Back in July of last year, I had received a free homeschool consultation with Natalie Burns of Homeschool Teaching Simplified. While we were speaking, I described my homeschool. My daughter was almost 5 years old and about to start kindergarten. My son had just turned 2. I remember Natalie telling me that I was pretty much in the hardest time as a homeschool mom. When you have young kids and toddlers underfoot. Until your child can read, they need your help with everything. Even if you choose to have a third child, homeschooling would be easier as that child got older because child number one would have learned to read and could then help themself and read some things to child number two while you helped them both and cared for child number three. Based on this conversation, I think it’s important to talk about homeschooling with toddlers underfoot.
“Mommy… Mommy… Mommy!”
Do you notice that when you aren’t busy, your toddler tends to ignore you, but as soon as you start doing anything, such as homeschooling his or her older sibling, suddenly your toddler needs you desperately? No? Maybe it’s just mine. The moment I grab a schoolbook and start teaching K, O comes right over and “I wan oo, Mommy, I nee oo, Mommy.” (“I want you, Mommy, I need you, Mommy.”) He was playing quietly or watching something, but now it’s all Mommy all the time.
Luckily, this is homeschool. Perfection doesn’t exist (nor does it need to) and all time is family time. When he interrupts, it allows me to teach my daughter patience, manners, and a little independence. She also learns how to include him in what we’re doing, since that’s usually my first response. This has led to many fun times… and many frustrating times. So that’s tip number one…
Include Your Toddler in Homeschool Activities
My toddler doesn’t always have the patience to listen to a story, but he’ll listen to some of it. If my daughter is reading or doing a lesson where I’m reading to her, I can ask my son what letters he sees or to point out different colors on the page. Whereas my daughter may be trying to learn from the passage or working on reading comprehension, my son is able to work on letter, number, and sound recognition (“what letter makes a b-b-b sound?”). If there are animals, he’ll be especially happy and can share different animal sounds or names.
If she has a worksheet, I almost always make a copy for him. While she is working on math or handwriting, he is coloring or trying to draw various shapes or lines. On the worksheets, he sometimes points out the letters and numbers he sees. He’s always excited to share and often will start singing the alphabet song.
Even though I know he’ll make a mess, I usually include him whenever she’s using paint, watercolors, and play-dough. He also loves using the dot markers and regularly asks to use them. The past few months, we’ve been attending the Lowe’s and Home Depot kids’ workshops. Although these workshops are suggested for age 4 or 5 and up, I’ve seen people bring infants and no one enforces the age guidelines so I bring my toddler along. K is getting better at using tools, but it’s super-challenging for O so I do most of the hammering and things. The kids both love to decorate their creations with paint or stickers so they have fun each time. I’ve also invited their grandparents to these events and each one that has attended loved seeing the kids being creative.
Child-Led Learning Works for Toddlers, Too
My son loves animals, especially dinosaurs. One of the times that we went to the library, he saw their wooden jigsaw puzzles of animals and dinosaurs and loved them. So my husband has bought him every kid-sized wooden jigsaw puzzle he’s been able to find, starting with the dinosaurs, and now including animals, cars, and outer space amongst others. Most of them are 24-piece and my son has mastered them. He’s now working on learning to do (have patience to do) the next size puzzles – 60 pieces!
When my daughter has homework, as she likes to call all schoolwork, her little brother will often say he wants to do it too. Lately he keeps asking to do sticker-by-number pages. Each time he tries, he gets a little better at placing the stickers when I point out where they belong. I try not to fix them for him except when he gets to silly time… the time that he’s still asking to do more but placing the stickers in the wrong place on purpose. I usually just give him the sticker to place it again. I’m not expecting perfection by any means, but it’s easier to place the following stickers where they go if he hasn’t already placed the wrong one in their place. It’s fun to watch his progress and improvement, and I’m looking forward to when he can match the sticker number to its placement himself – just like his sister does when she’s doing her own designs!
Circle Time or Morning Basket
A great way to start the day with littles is circle time or morning basket time. I haven’t yet gotten in the habit of doing this daily, hence it’s not the first thing on the list, but it’s a fun way to include each of your kids. No matter what you call it, the idea is to start your day doing activities together. You can go over the date, day of the week, month of the year, weather, season, etc. Many families will also read a story, share a Bible verse, or read poetry and work on memorization.
Creating a habit of doing things together to start the day will help build a homeschool routine and make your toddler feel included. Even if the older kids all know their alphabet, you can include singing the alphabet song (and teach the older kids to sign it too) or counting to 20 so that your toddler can learn with them and feel like he belongs.
When I was in first grade, my teacher, Dixie Anderson, taught us poems regularly (“red on top and green below, red means stop and green means go, yellow means wait, even if you’re late!”) and I remember learning the months of the year with Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak. I need to do a little more planning, but I’m hoping to start doing circle time with my kids including poems and that book soon!
God Bless the Mess
It would be crazy to expect perfection as a mom, especially as a mom with a toddler. Instead, it’s better to embrace the mess. Embrace the crazy. Let’s just reframe it all…
- Oh no! There’s more paint on my toddler than on the page he’s painting… sensory learning for toddler
- Oh no! My toddler just interrupted another lesson with his big sister… character building for big sis (learning patience and how to handle the [un]expected)
- Oh no! My toddler keeps asking me the same question over and over again… language development (with a side of character building patience for mom!)
- Oh no! The entire toy bin exploded… creative expression and a chance to teach kids how to clean up
And, if all else fails, remember that your presence is one of the biggest benefits of homeschooling. Being present with and for your kids allows them to be themselves, feel accepted, be willing to make mistakes, and always know that they are loved (whether they’re homeschooled or not)!
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