Mommy22alyns Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Really - tell me the brutal, honest truth. What is your 3-4 year old doing while you have school time with your older child(ren)? :001_huh: Do they occupy themselves? Do they generally create chaos and disorder? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patchfire Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Before I even read the body of the message, I thought to myself "He creates chaos, of course." :lol: He will play by himself for short periods of time - very short - and I try to get what I can done then. It helps that dd1 is very independent in some subjects. There are days that I leave our more mom-intensive subjects until the evening when Dad is home, though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allearia Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 he either goes to preschool, or the days he is home plays games on the computer with the headphones on while we try to get some stuff done with ds7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myfunnybunch Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 My 4 y.o. has his own school box with markers and coloring books and games. He sits at the table with us and does "school" too. He jumps right in and does art projects, science experiments, music and read-alouds right along with us. I think it makes him feel Big. If I've got a few minutes while the other two are occupied, I look at his books with him or we play letter and number games. If he wants to get down and play, off he goes. Sometimes he wants to sit in my lap while I teach the other two, which is fine. The boys are close in age, so anything he can absorb now is a bonus. My other two boys did the same between ages 3-kindergarten. Cat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhondabee Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Mine spends way too much time playing games at NickJr.com! But, sometimes that is the only way I can get a full hour to go over Algebra and Latin with my 8th grader. She also plays with her "babies" quite a bit. I set up her table and chair beside wherever I'm doing school and have tea parties while I'm teaching. She loves science, and will sit in my 5th grader's lap while we do that (and, sometimes she answers the questions *before* her brother - oh, my....). She writes on the extra white board while we do math or diagram sentences on the other. (We sit on the floor and lean the white boards up against a dresser which serves as our "buffet table"/place-we-stash-our-school-odds-and-ends - LOL!) She loves to sit at the dining room table with a fresh piece of paper and scribble all over it. This amazes my boys, since she always holds her pencil correctly without me having to tell her even once how to do it. She *LOVES* washing dishes. And, I have a sand-box (a sweater box with an inch of sand) for her to play with. Whenever I need a sure-fire way to get her out of the picture, I ask her if she wants to take a bath! She takes about a 30-minutes bath every day (sometimes two baths...once even three!). I try to have "letter time", "number time", "reading time" and a special activity (Play-doh, painting, or something from Slow and Steady. And, I try to rotate these in throughout the day the same way I do for the boys, so it's not one big chunk of time, but lots of little "come play with mommy" times throughout the day. These times help her feel like she's "one of us", and she knows the boys have to go "do their work" by themselves, and so I guess then she feels she is going to do *her* work while I continue working with one of the boys. I also have resorted to having one son watch her for an hour while I work with the other one, then we switch. This is especially helpful if I get him to clean up the house while he's watching her!!! (This doesn't happen quite so often this year. Last year when she was two was much worse than now.) One "good" idea I had this year was to put all her toys (such as the sand-box, lace-up toys, blocks, scizzors, etc.) on the high shelf of her closet so that she only has one at a time, and they are "new". I have a box full of "McDonald's Toys" I pull out during Read-Alouds and that has been very successful at keeping her quiet while she stays in the room with us. Best wishes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emilylou Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Hi Amber~ My dd is almost 4 and she does keep herself busy while I am doing school with my son. She likes to stay in the same room as us. She will play with playdough, color or cut/glue things. I give her her own "school" books which she loves, but doesn't stay focused in them for too long. sometimes she will go off and play by herself. I take breaks and let both kids play together for a little while, or read some books to her. HTH ~ Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakia Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Mine usually creates chaos and disorder. :D My older two will take turns playing with the tyrant, oh I mean 3 yr. old, while I do one-on-one time with the other. The thing about my 3 yr. old is that she is not good at playing by herself. She likes to be played with and entertained at all times. She's been that way since she was born. She is the baaaabeeee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Really - tell me the brutal, honest truth. What is your 3-4 year old doing while you have school time with your older child(ren)? :001_huh: Do they occupy themselves? Do they generally create chaos and disorder? Not brutal, but honest...My guys have all occupied themselves well at that age, but my youngest particularly enjoys playing on his own. When my fourth son was 3-4, he wanted to do some "school" at the table with us. He'd use Rod & Staff workbooks and just write on his own. My current pre-schooler has almost no interest whatsoever in that. He happily occupies himself, mostly with Playmobil, and will look at books, too. He pays us very little attention when we're schooling. His contentment level goes drastically down the moment someone else starts to interact with his current Lego or Playmobil set-up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics4us Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Up until a month ago he usaully disrupted us lol, I have since bought two packs of the tactile alphabet. One for capitals and one for lower case letters. He absolutely loves these! He will play with/trace the letters for at least 30 minutes each time he gets them out, yay! Also for the past month I have been letting ds 4 "do" math with ds 6. It has worked pretty well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sasharowan Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Pull out every toy in the house, get playdo everywhere, watch too much leapfrog videos, create chaos. I try to rotate my olders so that they can take turns occupying the toddler (recess) and doing school. Dd9 and ds7 like to take breaks and read to ds3 or play "school" with him. Ds13, not so much. He wants to plow through and get done. luckily at this stage, most of his stuff he can do on his