This is generally a hot topic among homeschoolers, especially newbies.  A large percentage of the time, people begin home schooling when their oldest child is early elementary age.  They either know they are going to try home schooling from the start and begin formal education in kindergarten, or they went the public or private school route for a year or two and then pulled them out and brought them home.  Sometimes there are other, younger kids at home already and them sometimes they might come a bit later.  Either way, at some point, most home schooling moms (and dads) will wonder how to continue to educate their school-age child(ren) with a dependent baby/toddler/pre-schooler needing their diaper changed or nose wiped or sippy cup refilled every five minutes.

For me, this dilemma came a little later in my home schooling adventure.  When I first began home schooling Bonny Annie, Dirty Harry was two, but I don’t remember ever having many problems.  I did strap him into a spare highchair for an hour everyday to watch Sesame Street.  This allowed me to do some math and language arts activities with my first grader, but he pretty much was right there with us for everything else, and by the time he was three, I was doing a little preschool program with him.

But Cap’n Jack Henry has been a different story.  Continuing our educational pursuits with him around has been interesting to say the least. 

But we are doing it.  And so to that end, I though I’d share whatever wisdom and insight I have on the subject, hoping that it might help a newbie homeschooler to hang in there while their little monkey scribbles on their worksheets and eats their glue sticks.  Or, after reading this, some of you may log off your computers and head straight to your nearest school’s office to enroll your youngsters immediately.  Either way I feel I will have done my part to be informative and honest.

1.  Use the littles’ naptimes wisely.

This is probably the single most important piece of advice I can give.  Sure, you may think you need a little nap yourself or perhaps you have your eye on the five loads of laundry that need to be folded.  STOP!  Step away from those ideas!  Use the baby’s nap for the subjects that are hard to do when he/she is awake.  For us this is usually our history and literature read-alouds, science experiments, spelling tests, and language arts lessons.  I try to cram us much into that hour and half as possible and then usually I can still find a few minutes to work on my blog or, yes, as much as I hate it, fold laundry.

2.  Train your school-age children to work independently.

My kids know that when Jack Henry is up and needing some attention that they will need to work by themselves.  For us, this might be silent reading, handwriting, or math.  You might want to have a folder or a plastic tray set up for them to place their completed work, so that when you get a chance, you can check it later.  Establish specific assignments that they are capable of before hand, so that when the baby is fussy or is being fed, that the older ones can just fall into their independent routine without any drama.

3.  Provide the baby/toddler with age appropriate activities in your school area.

Our school area is the kitchen table.  This area opens right up into our living room.  I’ve pretty much made this area baby-safe so that Jack Henry can roam around while I read a history lesson.  You have to just allow the kid to wreck the place during this time though, or you’ll never get anything done.  Jack Henry usually has floor time for about an hour in the later mornings, and this is usually what my living room looks like at the end of that hour…

Nice, huh?

When he’s done pillaging and ransacking, I usually read him a story or two and then put him down for a nap.  The big kids then will pick up the room for me.  They are usually ready to stretch their legs a bit, and it really doesn’t take as long as it looks.  Everything  has a place, so it’s a pretty simple clean-up.  Magazines and books in the basket, blocks in the wagon, Fun-Dips back in the box and put away in the cabinets, etc.  Yes, Fun-dips.  We have a box leftover from Valentine’s Day, and they are one of his favorite toys at the moment.  He just likes to take all of them out and put them back in, over and over again.

Since the weather has been so nice, I’ve opened up the windows, and this has bought us even more precious time as he loves standing there watching the birds in our yard or the cars pass by.

3.  Use your highchair.

Our highchair is right at the table where the kids school, so it’s very convenient to pop Jack Henry in and give him something to do.  But if you do most of your home schooling away from the dining room, I’d suggest investing in another one or a travel booster or something like that.  There’s simply nothing like containment!  I’ve just discovered that Jack Henry enjoys watching old “Blue’s Clues” episodes on our laptop from his highchair.  Or if I just need about ten minutes for a lesson, I might just give him a snack that he can feed to himself.

Okay, strawberry applesauce is probably not the best example.

No, definitely  not the best example.  Give him Cherrios.

You could also make your age 1+ child some of these crayons for highchair time.

4.  Use a pack-and-play.

Begin putting your baby in a playpen when they first start sitting up, so that they will be used to it and not feel like they’re in jail.  Also try to never use the playpen for a punishment.  You may also want to switch the toys that you keep in there regularly so that they don’t get bored.  We’ve followed these principals, and we get about an hour or so of playpen time from him everyday before he starts throwing things at us.  See….he loves it…

Ha, ha.  I just threw that one if for visual interest.  Here’s a short video to show you how content Jack Henry is in his pack-and-play…

He’s got some moves, doesn’t he?  And, yes, you will just have to learn to tune out whatever musical toys they may have in there.

5.  Don’t take everything so seriously.

Some days are just going to be bad.  Your baby may scream through your child’s recitation of the first sixteen Presidents.  The toddler might color on your entryway floor while you’re giving  a spelling test.  He might only nap for thirty minutes.  It’s okay.  It really is.  These days do not mean that you can’t be successful at home schooling.  Your baby’s antics will not keep your other children out of college.  As a matter of fact, the baby will only be a baby for a little while, so just allow your family to slow down and enjoy this season.  They may even learn a more valuable lesson from this experience than what is within the pages of their textbooks.