Homeschooling with a Toddler – Getting the Hang of Things

 

(image via Pinterest)

We’re just starting our fourth week of homeschooling.  It’s been a bit of adjustment, but we are definitely loving it.

The first week was filled with tears and uncertainty (from me, not my child!). 

The second week, I found that I had a general idea of what we would be working on the next day.  Things started to fall into place.  And my toddler started to fall apart.  Not only was my time shared with a daycare child in the home, it was now also shared with her older sister being there all day.  The result was almost constant whining, an increase in tantrums, clingy/needy behaviour and by the end of the week she was starting to have pee accidents during the day and wetting the bed at night.

The third week, things were getting a little easier still and the routine was starting to become more natural.  My toddler was still acting up, but this was the last week that I had my daycare child. 

And here we are at week 4.  We had a great day today and got a ton done.  My toddler and I will get some one-on-one time tomorrow while my oldest is at an activity morning for homeschoolers.  I’m going to work at planning some regular days out.  We’ve been feeling a bit of cabin fever lately, not only from the homeschooling, but also from the weather we’ve had.  Some sunny days are in the forecast for this week, so I am hoping to get the kids out to the park for some fresh air and exercise.

I had great intentions of having all kinds of activity bags for my toddler.  They are getting done VERY slowly, but they are getting done.  This week I made her some lacing cards.  They didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped, but she loved playing with them.  She told me she was knitting like Mommy, and I told her that it was more like sewing and that she was sewing like Mommy.  She was very pleased.

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Homeschooling with a Toddler or Two: Week 1

Welcome to the first week of our homeschooling adventure.

To start, I want to clarify our homeschooling method.  We are currently not doing traditional homeschooling.  What we are doing is ‘distance education’.  That means that we are still registered in the regular school system, they give us the curriculum and we do it at home.

Because my daughter was in a split class last year, and has done the first 1/3 of the school year in a regular school, we have had a couple hiccups as we have started out.  First off, the curriculum we have been given is taught in a certain order.  Teachers in a classroom may teach it in a different order… and they have.  We are finding some things she has already done, some things she has never even seen and we are having to do a bit of backtracking.  This has been a little stressful, but once it is all sorted out and we find our place, I expect that things will start to move along a little more smoothly.

The other challenge we face in our homeschooling is our toddler.  And not only do we have a toddler of our own in the house, three days a week, I have a second toddler in the house for daycare.  This creates a lot of chaos tricky environment for learning.  And so I find I am having to plan activities to keep the toddlers busy during my teaching time.

This week, I tried out ‘cloud dough’.

Cloud Dough is super simple to make.  Just mix 7 cups of flour with 1 cup of baby oil, then….enjoy?

I’ll be honest.  My toddlers loved this.  My big kids loved this.  Even I had quite a lot of fun playing in it.

The baby oil makes the flour so you can mold it.  So cool!

I cleaned it up after only a morning of it being out. 

This is by far one of the messiest things I have ever put out for my kids (and we DO messy!).  As is typical of flour, it gets everywhere! It sticks to everything!  Add oil?  Oh my goodness!  It stuck to their clothes, feet, hair, faces.  And with all its stick, it also stuck to the floors, the couch, and was all over the stairs.  It was down the hall, on their chairs, and all over the toys.

I don’t think we will be doing this again any time soon.

I couldn’t keep the toddlers out of it.  I would cover up the sand table, but they would take off the cover and get right back in there.  They loved it so much!

Do I think you should try it?  Absolutely! 

I do have a few suggestions.

1) Put the cloud dough in a container with a lid.  Make sure it is in a container you can take away.  A tupperware style container would be a great idea.

2) If it’s a nice day outside and not too cold, do this activity outside.

3) If you can’t do this activity outside, make sure you have art smocks to put on the kids and run a bath for them before you put out the cloud dough.  They might need to go straight into the bath after playing with it!

4) Whatever you do, don’t wear dark coloured clothing.

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Stepping Into Homeschooling

Today, we registered my daughter to homeschool.  It was a hard decision for us, but we are looking forward to being so involved in her learning.

Today, was also what I imagine will be the hardest day in our homeschooling adventures.  I had to let her school (and teacher) know that she would not be returning.

That was pretty hard to do, but it is done now and we can move into our new routine.

Tomorrow, we will pick up our materials and try to find our way through all the information and modules and such that we will be working through.  I feel very nervous, but also very excited.  I am looking forward to being involved in my child’s learning in such a big way.  Honestly, I have always loved having my kids at home with me.  I look forward to the extra time I will have with my oldest daughter.

Keep checking in.  I’ll try to keep you posted with how we are adapting to our new schedule. 🙂

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