Today we are answering the question, by showing you what a typical home day looks like for us, homeschooling a preschooler and a toddler in tow.
This is what I call “a home day”. We have a home day about 2-3 days a week. These are the days when we do some seat work, read lots of books and have lots of free, imaginative play. The other 3-4 days a week, we spend a good chunk of the morning out, usually at a playgroup, church or running errands and going to appointments.
But, on a home day, we spend most of the day at home. We might run to the store or our local library for a few minutes, but the rest of the day is spent at home.
This is typical for us. Some might be surprised at how little seat work we do in a day. But we believe in having a lot of real world experiences and hands-on learning. So between imaginative play, baking, chores and games, it’s a full day of learning.
It’s easy for one parent to feel some resentment — to feel out of the loop. Maybe Dad gets to be the fun guy while Mom is the one stuck making the kids do their work and focus on their education.
Do you find that homeschooling has affected your marriage? We have! Homeschooling impacts your whole family and the relationship you have with your partner isn’t immune.
We’ve all been there. It’s normal. But it’s also important to address these feelings and issues as they come up so they don’t create roadblocks in your family relationships and in your homeschooling.
You are a Team
Working together as parents means you are a team in homeschooling. It’s important to keep each other in the loop and to keep the lines of communication open. Share what you are learning, what your monthly theme is or what your kids are reading.
Also, make big decisions together! It’s easier to be on the same page when you’ve both made those decisions together.
It’s Not 9 to 5
Remember that homeschooling isn’t a 9-5 job. This means you can include your partner in some aspects of your child’s education. Maybe it’s reading bedtime stories together (literacy and language arts) or going on a hike in the woods on the weekend (physical education, science, and nature studies). Find those moments when you can include your partner.
No Hierarchy in Subjects
It’s easy to get caught in the “school mindset” where completing certain subjects becomes the most important thing.
But it’s important to remember, that in the real world, there is no hierarchy in subjects. Math is not more important than art. Language is not more important than Phys. Ed. When you remove the thinking that one is more important than the other, you don’t get stressed when your partner takes the kids for a run in the park. Or, when they stop reading to go watch a science video with Dad.
Take Time Together
It’s important to take time together. Easier said than done, right? But it’s important to make some time to spend together without the kids. We try to plan little date nights weekly. Sometimes it’s a little “staff meeting” where we talk about what the kids are learning and doing. Sometimes we go out for an evening. At the very least, we have a Netflix night where we sit back with a big bowl of popcorn and some Brooklyn-99. Either way, the point is to reconnect with your partner.
Homeschooling doesn’t have to put a huge strain on your relationship with your partner. By keeping your lines of communication open and making time for each other, your relationship and ultimately your family can come out on top.
Ask any homeschooler and they will tell you that the most common question they get is about socialization. While it’s not an issue (see our post here on putting this question to bed) some parents do worry that their children aren’t getting enough socialization.
The truth is, unless you are living under a rock and never leaving your house, your child is probably getting enough socialization. But if you are looking for ways to give your child more oppertunities to interact with others here are some of our favourite ways we socialize our homeschool kids.
Where we like to take our kids to socialize:
Playgroups/ Hubs
Preschool Programs
Errands/Appointments/Shopping
Visiting Family
Extra-curricular Activities
Our Neighbourhood
Public Spaces (like a library)
Hopefully this will give you some ideas of where you can take your children to interact with others and help them socialize. Where do your kids do their socializing? Let us know!
Don’t you love having friends with cool homes, jobs or places to visit? We were lucky enough to have a friend who invited us to visit her hobby farm. We packed up the car and drove over there. After a short drive, we arrived and were quickly introduced to the animals.
I love when people share their expertise and knowledge. Especially when it’s something they love and are passionate about. We learned so much while visiting the farm. It was such an educational outing and a real hands-on learning experiences for the whole family.
What’s your favourite farm animal? I think I can say Zoé really loved the ducks and chickens.
Homeschooling isn’t easy. Add in a baby or toddler and it can be down right difficult. We know this from experience.
This past year, while we have been homeschooling Alexie, we also have Zoé with us. Zoé has been sitting next to us since the beginning. When we started homeschooling Alexie, Zoé was only 16 months old. But she has never complained and she actually loves the whole home education experience.
How do we do it? We’ve got 3 simple tips that you can implement to make homeschooling a little easier while you have a little one.
Consider Your Timing
With a little one around, timing is everything. Before you sit down to a block of seat work, make sure everyone (baby included) is well rested and well fed.
It’s also important to keep the length of the seated work short. We aim to keep any seated work limited to 10-20 minutes tops. This is about as long as a young child (under 6) can handle. This short block helps keep both kids focused on their activity and keep everyone happy.
