TheAutumnOak Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Does anyone do this?...Are there any ideas or tips? Starting next week I will most likely take care of my friend's two year old during the day in addition to homeschooling my boys...He will be at our home 4 days a week... We use to school upstairs in the playroom because it is a decent size room...Then I no longer wanted to school there, so I bought everything downstairs to a smaller room, and used a combination of that room and the dining room table to do school...Now I will most likely have to go upstairs again... He is a very sweet boy who listens to me and loves playing with my 4 year old...They just play loudly, LOL... Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommy4ever Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 I do it. While I am schooling the youngest, I provide quiet activities. I try to do high concentration things at naptime. The older girls use big head sets with their mp3's to block noise out if it's bothersome. DD11 prefers to work in her room, and dd13 it varies. She'll take the netbook to my scrapbook desk and work there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myfatherslily Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 I babysit 4-5 days a week while teaching my 1st grader. Her school day takes about two hours. My boys are 5 and almost 3. The boy I babysit is 4. They get a bit crazy at times:) We used to use the school room, but I've found that it's easier to be in the kitchen, which is a more central location for us. I chase them out of the room a lot ("If you want to be in here, you have to be quiet! Otherwise, go play in the livingroom or the playroom!"). But we are still nearby, easy to reach to drink/snack/argument/potty needs. I'll often put on a movie for them if I need them to tone it down a bit. If the two year old takes a nap, I'd definitely consider taking advantage of that time. ACK! I just realized that we were going to do math this afternoon and I forgot! Oops! Bleh, it's 5:30 now... but I'm NOT getting another day behind in math! I did take time off from school during the first week that he was here, so we could all adjust. And yes, any extra youngster makes things one-kid-harder:) But if he integrates well with your family (and "my" boy certainly does) then I think it will go okay for you, once you've all adjusted to the differences:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Virg Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 You can see my my own children in my signature plus I homeschool my twins' half-sister. We have an infant and a 2 year old full time, and a 3 year old and 1 year old several days a week. On PS no-school days I have 2 elementary kids also. We do school in the dining room next to the kitchen and the playroom (which is supposed to be a family room). The daycare kids play in the playroom during school in the morning and in the afternoon I do activities with them. It can be very difficult but it is necessary for us if I want to homeschool. It definitely gets loud and crazy at times, there have been a few days when I have given up and cancelled school lol. For the most part it works pretty well though. It just makes keeping up on the housework a little difficult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emilia Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 I baby sit a 7 month old 4 days a week. We do most stuff during nap times. Somethings we do with him around just give him toys and try to get DD to focus on a task or project if I need to do something with the baby. Most days go great and I use a baby carrier for field trips. The baby is a great source of fun on play dates.lol You can make it work because homeschooling is so flexible. If I get behind I will try to do an extra read aloud or say, "we are going to have a Topsy turvy day and do math after supper!" (When baby is gone). This usually works ok if I have a great bribe in order. It works good for me and then I have a little $$. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarreymere Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 I have my two year old grandson and my five month old granddaughter to babysit while homeschooling. We live in a mobile home so there is really only the central kitchen/living room area for everything. The bedrooms are really too small and packed with bunkbeds and dressers, so my three year old and my two year old grandson can't really play there. The boys mostly play cars and trucks. It gets loud, they fight, they need this or that. They aren't allowed to sit at the table where we are working. Sometimes I give them paper and crayons and we sing preschool songs with them. Neither of them nap. We just work around all of it, as best we can. It is really cute, to see my DD7 going over letter sounds with them. They play with the math manipulatives so we try to get them to count. They listen to the read alouds. They listen to everything. Some of it seems to sink in, too. If it gets too crazy we go outside so everyone can run around. Then they seem to settle when we come back in. I put on a nature documentary or something similar that is a little bit interesting but low key and they will play quietly for a while. We just do it. Some days we get a lot done, some days not so much. It is better outside in the nicer weather when we all sit outside and the littles have room to run. Pretty soon the baby is going to be mobile and that will complicate things a bit more but at least I won't have to bounce her on my lap all day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delighted3 Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Nap time is your new best friend :001_smile: It will probably be a good thing in that it gives your 4yo something to do. I don't know how much schooling you are doing with your 4yo, but you might want to consider adding a little time in your day for some pre-school type things with both of them together just so the 2yo doesn't feel left out and gets some direction during the day. I did daycare for many years while homeschooling. It can be crazy, but scheduling is key. HTH, Joy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAutumnOak Posted February 4, 2011 Author Share Posted February 4, 2011 Thanks for the advice you guys...I am a little nervous because our school days are from 10-4...Such a long time...I will babysit from 9-5... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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