How do you school two children on different levels and care for a toddler too?

[ChristusG]

What does your day look like? What sort of schedule do you follow?

 

I have three little girls.....9,6, and 1. We're finishing up my older girls 3rd and 1st grade year. We're very lax in kindergarten, but my middle will be going into 1st grade this next year and I'd like to be a little more structured. Right now we're sort of flying by the seat of our pants. You know, 3rd grader is off doing independent work, and the baby is tearing the house apart while I work with the kindergartener. Most of the time, history and science gets skipped. We're very much in the mode of "the three R's only" right now. I need something that works better than this.

 

We'll be using Heart of Dakota for science, history, and Bible and plan to school the girls together with those. But I'm not sure how to work with them independently. Do you have your children all sit at the school table and rotate between them? I'd love to do that, but I see two problems with it. One, it leaves the baby alone and she'll probably stand at the baby gate and cry (we block off the kitchen because she empties the cabinets and bugs the dog LOL). Two, I can see my 9 year old complaining that the can't concentrate on her math/reading because I'm talking to my 6 year old.

 

Do you explain work to the older child and send them off indpendently to work? Do you schedule separate work times? Do you schedule in breaks? And if you do, do you find it difficult to get the kids back into "school mode"?

 

When working with a child, do you finish up math, put the book away, and then immediately drag out the next book for the next subject. Is there any sort of transition?

 

And all the while, what does the toddler do? I feel like if I just leave her to play in the "safe" areas of the house (where we have everything baby proofed and no little toys out) then she's just on her own, with no interaction.

 

Just wondering how I should attempt to work things out this next year.

[KrissiK]

You can see who I'm schooling in my siggy. We do Bible together, and then just the old "one room school house thing." We do spelling together, but everyone on their own levels. Then, some do independent work while I'm explaining work to the others. My littles just kind of play. We generally do Language Arts, then math then history/science. Then Latin in the afternoon and finish up independent work. It's not easy, but we get the job done. As far transitioning goes, we don't run that tight a ship, so we just kind of go from, one subject to the next.

[coffeegal]

I've used a couple of methods. When my oldest 4 were small, I seated them at the table and walked around helping as they worked. I'd explain math to one, start another on penmanship, and have a third doing worksheets. In this scenario, you could seat your 1yo at the table with cheerios, raisons, or seat activities. A friend complained once about the amount of sitting she did homeschooling her kids, and I couldn't relate. I never sat down. I just walked around and around and around.... :lol: Another option is to have one child playing with the toddler while you sit down with the other child for one-on-one tutoring. That's worked quite well over the years. The last option I can think of is to do school while your toddler naps. That's iffy in my experience. My toddlers don't always nap well, and I enjoy have a bit of time to relax in the middle of the day.

[bagel270]

This year I'll have a 2yr old, K, 3, 5, and 6. My three olders do their work mostly independently now. But a short explanation and then show me when you're done is what we shoot for here. We do have a schoolroom that some of them use, the older two work in their rooms now, so it's quieter. The toddler stage is the hardest. They usually want to do school like everyone else, but with a five minute attention span. Coloring, felt shapes, stickers, ripping paper, whatever will keep them occupied is great. Have your olders help with the baby for a quick break from school while you work with the other one.

[LMD]

This year I have a 3rd, 1st and a nearly 3 year old hurricane. And another on the way.

 

I made a strict schedule which we stuck to for about 3 weeks, which was enough time for it so settle into a more relaxed schedule which we still - mostly - keep. It involves having time all together at the table (3 year old in his highchair with food/activity), time one on one with each child, and time for each child to play with siblings. I moved history to be an all at the table activity in the morning, so it gets done usually. Science is still a bit hit and miss, but is in the afternoon after lunch/break. Yes, I feel guilty about how much interaction my youngest doesn't get.

 

Generally for LA/Math, I set an activity for the boys (the nearly 6 & 3 year old) and work with DD one on one for half an hour, then I leave her to finish off the tasks (usually another 20mins ish) while I work with the 1st grader for those 20-30 mins on the same subject (so, all the math in one hour - better for my brain space to be in one subject at a time!). The toddler is generally done with the activity when the 1st grader comes in anyway, so he'll play with something inside while we're all at the table.

 

Tis but a season... so I'm told...

[airforcefamily]

We have three little ones running around while the older two do their work. I really think your oldest needs to learn to either work, or at least read, independently in another room or learn to deal with the noise. Maybe a set of earmuffs like people with noisy jobs wear? They make them in child sizes.