Get Them Involved
Zoé goes everywhere with us. If we go on a field trip, she’s there. If we are doing an experiment, she’s there. If we sit down to read a book, she’s right there with us.
Having them with you means you can keep everyone entertained and involved. And you’d be surprised how much they will pick up. While doing our letter scavenger hunt at the park, Zoé ran around finding letters, repeating sounds back and having fun.
Be Prepared
Having a few activities to entertain your little one is key. I like to keep a few things aside that we usually only pull out during “school time”. Play-doh is popular around here. So are colouring, lacing cards and little figurines. Have something for them to do (that they love) while you work with your older child. This will help you focus on your older child’s work and keep everyone happy. I’ve even used a jolly jumper to keep Zoé entertained for a few minutes while we work on our worksheets.
Homeschooling with a little one can be challenging. But hopefully these tips can help make it a little easier.
We have a tradition. Every year for Mother’s Day, we get Mom some petunias for her front step flower box. Why petunias? Well they provide lots of colour, are easy to take care off and they handle the full day sun really well.
But in order to give Mom some flowers, we need to go and buy some flowers. Which means we need to go visit our local greenhouse…and the girls love it so much.
Once we had our flowers, we had to plant them in the planter. It’s always such a fun project.
And Mom totally loved her flowers! They are really livening up our front porch and adding a great pop of colour to the house.
Let’s start by saying that this term has not gone as planned.
Our second term is from the beginning of January to the end of April. And, those 4 months have been a whirlwind of chaos and life-changes.
First, there’s that post-Christmas lull. We have heard about it and had been warned about it. After the excitement of Christmas, January can seem a little dull. So, next year we’ll make a point of having something exciting, maybe a fun unit, project or book study in January. Something to get us really excited about school in the dead of winter.
Then, there were all of our personal challenges. From dealing with the death of a grandparent to traveling for the funeral to Alexie being diagnosed with major food sensitivities to the collapse of our garage, it’s certainly been a rough couple of months for us.
We have also had the bad luck of being sick, not once, not twice but 3 times in less than 3 months. This has made me rethink how we homeschool during flu season. There were often times when one kid was sick but the other was healthy and full of energy. Or I was sick on the couch with two kids who wanted desperately to be entertained. I’m not sure what to do about this, but it’s made me start thinking about coming up with a sick plan or bin with activities. Not sure what that will look like, but that will be something for us to think about.
We’ve learned a lot this term about homeschooling. From lulls to personal issues to sick days, we’ve hit the gambit of things that can make our homeschooling go a little sideways. But, we also had some great positive learning experiences. We got to take extra field trips with our travels —which the kids loved. And in April, we were able to get back to our routine and our curriculum.
With all that, we are certainly looking forward to term 3, when we can play outside more, take new field trips and enjoy having dad home for the summer.
It’s the beginning of the month. That means it’s time for a reset.
I like to take a few minutes on the first of the month to complete a few tasks that really help keep our homeschooling run smoothly. It’s the little things that make our lives a little easier and help keep us organized.
Here are a few things that I do at the beginning of every month.
Fill out our Calendar with all our playgroups, classes and field trips
Change over the books in our Reading Basket
Check our daily supplies and stock up or replace whatever we need
Prepare any bigger project that we might be working on for the next month
Once I do these things, I know I’ve set myself up for a good month. A little prep up front really does help things run a little smoother down the road.
Sometimes you just need to watch a movie. Maybe it’s rainy outside. Maybe the kids are a little under the weather. Maybe you’ve had a busy week and everyone is tired. Or maybe you just really want to watch a show.
Well, those are all valid reasons to watch a show. We personally don’t have cable or satellite, so Netflix is our main form of T.V. and movies. It’s great when you can find something that is not only fun and entertaining, but also educational.
Here are some of our favourite shows that we find on Netflix that our kids love and teach them something along the way.
We personally love:
Planet Earth
Planet Earth II
Blue Planet
Growing Up Wild (or anything from Disney Nature)
Magic School Bus
Magic School Bus Rides Again
Ask the Storybots
Storybots Super Songs
What are some of your favourite educational shows? We’d love to add to the list…especially for a rainy day.
We’re back, answering more questions from you guys!
In the Part 1, we talked about the big picture, answering things like
This time, the questions are more about our everyday lives. The nitty gritty details; our daily lives as homeschoolers. We answer questions like what our school day looks like, what curriculum we use and what types of activities we do with the kids throughout the week.
We hope that by answering questions like this we can inspire other homeschoolers and normalize the whole process. If you have questions, please leave us a comment and we would love ot answer them. The more knowledge out there, the better!