own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeanestMomInMidwest Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 My dd4 goes to preschool outside the home 3 mornings per week, and those are the mornings the boys & I (or the boys and my dh, depending on who is home) do homeschool at the library. On the days she's home, she has a drawer full of stuff just for her, and her own desk. She is allowed to be downstairs in the schoolroom if she is quietly working on her "school" which basically consists of cutting along the lines, coloring, working in the very first level of the Handwriting w/o Tears workbook or her alphabet worksheeets. Sometimes she'll go upstairs to watch PBS Kids by herself, sometimes she'll do her Headsprout on the upstairs computer. Those are the good days. Sometimes she'll call my name over and over and over and over. Other times she'll pester the boys until I rip out handfulls of my own hair and then remember that I have a new puzzle for her to work. It is next year I'm worried about, when she'll be in "homeschool kindergarten" and I'll have to actually teach her while I'm teaching the boys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenneinCA Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 He plays legos. He will happily play Legos for hours on end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iquilt Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Mine spends time with pattern blocks creating shapes, playing with his trains or blocks, "doing school" with us in his little preschool workbooks or online at Starfall.com or pbskids.org. What helps with us this year is my 5yo doesn't take very long with school and when she is done they usually go off to play together while dd7 and I do her work. The TV distracts from our schoolwork too much so we don't do that very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kim in Appalachia Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 I also have a 6 year old son, so they often play together, but he mostly just plays. He plays with playmobile, games, cards, dress up, legos, coloring. He also just runs through the house pretending to be a jedi knight, or he re-enacts video games. He also likes to spend time asking me if we're done school yet so he can play video games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen in PA Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 My ds will be 4 in June. While I do 1st grade work with 5 year old dd, he plays educational computer games, builds with blocks, and does puzzles. While she does her independent work, he does his phonics, math, and handwriting practice, about 15 - 20 minutes of seatwork, 4 days per week. He has the choice to join us for history and science. He loves hands-on science stuff, but drifts away to play when we are reading about it. He also enjoys hands-on history projects much more than read-alouds. Lately, however, he has been asking questions and making comments when I read from Tales From the Odyssey! I don't push him to join us, but he has been steadily moving in that direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Inna* Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 She can either sit quietly at the table with us and color, play with lapbooks, puzzles or MUS blocks or she can play in their room. It took a long time for her to understand that we need quiet while we do school, but now she's fine. If she's not feeling well, she can sit on my lap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty in Pink Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 My toddler does "lessons" right along with his K5 brother. He sits in on math and babbles a lot, "Two plus two equals fourteen...!" He does workbook pages. He plays with pattern blocks, geoboards, linking cubes. He memorizes and recites poetry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen in CO Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 We tried the chaos thing - it didn't work for me at all. I keep all of the sitdown stuff in the morning block of school. It is squished into an uncomfortable hour and a half. anything that requires me reading to a child or a child having an artistic or creative moment is done at another time. During that hour and a half I have a rule for the 4yo would-be tyrant. You can join us at the table and work quietly and neatly with us. You can play quietly near us. or You will play in your room. No other options. It wasn't easy convincing her that this really was the only three options, but gentle, patient, consistent, consistent, repeated reinforcement has paid off. Good luck finding your solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in Neverland Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Ummm...let's see...he makes huge messes, runs around like a maniac, and in general drives me crazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TraceyS/FL Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Varies from day to day..... Sometimes wants to do school.... sometimes would love to play on the computer, but they are all in use.... color pictures, bug us so she has a big sister to play with, watch TV in the room with us, watch TV in the other room, play with her "stuff". I really leave it up to her at this point. My in-laws have been camped in the driveway for the last month and she goes out there sometimes (really, take a hint you have been here too long when they'd rather be inside playing than "visiting" with you). I'll have a bad week of adjustment when they leave. Which, i thought was this week ("by Sunday we will be 1/2 way to CA", um, no, i'ts now monday and you are STILL HERE), and she will be clingy and such. ANYWAY, she's better at 4.5 than she was at 3 - by a LONG SHOT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowWhite Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Mine plays Blues Clues on the computer, plays Legos, Moon Sand or Playdough at the kitchen table next to ds, works on a few preschool workbooks sometimes or does preschool activities, listens to CD books and plays with our Imaginext toys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andie Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 When my 5yo was newly 4, his dad asked him what he'd done all day. He answered, "Oh, I caused confusion and delay. Mommy was cross." :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tree House Academy Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 When my younger was 3-4, he had school time too. Now, my younger is 5.5 but he still does not have nearly the work load that my older son has. During the time that my older son is working and my younger is not, he knows not to bother brother in the school room. He will play quietly with his toys, read himself a book, or watch a movie. Usually he also wants a snack and that helps to keep him calm and quiet so his brother can get more work done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakia Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 When my 5yo was newly 4, his dad asked him what he'd done all day. He answered, "Oh, I caused confusion and delay. Mommy was cross." :001_smile: That's really funny!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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