I’ve been asked before how I homeschool with a toddler (or 2!) in the house.
Just to update you, I have 4 little ones:
TheOldest, a boy turning 7 in September, and will be starting 2nd grade; TheMiddlest, a boy who turned 5 in April, will be starting Kindergarten, ThePrincess, the only girl – who turned 3 in April and is officially preschooling now; and TheBaby~est, turned one in March and is absolutely determined to thwart any plans for learning that I have.
I can’t tell you the best way to do it. I can’t tell you how everybody else does it. I can only tell you how I’ve managed to do it.
A lot of screaming.
Oh, stop, I’m just kidding.
It actually has a lot to do with timing. And since I’ve embraced the chaos and quit trying to fit a bunch of little unpredictable people into my perfectly planned schedule it goes even better. Plus, it helps that I adjusted my expectations. 
A few of the most important points around here:
Bring the baby along for the ride. When our youngest was an infant, I either “wore” him, held him, nursed him, or laid him beside us while we worked.
Accept that seasons change. And you had better too!
Now that the baby is 16 months and climbing onto every surface of the house, we only do “table time” when he goes down for a nap.
I gave up my precious school nook.
I know, let’s all have a collective moment of silence… I tried so hard to save my school room. I even moved it into one of the bedrooms, thinking that maybe I could close the door and keep little hands from destroying everything, but then it just turned into this:
So I gave it up, with the consolation that maybe someday all of my children will be old enough to not destroy everything in sight.
Keep it in reach. We keep all of our pencils, crayons, and other supplies in a moveable basket on the kitchen counter – where the older ones can reach it anytime, but the baby is out of it. All of our current work also on the kitchen counter. However, I keep all of my teacher resource books safe in a closet, blocked by a couch. I wish I were kidding.
Make “learning never stops” your motto. It’s the truth, and with very little “table time”, I better make the most of “real life learning.”
Occupy those little hands. I keep buckets that are themed for my preschooler. I pull out age-appropriate puzzles, magnetic dress-up dolls, blocks, and lace-up cards. I guide her on as many projects as I can manage while also working with the older boys, and then turn her loose to color and write (read: scribble) as much as she wants.
Discover delight-driven learning. Otherwise known as fly by the seat of your pants learning around here! Don’t get me wrong, I do dream of curriculum, of opening a box with new books, and shiny extras just waiting for our eager minds. But, with all the ages, money restrictions, hand-me-downs I’ve been so blessed to acquire, and realizing that my kiddos really are still so young, I’ll be holding off a while longer.
Let go of the fantasy idea of teaching children and embrace the reality. For instance, read-alouds. Oh, my beloved read-alouds. So rarely this:
Much more often if you were a fly on our wall you wouldn’t even recognize it as reading. My girl feels the need to interrupt with constant commentary. Constant. My toddler sees it as the perfect time to run off, do acrobatics off the furniture, attack the dog… My middlest boy is SO not interested in reading. So you can find him, coloring, or more often, doing flips around the room while I attempt to read. And with every interruption, my oldest, who loves to be read to, complains to everyone who is within range that he wants to hear the story. One chapter in Junie B. Jones takes no less than 45 minutes. And that’s after finding the book that one of the younger ones inevitably carries off somewhere.
Which leads me right into my next point: Patience. Oh, elusive patience. Oh, much needed, much lacking patience. All I can say on this one, is practice makes perfect. Learn forgiveness of yourself. And, well, I’m open to all the suggestions/prayers you can give!
Be an opportunist. When everyone is still – jump on it – “Let’s read!” When everyone is climbing the walls – “Project time!” When the baby’s sleepy – “Everybody to the table!”
Include the toddler in the “fun” stuff. Such as when we were studying American History and veered off into a Native American unit. The day we all dressed up as indians, of course the baby had to get in on the no-shirt, lipstick-as-war-paint fun!
The moral to my homeschooling with *2 under 2* story?
Do what works. Until it doesn’t work anymore. And then try something else.
And please tell me how you homeschool with a toddler in the house. I need some more things in my magic bag for when this doesn’t work anymore!
Suzanne is wife to one and mama to four. The little ones are 2 boys ages 6 and 5, a girl who’s 3, and a baby boy who’s not knee-high to a grasshopper yet. She eclecticly unschools with lapbooks the Charlotte Mason way. In other words, she doesn’t have the slightest clue what she’s doing, but does it anyway. She lives in a world where there are few absolutes. The dishes don’t stay cleaned, the laundry doesn’t stay put away, the children don’t remember what she told them yesterday. But in their chaotic lives they have found joy. And they’d love to share that with you. So, come on over, kick a path through the toys, have a seat on the couch and grab a cup of strong coffee. Just be ready to hone your skills of “interrupted conversation”! And be sure to stop by her personal blog at The Joyful Chaos.
