Toddlers and school supplies...

[Targhee]

...how do you separate these two elements :confused:

 

My baby has just become ambulatory, and I was struck by how not "baby proof" our school space is!! :w00t: We do most of our work upstairs in a family room at the end of the hall. We have shelves, drawers, cupboards, student desks etc she can get into with books, markers, math manipulatives, puzzles, glue etc. For those of you with older babies/toddlers do you physically separate your little one from all the school stuff? Do you section off an area they can play in? Or does your school space always look like a spread from a Curious George book?? I have read the threads about toddlers and how to keep them occupied but I guess I don't know how to keep them from occupying themselves with all the school stuff. What do you do??

[Wee Pip]

Good question! I can't tell you how many lessons were sabotaged by the 2yo last year. Math manips were usurped, the mini whiteboard doodled on, the walls doodled on, flashcards strewn, chewed, or torn...Luckily, now she's 3 and more deliberate with things. Or maybe I'm just getting better at distracting her with other school supplies. Or maybe I've just lowered my standards, a lot.

[J'etudie]

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[Katy]

I know this isn't very PC, but a playpen. I was against these until a good friend had twins. She cannot keep an eye on two toddlers at all times, it's kept her sane and the boys safe. Not for long periods of time, but for the periods when other kiddos (or the kitchen) needs your complete attention. I think the sort that's more like some baby gates locked together (without a floor that could collapse) might be a little safer.

 

And I would strive to train her not to be destructive, but to be careful when not in the playpen, and redirect her to appropriate toys as much as possible..

 

And maybe move towards more self-teaching materials so your supervision is needed more than teaching and your teaching could be more during her morning nap?

[meggie]

Lockable filing cabinets. Everything they want to get into goes in there. The key stays with me.

[My3Munchkins]

The end of our school year was VERY stressful because DD2 started crawling before I was prepared for it! She was into everything! I ended up taking everything she could get into off the lower shelves of our bookcases and putting her toys and books on the shelves. It's taken some major reorganizing but has been worth it so far. We'll see how it works out when school starts again in a few weeks.

[kirstenhill]

When previous little ones were toddlers, I put child proofing "locks" on cabinets with art supplies, games and manipulatives since those seem to be most at risk. Big kid(s) can figure out the "lock" but a tiny tot can't. My current baby isn't crawling yet...I hope he takes his sweet time learning! :auto:

[Ecclecticmum]

I was about to say (re: your title) those two words should NOT be in the same sentence :lol:

 

My school supplies are in 4 places. Only 1 is out in the open, all others have locks up realllllly high (top of door)

 

1- My Teachers Desk - This is a desk with movable height, so is on the highest setting, thus I use a bar stool to sit there :tongue_smilie: I keep the current weeks workbooks, my teachers guide and that sort of stuff up there.

2- Dining Room Closet (with lock) has current weeks supplies, pencils, markers etc, teachers tools (hot glue gun, hole punchers) geography stuff, and at the bottom is some storage tubs with our current library books, math manipulatives etc

3- Study - We have a tiny "room" at the end of the lounge, I call it the library (also locked) this has 4 bookshelves (3 school ones and 1 kids one) 4 drawer filing cabinet and an art cupboard. This has all stuff/supplies needed for the year, moved to teachers closet each weekend for supplies needed for the current week

4- My private den (locked) I overhauled this room a bit, so its also become their special toy and school room. Its where the desktop computer is, piano & program, dressup toys, barbies, educational toys, dvds etc is kept.

 

Letting the child near something unlocked is akin to wanting it destroyed. They work together as a sneaky team too, so I can't count anything out. I still have nightmares over the "filing cabinet fiasco" 2 years ago. i was then using the FC for documents, important papers, receipts, everything. I went to clean up the lounge, thought they were being extremely quiet and walked in to........a blizzard of snow (i.e. paper) everywhere. Some papers still haven't recovered from that destruction :tongue_smilie:

[PeterPan]

Well mercy, we didn't have that problem. However I kept anything I didn't want him in UP HIGH. And as much as possible I kept him STRAPPED DOWN during school time. :lol:

 

Seriously. Plunk 'em in a high chair and rotate through stuff. Plunk 'em in a high chair in front of Signing Time.

 

We use tables, not desks, so there wasn't anything particularly dangerous down low. I'm not a frightfully clean or tidy person, but I find messes get less interesting when they're around all the time. I did rearrange our laundry basket bins. I used to have picture books in laundry baskets lining the wall. I traded them out for toys and things I didn't mind if he got into. He had a shelf he was allowed to rip up, but it was just golden books and picture books of that type. As far as dismantling my regular shelves, that would be like mortal sin in our house, mercy.

 

Have you tried the trick of locking the little one in a bedroom with toys and a tv and things? I didn't do it, but I've read of others who have.

 

Just keep working on it. You'll figure something out. Put things up high that really ruin your day if he gets into. Put things down low that you WANT him into. He has toy drawers in my kitchen, my mudroom/computer room, etc. So to him he was just getting into my drawers, but I had *chosen* the spots where I was directing that naughtiness to make it convenient for me. ;)

[kesmom]

I bought an inexpensive cabinet at Target last year that has a child lock on it. This year Dh is also installing some high wall shelves.

[blondeviolin]

We keep most of the school supplies in a closet that is locked off from the wee one. We do most of our schooling at the table which is counter height and so the chairs are harder to climb. (He needs to be taller than he is now...)