[KAM]

My kids are 12, 10, 8, and 4 so this isn't so much an issue anymore..but I remember it well! I usually worked with one kid in the kitchen while the others did independent work in the living room. That way, my talking was less disruptive to them, and the equally disruptive toddler would stay with me as much as possible, usually on my lap or on the floor or doing something at the table or wreaking havoc! It isn't easy, you can only do the best you can!

 

I found it helpful to make up a master list of ideas for my toddler to do. Things like, wash toy cars in the kitchen sink, print out a coloring page online, do a puzzle, play with the shape sorter, etc. Then in the morning before we started lessons I would try to pull out a couple of things and set them up at the table for her. Having a list is helpful because you can refer to it when you start feeling frazzled and can't think. I bet your other kids would like taking a little break to set something up for the little one to do. Having them take turns playing with her is a great idea too and one we used a lot!

[kirstenhill]

I have similar ages, except with a 4 year old in the mix as well. DD will be 4th grade next year and DS6 will be 1st grade. I give DD a list of independent work every morning. A typical list might be: read Bible, practice guitar, do 1 page of math practice problems [facts or something she already has had a lesson on], practice spelling words on Spelling City app, read 20 minutes from 1 book from history or science book baskets.

 

I tried to have her get started on this list right away at her desk, while I attempted to grab DS and do his work (at the dining table). This past year for K, I just went from subject to subject for him, with no break (or maybe a short 5 minute break to jump on the trampoline or something). So, that was like 10 minutes for him to read, 10-15 minutes spelling and phonics, 15-20 minutes math. While he was doing that, the 4 year old would either join us at the table to color, do a puzzle, or something else quiet...or he would sometimes play with the toddler. If the toddler wasn't playing with the 4 year old, he was either playing with a pile of toys I gave him...or causing chaos. I decided i could live with cupboards being emptied and bins of toys being dumped out as long as he wasn't doing anything too dangerous!!! :lol:

 

Then after that block with DS 6, I would usually get everyone a snack (so, a break for DD), then typically try and do spelling and math with DD. Sometimes also a history read aloud at this time. While I worked with DD, the three boys would typically play together. Or sometimes the toddler is off causing chaos again.

 

Then after lunch while the toddler is napping, I do read alouds with everyone (sometimes history, sometimes other stuff), and maybe once or twice a week we do something "sciency" together. Or sometimes I read during lunch time and afternoon snack time if we have something else to do during nap time.

 

My big challenge for next year will be figuring out how to slightly increase that seatwork time for DS 6, and start trying to do something more formal with a bit more frequency with DS4. Not sure exactly how it will look, but probably a variation of the above.

 

ETA: I also do longer history read alouds with DD at bedtime (or other longer literature read alouds). This is 30-45 minutes per night and I consider that an important part of our schooling as well. Eventually DS6 and someday the younger boys will be in on this too.

[NASDAQ]

Get up early, do as much as I can, school six days a week, school all summer, and let him do what he does even if I'm going to regret it when I have to clean it up.

[Embassy]

I had my school room a combination play room and school room. My youngest grew up playing in our school room. I used rotating toy boxes to keep her busy and interested. For the school-aged kids I either split my time while one was working independently or we did things together. I put my daughter in the backpack carrier for naps and I read aloud as she went to sleep.

 

ETA: I did have a couple play yards that I attached together to block off access to areas I didn't want my daughter to go. She was in the same area as we were so interaction and interruptions were common.

[Embassy]

Also, I've had the philosophy that I wanted my children to be used to working through distractions. So, I've allowed distractions (for the most part) and I want my kids to learn to work through them. It isn't always or often easy, but if you look at it long-term I think it is an important life skill.

[Lucy the Valiant]

Here's how it looked at my house this year (8, 8, 6, 2):

 

1. Breakfast and time all together.

2. First grade = Mommy + first grader, ALONE and quiet for 1 hour; the 8 year olds alternated days "babysitting." (I initially hesitated to do this, as I was a firstborn and am generally opposed to forced babysitting, but when I realized they were fighting each other for the "extra time" with him, I figured I was good. We school 4 days at home, so they each babysat 2 hours / week total, with special games and snacks.)

