Our three children cover a ten year age span, so I know just what it means to try to keep a VERY active toddler busy while the older kids are studying.

1. I learned to plan our school day around the toddler’s nap schedule. When he slept (or was supposed to be sleeping), I worked one on one with the older kids with subject areas that required individual attention with each child.
2. When the toddler was up and roaming, and yes – he was a VERY busy toddler – I learned how to entertain him while we worked on unit studies. He might be busy with building blocks or rearranging magnetic letters on a cookie sheet, or he might be enjoying a math lesson with an older sibling from books like “M&M Addition” or “M&M Multiplication.”
3. I learned to limit the toy cars that were constantly zipping across the floor during reading time. Since he couldn’t sit still for long, he would quietly send the cars flying across the room. I learned to leave only a few out at a time – recycling them so that there were always a few he hadn’t seen in a while.
4. I learned (the hard way) to make sure that some of our school projects included things for him to do – whether it involved log cabin construction with craft sticks or creating Bethlehem using modeling clay on the kitchen table.
5. I learned the importance of keeping a toddler involved with the big kids – better learning opportunities for everyone. And memories more precious than gold, with plenty of pictures to keep us laughing for years to come.