[MusicMama]

Our school room is the formal dining room. I have plans to put in a locking corner cabinet, or have DH install a large shelf up reeeeeeeeally high. Right now, our essentials are in my room. We have a small basket with crayons, kiddies scissors, and glue sticks on the bar in the kitchen, and I keep a small box of math manipulatives upstairs as well. I have a few text books, and a notebook with a week's worth of material for spanish, history, and science to cut down on bulk. All of my resources, extra manipulatives and craft supplies are locked in a bedroom closet. My advice, go lean! Lock all but the necessities up high and out of sight. You can always pull the (paint, play dough, watercolor pencils, base-10 set, legos, beads, glue gun) out when you NEED them. It makes life a little less spontaneous, but I don't want my Bink suprising me with the extra AAS tiles all over the living room again!

[CatholicMom]

Well, I'll tell you what NOT to do... Don't put all your school supplies in drawers they can open, and on open shelves or bookcases (like I do :glare:). Get cabinets and other forms of closed storage. Think doors with handles, and put baby locks on them.

 

Yeah, you need to teach toddlers to keep hands off, but it's real hard to teach that WHILE you're doing school, so I say prevent the messes and battles and interruptions as much as possible to begin with. I have been really wishing I had a big pantry-type cabinet for this reason. I have my glue, scissors, pencils and all that stuff on a bookshelf that I already had and it is SO not working. Way too visible and way too accessible to my 1 yr old who is starting to pull a chair up and get everything. But chair or no chair, they can't get into locked cabinets. So I say save yourself the headache and keep it behind closed doors.

 

Plus, it makes your space look neater when you can't see every little cup of scissors and bin of crayons anyway.

[mjtsmami]

This is going to be our first year, but we have a walk in pantry/closet that we use as a book room/food storage/toy room/school supply room. We've used it for all the things we need to keep up and away from the baby since we moved here last year.

 

It's pretty neat, there's 4 shelves on 2 sides, and two large built in cabinets under the window (that latch shut) and hooks from the ceiling.

 

We also have a very large walk in closet off the bathroom with shelving in there, so we're turning that into homeschool storage and I want to put a little reading nook in there.

 

I have to say I love renting where we are right now. The house is old, but there's so many "strange" storage areas that have been fun to transform.

[ElizaG]

With a young toddler, housework to keep tabs on, and older siblings who aren't 100% reliable, I've found it necessary to take measures to contain both the baby AND the school supplies. First, I set up some snap-together gates and large bins to make a giant playpen. The current one is about 8' x 10'. It has fun toys, chairs, and a cozy rug, and has quickly become everyone's favorite spot to sit and read. :) Then I consider the adjacent work area to be a "buffer zone," and do my best to make sure it's kept free of the most dangerous items. Otherwise, small or sharp things tend to get dropped on the floor and end up within reach of the gates.

 

I can't say I enjoy having the room divided up like this, but at least we can do school in peace, and I can step out for a few minutes to attend to something without having to batten down the hatches or bring the baby with me.

 

For me, it's more difficult when they're about 2.5 or 3: old enough that they want to sit at the table and use the school supplies, but young enough that they're still inclined to do crazy stuff when my back is turned. I have one at this stage now. We just had an unfortunate incident involving a set of flash cards and a pair of safety scissors. :glare: Compared to mischievous preschoolers, the baby is relatively easy to keep out of trouble. :)

[Tanikit]

I make sure my toddler has access to most of the school supplies that are safe for her so that she doesn't feel the need to dig through the rest of the stuff - if I really don't want her touching it then it stays up high. Its only 07:30am and the floor is covered in crayons and papers - we just work through the chaos.

[julie4]

I'm keeping our supplies on top of our book shelves which the older children can still reach. 1 year old has his own book case for his books & big baket of puzzles/fun stuff. I keep re-directing him to his stuff & so far it's working. If he starts getting into their books I will need to re-evaluate.

 

I need a system to keep him out of our AAS board, I'm thinking of having my handy dad build us an eisel of some sort, sturdy but high enough to keep 1 yr old out of it. I don't want to hang it on the wall. Any advice/or pictures of that?

[2squared]

Like a PP suggested, we go lean. We don't have extraneous stuff anywhere in our house. I have one bin with a snapped on lid with our RightStart manipulatives. I have a couple pencil boxes with daily supplies (white board makers, pencils, pencil sharpener, colored pencils). That's it for nonbook school supplies. No flashcards, no glue, no scissors,no paint, no markers. We own craft supplies, but those aren't used for school, and they are kept in a closet.

[Durriyyah]

I have the majority of the school books on a shelf in our school room (that we never use, hehe) and the bottom shelf is toddler books. I tell DD1 that all her school stuff needs to be put away if she wants to know where it is the next day. I have toys and books in the main areas we do school so DD2 can be occupied, and every once in a while I'll even throw in a movie, but that's rare.

[Jess4879]

We have two cupboards that we keep our school stuff in. When my youngest was still putting stuff in his mouth and such, we had cupboard locks. Now he is three and it's gotten a bit easier, but I still find it nice to have stuff in cupboards -- kind of "out of sight, out of mind" :)

[Momof3littles]

I use an Expedit for a lot of our things (a 5x5 unit). I keep board books on the bottom shelves and things he can access on the next row. The manipulatives and so forth are on the highest shelves so they cannot be easily accessed without me for right now.

[welovetoread]

My bookshelf has a little cabinet that I keep most things in. I put them in plastic bins with covers and put the rest up high. I work hard from a very young age to teach the babies/todders to be appropriate with supplies. Right now, my 1 year old loves to color or try to color as long as he is in his high chair its fine. The 3 year old needs to be supervised.

I also have the girls rotate and play with the boys. I include them as much as I can so they can handle the supplies too :)