Help
With Your Rule
Finding Activities for Little Ones
Dear Holly
I am struggling with my own motivation to get school stuff out and give it to my Kindergarten child. The schooling itself is easy, except for the part where I somehow find something for the other kids to do during school time. My oldest is 5, but I have four other children, ages 4, 3, 1 1/2, and a newborn. Any ideas?
Labels: 4th P Parent, Homeschooling
posted by Holly at 8:24 AM
2 Comments:
Ahhh, you have discovered the hidden challenge of homeschooling -- multi-level learning! Being a classroom teacher myself, this has been the greatest significant problem I have faced - feeling pulled in all directions at once.
First, the secret is to grab a cup of coffee and make a chart (yes, another one!) Divide your page into 3 columns and at the top, label with "Supervised", "Semi-Supervised" and "Independent". Then, brainstorm things your smaller children can and often do within each column -- anything from playdough to coloring to cut&paste to flashlight play to 'Boat' (where I used to push the living room couches together and tell them they were on the ocean!) Then you'll know in advance what types of things you can do instead of trying to think about it when you're concentrating on your 5 year old.
Secondly, rotate your toys. Coincide school time with your eldest with the pulling down of today's fresh toy basket for the younger.
Thirdly, go to a dollar store and buy many little activities to put in little boxes which you can rotate again during school time - puzzles, coloring books, old magazines with scissors, bead stringing toys, etc). I put my toddlers in highchairs and just kept rotating their activities every 10 minutes, using these little baskets. They were happy to sit for over an hour.
Fourthly, look for natural lulls in your younger children's day - like a video or nap time, where you could possibly work one-to-one with your oldest while the others were occupied.
Fifthly, so much of what a kindergartener can do can be done (imperfectly) with younger children. I used to pull all my little ones together for drawing or coloring or paper play. Or we'd do themes , like make a wall display for Thanksgiving, and each would be assigned something. I just never worried whether the little ones did it well or not. In Math, for example, I just bought extra manipulatives, and sat them all there with me, with me guiding my older one and letting the other's free play with the additional materials.
Finally, check out Holly's Notebook for "Little Ones Activity Ideas."
One other little hint about keeping little ones occupied during school time -- the activities and toys you choose for school-time ought to be kept just for school time and varied each day of the week. This way you will avoid boredom and overuse.
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