Homeschooling with a Toddler

I consider myself a veteran homeschooler. I have homeschooled at least one child every year for 17 years now. I’ve had anywhere from one to five children homeschooling at a time - and usually with a baby or toddler (or both!). 

Homeschooling with a toddler is probably the most difficult homeschooling season I’ve been in. Homeschooling with a baby is easy in comparison- they can’t crawl on the table and throw everything on the floor yet. 

The only time a toddler is still is when they're sleeping!

I’m not going to pretend that I have learned the magic secret to homeschooling with a toddler without losing your mind. Other than hiring a babysitter, you’re out of luck. The most honest piece of advice I’ll give you is this - This too shall pass. 

However, there are a few things that I’ve discovered that may help occupy your toddler long enough for you to read the directions on a worksheet or explain a few math problems.

But first - allowing a toddler to run free while you're trying to help your older children with schoolwork isn't always the best idea. You'll be running ragged trying to make sure the little one isn't swishing their hands in the toilet or tearing pages out of a book or putting things in their mouth. But if everyone is at the table, you can bet your toddler will want to be right in the middle of everything! There's no way around it. I'd rather try to entertain my toddler at the table than chase him around the house while I'm trying to teach other children. 

All the world's a stage!

If your little one doesn’t mind being strapped into a highchair or booster seat at the table (Zoey will tolerate it for longer than any of my others did), this is the thing to do when you really need to devote most of your attention to the other kids. A few snacks, a coloring book and colors, or a small container of play dough should probably work to distract your toddler for a little bit. If he starts to get bored with the activity you have provided, quickly switch it out with another. This may extend the time that they’ll spend contained in the seat. 

Water painting is fairly mess-free!

The next thing that works well for me is a “tot tray.” This is just a tray that contains a small activity that your toddler can do independently. Pom-poms and bowls, craft sticks and a water bottle, or magnets and a cookie sheet are examples of simple-to-set-up tray activities. I like these to have as few moving parts as possible, so I will usually provide three or four pom-poms or a small handful of craft sticks. Filling and dumping are two things that toddlers love to do!

I have an entire post about using tot trays HERE.

I also have some toys and games that are pulled out only during school hours. This makes them more exciting and keeps your little ones interested in them longer. It's almost like a brand-new toy! Forbidden toys are the best, am I right? Again, I make these toys that don't have tons of moving parts and can be played with open-endedly. 

Playdough is only pulled out during schooltime!

And my last resort is just to put the toddler in my lap. If I'm holding her, she can't get in to any trouble. She will usually be satisfied with a board book to look at, a pencil or crayon to draw with, or sipping out of my cup. For a few minutes anyway.

When all else fails, snacks usually prevail!

If you're homeschooling with a toddler underfoot, I suggest you learn to multi-task as well as just embrace the chaos that undoubtedly comes with the territory! And remember:

THIS TOO SHALL PASS!

What Are My Goals for Tot School?

It seems sort of crazy, doesn't it? To do "school" with a 16-month-old? What do I expect her to learn? Am I trying to raise a genius? 

I hope to answer these questions and more in this post.

First of all, let me give you my definition of what Tot School is because the word school may be deceiving.

Tot School is a dedicated time each day (maybe even a few times scattered throughout the day) where you lead your toddler in guided activities. These activities may enhance her fine motor skills or increase her vocabulary or meet her sensory needs. These activities are short, focused, and - most importantly - play-based and fun!

What are my goals for tot school?

My goals are pretty simple for tot school:

• exposure to new concepts and ideas (like colors and shapes)
• experience with new materials (like paint sticks and stickers)
• engagement with activities (to increase attention span and curiosity)

I'll explain those below briefly.

Exposure

Exposing Zoey to new ideas is a great way to kickstart her learning. She sees colors all around, but now she knows they have names. Will she remember the names? Probably not for a while - but the exposure will stick with her, and when she's ready to learn the color names, it won't be a foreign concept to her.

Exposure takes place organically, but it's also something that I intentionally do. Here are a few examples:

• When we're learning about the color red, I fill a small basket with familiar red items - a tractor, a magnetic tile, a wooden block, a counting bear, a bean bag. 
• When we're learning about farm animals, I bring her barn out and name each animal as she grabs it. I may also make the animal noises for her to imitate.
• When I teach her a rhyme, like the Itsy-Bitsy Spider, I'm exposing her to words, motions, and rhyme.

Looking at books is a great way to expose your toddler to new concepts.

