Читать книгу Homeschooling For Dummies - Jennifer Kaufeld - Страница 73

Teaching a group of other children (or even one or two) with a toddler in the mix guarantees some interesting days for the whole group, but it can be done. Many homeschooling families survive toddlerhood each time and even go on to teach that youngest person at home when she becomes ready.

Forget the super-parent mentality. This may come as a shock — or a huge stress reliever, depending on your current state of mind — but with young children in the house, you can’t do it all. Even if you could do it all before the youngster made his appearance on the scene, little ones require too much time, effort, and love to allow you to homeschool, lead Girl Scouts, become the head volunteer at the Humane Society, and provide a four-course home-cooked meal every night. Enjoy the toddler years while you have them. The Humane Society will still be there next year, and I bet they’d love a new volunteer.

Whew! That much said, here are some ideas to streamline your life while you live with a toddler:

 Use videos for those times when you must have 24½ uninterrupted minutes with an older child. If your toddler loves Blue’s Clues or Winnie the Pooh, those are the videos to keep back from general family usage for the sacred teaching hour. Pop one of the most-loved videos into the player and work with the other children to the sound of the Winnie the Pooh theme song.

 Keep a stash of special toys in your school area. Maintaining a small crate of “school time only” toddler toys gives your little person something to play with that he doesn’t generally have in his hands. When my kids were toddlers, I rotated toys every couple of months; with a box on the floor and a box in the closet, the kids thought they got “new” toys quite often.

 Use naptime to its fullest. Most toddlers still need to nap. If you resist the urge to crash along with her, the toddler naptime can function as your main teaching time with the other children. You can get a good one-on-one instruction period into each day if you concentrate on teaching new skills while the toddler happily snoozes. Then, when your recharged ball of energy reenters the scene, you can work on memorization skills, reading time, or other tasks that require less interactive attention.

 Play “pass the toddler.” This may make your school days longer, but if everybody takes a turn playing with the toddler until naptime, you can work with the students who are left. Taking turns gives your other children a break from school time, and it keeps the toddler occupied.

 Hold and cuddle if you have a lovey dove. Some babies and toddlers love to be cuddled. Nothing says you can’t hold your toddler on your lap while you teach. A little bounce once in a while and a nice warm hug may be enough to keep them occupied as they watch the siblings do their thing from the comfort of a parent’s arms.

 Go to bed early once in a while. No one will report you to the Stay Up Late Police if you turn in at 8:30 every now and then. Putting the toddler to bed and leaving the other children in the care of Parent Number Two makes total sense if you’re exhausted or simply need an hour or two by yourself.