Our little one is about to turn 1 yr old and is a mighty explorer! Around 18 months, I assume I'll be able to give him playdough and crayons, etc. But any suggestions on what to do to keep him busy (and maybe close by) for the next 6 months so I can work with my older ones and read to them?
Can you do it while the 1 year old is napping? I seem to recall (oh dag it's been too long since I had a little one here!) doing all the school stuff when the littles were napping. You need so little time when they're younger to do actual "seat work" reading. The other thing I did was read to them while i was nursing the youngest, the baby's always a captive audience when they're busy eating! HA HA HA!!!! We had an exersaucery type thing, too....sometimes I would put her in that when I was working with the older two. My youngest was always very self entertained as a baby. We had a ginormous playpen area (a "super yard" with extension panels). I'd sit her in there with all of her toys and she'd roll, crawl around and play in it for hours....it was a godsend when making dinner or cleaning!!!! HTH!
Well with my 3rd son at that age I would let him be free until he got into our things then I'd put him in the pnp in the same room with some age appropriate toys. He didn't like it but it got us through that age. With Sierra I generally tried to get as much school done as possible while she napped. It was around the 18-20 mo age that I could include her in coloring and reading and such. Also search pinterest for Toddler activities there are tons of great links with ideas for "busy bags" that you could rotate out each day/week.
I suggest picking up a few toys/books/etc that will be played with only during school time. Then your youngest will be occupied with you teach. If you need to, put up a gate to one room that you know he'll be safe in, while you teach nearby. Then he can still see you, talk to you, but you won't have to stop to run after him everywhere. LOL
As Pecan said, toys that are "just" school-time activities. You can put them into zip-lock bags. Lacing beads are good, maybe a cookie sheet that is magnetic with magnet shapes/letters, little plastic animals/cars/etc., blocks.... Also, cardboard boxes (such as cereal boxes) are great for cutting. Give her an empty box and a pair of scissors and let her snip away. Buttons are great for sorting, but of course you need to be aware of a choking hazard if your child is incined to put things in the mouth....
Rotating toyboxes worked well for my little boys when I worked full time. They worked well for my little girl when I was schooling her older brothers. At that age I had her play in a large fenced off play yard in our school room. I had her toybox in there with her. I would occasionally go in there with her. Expect frequent interruptions. For naps I put her in a carrier and she went to sleep as I read aloud to my older kids. When she stopped napping at age 2.5 her days were more like this: http://eclectic-homeschool.blogspot.ca/2011/01/when-toddler-stops-napping.html Hope that gives you some ideas.
Thanks for the ideas so far. We just started school part-time this week, so we can have Fridays off for field trips. Reading is obviously going to be the biggest issue. He's at that babbling age, so he tends to "talk" over me when I read. He LOVES books! As soon as I sit down with them, he's immediately up on my lap trying to take the book, turn the pages, etc. I can see in a few months he will either decide to sit and listen or he will go off and ignore us... but we may just have to just be patient and flexible and wait until that day comes. We aren't really a workbook-y type family. We like to read and discuss things together, along with lots of hands on stuff. I tried to set up a rotating schedule of subjects. We'll see if that works. We may have to go "light" for awhile and play catch up later or just take a little longer this year. Yes, we are able to do some stuff during nap time, but my girls are older (3rd & 7th grade) so trying to cover the more involved science labs (think - chemicals, dissections, glass, fire, etc) and history (lots of project based activities - with all the small parts and art supplies, etc) together and then leveled math & lang arts with each separately in less than 2 hours a day is going to be a challenge. My middle one tends to lose focus right after lunch (i.e. nap time for little guy). I've always had her do her independent reading during that time. Sadly, we tried a friends Exersaucer thing and he climbed right out! He screams in the PNP -- we travel frequently and have to use one as his bed, so that's how he seems to associate it! We do have a large room that is self-contained and fairly safe, minus our books & supplies. I really like the special toys/boxes idea. He's a little too young for scissors, buttons and beads, but it did make me think of the Touch Table I used to do with the girls when they were little -- now to come up with ideas that are safe for that 12-18 months age! He doesn't really have a toy passion yet. He just likes exploring things. My artistic one decided to make him some sensory bottles last week and those are fascinating him for a short time. I might pull out my felt board and make him some new characters that tie into his current favorite storybooks. The busy eating is definitely on target. He doesn't nurse long enough anymore, but we did discover this week that valuable 20 minutes of high chair self-feeding meal time works too. I will definitely look for the busy bags idea. I have a deep fear Pinterest -- I know I will get sucked into it and might not reemerge. :wink: For now I guess we'll just enjoy him, take our snuggles, include him when he wants it, and get what we can done. He'll be big soon enough. It's only a few months. :love:
Another possibility might be to have one daughter play with him while you do the independent subjects with the other and have them trade off and then do their joint things together during his nap. Someone suggested to me to spend time with my youngest first. To read with her and play a few hands on activities with her first. Then occupy her with something else to work with my older kids and oddly it does help. She's not vying for that attention because I already gave it to her. It's not perfect but it does help. Another thing I do sometimes is sit with her and some books and have my oldest read aloud to his brothers. Or even sit with her in my lap while my oldest reads. That way I can focus on her and not try to divide my attention between the story and her antics.
