New to homeschooling

[luckymomof3]

Hi, This is going to be our first year homeschooling and I am hoping to get some good tips and ideas from people. I al trying to figure out ways that will be best to teach since I have a 2 year old and 4 month old as well as my school age daughter. How do I keep the other children busy and entertained so that I can teach her?

[cindyk]

We've homeschooled 4 children for 18 years total. Our ages were more spread out, but seems to me that with such small ones, you may have to be CREATIVE in finding tiny snippets of time! Some ideas might be:

* do school at hours most convenient: Is there anything in your state rules that require you to do school during certain hours of the day? Maybe you could find a time when a spouse or family member is more available to watch little ones, such as a Saturday morning or early evening, to get caught up in school subjects.
* nap time: work with the older ones when little ones nap! (*I know there's a tendency to try and cram all the housework in this time slot, but maybe you could "hire" your school age child to help "babysit" later in the day while you do housework. We used the older children greatly to help care for the younger ones. As a result, they've become quite good with children and are often hired as babysitters or nannies - BTW, reading books to a younger child is a great way to entertain little ones while doing school reading!)
* night time: after dinner was a great time for either me, or my husband, to do reading with the older child
* shared educational activities: We used educational videos and DVDs. This worked particularly well with subjects like history and science. Often times, all ages would sit and watch these!
* invest in "things" that keep the little ones entertained: Sometimes it's as simple as a big cardboard box filled with odds and ends for them to throw out, over and over again! Or a Leapfrog that's age appropriate so they can do "school", too! We also did pre-school activities on GeoSafari.
* trade child care: I've known homeschooling moms who form a sort of babysitting "co-op" where they swap out or "trade" child care to free each other up.
* have someone come in to help with little ones during 4 hours of school: My niece has two sets of twins! To work with the older twins, her mother-in-law comes in certain days of the week for just the morning. Grandma gets time to love on the babies, and school gets done! If you don't live near family, maybe there's a grandma "wanna be" in your church or neighborhood that would want to help. Listen for comments like, "Looks like my son or daughter is NEVER going to get married and have grands for me!"
* use a curriculum that fosters independence in the school age child: In our "cottage" business, we offer the Switched On Schoolhouse computer programs because they did free me up so much! Contact me for more info and best wishes! Hope these ideas are helpful!