3. First grader done after an hour, usually waned to play w/2yo, while I worked with 8yo twins. The littler ones were welcome to come in the room we are in, as long as they were respectfully quiet; if they wanted to roughhouse and make a mess, down to the (mostly finished) basement they went. :) By the Jumping Couch. :)

4. We were pretty much all done by lunch time, and after lunch we all snuggled on the couch for read-aloud, which was followed by an hour or two of quiet time.

 

Worked well enough we're going to do it again this year, except the 2yo is now 3 and wants his own "real school." So I am putting together a little backpack of "lessons" for each of the twins to use when they are "babysitting" him - they are hugely thrilled with the privilege of being his "teacher" for an hour.

[Chelli]

Check out the blog post I wrote in my siggy (How I Plan Our Homeschool Day). I did school this year with almost the exact same ages (9, 5, and 2 half the year and 3 the other half of the year). I also used Heart of Dakota. To summarize the blog post in one phrase: rotation, rotation, rotation. :D

[dewdropfairy]

Combine subjects when I can (easy with Art, History, and Science) and always use nap time to get as much schoolwork done as possible.

[violingirl]

Mine are 7.5, 6 and 1, so we're pretty close to your age range. I also work so we absolutely have to get our schooling done in the mornings 3 days a week before I start work.

 

A few key things for us:

 

1. We school in an area the baby can also be in so that she doesn't feel separate from us all morning. I set up our school area with a small area for her to play in so that she can be right there with us. I sometimes put her at the table with us in her booster and she'll color with colored pencils or eat her snack or whatever.

 

2. I taught my boys (we just finished K and 1st) how to do a few things independently and that is what they work on when I can't help them individually. So while I'm working with my 6yo on phonics, my 7yo can be working on his handwriting/memory work/etc. While I'm working with my 7yo on a math lesson my 6yo can be working on Explode the Code/Daily Phonics/etc. If I need to absolutely be with the baby (or taking a work phone call or something) they know to continue checking items off of their "independent" list and if they run out of things to do they need to read until I'm able to get back with them. They mostly do well with this, but some days not so much.

 

3. The advantage to me working in the afternoons/evenings is that my boys also know that whatever we don't get done in the morning has to be done in the evening with their dad, which means that they don't get to wrestle/play outside/play xbox/all the other fun boy stuff they do when he cares for them while I work. They really don't want to have to give that time to school work and I can remind them of that in the mornings to help keep them motivated.

 

4. I purposely set up the play area for the baby to make it super easy to pick up even if she totally dumps everything- there's no real organization except that everything just goes in a basket and the baskets go back on the shelf. So if she makes a giant mess it's nothing I can't pick up in under 5 minutes. Nothing has to be sorted or put back in a special way. Easiness is essential for me because our school area is an area that my clients walk through to get to my studio so the whole school area has to be totally picked up before I work every day.

 

So, our day usually starts with a morning meeting pretty promptly after breakfast since that is the time the baby is most cooperative about playing on her own. My boys and I do a "morning meeting" for about 15-20 minutes- we look over their school plan for the day, they ask questions, I give them any special instructions, we run through our memory work together and if the baby is being especially cooperative I go ahead and do 1 subject with my 6yo. At that point the baby usually needs me so I sit with her on the floor. I'm right there if the boys need me during their independent work and they take turns sitting on the floor with me and the baby to have their individual lessons (math and LA) then go back to their table to do their work. I play with the baby some, work with one of the boys, play with baby, work with one of the boys.

 

We do history and our read aloud while the baby has her snack and in the 20 minutes or so after that (since she will usually play on her own again after she's full) and we do science and other "together" work (like art) during her naps on the 2 days a week that I don't work until 4.

[happypamama]

I start older kids on something independent (usually reading, math if it's a test day, sometimes the independent WWE reading assignments that they have to do before I do the exercises with them) while I clean up the kitchen and get the little ones set. Then I work with the older ones in turn, whichever of them is at a good point to work with me, and I go over their more mom-intensive subjects (Latin, math, writing) and have them complete the rest of their work independently. If they need more quiet, they're welcome to take their work somewhere else in the house, and I think having multiple options is going to be the key for me as my kids get older.

 

Whenever I'm at a good point (and/or when I need to nurse a baby), I do group subjects like history and science with everyone, or I sit down with my preschooler for a few minutes and do things with him.

 

These are three things that make a big difference to me:

-One, the schoolroom is the quiet work room. Baby/toddler play is tolerated, but it's not the room for big preschooler noise. The little boys are welcome to listen to history or science or not, as they choose, but if they're in the schoolroom, they're listening, not making lots of noise or showing things to the big kids. They're welcome to play in the playroom next to the schoolroom.

