What do you with your NON school age children when your school age children are doing their homework?

[fireflyfairy2]

Sorry for the long title!

DD is 5 & has about 20 minutes of homework a day. Not a huge amount, a couple of spellings, some writing work & a book to read.

But whilst she is doing her writing work ds (2.9) climbs up & tries to pull her book away from her, or he will grab whatever tool she is writing with & try to write on her book.

I always try & moved him away but then he has a tantrum, drawing the attention away from dd's homework onto him!

I know it's attention seeking behaviour, but it happens every damn day!

I have tried giving him a page of his own & a pencil to draw but he throws it from him. I have tried putting a dvd on in the other room but he won't watch it {He never watches TV, can't sit still for more that about 3 minutes!}

It's not fair on dd as she needs my attention for her work & to listen to her reading.. but ds simply doesn't give a damn!

Have any of you any ideas please?

[Lizalu]

Same scenario here. Ds not good at drawing or concentrating but he does like play doh so sometimes that comes out. Or I set up his toy garage on the floor, or whatever is the favourite toy, and run like a wild woman between the two.

[startouchedtrinity]

My dd2 (3 and a half) will sit and draw, poor old ds (18 mo) gets dumped in his playpen or high chair.

It depends on if dd enjoys her work, but I would suggest listening to her read once she is in bed (in our house the dds have the same bed time but dd1 gets half an hour 'reading time'.)

A possible time for spellings might be before school - maybe ds is easier to occupy when he isn't tired.

That just leaves the writing to get through!

(my dd is 5 too and I tend to let her go at her own pace, I must admit - we are supposed to do homework every day but don't.)

[popsycal]

luckily ds2 likes to draw but often tries to 'help' ds1. If he is in a ;helping' mood, I set ds1 off, then set ds2 off playing or watching tv then go back to ds1

[bozza]

DS only has proper homework once a week and he often does this at the weekend while DD is having a nap. He doesn't need assistance for his spellings so no attention seeking from DD although she will insist on doing a drawing while he is doing it. The worst bit is reading, when she is really awful, similar to what you describe, so we often end up doing this at bedtime.