Homeschooling Toddlers During Maternity Leave

I’m intrigued by homeschooling families.  It’s not an option for me because of my status as the breadwinner of the family, but I’ve found myself imagining lesson plans and educational activities to do with my children.  My father was a math teacher.  During his summers off, he would give us assignments from workbooks.  Also, I have several relatives who homeschool their children.  They may live many states away from us, but thanks to Facebook, I get a glimpse into the education they provide at home through their posts and pictures.

I set a lot of goals for this maternity leave.  Newborns sleep, a lot.  And yes, they wake up at night too, but I usually feel sufficiently rested with one good nap each day.  On my first maternity leave, with Goofball, I wasted so much time watching television or taking too many naps.  This time around, I was pulling the older kids out of daycare where they have been learning quite a bit.  I wanted to keep them on track and live out some of my homeschool-mom fantasies.  So, I prepared for leave by printing out a ton of different worksheets and collecting some supplies.

What have we been working on?  I previously mentioned the awesome printables at 3dinosaurs.com.  Goofball loves the monster math flashcards that I found here.  There are sight-word reusable sheets (also from 3dinosaurs.com) that are tons of fun because he gets to use play dough and markers.  I’ve been using cute alphabet and number flashcards from mrprintables.com with Tornado.  This week, we also learned about money using coins.  Tornado identified, counted, and sorted coins.  Goofball learned about the value of different denominations and practiced writing the words and numbers.

How has it been going during the past few weeks?  First of all, Mr. Smith has been around, so I’ve had a good amount of assistance.  The kids have been doing well and seem motivated to learn.  I was pleasantly surprised when they requested that I continue with Bible time (they go to a Christian daycare).  It was one of the few times when I actually wanted to give in to their demands!  We headed to the library and checked out some Bible storybooks on our first family outing with little Trey.  The biggest issue that I’ve had is helping two toddlers complete different projects at the same time.  They always seem to both need my help at the same time.  It feels like I’m constantly telling one of them to “hold on for a minute.”  I’ve learned to approach homeschool with fairly low expectations – they are only toddlers after all.  If we focus on just a couple of tasks each day, they remain focused for at least an hour, sometimes up to two hours.  Also, variety is very helpful – they don’t want to do the same activities two days in a row.

I can only imagine what it’s like to homeschool older children about more complicated subjects than counting or writing letters.  For now, the kids are doing well and appear to be learning.  I feel very fortunate to be learning something as well . . .  I’m learning about my children’s abilities.  I was shocked at how well Goofball did with the math flashcards and writing letters.  And I was surprised to find out that he has trouble counting above 14.  Tornado loves to sing and uses the most amusing associations.  As a working mom, most of my time with the kids is usually spent having fun, doing chores, or taking care of things like bath time.  It has been quite the experience getting to know the academic side of my children and enjoying their accomplishments together.  We will continue with the lessons during maternity leave and I hope to do some type of instruction with them after my return to work.  Once again, I find my priorities and goals are changing.  I must continue to work hard for the flexibility necessary to create a life that is more conducive to the things that really matter.