Tips and Tricks for Minimizing Distractions.

We have a smaller house, and not a dedicated school room.  We learn right in our living room/kitchen area.  Sometimes the children do schoolwork in their rooms, but that is not always where they want to be they want to be able to be with the family while working, plus it sure does make answering questions easier than having each child yell for me to come to various rooms.

Schoolwork obviously has to get done while other things around the house do too.  It can be the other children distracting them from doing their work, or even just what others are doing. 

I have came up with a few tricks I would like to share.

When the child on the computer is the one getting distracted, we create a “fort” for them.  I still check in on what they are doing often and they usually wear headphones, just to minimize the outside noise. 

We also have a “privacy folder” which helps with laptop time, or even worksheet time.  It has a very basic Alphabet and 100’s chart to help Katey when she needs it.

We also have wireless TV headphones, (you know kinda like many dentist offices have).  These really help out when I have one that is watching a video. Tyler did not want to try them on for this photo.


A chair that does not face the rest of the room.  This chair is actually near our front door and is often used for friends and neighbors coats and such.  We also sit in it to put our shoes on and off when using the front door. Anyway, it faces the front door and stairs, while still in our main living area.  This makes a great reading chair.  We can read in the chair, still being in the same room.  While not having so many visual distractions. It does NOT feel like you are staring into a corner or anything like that.  As you can see it is also right next to a window.

One other thing I recently began doing is letting them go outside and play while keeping one inside for a 10 minute lesson.  Then when one is done, we rotate.  I keep this special for the lessons I really need one on one concentration with and it doesn’t happen very often.

Often times we are all learning together, however, there are those times when we need to minimize distractions. 

I really hope some of these ideas can help you out.

Do you have any great ideas about minimizing distractions while all learning together?

This is linked to Works for Me Wednesday!