Mine are 1 and 2 and do not have any school at all. Waiting until they go to bed doesn't help because the little one still wakes up at random points anyway. The two things that have helped me the most are a) putting a gate up over the room I make candles in and breaking everything up into steps. The gate was really critical. If I tried making candles with them underfoot it might be really dangerous for them (of course). If I am making candles they may be awake but they cannot come into the room (lucky for me neither can climb the gate yet!). I only do containers, so there are only a few really critical points where they can't interrupt me (having to do with wax temp, of course). So I break everything up and make it very organized and don't move on to the next step until I have the first one done. That way if I am interrupted I can always go back to where I left off. As far as those critical points (when the wax gets close to temp, mixing in FO, dye, pouring), I try to make it a point where they are busy; either watching a video or eating. They are learning that when I say I will be there in a minute or two that I mean it. When I am in between points (just after wicking the jars, or waiting to pour, for example), I specifically give them attention and see if there is anything they need (fill juices, help the older one potty) and play with them a bit, which keeps them from deliberately seeking attention during the critical points most of the time (although not always, of course ). It's a challenge and things don't always go as planned, naturally. If I'm doing something pretty big I have their dad take them out to play during the entire time from heating wax until the candles are poured. If you can keep them out of your work area then you can usually develop a routine that isn't any more distracting than a job where you are doing something time-critical but waiting on customers as well. Just try to stay organized and break everything up into smaller steps whenever you can. Good luck.