 

-Two, I set the preschooler up with something that he can do on his own (or with minimal help from me), but his reward for playing nicely and letting me work with the big kids when they're at their freshest points in the day comes after, not before; if he bugs me/them multiple times, then I simply won't have time to do things with him later. He knows this and generally responds well to it.

 

-Three, our schoolroom is the baby/toddler safe room, so I would encourage you to find a way to be able to work with the older kids while staying with your toddler. Our playroom is for the older kids; the schoolroom is a no-Lego zone and has the baby/toddler toys in it, so they can play near me while I work with the olders. I like another poster's idea of putting the toddler in a booster at the table with everyone too; mine will scribble with crayons or eat snacks or look at books for a while. And there's always an Ergo so the toddler can see and interact but not get into stuff. I typically am also working with my olders with a baby/young toddler on my lap or nursing. Also, you might swap out big kids -- work with the 9yo while the 6yo plays in the same room as the baby, send the 9yo to work, and then you work with the 6yo with the baby on your lap or something.

[Elfknitter.#]

We have a living room. If that's too loud, the monkeys can do independent work in their bedroom. We currently work around the toddler. So lessons are short, quick and DIY. This works for my dd but not as much for mr social butterfly, can.'t stop talking ds. However, it is what is.

 

I try to have independent work when the toddler is up and have read alouds or science experiments over nap time"

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

My kids are 6, 4, and 1.5.

 

We do something at the breakfast table, either I'll read the WWE passage, or I'll do a poem, or we'll do memory work, all while the baby is eating.

 

My son can do copywork, some math, and some history independantly (thank you, SOTW cds!). I will often put on the SOTW chapter, put the big kids at the table with the coloring pages, and play with baby while it's on. Then I can set baby down and do map work with them.

 

Math lesson, spelling, etc, get done during nap time. Our read-aloud is done at bedtime.

[Walking-Iris]

Homeschool the toddler first thing. Seriously. You may want to look into Montessori activities or pinterest for toddler busy activities. After breakfast just fill the little ones cup. Some of those activities are fun enough that your 6 year old may want to do it to. Then if you're lucky you have two little ones playing together. Then you focus on the basics with your oldest one, rotate the two oldest through subjects. Maybe think about a visual timer so they know when you'll be ready for them.

 

I have play centers for my dd in most rooms of the house. All our Montessori style activities get rotated on a 6 cube shelf in the front room. She can choose at will what to do. I keep coloring books, crayons, a play doh caddy, and a tub of dry beans fro scooping and pouring in the kitchen. She can get any of those things out at will.

 

If you look at your home environment and routine and set it up for the toddler first, you may find things going smoother. Science is especially a good distraction. Set a toddler up on the kitchen floor with cornstarch goop, a jar or water and food coloring, etc. and they'll be happy long enough for you to do math with an older kid.

 

Also I combine all my kids in most of the content areas. So all three of my kiddos do art, science, and history projects together in some fashion. My 2 year old has done every HFA and ArtisticPursuits lesson this year. My two youngest colored SOTW sheets while I read to my oldest.

 

Arts and crafts are another way to get something done. Set up your youngest with some watercolors or an easel with poster paints.

 

It seems counter intuitive to focus on the youngest first, but it has really helped save my sanity many times. Being included in some way in what the family is doing goes a long way to keep a little one happy.

[BlsdMama]

What does your day look like? What sort of schedule do you follow?

 

I have three little girls.....9,6, and 1. We're finishing up my older girls 3rd and 1st grade year. We're very lax in kindergarten, but my middle will be going into 1st grade this next year and I'd like to be a little more structured. Right now we're sort of flying by the seat of our pants. You know, 3rd grader is off doing independent work, and the baby is tearing the house apart while I work with the kindergartener. Most of the time, history and science gets skipped. We're very much in the mode of "the three R's only" right now. I need something that works better than this.

 

We'll be using Heart of Dakota for science, history, and Bible and plan to school the girls together with those. But I'm not sure how to work with them independently. Do you have your children all sit at the school table and rotate between them? I'd love to do that, but I see two problems with it. One, it leaves the baby alone and she'll probably stand at the baby gate and cry (we block off the kitchen because she empties the cabinets and bugs the dog LOL). Two, I can see my 9 year old complaining that the can't concentrate on her math/reading because I'm talking to my 6 year old.

