Homeschooling with toddlers and babies
The most frequently-asked question I get about homeschoooling (well, after “What about socialization?”) is how to homeschool with little ones underfoot. It is tricky, but it’s totally doable!
First of all, homeschooling with a newborn can actually be pretty easy. I have taught every subject from spelling to Latin to math to anatomy while nursing a baby, and in the early months, I’d let the baby sleep in her Moses basket next to me or wear her on my chest. My big kids just had to be patient or be willing to fetch and carry for me if I wasn’t able to move.
I've always homeschooled with toddlers in the mix, and I definitely make it a rule that they have to have quiet rest time after lunch until they start kindergarten. My 3.5 year old is toying with dropping her nap, but I plop her in bed, anyway, for a solid two hours, every afternoon. Once the kids dropped a nap, I would just make them stay in their room until I told them it was time to come out--they could read, sleep, or play. They needed the break from the rest of us, and we needed the quiet, focused time. So that two hour patch in the afternoon was always super helpful. When my oldest was in kindergarten through second grade, those two hours were actually when we did our formal school. We’d play all morning, have lunch and put the little girls to bed, then settled down at the table for an hour or two of uninterrupted school time. Once I had two school-aged kids and my son’s school day was getting longer, I moved our school day to the morning and had to get creative.
To start with, I generally put a strong emphasis on teaching my kids to entertain themselves without electronics for chunks of time. Of course we read millions of books aloud and snuggle and all the cozy baby and toddler things, but I also train them from very young to have tummy time playing on a quilt on the floor within sight of me, starting with just a few minutes, moving up to half hours at a time by the toddler years. Sometimes it’s a matter of an older sibling or Mommy sitting down and showing how to build a tower with the blocks or stick the pegs in the holes, then walking away and letting the little one concentrate. Sometimes we say we’ll read three books, then she gets to stay on the couch or the rocking chair and keep looking at books on her own. Sometimes we prompt the pretend play with asking, “Can you go make me some brownies in your play kitchen?” If your child is feeling extremely needy and wanting to be entertained nonstop, it will definitely be harder, but keep it up, and over time, she’ll be able to occupy herself more and more.
Of course, one of the benefits of homeschooling is that it’s essentially a one-room schoolhouse! So if the little ones express interest in “doing school,” I set them up at the table with us and hand them a page to color or some of the math manipulatives to play with or duplos to stack while listening to what the rest of us are doing. I have a special bin of busy bags that my kids can only play with during school time, so they feel fresh and fun and hold their interest for longer. By age 3 or 4, all of my kids wanted to participate in the history and science readalouds and experiments, and it’s amazing what they remember. They can be distracting, of course, but sometimes just feeling like a big kid allows them to give you time to go over a math lesson with the second grader. And if the second grader is setting up a store to practice counting with money, then by all means, let the three year old be her customer! Or if you need a child to recite a poem or tell back a story to you, have him recite to the toddler while you check another kid’s math worksheet.
I think the biggest part of juggling the toddler and homeschooling is making sure that everyone knows the routine. She knows that as soon as she's done with her lunchtime g-tube feed, it's her naptime, so I can move that to 11 if I need her to go down early while we do a messy school project, and she doesn't protest, or I can stretch her out longer if we want the toddler-free time to be later in the afternoon.
We used to have a college student come and babysit the toddler for a couple hours twice a week, and that helped a TON--she would take her outside and walk and play with her and wear her out so that she napped good and hard those afternoons. When I was homeschooled in junior high, I would go once a week and work as a mother's helper for a family at church and did the same sort of thing. (I think I just did my schoolwork in the afternoons and evenings those days. ) I would definitely look into babysitting if you have the the ability. I loved having that option and will look into it again once the pandemic is over. Drop-off preschool never really worked for me timing-wise, especially since I usually had a napping baby to work around, but I have a lot of homeschool friends who send their preschoolers off to playschool/preschool a couple times a week so they can focus on the big kids. Looking back, I also did some drop-off play dates with my best friend for kids #2 and 3 when I was just homeschooling my oldest. She loved it because my kids helped entertain hers, and I loved having just my son and the baby in the house for a couple hours.
Another piece of advice that a veteran mom told me was to fill up my little ones first. My toddler often is waking up 30-60 minutes before the rest of the kids, and I try to really focus on her and give her my undivided attention. We read books, do some of her physical therapy, and I just pay attention to her. She's definitely more willing to be off on her own for a while if she feels like she's had some of my attention. If your kids get up at the same time, I would assign the school aged kid(s) some basic work (reading a chapter of their current book, math facts review page, Beast Academy online, handwriting, copywork, or something else you don't have to sit over and explain) and let them warm up with that seatwork while you invest in the little. Then put the little one in a place with toys and tell them they need to play on their own while you do school.
If you have more than one school-aged child, you can also assign baby duty to one child while you do a grammar lesson with the other, then switch. I usually give each of the big kids 20-30 minute slots of playing with her in a room that is not the kitchen/school room--duplos, magformers, play kitchen, reading books. This is a real life skill that I want each of them to excel in--since she has special needs, I want them to be very comfortable and compassionate about interacting with special kids like her, and doing it one on one helps them to be more purposeful. She is not developmentally ready to do much pretend play with her sisters yet, but a few years ago, I had this wonderful year when #3 and 4 weren't doing school yet, and they played with each other all morning while I knocked things out with the big kids. Two little kids can entertain each other better than one, even if you do have to referee fights.
When the weather’s nice, I combine brain breaks and toddler assistance by sending the kid who seems most squirmy out to walk their little sister up and down the street in the stroller for a few minutes. Of course she goes outside for recess with the other kids and gets some energy out. When they come back in, I let her sit in her high chair up at the table and color with us when I'm doing the history or science read alouds, and she will sometimes play with puzzles or eat a snack or have a tea party with herself in the high chair for a few more minutes.
Everyone pitches in to read her books in poor weather. And if you have a spouse who is working remotely during the pandemic, as I did this spring, I had my husband take an early lunch and play with/feed our youngest her lunch while I finished up schoolwork with the big kids. He couldn’t necessarily take a longer break from his work day, but he didn’t need to take his break at the same time that I took mine.
What’s been your most successful tip for homeschooling with little ones?
