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including preschooler
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Hi, ladies! I may be having to adjust our schedule in the next few weeks, as my work schedule has changed slightly and now I no longer have Monday afternoons off. Ds5 and I had been doing math/reading/handwriting while dd2 was asleep. Now I’m either going to have to do that in the morning or switch to 4 days a week. I have a school box with stickers and such already made up. We have coloring books and crayons, blocks, and puzzles for the 2yo. I made a clothespin game. But I tried when we first started, about a month ago, to keep her busy during the few minutes I worked with ds. If I gave her crayons she didn’t want them. If I gave her some M&Ms while ds was using them for math, they wound up on the floor. She pretty much stays to herself during Bible/storytime, sometimes in her room, sometimes in the living room with us, sometimes in ds’s room, especially if he already had a video in. I suppose what I’m wondering is, how long does it take to get her into the routine, especially when ds wants me all to himself during school?
Thanks,
Karen
I forgot to mention–I don’t want to force her to be involved, if she’d rather play in her room or something. But if she does become interested, or I think she’s about to get into trouble, I want to include her. How long did it take your youngers to get into the routine?
Karen
my two 2 year olds still aren’t there – we used to be able to get things done while they napped, but now they don’t nap anymore. Crayons last about two minutes – play dough is great but then they argue over it – when I try to let them be a part it ends up being more of a distraction for all – I am looking forward to hearing advice on this!
Lesley
One of my favorite distractions is to let them “paint” with water on a chalk board. My girls could do that for QUITE a while because it was almost painting which is something we don’t do often enough. I love it, because it’s easy clean up and doesn’t stain!
Will get back to you with some of the tips I have gleaned from other groups!
This was a while ago, but I’d like to bump and hear more ideas on some educational activities to involve a 2 year old 🙂
Someone from this board posted this link a while back – GREAT ideas on here!
http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/preschool_activities.htm#Dolly
We had special options our toddlers could chose ONLY during school time. I had to put the worry of a mess out of my mind for the time period. Water play (with brushes and sponges) on the chalk board was great, painting, their own playdough station, sand and water table with lots of mixing-cups, a bar of soap, (even sometimes) vinagar and baking soda, with lots of mixing/pouring/measuring items. Once they are past putting everything in their mouth, we offered beading, before then, we bought toddler safe beads with shoe laces. Change it up often, you can fill a kiddy pool with balls, set up a tent, and give them flashlights, make a fort together with blankets & chairs, have the older kids help construct a ‘house’ out of boxes, and let the toddlers color and play in that…Ask the older kids for ideas, they love to help! Also, we only had the toddlers watch T.V. if it were a ‘school show’ and only during school time, and not every day. Mainly, things they love, that feel like a ‘special treat’ and always rotate, so all choices seem new and exciting. Keeping my lessons with the older ones limited to 10-15 min each subject really allowed for me to transfer the toddlers to another ‘idea’ between subjects/lessons. Also, on tough days I would give a favorite snack/meal to the toddlers for one 10-15 minute time block (and get in one lesson at that time). For example, I may save their favorite watermelon, animal crackers, and string cheese for such a time as this. This worked for us during the 1-2 year stage. Around 2 1/2-3 years old it began to click, that they were to ‘do’ school, focus, and not interupt another child’s lesson (then our lessons could be a bit longer)…then around 4, they began to take a real interest in the older lessons, and join in on things such as pic and music, and soon began there own (always fun hands-on) lessons. The literature portion of our day, is normally enjoyed by all ages. The little ones do know they may quietly go to their activity if they loose interest. Consistancy is the key.
Hope that helps!!
Sorry for a million type-O’s!! …Majorly multi-tasking!
My dd is not what my ds’s were at 2 so that seems to be a big thing also. I have 7 (5boys & 2girls) so I would encourage you to start teaching sit time/blanket time. If they don’t want to play quietly in there room (or other part of the house) then they are given a blanket with toys on it. They may NOT leave the blanket at all. Toy rolls off to bad, bored with toys to bad, you get it. Start with 5 minutes, then move up to 7 and add a couple minutes as they get better. It is a great life saver for me at home and away as my children know not to leave there spot. Give them a toy or 2 and a book or 2 then instruct them to stay untill mom says. Oh, don’t forget no talking.
Good luck, this is a slow process idea but so worth the time. (oh and don’t start it during school for the 1st time do it on the floor in the kitchen while you are making breakfast or something that the true focus can be on making sure your child stays and is quiet.)
totally re-read and maybe what you mean is you want the child to do it with you? In that case I would still encourage giving them something (book, crayons etc) and play with it for x amount of time. If they throw it, it stays and they can clean it up after the x amount of time. Same idea as sit/blanket time just with a bit more freedom.
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