 

Do you explain work to the older child and send them off indpendently to work? Do you schedule separate work times? Do you schedule in breaks? And if you do, do you find it difficult to get the kids back into "school mode"?

 

When working with a child, do you finish up math, put the book away, and then immediately drag out the next book for the next subject. Is there any sort of transition?

 

And all the while, what does the toddler do? I feel like if I just leave her to play in the "safe" areas of the house (where we have everything baby proofed and no little toys out) then she's just on her own, with no interaction.

 

Just wondering how I should attempt to work things out this next year.

 

You'll have a 9yo, a 6yo, and a 2yo.

 

Let's talk about NEEDS.

Your 6yo needs to be read to, phonics instruction, interacted with, chores, and play.

Your 2yo needs to be read to, interacted with, chores, and play.

 

So, really your focus is your 9yo with everyone else "folded" into that.

 

We found that a "meeting" before the day gets rolling works well. It is important to me that my 9yo has independent work she can do for when I am busy. It can be a formal meeting where you teach something (like math) or informal such as handing her a sheet so she knows which lesson in grammar to work on. You should have some kind of routine. We've never been able to make a schedule work for us (by time increments) without it being stressful or feeling like spills and diaper changes were an "interruption." (And they aren't, they are part of nurturing little tiny humans.)

 

Do the read alouds together - this is the folding in. The two year old can and should be taught to sit and listen with a small toy or book in her hands or lap. She should do chores and play with you all. She should also be taught to play nicely for 15-20 minutes at the table with some kind of table toy like play-doh or paper and pencil. This will buy you (2) 20 minute table time increments for things like handwriting, copywork, writing down a narration. (Something easy where you can correct a 2 year old while working with the 9yo or 6yo.)

 

Anything "heavy" like phonics that requires direct concentration and one on one teaching should be reserved for naptime. Do history with SOTW audios during naptime. (It gives you recovery time as well.) Don't feel guilty about it. Frankly you can do only so much.

 

We have "read or sleep" time. If you can read, you DO. If you can't, you sleep. Period.

It lasts two hours in the afternoon.

It allows me to have some small amount of peace and quiet and it allows me to focus on my older students without interruptions. These two things are *really* important to my day.

 

Also, don't just lock in school during school hours. Bedtime read alouds can be history or science too! And not everything must be formal curriculum or have a matching craft. Boy I wish I had known that.

 

Read aloud, read aloud, read aloud. Many things you can "recover" from - like not doing a science curriculum 'til the seventh grade, but you can't recover from not reading.

[Mom2TheTeam]

I have not read the responses. I have 6 children all 7 and under. Boy - 7.5 and a raising 2nd grader, Boy/Girl twins 5 and continuing K'ers, Boy/Boy twins 3, boy 8 months.

 

So, my first thought at the title of your post was, "You just do it." ;) But, here are a few tips to make that happen....

 

1. We school year round. We do this because we get derailed A LOT. Many days, even most, we don't get done everything we are supposed to. Schooling year round allows us to take our time and do in 12 months what should be done in 9 months. By schooling year round, I don't mean with no breaks. In fact, right now we are on a sort of break till July 4th. (He is still doing a couple things in a journal because he wants to finish, but I'm not requiring it. I think he has 2 days left and he'll be done till July 4th.) We take breaks whenever we need them and for basically as long as we need it. So, we take a week here and a week there throughout the year as well as time off around holidays and for vacations. Schooling year round really takes the stress off to "finish on time." Our school "year" is from July to July. We've only been doing formal schooling for 2 years, but my goal is to start in July and be done with that year before July of the next year. My plan is to take a break from whatever day we are done till early July. So, if we finished in April, we would probably break till July and get a longer break from our big content curriculum (MFW). I probably would not break from skill subjects for that long though and I'm not sure I'd take that long. But, I don't really see it happening that early anyway. ;)

 

2. I do use naptime. It isn't my favorite time to do school because I would prefer a break for myself, but reality is I need the time when the littles are down to be able to focus.

 

3. I pick and choose very carefully what hands on projects we do. With littles around, hands on stuff can get really crazy really fast. So, even though I'd like to do tons of hands-on and projects, I am choosey about which ones and we don't even do most of them included in our curriculum.

 

4. I've learned to be okay with cutting things out for now. We have a strong focus on the skill subjects. We definitely do content subjects to, but skill subjects get priority, always.

