Question for Home Schooling parents of more than one child

[Mouse House Mama]

or anyone who has some advice. I was wondering how you do lessons when you have a child that is school age and others that aren't. I ask this because while we do all sorts of projects at home, sometimes I would like to do more advanced activities with my older son as he will be in kindergarten next year but I have a 3 year old and a 16 month old. So while I give them each a separate project to do it can be difficult sometimes keeping everyone away from the other's papers so to speak. Working during naptime isn't always an option either. We are not planning to HS, I just like doing things with the kids to challenge them. So.....how do you handle it?

 

[nuzmom]

Try doing the same material with both the 3 and 5 year old, just expect different results with the 3 year old. Give your 16 month old something interesting to play with and let him/her stay close to you while you "teach" the others.

What type of activities are you wanting to do? Maybe we can give you examples of how to include your other children.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I usually do the same type of activity for my 3 year old but my 16month old thinks he is at least 4. He is not content to just do something else. He must do what they are doing or he is not happy. Just as an example, he will not eat if he is in his highchair, he must be sitting in a regular seat with no booster feeding himself like his brother and sister. I am happy that he wants to do all the same things, but sometimes it's just not possible. I want to work on things like phonics, word recognition, penmanship, certain craft projects etc. Now I could teach a modified version to the baby but in all honesty he is more interested in what his big brother is doing. We do science projects and that seems to work with all of them because they all get to help, and we do lots of differetn craft stuff, but for more refined stuff it is a little hard. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[disnutt]

I lock the 3 yo in the basement while working with the other two!

Just kidding. I do think about it-often.

No helpful hints. I'm subscribing to learn some!

 

[nuzmom]

Sounds like your choice is to take advantage of naptime, or "special" TV time, or to include everyone in each activity. You'll probably end up with a little of each.

I'd suggest using your 16 month old as your "helper". For instance, if you're working on letter recognition, let him pick cardboard letter tiles out of a bag to "show" to your other children. Your 3 year old could TRY to say the letter (or the color or shape of the paper) and your 5 year old could be asked to name the letter (and sound it makes or word that begins with it). Be clear to your 3 and 5 year old that if your 16 month old won't pick the letter or show it to them that you'll pick one for them. Make it FUN and keep it short.

Here's a fun phonics idea we used - pick a letter for the day (like M), draw some squares on paper and have your children trace the letter and cut out the squares. (make extra for your 16 month old to play with/destroy/whatever). Go around the house and find things that begin with that letter and tape the letter onto them. Depending on ability, you might need to point out the items. That's ok, eventually they'll be doing it. You may find that the time it takes your 16 month old to stick and unstick (over and over again) will allow you and your other children to do 20 items. Encourage your 5 year old to say the letter and name the item before removing the "tag". Let your 3 yr old and 16 mnth old, just have fun "unsticking" the letters. This also works with colors and shapes.

I have 2 children, 5 years apart. I explained to my older son that I was doing the "activity" for him and that I expected different results from both of them. Most of the time, my younger son was just happy to be included. I figured it was a success if he didn't eat the craft supplies!!!!

I feel compelled to say to not pressure yourself too much. Most preschools are just a couple of hours 3 times a week. If you're able to take advantage of nap time once or twice a week and then do "group" activities a few times, that's awesome. If not, it's OK. Relax and enjoy your children. It sounds like you're doing a lot of fun stuff already. I'm sure they're learning so much more then you even realize.

 

[nuzmom]

For what it's worth, you might want to ask your school what is expected of a child entering kindergarten and focus on adding those in your activities.

For instance, our K wants children to recognize their names when written in lower case letters. Easy - put names on TONS of stuff in the house (bedroom doors, drink cups, placemats, etc.) Children quickly recognize their names and the names of siblings. (this wasn't a tough requirement, but if you only focus on Upper case letters, it can be a surprise)

Required to count to 20? Count EVERYTHING - cheerios, m&m's, toys, cars, etc.

We always had fun "finding" letters and numbers while we were out. We'd pick a number/letter/color of the day before going out and then we'd be on the "look out" for it. (this was actually a trick to keeping my kids on their best behavior - they'd start to get tired/whiney and I'd say "hey, I see something red - can you find it? and it would buy me 5 or 10 minutes) Anyway, it was always funny to me when one of my sons would proudly say in amazement "hey, mommy, there's M"!!!! (we had to put in some extra work on using inside voices)

I hope some of this can be helpful to you and that you get some more responses.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Oh- I forgot to mention that my DS goes to pre-school. I just want to supplement what he's learning and give us some fun stuff to do. He knows his letters, numbers, shapes, counting, basic math, name, address, phone number, Mommy and Daddy's names etc. as does my 3 year old. With my 3 year old she can recognize her name and do alot of the things that DS can do of course at her development level. I just want to give them some things to do instead of watching movies because it is so cold out that we don't get alot of outside time this time of year. I am loving the suggestions so far so keep them coming!

