what to do with my 2 year old?

Keep a bin on hand of learning toys that he can only have during school time.  I have 4 kids, my youngest is 1.  When we do school with the older kids, he “helps” or just plays with his toys or naps.  When my 3yo was littler and not doing any “school” yet, she would occupy herself playing with toys or listening in or coloring or doing puzzles or “reading” books, etc.  My kids are extremely good at playing alone, though, so this may not work for every child.  But I HTH!

My kids are 6, 4, and 3.  I invite my younger two to sit in on school time, but tell if they are going to sit with us they need to be quiet.  They are allowed to play quietly with toys, but cannot interrupt or be loud.   If not, they may go to their room to play.  My 4 year old usually sits right along with his and my 3 year often sits in my lap, especially during our literature books.  During math time or phonics work, I get the younger two busy with something like puzzles, their own “worksheets”, coloring, etc.  If we are really struggling that day, I wait until naptime to do  one-on-one theinstruction that is needed, but most days we try to be done by noon.  This is all new to us too and we’ve done a light school schedule this summer, but this is what is working so far.

Oh, the joys of homeschooling with a little one. This year my little is 16 months (my 3 year old just does what her 5 year old brother does).

I put together 5 shoebox size boxes with special activities in them. Some ideas are: cups with little animals or other thing to put in and out, blocks, tea set, small puzzles, coloring, cars and something to make tracks out of, beans (if she’s not too oral) with cups/spoons. I’m sure you could just look around your house and come up with some. These were placed out of reach and only used during indepent school time. They sat in their booster seat at the table with us and played while we worked.

I also trained them on blanket time (this works best after 18 months). Just put a blanket on the floor with some toys and teach them to stay on it quietly and play. This worked great for reading time (if they didn’t do well sitting on my lap or next to me that day). Also, comes in handy for the Dr office, church or other people’s houses.

I would definitely keep the short lesson times in mind. Have them do one activity for 10-15 minutes or so at first working up to a half hour as they are able.