 

5. Whatever gets done first...gets done. If we are behind in something or something we are doing is the most important, we do it first. For K and 1st, this means phonics/reading gets done first almost always and math gets done next. Sometimes I switch that up if we are behind or didn't get to it the day before. I'm not completely sure what subject is going to get done first for 2nd, but I'm thinking it's going to be math and then spelling/WWE/FLL. But, we will see. (Bible is always before everything else for us, every day no matter what.)

 

6. Like others, I often read at the breakfast and/or lunch table. It gets something done and also keeps the peace and quite during meals....sort of....even my 3 year olds will ask to read "The Big Woods." (or whatever or read-aloud is.)

 

7. Just keep going, through all the interruptions and noise and craziness, just keep going. If I always let interruptions derail us, we would never get school done. So, I put out fires and handle kid crisis and then come right back to what I'm doing with schooling.

 

8. Lastly, my house is a mess and we often have very easy dinners. My laundry is affecionately named "Mt. Laundry" and it's almost always piled up on the love seat. School is most important and everything else is gravy. Many days, nothing else gets done. Every once in a while, we skip school so I can clean up or whatever.

 

Right now, I pretty much teach everything. There is very little independent work going on here, but sometimes I can get my oldest to do a math page with me doing something else. But, he is very hard to keep focused. So, most of the time I have to do everything with everyone. I just do the best I can with so much going on.

[ChristusG]

I know it's been a few days but I wanted to thank everyone who gave suggestions! I'll definitely be using some of them!

[4peanuts]

I may be the only one, but I'll 'fess up to the fact that so far every year at least one of my youngers (actually both the 3 and 2 year old this year) has gone to a 2 -day a week Mother's Day Out at a sweet little church about 10 minutes from my house. Having those two uninterrupted days per week to work with the big girls (from 9-2:30) has made all the difference to me the past couple of years. Next year, I'm folding in my will-be PreK'er and only the 2.5 yr old will go.

 

I tried the juggling act (and I have all the little Montessori activity boxes to prove it!) but I always felt like I was failing everyone. When my oldest two were in the K/1/2 years, morning was really the time I needed to work with them because that's when they are freshest--if I waited until the littles were down for afternoon nap it was like pulling teeth to keep them focused. And of course everything is very teacher intensive at that age, so if I'm trying to work with them in the morning without constant interruptions....I just couldn't mentally handle it. I admire the people that can--and I don't often admit to other homeschool moms that I use Mother's Day Out because I kind of feel like it's cheating. ;)

 

Another way I have coped was a choice to focus on the 3 R's through 2nd grade, rather than feel compelled to cover a lot of history or science. If I had fewer children to focus on, that might be different, but I felt that the best I could do at the time was develop their reading and writing skills, which would allow them to be more independent learners later and we could then catch up on all the other stuff. Now, that doesn't mean we never did science or history until this year, but it wasn't the priority. A lot of their learning in that area up to now has been through library books they read on their own.

 

Also, we school year round, which takes the pressure off when you have an unproductive day or week. Also, I just like the freedom of taking smaller breaks scattered throughout instead of one big break.

 

So there, I'm out of the closet! Take my two cents for what it's worth. ;)

[Myeightkiddies]

If the kitchen is the best option, here is what I would (and have done):

 

Put the dog in another area.

Put locks on all the cabinets except one.

Fill that cabinet with Tupperware (or similar plastic dishes).

 

Let baby have her fun.

 

Typically serious one-on-one work is best done when the little one is napping; however, that isn't always the easiest to do because so much needs to be done then too. After dinner or early in the morning is when I did housework and laundry. Minimizing clutter and excess clothes (make sure the only clothes the children use are ones they can wear and seasonal) helps keep this task reasonable. Spend a weekend boxing up or purging any excess in your house. It will make life so much easier. During school time I didn't accept calls or visitors. If it was important I would hear a message on the machine.

 

Save reading time for when baby is napping. Do history and science reading together. If you read to both of them at least some of the time, you can accomplish those subjects in one swoop. Approximately the last half hour of baby's nap (or hour..whatever you can swing), have the girls go somewhere for quiet time. They are not to ask for drinks or talk to each other or fight or run around or anything (other than bathroom). This is your time to sit, eat, rest, or do whatever you need to do. It may be rough for the first week, but they will catch on quickly. Be firm. It's good for them, and later they will use that time for independent work. They will also need a set bedtime if they don't now. It's good for them to have that schedule and good for you as well. I'm not a fan of scheduling every moment of the day; however, I believe baths, bedtime, and naps are best on schedule.