Experience

Experience is probably the way that little ones learn the best. Most kids learn the most by doing, right? I know I do! When I give her the chance to experiment with new materials, like the paint sticks or stickers or a paintbrush and a bowl of water, she teaches herself how to use these new supplies - and how not to use them! 

When she dumps the water out, she realizes that the painting is over. When she draws on her head with the paint sticks, she understands that Mom takes them away! 

All of these incidents are learning experiences, and the more that she has, the more that she learns! Here are a few of the materials that Zoey is getting to work with:

• Kwik Stix (paint sticks)
• stickers of all kinds, but especially these (the size is perfect)
• crayons and markers
• pencils
• glue sticks
• different types of paper (tissue paper, construction paper, card stock)
• sensory bins - water, oats, cereal

Painting with water is a mess-free activity for young toddlers!

Engagement

Every toddler has their own attention span, but they're all pretty short! Zoey has a very small attention span. She tires of an activity, a toy, a book, a puzzle very quickly. When I find something that really engages her, I try to remember to offer it again! 

Being engaged in an activity is building her ability to focus. That's one reason that doing these activities with your toddler is really important. Have you ever noticed that if you're sitting on the floor, building a tower with your toddler, they'll usually sit and play as long as you are with them? But the second you stand up to stretch or answer the door, they're done playing? When we're with our toddler, we are (knowingly or unknowingly) motivating them to play, giving them ideas, and strengthening their attention spans!

She played with the counting bears much longer when I sat and sorted them with her.

Do I use a curriculum?

Yes and no! I haven't always used a curriculum (with Zeke, I wrote my own curriculum and have sold over 250 in my Etsy shop). With Zoey, and at this busy time in my life right now, I need the structure of a curriculum. I'm using ABC Jesus Loves Me, Year One (the free curriculum), and it's working pretty well. I like having everything listed for me to, and all I do is plug it into my lesson plan template! I normally add a few activities for her to do, but that's just because I enjoy it.

You certainly don't have to use a curriculum. Do a quick search on Pinterest or on my blog under the Toddler School heading - there are tons of ideas with things you probably have in your house right now! 

How long does it take?

Zoey's attention span is around 2-4 minutes right now, so we do two or three activities spread throughout the day. Sometimes she will stay engaged in an activity for longer, and sometimes she won't even give it a second glance. If you're just starting out, I'd aim for two, five-minute segments a day!

Cereal is a wonderful sensory base for toddlers who put everything in their mouth!

What do I expect her to get out of it?

I don't want to raise a baby genius, and I don't expect her to memorize any information right now. She's just learning to talk! I do tot school for this main reason: I want Zoey to have uninterrupted, focused, one on one time with me every day. I want her to have the exposure, experience, and engagement that I discussed above. 

And I also expect to get something out of it - time to sit and enjoy these toddler years, time to forget about the dishes or laundry and just focus on reading a book, or rolling play dough snakes, or watching Zoey push pom-poms into an empty bottle. 

She loves to use glue sticks, and the tissue paper was a new material she got to experiment with.

What if my toddler doesn't like Tot School?

Tot School should be simple and fun and enjoyed by both you and your toddler. If one of you isn't enjoying it, then you need to change it up! Maybe you're expecting too much. If so, drop all of your expectations - after all, toddlers are the most unpredictable things ever. Maybe you're planning too many activities. If so, decrease to one a day for a while. Maybe you're doing activities that are above your toddler's skill level. If so, set up a few things that are mistake-proof and easy, like dropping craft sticks into a water bottle. 

Is it worth the time and effort?

I absolutely think Tot School is worth the time and effort it takes! The investment is minimal, but the payout is abundant! Taking ten minutes on the weekend to plan out five days' worth of activities isn't a sacrifice at all! Spending ten or twenty minutes a day on focused play with your toddler will benefit you both greatly! 

If you need ideas for Tot School, follow my blog. I have posted many different things I've done with both Zeke and Zoey (search under "tot school" or "toddler school" to the right). 

Have you started Tot School with your little one?

Zoey's First Sensory Bin

Zoey will be 8 months old next week. She is a really sweet baby and I've been looking forward to starting her Baby Boxes with her - sensory and fine motor activity trays geared to her age and skill level. Her skill level right now is grabbing, throwing, and mouthing things! 

