Avoiding noises while helping kids with their homework?

Question

I help my grand baby-sit seven grandkids practically everyday. On the weekdays, 5 of them have homework that needs help with. These are the ages of them: 

~ 13 
~ 7
~ 7 
~ 7 
~ 6
~ 5
~ 3 

This house is ALWAYS loud, whether it be: shouting, crying, laughter, chatter, or being obnoxious, none learn how to be quiet. I'm used to this, but since my uncle works again and the mom of two cousins is out of the country, I have to help 3 more kiddos, besides my two sisters with homework.  Regardless of the location within the home, the noise travels is impossible to escape.  I will ask that the kids either leave the place or be quiet, they refuse to listen, especially the 13 year old. He's a huge trouble maker and is constantly bugging the kids to the point where they cry.  The 13 year old happens to be my younger brother who refuses to listen to anyone. None of the kids listen to my grand, especially when she tells them to be quiet. They practically just do what they want... 

My question is: how can I help the kids individually with their homework without all the noise. I can't even focus on what the homework is about, let alone the kids themselves...

Peachy Perfect · Accepted Answer

I'm guessing your problem comes in because for most of the kids you have to sit down next to them (you can't just leave them on their own to do their homework) individually to help them.  So then the ones that you're not helping at the moment, are the ones that are running around and making noise?

Here's an easy fix. While your grandma helps one kid with their homework and you help another kid with theirs (at the same time), put on a fun movie in another room for the ones that aren't doing their homework at that point in time. If the 13 year old won't be nice even while watching a movie with the other kids, let him watch a different movie on his own, in another room. Movies are generally pretty good at keeping kids nice and quiet, especially if you lower the volume so that if they talk, then they can't hear the movie.  If the kids doing their homework can still hear the movie, you might try turning on a fan or something in the homework room to make some white noise that will block out the noise from the movie.  Or, you could put on some classical music in the homework room, which would also help block out the noise from the movie.

Then whenever the kid finishes their homework, they go into the movie room and get a nice break and you call out the next kid to do their homework (meanwhile your grandma is doing the same thing with another kid).

Since these kids aren't very old, I'd expect that their homework isn't going to take more than half an hour each, so if you've got two kids going at a time (one with you and one with your grandma), taking half an hour each, then it should only take 1 1/2 hours to get all of their homework done.....which conveniently is the length of most kids' movies.

Ta-da!

Anonymous · Answer

I don't understand where all this noise is coming from, when 5 of the kids are all doing homework.

" they refuse to listen, especially the 13 year old."

Surely the 13 year old is one of the kids with homework?

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Avoiding noises while helping kids with their homework?

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