 

:grouphug: :grouphug:

[Heidi]

Dealing with the baby:

1. I choose curriculum that is not teacher-intensive, and spend my time teaching only the most important subjects (for me it is Bible, Latin, beginning reading, and memory work).
   
2. I don’t teach science. I encourage outside time/free time and supply lots of nature/science books to browse on my shelf.
   
3. History is a read-aloud after the baby is in bed. History is also included as independent work for my 3^rd grade and up students.
   
4. Bible is together as a family while the baby just plays around us/on us and we just deal with it.
   
5. I keep all toys put away at all times except during teacher-intensive times of the day. They don’t play with them when they are always out and they just clutter my house. However, when I bring out the blocks after a week of not seeing them, they are the coolest toy ever and the Littles are distracted for quite a while.
   
6. I put on a movie if I am desperate, but my almost 2 year old won’t sit to watch movies yet, so I’m sure that won’t help much with your 1 year old… but it will soon.
   

 

Independent work:

1. My kids work in one small room together, each at their own desk.
   
2. I play classical music to help them focus and zone me out while I am helping a sibling.
   
3. They have a list of subjects to complete.
   
4. When one student finishes a subject, I set a timer for a 10 minute break for that one student, and then they start on the next subject of their choosing.
   
5. During independent work time I am available to help my students in the school room while I play with my babies in the next room; I go back and forth as I am needed.
   

[LindaOz]

What does your day look like? What sort of schedule do you follow?

 

I have three little girls.....9,6, and 1. We're finishing up my older girls 3rd and 1st grade year. We're very lax in kindergarten, but my middle will be going into 1st grade this next year and I'd like to be a little more structured. Right now we're sort of flying by the seat of our pants. You know, 3rd grader is off doing independent work, and the baby is tearing the house apart while I work with the kindergartener. Most of the time, history and science gets skipped. We're very much in the mode of "the three R's only" right now. I need something that works better than this.

 

We'll be using Heart of Dakota for science, history, and Bible and plan to school the girls together with those. But I'm not sure how to work with them independently. Do you have your children all sit at the school table and rotate between them? I'd love to do that, but I see two problems with it. One, it leaves the baby alone and she'll probably stand at the baby gate and cry (we block off the kitchen because she empties the cabinets and bugs the dog LOL). Two, I can see my 9 year old complaining that the can't concentrate on her math/reading because I'm talking to my 6 year old.

 

Do you explain work to the older child and send them off indpendently to work? Do you schedule separate work times? Do you schedule in breaks? And if you do, do you find it difficult to get the kids back into "school mode"?

 

When working with a child, do you finish up math, put the book away, and then immediately drag out the next book for the next subject. Is there any sort of transition?

 

And all the while, what does the toddler do? I feel like if I just leave her to play in the "safe" areas of the house (where we have everything baby proofed and no little toys out) then she's just on her own, with no interaction.

 

Just wondering how I should attempt to work things out this next year.

 

My school age kids are older than yours, but I also have a 3yo and 16 month old who has really just graduated to 'toddlerhood'. I pretty much just allow my toddler to 'toddle' around and play wherever I am. She has boundaries which she knows - for example, she knows she cannot go out of the lounge room or into the kitchen on her own. Other than that she just plays and roams around the room. She has access to books and toys, and she quite happily does this while I am involved in working with others. In this way she is just there and part of our day, being supervised but not requiring 100% of my attention all the time. My 3yo has activities like coloring, painting etc that she likes to do while the others are schooling. I find that, in this way, they learn to be part of our day. Probably the key is teaching the toddler the boundaries so that you don't have to constantly be checking that he/she is not getting into trouble somewhere. Having them close by allows you to teach more comfortably and shows that toddlers that you are still there for them.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

My three oldest were in third grade, first grade, and preschool this year, plus I have a 2/3yo and a baby/toddler. I taught history and science as a block in the late morning when my youngest was napping. I also included read-alouds during this time. Otherwise, I taught everyone one-on-one and usually the other kids played while I was teaching. So the youngest two had someone to hang out with them. In the afternoon, my oldest had a few independent subjects while I taught the first grader. Between teaching, serving meals and snacks, and a little bit of cleaning this kept me busy all day long, but we didn't have much trouble with the routine.