Homeschooling with littles, we all need tips and tricks, patience and understanding! It can be amazing and super stressful at times as well. The information in this series of posts comes from the personal experience of myself, my sister who is also a homeschool mom, and research! I often see posts on Facebook and other forums with parents asking about teaching littles. So, I thought this might be helpful a series to put together! At the end you’ll find some other helpful resources too!
Homeschooling with Littles – managing expectation
So, here’s the thing, people post in forums across the internet asking about homeschooling with littles. There’s often questions like:
Why can’t my 2 year old learn letter sounds? How do I teach my 3 year old math? Shouldn’t my 4 year old be reading by now? What’s the best curriculum for my preschooler? I’ve never been a fan of rushing my kids. The beauty of homeschooling is being able to meet your child where they are, in each subject. I have one kid that is doing math for one grade and in another grade all together for English. I can make unit studies work for all 3 kiddos together and we can explore them as a family. This is what makes homeschooling so special.
Homeschooling with littles can be challenging, especially if you have more than one under 5! My kiddos are each 2 years apart. So, I speak from experience! Here’s something that I had to learn as I started teaching them…
Children don’t just magically learn new things.
Sounds silly right? Of course they don’t! One of the most frustrating thing about homeschooling with littles is that they may know something inside and out the day that you teach it. However, they might completely forget it the next day. We hear people say all the time that kids are like sponges. Sure, they are like little sponges, but do you know what happens to a sponge that gets too full too fast? It drips, it doesn’t indefinitely hold water. They need time to develop the skills, and the emotional and mental maturity to absorb, retain and use what they learn.
When you’re homeschooling with littles think about how many tries it takes a baby to roll, get into a crawling position, or pull themselves up to standing. Speech starts slowly for most kids, ma to mama to mom to mommy, for example. Keep in mind that children come into this world completely embodied and taking in the world around them. It’s a lot to take in though! Their muscles need to develop the strength to sit, crawl and stand. In a similar sense they need to develop and strengthen those cognitive “muscles” over time as well. This can be a stressful process for the parent and the child! Check out my 2min Stress Management series! It can help you and your child!
Each child is different. As much as people like to standardize, label and categorize to fit people into little boxes with pretty bows on them, that is not realistic. Every child is different. Children will learn at their own pace, in their own ways. If you’re struggling to try and fit them into someone else’s definition of where they should be. Take a step back. Think about all that you know about your child. Remember that we are their tour guides. Keep in mind that everything they learn is their accomplishment, not ours. This will all serve you well when trying to homeschool them.
When homeschooling with littles remember to have fun! You don’t need a curriculum! You just have to read, sing, move, and play and get them outside as much as possible! Celebrate them, help them explore and follow the garden paths, encourage them and teach them how to learn. That is what this post series is all about. Check out more posts in this series!
Helpful Resources:
5 Senses Literature Learning – this was the first resource I was given by a friend that helped me teach in creative and fun ways!
The idea of using a Morning Basket from Pam Barnhill has helped us to anchor our homeschool days. Check out my post above on anchoring your homeschool day to help you start your day in a beautifully positive way every day!.
Teacherspayteachers.com – Such a huge help! This resource makes creating unit studies and teaching things I feel less comfortable teaching much easier!
You’ll find more helpful resources and ideas throughout my blob posts!