 

[princesspwrhr]

I have a 2 yo, a 3 yo and an 8 yo. My 8 yo stays up later and the really super cool stuff (microscope etc) comes out after bedtime. My 2 & 3 yo like to be like their sister so I have a special color book for each of them that they ONLY get when my older dd has bookwork and the little ones want to do the same thing. Playdough also only comes out while my oldest is working. My oldest likes to teach things to her little sisters, but your kids are closer in age so modified activities for each of them will probably work best.

For counting and numbers, give each of them counters, sized appropriately or edible. If you're working on forming letters & numbers, give the 16mo a paper with the letter/number on it and some crayons, look over and say 'great job' every so often, when the dextarity comes you can help direct the actual writing, but for now, scribbling will work. Your 3 yo can trace #s drawn in highlighter (WAY easier than drawing dashed lines) and your 5yo can practice forming them on hs own. Paint with pudding, play with a big bucket of rice and some measuring scoops, funnels and bowls. get some plastic kid scissors that don't cut anything and keep the 16 mo on your lap with hers while the older two practice on old magazines.

Lessons at this age should be short and fun. They learn FAR more by 'doing' than they do sitting. Sort toys as you put them away for the night (let's put the trucks away first. Now let's do the little people. Put all of the blue blocks over here....) count things as you put them away (we used 1, 2, 3, 4 cushions from the couch in our fort), Make Glop, oobleck or edible playdough- the 5 yo can mix ingrediants, the 3 yo can pour into the bowl and the 16 mo can hand them to you. For word recognition, label everything you can with a picture and a word. Craft projects can often be modified - if you're making valentines for family or vetrans for example, let the 3&5 yo use glue or glue sticks and give the 16 mo clear contact paper and torn up tissue paper or construction paper. Coloring w/ markers? give the 16 mo the Color wonder ones - also good for finger paint.

do you get Family Fun? There's a section in there with ideas for tots, and they have a separate 'sister' magazine designed specifically for toddlers/preschoolers. The website has most of the same stuff. If you pick something for the littleone, sometimes it's easier to make it harder for the older one rather than simplifing a more comnplex project.

EXPECT messes - and involve the kids in the clean up. And to whoever said they consider it a sucess if the little one doesn't eat the craft supplies - you owe me a new monitor! That's so true, I laughed and stupidly had a drink in my mouth.

 

[Elaine R]

I have a kindergartener and a 2 year old. What we try to do is include DS2 in everything possible. When DS4 has to memorize his poem the DS2 says a nursery rhyme. When we read stories everyone listens. He has his own special "math book" to do. (Not that I expect anything to come of it. It just makes him feel good the be a part of things) Many families have special toys that can only be used during school. We have a Leap Frog Little Touch that only get used during phonics time. That is one activity that DS2 just can't be a part of, so this one special toy soothes his insulted little soul. Nothing we tell him will convice him that he's not in kindergarten too. Another thing that helps is that we have a designated playroom/schoolroom. When my youngest isn't into things he just leaves and goes to play in another part of the room.

 

[happypooh]

subscribing - thanks for the great ideas!

 

[beccalines]

We do the majority of the harder stuff (math, history reading, etc,) after the baby goes down for a nap. I just tell my other two to go play upstairs for a bit. When we are doing stuff that they can be involved with, they come down and participate. We break school up into 2 or 3 blocks a day. That gives time for everyone to take a break from school, quiet time, or playing with special toys.

We also have special toys they can only pull out during school or while they are at the table. That keeps the little ones entertained for a small amount of time

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Today we did some fun stuff. I made homemade clay and cookies. All 3 kids took a nap at the same time so that was nice too! My oldest woke up first and made a special craft for Daddy for Valentine's Day that they made in school but he was out sick so the teacher sent home all the work for us. That was nice for him too. I suppose I just need to figure out stuff for each of them to do that is so interesting to them that they don't care what the other one is doing. Keep up all the great suggestions. I am really getting some good ideas!