my 5.5 year old. I look forward to them all being school age, so they'll all have something to do. The youngest is a smart cookie, so I don't really have to teach him anything before K, just like his oldest brother. We do a lot during his afternoon nap. I don't worry about school for kids still taking afternoon naps, since mine are done with naps around age 4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Condessa Posted April 6, 2012 Author Share Posted April 6, 2012 Thank you everyone! I had a longer response mostly written earlier, but the kids got into the sensory play things while I wasn't watching and somehow I lost the post. I particularly thought that the ideas for doing school in the bathtub and using playdough sounded useful, and will be trying out some of these things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenbrdsly Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 I think there is a chapter about keeping little ones entertained in The Well Trained Mind. Have you considered getting the Fridge Phonics/Word Whammer? We have one and my daughter loves it. Here's some pictures on my blog. You could just bring it out for when you wanted to work with your three year old and keep little sister busy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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