Toddlers

Homeschooling With Toddlers

• Ensure a "safe-zone" when schooling.  Are you constantly obsessing that your toddler is going up the back stairs or sticking a fork in an outlet somewhere?  Whereever you ultimately do school, it is imperative that the school area is limited in such a way that your toddler may be out of sight, but you can be sure that he or she is not pulling a book case down on themselves or getting into other trouble.  So baby-proof your zone!
• Give your toddler attention first.   Every child is different, but a lot of toddlers will do much better and play longer independently if they get about ten to fifteen minutes of lap time, either reading some books or playing with Mom or Dad first.
• Have bins of toys easily accessible that are only played with when school is going on.
• Raise your tolerance for disorder when able.  This means, you purposely fill low lying drawers and shelves with the Tupperware, DVDs or other unbreakables, then ignore your toddler as he or she pulls everything out.  It is a short-term inconvenience, and usually easily cleaned up.  I can assure you that your child will not be 33 or even 3 and still dumping out Tupperware.  But any distraction can buy you ten more minutes of one on one time.
• Don't ignore the basics. You are trying to teach regrouping to your elementary age child, and you are both reaching your instructional limits, and your toddler keeps crying and coming up to grab your leg.  Sometimes we cannot see the forest for the trees.  Dirty diapers, hunger, pain and over-tiredness are four toddler cornerstones that can be very quickly resolved. Take a five minute break or give your child a quick alternate assignment to do while you take care of the basics.
• Be aware of changing naptimes.   All moms and dads can relate to one napping truth: with child number 1, the whole world seems to revolve around naptime.  With subsequent children, napping on demand becomes a luxury.  As families grow and schedules get more confining, often babies and toddlers nap in the car going to and from activities, or Mom or Dad try to stretch awake periods to suit a family schedule.  Unfortunately, cranky toddlers can really ruin the day for everyone. Sometimes, toddlers just need to nap and the time doesn't make any rational sense or doesn't fit in with the schedule.  C'est la vie, let your toddler nap when he or she needs to. If you let go of trying to control nap time,  you will save a lot of sanity. There are caveats of course. If 2:00 piano lessons are in heavy conflict with your toddler's nap schedule, use your judgement and find another time or program, but just remember, that nap time will probably slide in a few months.
• A small bit of curriculum goes a long way! In our house, everyone gets a curriculum, right down to the youngest baby.  For little ones, this really means a list of favorite books to read that are age-appropriate, special games or toys to play with, and maybe some plan for physical exercise.  Babies get tummy-time, etc.  But the key is to have these little activities in a plan, written somewhere. Don't worry about adhering to a strict schedule, but have the items in a school bin or on school book shelves for easy accessibility. BE PREPARED!  That way, when your toddler is being super-fussy, pull out the bin and give him or her some quality time.  You will feel so good knowing that your toddler is accomplishing some of the goals you set for him or her at the beginning of the school year.  Plus, you can very quickly direct an older child to do an activity with your toddler if you have a plan in place. Some of my favorite baby curriculum goals come from the Timberdoodle website and from the book Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready by June Oberlander.  This book gives a different task each week of a child's life from birth to the age of 5.  Most of the tasks are very easy to master and offer some variety. You will probably find that some of the tasks call for building a toy or contraption similar to one you already have, but each task emphasizes a basic skill, so you can let your parenting creativity take off from there.  Another good book is Help Your Baby Talk by Dr. Robert Owens. This book is an entire curriculum in and of itself for babies from newborn to 2 years old. 
• Snowball your children's schedules to allow for playmates.  No matter what the ages in your household, every child should have a chance to play and interact with a sibling, and toddlers can be well-entertained by siblings.  As you rotate through teaching your kids, try to return more frequently to the child most likely to finish up the quickest (usually the younger) so you can cut that child free to entertain your toddler for a while.  Some parents might feel compelled to let a child retire to their bedroom for alone time or quiet time, but I don't think this is helpful as long as there are children in the house still doing "school".   Plus, clutter and messiness starts to grow outside the school "safe-zone" when children wander off. This is not helpful to keeping an organized home.  The exception might be cutting children loose to play outside, depending on where you live.
• Get all the assignments laid out in advance for the day, and stay flexible. Some moms and dads swear by Sue Patrick's Workbox System, but no matter how you organize the school materials, you don't want to lose more than about ten minutes a day to pulling out assignments for all your children.  If you keep the assignments lined up and ready to go, you can make quick substitutions on the fly.  So if you need to suspend a math lesson to change a smelly diaper, pull out that geography sheet your child can do on her own, and have her bang that out while you are distracted with a baby or toddler.