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How to Homeschool with a Toddler in tow
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How to Homeschool with a Toddler in tow
I had the realization last year, after having my third baby- that I had never homeschooled with a toddler before! My other 2 children were born 22 months apart, and by the time my daughter was “kindergarten” age… my son was “preschool age.” So it hit different.
So, I wanted to cover a few things in this post.
- Tips for homeschooling while pregnant
- Tips for homeschooling with a newborn
- Tips for homeschooling with a toddler
Tips for Homeschooling While Pregnant
We chose to do things differently than most. I got the positive pregnancy test just before Christmas of 2020! Then I got sooo sick. We didn’t do any school in January, or February, or March because I was sick all the time. I should say, we didn’t do any formal schooling. We read, my daughter read to us, we listened to audiobooks, and we tried to pick tv shows that were educational.
Once I finally started managing how I was feeling, I decided that we would do formal schooling through the Summer, and end just in time to relax before the baby was born. (he was due August 12, 2021) So I planned our year, and our plans were:
Devotional: Use devotionals put out by our church (we now use the free ones on this website)
Read Alouds: Chronicles of Narnia series, starting with book 1- The Magician’s Nephew
Writing: Narnia student notebooks
Reading: My daughter, 6 at the time, was asked to read one book per day during school time to increase her fluency in reading. Her goal was to reach 100 books! (she did!!!! See below)
Other language arts: My son, 4 turning 5 at the time, was just practicing his name and trying to master the alphabet! (He is dyslexic)
Math: We were using the hands on math for grades PreK-2
Here is the post I did on her Summer reading:Â
Now… as we all know, life doesn’t always go according to plan. We started in May, and continued in June. Then we went camping on 25th, and 26th of 2021; and while there I became swollen, and itchy. I ended up in the hospital with kidney stone surgery (3 and 5+mm in size), a urinary stent… and there was no way I could continue with this pace of schooling. So we went back to lots and lots of reading. Then, I ended up back in the hospital several times due to gallbladder issues; and our baby ended up coming a MONTH early. Then I had gallbladder surgery 3 weeks postpartum because there were more than 90 gallstones, and the gallbladder was almost completely dead.
Which brings us to…
Homeschooling With a Newborn
1. Set a more relaxed schedule
2. Go with the flow
3. Pull back the ‘extras’ until more fire/routine is established
4. Have fun, and take it easy!!
We tried to do our formal schooling during one of the baby’s naps, as well as me spending one on one time with my older kids.
Once he stopped napping as much, and got down to one nap, we had to change things up. Which leads us to…
Homeschooling with a Toddler in Tow
My kids are BUSY, and very high energy. We have adopted the strategy of “Short, quality lessons,” as well as living books, and situational schooling. I loosely follow the Charlotte Mason philosophy- which is a gentle, and beautiful form of educating.
Charlotte Mason encourages us to think of our children as “being born persons.” They were already themselves when they were born. It is our duty to help them discover who they are!!
How does this align with homeschooling a toddler? Grace. Gentleness. All life is education.
Our daily rhythm goes mostly like this:
I wake before the kids, between 5 and 6am. I am able to read our scriptures for the day, read my own book, and do some work- if I have time.
The kids wake up, and they do their chores before we have breakfast.
Then it goes gently; Breakfast, other chores, free time, school, more free time, and a morning walk.
We then break for “Quiet time” which is also now both Nap time and Work time.
After that, we have more free time- usually outside. Any errands that need to be done, any play that we want to accomplish.
We then have dinner, cleanup, and family time.
Homeschooling with older children and a toddler is an exceptional way to incorporate LIFE into your learning. Here are a few ways we do that:
- We start schooling while the toddler is in his high chair, eating a snack.
- He then gets to sit on my lap while I am reading, or has been trained to have his own independent time- playing with toys, getting into mischief (where we can see him of course).
- We keep school short- but quality. We generally finish in under 90 minutes, often within 60! (And don’t worry, they are learning enough- my kids are each a grade level ahead of their peers)
- There is plenty of time during the day for PLAY! Structured play- as in, teaching our toddler to make block towers, is a tiny part of the day. We believe in unstructured play.
Here is a few videos we have made about schooling in an hour each day.
This can be a very controversial stance to take. But we love it.
The kids love it. We love learning. And then they learn so much more throughout the day that isn’t “structured.”
Our daily rhythm at school doesn’t change too much. I created a whole Instagram highlight about it actually! You can see that below, or in THIS POST. But here it is:
- Devotional
- Read Aloud
- Student notebook- for the read aloud
- 8 year old’s ELA: Spelling and/or vocabulary
- 6 year old’s ELA: Reads one book, or a certain amount of pages to me, aloud
- 8 year old’s math, while the 6 year old plays with the 1 year old
- Then we switch!
- Any extras: Cooking, drawing, art lessons, etc
https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17940277121179031/
Leave us a comment below, with any questions or comments!