Today was one of those days that seemed to drag on. First, my washing machine broke and I had to run to town and buy a brand-new washer. The delivery man was out of town, so Eli and a few of his friends went and picked it up for me and brought it home and hooked it up. In the middle of all of this, my husband got a call that the dryer at our rent house was not working, so we had to buy a new dryer for that house, too. Eli and his friends also delivered that dryer and hooked it up. Not the way I wanted to spend money today. 

While we were waiting for the boys to bring the washing machine, I decided to clean out the laundry room. I drug everything into the kid's living room and then thought, what have I done? I threw away two bags of stuff and reorganized our craft supplies and toddler and preschool resources. That took a few hours and I was exhasted. Zoey also decided she was going to fight her nap all morning and afternoon. Fun.

My new printer came in (yay!) but I had a heck of a time trying to get it set up and tend to Zoey's needs. I was getting a little frustrated. I was trying to cook spaghetti and decided to teach Titus how to cook it. He is ten years old so it's time for him to start cooking. He was browning the meat and boiling the noodles. I asked him to dump the spaghetti sauce in the meat, but he misunderstood and dumped it into the boiling noodles. I had to bite my tongue and I'm glad I did because I almost said something I shouldn't have to him. We went ahead and cooked the noodles, and they turned out fine. 

The house was a disaster. Food everywhere, sticky floors, dirty countertops, toys scattered...I stood by the sink and wanted to cry. Then I decided to reset the evening. I grabbed one of our deep, plastic tot trays and filled it with water. Then I added two plastic ducks and three plastic frogs. I set it outside on the porch and Zoey went to town with it! We had to refill the tray several times because she was splashing that water everywhere!

Big brother loves playing with Zoey.

She loves taking a bath and I knew she would love a simple water sensory tray. 

She was running her hands along the bottom of the tray.

She was mouthing the plastic toys.

She was sucking the water off of her fingers.

She was splashing and watching the water as it got all over everyone!

She was soaking wet, but she was happy. I was relaxed and happy. I let go of the stress of the day and the waiting messy house and just enjoyed watching her.

This is why I have activities like this. It relaxes the kids and me. It helps to reset our days. It passes time in a joyful way. It adjusted all of our attitudes.

This was the perfect first sensory bin for Zoey. 

The Peaceful Preschool - Letter B

 Zeke enjoyed another week learning all about bears, blueberries, and bunnies! The Peaceful Preschool is such a gentle preschool guide and we are really loving it. I'm not going to list each activity we did like I did for the letter A week. It's a free sample week so I didn't feel as if I were giving too much away by listing things out so specifically. Here is an overview of what Zeke did. He had such a fun week! His books were "Blueberries for Sal", "The Runaway Bunny", and the Creation story from the Bible.

Zeke counted "blueberries" (blue pom poms) into this tray. I placed the numbers 1-5 in the squares and he had to count out that many blueberries. He can recognize the numbers 1-5 by sight now and can count out that many objects. 

I also set out a tin bucket of blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. Zeke sorted them into smaller bowls, and then taste-tested each of them. He loves strawberries, but is not a fan of blueberries or raspberries!

This was a free printable from Royal Baloo. He colored the letter "b" bush green, added dot marker blueberries, and colored, cut out, and glued the bear family by the blueberry bush.

These were all free cut and glue printables from Teachers Pay Teachers. He color matched the characters from Brown Bear, Brown Bear, sorted uppercase and lowercase Bs, and glued the bears in number order 1-10. I had to help with the numbers 6-10, but he did such a great job with 1-5!

He also sorted socks and tried folding them together. This is one the "practical life" skills in The Peaceful Preschool. I'm always tempted to skip these, but then I'm always glad when I don't!

Another sorting activity was sorting animals into pairs. I put a set in each basket and he had to find their pairs and line them up. He also loved this!

He used the number cards from The Peaceful Preschool to count out colored bears. He did all ten numbers on his own, and I was so proud of him.

He really enjoyed sorting the animals by land and water. He understood the concept and did such a good job. This was simply two pieces of felt I laid in an old wooden tray. I added a mix of land and water animals from our collection. He played with this for a long time!

These were two activities from The Peaceful Preschool. He had a great time making the bunny mask and gluing the "bunny tails" onto his letters!

He also transferred "bunny tails" using tongs. He has finally gotten the hand of using the tongs to transfer items. Cotton balls are a great first choice because they're easy!

I printed this bunny labeling worksheet for Zeke as an introduction to labeling. I would name the body part, he would find it, and then he glued the label in the correct box. He wanted to color the bunny blue!

I'm so excited about everything he is learning. Have you read these books?