We had a lot of trouble with this as well. My 3yo would play fine for five min alone within ear shot then burst through our school room door and throw us off for a good ten minutes. My 10yo has ADHD/Aspergers among other challenges so this was really tough on him. For the last month we moved his work box to our dining room and got the little guy one too. He no longer delights in startling us and enjoys his activities. Our school room only houses materials now. We also got him headphones to listen to classical music while the little guy makes noise. This is my first year homeschooling and I feel like I learn something new about my kiddos every day. Thank you all for your ideas 
My daughter has her own pink pair of those ear muffs! LOL!
My homeschool child (Boober) is a preschooler. He is 3. My little Mokey is 11 months. I often feed her meals during times I know Boober needs me to help him. I also teach our science course while she is napping. He does work independently when she needs me. We also have some activities where everyone is included; like sensory bins and music fun.
Oh thank you for starting this topic. I was just going to post something asking the same question. I have a 5 yr old doing Kindergarten this year, and it’s our first year homeschooling. Then a little 18 mo old firecracker running around needing attention and it never seems to end. We started in the Fall only doing homeschool while my daughter was napping. That worked well when she did 2 naps. Now only doing 1, it’s usually only an hour and it’s hardly enough time to get ANYTHING done. On top of that, I feel lately like I never get any breaks so I’ve started having some down time during the nap and having my son do some quiet time. That really helps with my sanity, but not with getting school done.
I’ve not explored just getting going in the morning with a regular schedule and try to make it work while she’s awake. Thanks for all the ideas.
Some days are extremely hard and today was one of those days. My 3 year old wants my constant attention. She screams, I ignore. She tries to climb on my chair, I ignore and push away. She had a time out, a swat, a distraction and food, but none helps. She completed her ABC/123 activities with me but then it was time to move on to my 7 yr old. My 3 year old takes all the learning away from my oldest. Then my 5 year old is caught in the middle…kinda doing his minimal work. My toddler does not want to do anything but sit on my lap and be loud. Playdo, puzzles, colors, paint, toys, whatever…it just never ends. I feel bad for my oldest who is behind because of the toddler. It was just a really rough day for everyone, but my oldest finally got it all done.
I went from 2 to 4 kids in a very short time also and nap times were a lifesaver. I shoved as much schooling into that time as I could. Now I use nap time to rest so I have tried my best to baby proof our school room. Also, 1+1+1 has boards on Pinterest with activities for all different ages.
I’m in the same boat except I have 5. Mine are 9,8,4 1/2, 2 1/2, and 5 months. My 2 year old really steals the joy of homeschooling my other 3 and then I feel like homeschooling steals my joy of having a 2 yr old and a 5 month old. Constant mommy guilt 
So, that is my problem. I could use nap time but by the time we finish morning school I’m exhausted and pretty cranky. Nap time is the ONLY time I have to get other stuff done.
I have an 8 yo, a 4yo, a 3yo, twin 1yos and soon a newborn. The twins just turned 1. This past year has been the hardest. But, as we go I learn that there is a season for everything. Right now, we have little ones, anf so I want to focus on making our days light and fun. My 8yo still has to do work that I cannot avoid, like grammar and math, but I choose to have her do those after we’ve done the lighter more fun things together.
Just to give an idea, after breakfast, which takes about an hour until all is cleaned up and everyone is fed, we sit in the living room, I read from the Bible. We can all be there. My littles ones enjoy this time, while my twins are crawling around us, playing with toys. After reading, I send the 8yo to the school room with a coloring paper and a fill in the blank sheet about our Bible reading for the day. She also knows that she can start on penmanship on her own, and some LA. By this time, the twins are in their cribs for a nap, and the 3 and 4 yo come with me to the school room. We do abcs, coloring, and other fun things depending on the day, sometimes nothing else, sometimes some puzzles, etc. While I help the tots do their “school papers” I am also there available to help my 8yo. And she loves when we are all there sitting around together, even if sometimes she has complained about the noise. I do ask the little ones to not be too loud, and we save the loud times for later or earlier. As long as they get some of this loud time in - like singing, playing, talking a lot- they seem okay with being quieter during our school room time. Of course it does not always turn out to be the same everyday, but I try to let them know I am expecting it to be the same everyday, this way they learn to follow the routine I want to keep. It takes some time, especially when routines with babies are prone to change as they grow, and for us moms it is also hard because of some lack of sleep, or illness at times, or all the cleaning that needs done… which reminds me that getting the children to do chores that are the same everyday, also at the same time everyday, really helps with school getting done, and running the home without too much chaos.
I used to think that I wasn’t giving much attention to my 8yo, and that she suffered because of all the younger ones, but I realize now that the real attention she needs is not with her school work. We do well with the school work doing what I described above, and then we do things she is interested in. She just started sewing by hand and she has been spending a lot of time doing that everyday. So I try to focus some time each week on these things. School is important, but the personal life skills and interests I have been finding to be even more so. They thrive in school if those skills are being developed and we are giving them time together, encouraging them, praising them, and just smiling and being happy with them. I have been focusing on enriching their brains with new, fun, and exciting information. We work on lots of crafts. It’s amazing what crafts do for little ones. And I let them do it independently as they desire to.
Anyways, I might have gone a little off topic, I don’t know. I just was wondering if the guilt starts to creep in because we are maybe focusing on the wrong things? For me I have started to realize that it may be so. What have you found?
1 Like
I did find a website recently that might help those of you trying to occupy toddlers. I haven’t tried any of the activities myself, since my boy isn’t even quite 4 months old yet, but she’s sharing weekly learning themes, with related books and activities and supply lists, for free. It looks like it would be fairly easy to pick and choose which ones to do with your toddlers, depending on your family’s needs.
I’m in a similar boat, 11,9,7,4,2,14 months and one due in 3 months… my younger 3 make huge messes no matter how much i prepare it seems… and then while i’m tyring to deal with that my 9 & 7 are hard to keep focused and I get so discouraged!