Homeschooling with preschoolers and toddlers~

If there were one thing I would say is difficult as a homeschooling family it would most definitely be occupying a preschooler and toddler while trying to teach my other children.

Do you see that picture above?  Don’t let it fool you.  It only looks like that during our homeschool days…oh, about 10 percent of the time! 

So what is a homeschool mom to do?

After struggling with this during our last school year, I determined that we would find something that helped to occupy the younger crowd but allowed me to teach at the same time.  And since I have a very active two-year-old boy, I knew that it would mean that an older person would need to be there to engage him and keep him happy.  :)  Since I am expected to teach at the time, I asked my older children to help.  And they gladly obliged.  (Who wouldn’t want a 30 minute break from his/her schoolwork?)

Here is how we have our days scheduled:

 

Time	With Mom	With Little Ones
8:30	Emma (2nd grade)	Grant
9:00	Preschool Time	Mom
9:30	Emma (2nd)	Bryce
11:00 – 12:00	Older Boys	Emma (30 minutes) and free play until lunch

A few notes:

• While one child is with me and another is with the little ones or when I am teaching preschool, the other child (children) is/are doing independent seat work.
• We take an outside break from 10:30 – 11:00.  Trust me, we all need it by then!
• Usually Bryce is needed to entertain the little ones a little longer than 30 minutes but he is usually a head of the game with the completion of his school work.
• If it appears that I don’t spend much time with the older two boys, you must remember that (1) they are more independent with their school work and (2) they spend time with me after lunch when the little ones are resting. (And Emma gets more time with me too!)

 Before the week begins, I take four empty, plastic shoeboxes and fill them with different things such as dominoes, pom pons, small containers, foam letters, things to scoop with, etc.  I give the older children some ideas as to how they can be used but they also have come up with ideas of their own.

 Scooping & counting  pom pons and painting H with Big Brother

We also have a folder full of worksheets about preschool topics – letters, shapes, colors, numbers, etc.  The older children have really enjoyed teaching the little ones using these worksheets.

If they happen to finish all of these activities and it is not time to switch, there are games and blocks to pull out too.

Finding letters with Big Sister

  Listening to Big Brother read Hop on Pop 

So far, this has been the best way for us to keep the younger ones occupied and having fun without spending too much time in front of a TV.  Of course, this works for us because we have older children in our family.  If they were all young, I would have to take another route.  (Which I’ve done before but I honestly don’t remember what I did!)

We have found that happy, occupied toddlers & preschoolers = a happy homeschool (and a happy homeschool mom).

Start the day well~

This homeschool year, I am on a mission to make our days go as smoothly as possible.  I have found that one of the easiest ways to have a good day is to start well.  If the morning begins in a frantic manner, the whole day tends to unravel into a mess of frustrated kids and a stressed out mom. 

Here are some things that work for our family to help our days get off to a smooth start and hopefully finish with a happy family:

• Prepare the night before.

At night before we go to bed, we lay out our clothing for the next day.  I also try to make sure that school work folders are filled and ready for the children to sit down and begin their work.  Even some breakfast foods are mixed ahead.  For instance, the dry ingredients of the pancake batter are mixed together and all cooking utensils set out.  When we wake in the morning, we add the wet ingredients and begin cooking. 

• Get up before the kids.

This is a big one for me.  If I wait until the kids are up before I get up, my day starts off in a frenzied manner.  It helps me to get up early and have a quiet time, gather my thoughts, and get dressed for the day. 

• Have breakfast at a set time.

We have tried in the past for everyone to come to breakfast as he or she awoke.  It just didn’t work for our family.  It felt like I never left the kitchen.  This year, we have breakfast at 7:30 so we can eat with David before he leaves for work.  Doing this has kept me from spending valuable morning time in the kitchen when I’m needed elsewhere.

• Clean house before starting school.

Now, I’m not talking about a major cleaning here.  I’m talking about the things you need to have done to keep you comfortable in your own home.  For instance, I have trouble focusing on school if the dishes need to be washed.  So in the mornings, we all spend about 20 - 30 minutes doing the following tasks:  making beds, washing breakfast dishes and wiping tables/counters, starting laundry, and vacuuming rugs. 

• Set a time for school to start.

If I don’t tell the kids (and myself, for that matter) that school starts at a specific time, we all tend to get a little too involved in things around the house.  I have set our start time as 8:30.  After breakfast, we do our few morning chores.  (When everyone pitches in, it doesn’t take long.)  Then, everyone gets dressed and brushes their teeth.  (And if they complete everything early, they have a little free time.) I will start reminding them that school starts in 15 minutes, and then again at the 10 minute mark and 5 minute mark.  This helps us all to stay on task and get our day started in a timely manner. 

