Homeschooling With Babies and Toddlers in the Home

With three small children, each only a few years apart, I have had littles in my home for as long as I have been homeschooling. Here are twenty things I have learned about homeschooling with babies and toddlers over the past four years!

Pray! Pray! Pray! And Pray Some More!

On my second day of teaching Kindergarten, my husband came home to me curled up in a ball on the floor sobbing. “They won’t listen! They keep trying to kill themselves! They Threw Poop At Me!” (Technically, it was a dirty diaper and Big Brother was just trying to help me by “changing” Middle Man’s diaper).

I quickly realized that teaching without praying is like trying to help someone put on their air-mask on the plane before putting on your own.

Give Them Special Toys

Keep a set of toys, craft supplies, and/or books that only come out during the school day. If space allows, keep a rotation of toys so that they get something different each day.

A few years ago, some of my mom friends organized a busy bag swap. We each made a bunch of the same type of busy bag. When we got together, we traded and came home with a basketful of different busy bags. These are so great for my toddlers to play with during school!

I also like to pick up some educational books and workbooks from the Dollar Store, used bookstores, or discount stores. Little kids love having “school books” of their own. These typically get used quickly or ripped to shreds, so I don’t invest much in them.

Give Them Special Time

A lot of preschoolers will act out when they want attention. I have found it helpful to fill their love tanks up early in the day. A fifteen minute snuggle session, a quick read aloud, or a simple game are all great ways to give your little guys special time before school starts.

You might even consider “doing school” with your little ones. You could complete a page in an educational workbook, color a coloring sheet together, do a simple craft, or practice counting household objects. The craft bundles in our store would be a great resource if you don’t have the time to come up with activities and gather supplies on your own.

Include Them In School

Whenever you can, include your toddlers in your school day. Morning Time, family devotions, read alouds, some science experiments, and hands-on activities are great places to include little kids. I try to schedule all of my “family” subjects first. Usually after an hour or so, the littles get distracted by a toy or book in the other room.

When we have worksheets or workbooks to work on, I give my littles something similar. If the copyright allows, I might make a copy of the same sheet for all of my kids. Otherwise, they get a sheet of paper, a coloring page, or one of their “school books” to work on.

Keep a Routine

A lot of little ones thrive on routine. Notice that I used the word “routine” and not “schedule.” A routine is a consistent pattern of doing things. A schedule is more rigid and focuses more on doing things at certain times.

While a schedule might work well for your family, little kids usually mean large distractions. Your schedule gets thrown off very easily when you have a baby to feed, a spill to clean up, or a potty training child needing assistance.

Try keeping a general rhythm to your days if at all possible. This allows little kids to know what to expect next. Plus, if you always do snack time after science, they might stop asking when snack time is. (I can dream, right?)

Be Flexible

Toddlers thrive on routine but babies rarely know how to tell time! Try to be flexible when things come up. Maybe your morning was spent rocking a colicky baby. You could then try to do school in the afternoon or evening or make up your school day on Saturday.

Simplify Your Schedule

If you continually find yourself short on time to get everything done, you might need to see what could be cut out of your schedule. Now might not be the best time for that extra day of music lessons or travel sport. Also, remember that sometimes we have to say “no” to some things in order to say “yes” to our main priorities.

Use Nap Time

Naptime is a very important day in the home of babies and toddlers. Enforce nap or quiet time as long as you need to. Even my oldest child takes a quiet time a few days each week.

Naptime might be the best time of day to get in a couple of subjects that require one-on-one instruction, a quiet learning environment, or a lot of manipulatives that would not work well around little kids.

Also, try to use nap time to restore mom. If possible, get a quick moment of rest for yourself! Trust me, you will be a better wife, mom, and teacher for it.

Re-Think Your Curriculum

This might be a good time to switch up your curriculum. If you are struggling to get enough sleep, a curriculum that does all of your lesson planning for you might be a good choice. If you don’t have enough time to spend working one-on-one with your older children, you might need to consider something with more independent work or even an online course for a subject or two.

Right now might not be the best time to use anything that requires a lot of prep work or planning. That is okay! You can always switch back to those programs as your family dynamics change.

Have a Go-To Task

This has been my biggest game changer! Give each of your children a “go-to task” or a set of them. These are things that the child can do without your assistance in those moments where you get pulled away unexpectedly.

Copywork, worksheets, independent reading, or household chores are great ideas for “go-to tasks.” You could use the same task all the time or have a spot where you write down that day’s tasks.

