One of the biggest questions I get from young
families as the new school year starts is, “What do I do with my little ones?” Well, I only had five, which may not seem
like a lot to some of you, but it felt like plenty to me. For 12 years I taught older students
(Basically all of my eldest ‘s school years) while I had at least one preschooler. For many years I had an infant and a preschooler,
while homeschooling. The funny thing is
that I started that way (David was in Kindergarten when Priscilla was 2 and ½ and
Stephen was an infant), so I didn’t realize that it could be any other way.
Let me give you my overall philosophy. Your little guys are going to take your time,
no matter what you do, so you might as well give them your time up front. Plan for it.
Schedule for it. Make it a part
of the routine. It will be a lot less
frustrating.
I had lots of ways of coping. Some years required different tools. I’ll list some of the different things I did
to accomplish the formal part of education.
If I think of other things that I did (the things that didn’t work for
me, I blocked out!) I’ll edit this post.
1. Divided up the toys – I had 5 Rubber Maid
containers, and I divided the toys into Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
and Friday. The Legos were left out all
week, along with the Thomas the Tank train track (along with pictures of
previously made tracks to be copied), and the dress up box. We’d only open one container each day. Then, at the end of the day, we put the toys
back in the same container and they wouldn’t see them until the next week. Yes, I had enough toys to fill more than 5
Rubber Maid containers!
2. Flip
school hours - One year our routine
looked like this: breakfast, dishes,
throw laundry in, do Bible, head to the park with the math books and a
timer. Let the kids play for 15 minutes,
when the timer went off, David was designated to run over and do a page of
math. I chose math for him because he
had great understanding and there were no needs for additional tools. When he was done, he’d run back and play and
Priscilla would run over and do a page of grammar. I’d try to do 2 subjects with each of
them. Finally, we’d head back home,
ready for lunch and naps. I’d feed
everybody lunch, throw the clothes in the dryer, and then do some read aloud
history (we used Beautiful Feet http://bfbooks.com/
and did literature based history). Now
the little guys were ready for naps.
Then, I’d finish the subjects with David and Priscilla before the little
guys woke up.
3. Do
a subject that can cover multiple grade levels - For me this meant Bible and History.
Some of my most precious memories of homeschooling my kids is nursing a
baby, a toddler sitting on big brother’s lap sitting next to me, the other
little brother sitting next to me, with the girl curled up like a cat on the
back of the sofa, looking over my shoulder.
We did a lot of read out loud books.
And with Beautiful Feet, they also had recommendations for tapes (before
the CD era), so we’d all sit there together and listen. This was a good segue to nap time also. After the little guys were down, I’d work on
the writing and research with the older ones.
4. When
you have many that need to be schooled intensely, use a timer! - I would set my timer for 15 minutes, and I
would play with the little guys. Maybe
we’d build a train track. Start a
puzzle. Line up all of the trucks. Read a picture book. By the time the 15 minutes were over, my goal
would be to have them involved in an activity that they could complete/play on
their own. When the timer went off, they
understood that that was the signal for me to work with the older kids. I’d set the timer for 45 minutes with the
older kids. When the timer went off, I
might have more than one little one at my side, knowing it was their 15 minute
time segment. If I was intensely
teaching something, like writing or research, I’d ask David and Priscilla to
take a turn and play with their siblings for a 45 minute stretch, while I
worked with the other. David almost
always took them outside, and Priscilla almost always read books to them.