• Be flexible.

Ok, time for a true confession.  Ask me how many of these got done around my house today?  Ummmm, that would be…NONE.  Some mornings don’t go as planned.  However, that’s the beauty of homeschooling.  As homeschoolers, we can change our days to care for sick children, late nights, and those days that just seem to never get moving in a good direction.  I can truly say that homeschooling has helped me to be more flexible and just enjoy life as it happens. 

I’ve given my tips for getting off to a good start.  Do you have any tips that help your days start well? 

Home Education Highlights ~ Week 2

Last week as I was planning preschool for my 4 year old daughter, I realized that this blog can be a very useful tool for me as a home educator.  In the middle of searching for activities and plans for our preschool lessons, I caught myself thinking that I needed to write this down so I could remember what we did when my 2 year old son is in preschool!  Right about that time I realized that I do write it down!  Right here on our blog.  It was a light bulb moment for me.  :) 

I plan to share each week what we’ve been learning in our home school.  I’m a bit behind so this is actually from week 2 of our school.  Tomorrow, week 3 should be up and ready to view. 

We have been homeschooling for 6 years and each year I find that the first two weeks are the hardest.  Our family is trying to get back into a schedule after a relaxed summer.  Usually everyone is not as willing to get back into that structured routine. 

Last week as we were having some tough days, I decided to take the kids outside for school one day.  They all sat and worked on their independent work and I read from our Sonlight read alouds.  Our toddler ran around and played here and there.  Every once in a while, he would sit on the quilt and do his work too.

We usually ease back into school.  Instead of jumping back into all of the subjects, we start with a few and add two or more subjects at a time over the next few weeks.  Last week, we were doing all subjects except for writing and science.  We all were looking forward to science starting.  We love science!

My older boys have always loved history but they are really loving Sonlight this year.  I wish that we had started this before now.  We are all learning so much from the books.  It is truly a great program and we give it two thumbs up!  This week we were learning about Native Americans and Christopher Columbus. 

One day, we met some friends at the park for a little bit of “socialization”.  :)  We are trying to make a point to get out to more park days and field trips this year. 

 

Rock climbing is P.E., right?  :)

I hope that your school is off to a good start too!

Learning can be messy~

I don’t know about your house but at ours, school time can be a bit messy. 

The following are some pictures I snapped during and after a school day.

~The aftermath of a second grader who was busy learning~

 

~Playdough and crayon chaos left behind by the preschoolers~

~Writing in shaving cream gone awry~

~ A little painting…and yes, some did end up on Baby Boy~

~Books and binders at the end of a day of learning~

~The end of the day.  This is actually not as messy as usual.  ;)

 

Is it just us or do you have messy learning days too?

First day of school pictures and first week of school highlights

We started our sixth homeschooling year on August 18th.  Since we only had a three day week, we took it a little easy and did just a few things to ease us into a new school year.  We mainly focused on getting up and getting going earlier since during the summer we tend to relax a bit more. 

Here are a few highlights from our first few days ~

~First Day of School Pictures ~

~7th grader~

~5th grader~

~2nd grader~

~Preschoolers – ages 4 & 2 ~

(whom I failed to take a good picture of…it gets a bit busy and sometimes the camera is neglected)

~Home Education Highlights:  Week 1~

~Decorating covers for our daily work binders~

~Putting covers on our American history scrapbooks.  We will use these for our lapbooks instead of using file folders.  We also plan to make them for Science. ~

~ Mad Libs were enjoyed by all.  They are fun and a good review of parts of speech.~

The Mad Libs kept us laughing! 

~Oh, I failed to mention our first day of school breakfast which was chosen by the kiddos:

pigs in a blanket and cinnamon rolls.~

~ We put together a time capsule to bury in our backyard.  Inside of it, we placed some questions that each child answered, a mad libs that we found particularly funny, and an item chosen by the child.  ( By the way, Abby Cadaby was rescued from her fate of a year in the time capsule.  Sunshine Girl decided that she could not stand to part with her.)  We will put our first day of school pictures in it and bury it in the back of the garden.  We plan to dig it out next August when we begin school.~

~ I love to see my older children helping my younger children.~

 

We have started our second week now and I will write about that soon and give you a tour of our new school area.

 

I hope you all are having or will have great school years too!