We keep a basket full of books relating to our current school topics. Big Brother has to spend 30 minutes reading books from the basket each day. If Mom has to walk away from school for any reason, my he knows to go get started on his book basket.

Teach Life Skills

Right now might be a good time to drop a few academic subjects for a little while and focus on life skills. Work on training your older children household chores, simple cooking techniques, and how to care for the baby. These home economics style lessons will be very educational for your children and could help take some of the household responsibilities off of your plate.

Baby Proof the School Room

Make the school room an inviting place for both your big kids and your little kids. Try to keep baskets of large, durable manipulatives, books, and educational toys near the floor. This will *hopefully* keep them occupied and away from all of the other fun things in the room. Keep pencils, small manipulatives, scissors, and other supplies out of reach of your little guys. You might want to keep all of your everyday supplies in pencil boxes in a closet where your big kids can grab them only when they are needed.

Keep Them Contained

Find ways to keep your babies and toddlers close by but safely contained. Many moms enjoy wearing their babies in slings and carriers. You can also use bounce seats and swings for young babies. High chairs and exersaucers are great places to entertain older babies. Some toddlers do well in play yards nearby.

Keep Yourself Contained

When my toddlers got to the stage that they wanted freedom from the playpen, we got into the playpen and used it to keep the toddler out! We put a child sized picnic table inside the playpen but you could also do school on the floor inside the pen. This allowed us to use lots of writing utensils and manipulatives without risk of the toddler eating them!

Give Big Kids Special Time

When you are in a season with demanding littles, sometimes your big kids can get left out. Sure, you might be spending a lot of time with them doing school, but try to make some time for fun time with them as well. We let Big Brother stay up one night each week to play a game with Mom and Dad. It gives us a special time to bond and have conversations that don’t usually take place when brother and sister are around.

Simplify One Task

Sometimes picking one task out of your day and simplifying it, eliminating it, or delegating it can make a huge difference. Whether that task is laundry, cooking and meal planning, or cleaning bathrooms, find one area that would improve the rest of your days.

For most moms, the most daunting task is planning and cooking meals. You could create 2-3 meal plans with grocery lists and continue rotating through them. You could meal prep or ingredient prep on the weekend. You could sign up for a meal delivery service or use a pickup or delivery service for groceries. I used Cassy Joy Garcia’s cookbook Cook Once, Eat All Week last year for easy meal plans, grocery lists, and instructions on how to ingredient prep.

Use Your Big Kids

If you have more than two children, pair an older child with a toddler or baby for 20 minutes while you work with another child on school work. When you are done working with the first child, have the older children swap roles. While a child is assigned to a younger sibling, make sure they know to let the younger sibling choose what to play or do. This usually reduces whining and screaming.

Re-Think Screen Time

If you are a parent that restricts screen time, you might need to loosen up your restrictions for a little while. A twenty-five minute episode of Paw Patrol might just help you get through teaching a Math lesson. If it makes you feel better, you could let your littles watch something educational, such as Leap Frog Letter Factory.

This might also be an option for your big kids while you tend to your baby or toddler. An episode of Liberty Kids or Magic School bus are great history and science lessons while you feed the baby or clean up after your toddler flushed some matchbox cars.

Enlist Help

When you cannot seem to get anything done, you might want to enlist some help. There is no award for completing homeschooling and housework all on your own. Housekeepers, mother’s helpers, and laundry services might help out. If you cannot afford help full time, ask how much they would charge for a partial service. We hire someone once per month to clean the bathrooms because we could not spend money on weekly housecleaning services.

A mother’s helper is someone who comes to entertain your children while you are still at home. This could allow you to get a nap, catch up on some housework, or teach a few independent lessons to your older children. A mother’s helper usually charges less than a babysitter because they have fewer responsibilities. Your helper is usually a younger teen trying to get experience babysitting.

You might even consider childcare options for your little ones. We have sent our youngest two to a Mother’s Day Out program two days per week so that I could focus on work at my husband’s office and catch up on school.

Remember That It Is Just A Phase

One of the best tips I was given as a new mom was that “Parenting is just going through a set of phases back-to-back.” If you feel like you will never get through (insert something your child is doing now), just wait six months and they will be doing something new. Sometimes it is better, usually it is just different. If homeschooling seems impossible today, just remember that you are in a difficult phase and it will be over soon.

Do you have any other tips for homeschooling with littles?