How can i homeschool my older children while taking care of my younger children?

This is not a walk in the park i assure you but that is what being a parent is. You find the blessing in the midst of the chaos in the household. My husband and i had to raise 3 toddlers without a stay in nanny because we wanted a stronger bond with our children and to learn to take care of each other as a family.

Oh boy had we got ourselves into a lot of work, with a growing family business and myself working fulltime we had to find ways to stay sane in our house.

When our third baby arrived i had to find ways to cope around the house with 2 toddlers and a new born. I invested in an african baby carrier i used to carry my baby on my back while i cooked in the house. Sometimes i would carry both girls at the same time, one on my hand and the other  child on my back . This just teaches you creative coping skills of many parents.

As it it with homeschooling older children while you have young children to take care of. This was one of my downfalls as a homeschooling mom where i made so many mistakes. We got it right with the few plans we had with my husband to involve all of them when our son was having his classes but i did not realise how hard it would be to teach, cook and take care of children after a long day at work while including them all in class.

It is important to establish early how flexible you are to teaching your children yourself or hiring a tutor that will facilitate their classes. This will help you plan on how you well you cope with the pressure of being parent teacher especially if you work full time and not able to afford flexible hours to teach children.

However homeschooling your children yourself is totally possible. You know the help you have as a family, if you can teach your children while your nanny takes care of the younger ones. This may and may not work as well because you need to involve the younger ones too and not keep them on a tight leash because they want to feel like the older children who have your attention. freely unless its a once off thing like dunring rhe exams for older children

Let us go through the list of what you will need to do to successfully homeschool your children while you have younger children.

Include the younger children

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

Find space in your house specifically dedicated to class. This will help the children to know each time they are in class that it is time for class. It will help them concentrate overtime. Younger children want to do things like the older children, they want to do the same things as the older child.

It was such a blessing for my husband and i to realise this early. We had to ensure that we include all the children in the home lessons and we had to plan around that from the beginning of our homeschooling journey.

We had an extra bedroom that we easily turned into a home class that  had enough space for our younger children to participate and play in class during breaks.

We bought them colourful desks and chairs. Each child had his own set. This was enough to get them excited to start but not necessarily continue. We got a screen Television , DVD player and mounted it so that is where we play our Homeschooled continues! DVD pre- recorded lessons.

It was important for us to get them colourful charts too and we immediately learnt about their favourite colours.

I must add that younger children easily get bored, tired and lose concentration in serious class than play. It is important to give the younger ones an early break before they start acting up and hating class all together.

Start with simple colouring books

We learnt so much in our experience just how much imagination our children are so full of that needs to be expressed. Sometimes they just need a clean sheet of paper and colouring pencils. This alone gets them excited and the things they put on paper tells you a lot about their passions at a young age.

While the older children are busy with lessons the younger children are focused on their own activities that keeps them productive while they learn too in class.

Now that we hired a teacher to tutor our children she takes all three children and they are all learning including our youngest. When she is tired she can leave and go play with her toys but what we love is she is learning .

Be very creative and do your research

You need to find ways for your younger children to concentrate especially the time of transition as you start homeschooling your older children. They will want to play throughout until they adopt this lifestyle as their own too and part of their routine. This means do not quit as sometimes they will fight you until they get used to class at home.

It is not easy to keep children interested in one thing for longer periods. That is why you need to weigh your options if both parents work full time and consider getting a tutor. This will help make homeschool interesting for them which should be that way and not be faced by an angry tired mom  trying to teach her own children.

It may help to find out from other moms how they entertain their children at home because we really learn from one another. Find out from other moms and find ways to incorporate those fun activities to your homeschool.

Learn all your children's similar interests and incorporate them into class

What do your children have in common? Singing or ballet. Find a way to incorporate that into class so you become their favourite teacher. 

This will help your children enjoy class and look forward to the next class effortlessly. The younger children will know too that it is time for class.

Model a great class with older children

The younger children will not only look forward to joining class but this sets them up to have a great homeschool life because they know its a good time.

Think of Sunday School and how interesting Sunday School is for children.

Colouring Books

This is how we started in our homeschool journey. We had our own trial while waiting for our sons books to be shipped together with the  DVD pre- recorded lessons.

We bought colouring books and had the children colour every day until they got used to colouring. The tricky part as a homeschooling parent is to understand your children better, how much pressure they can take and how to make a peaceful learning environment other than bringing fear.

A homeschooling parent can bring fear to a child by being too critical of mistakes and that can chase younger children away as well as the older children when the homeschool because the environment is hostile.

A toddler friendly environment and children's undivided attention.

Younger children love undivided attention and sometimes they will desire to sit on your lap even when you are in an on going lesson.

They just want a piece of you, they take note how much attention to the older children.

The really tough part of teaching children yourself while working fulltime is that if you come home tired every day then you have to facilitate their lessons, it will never work because when you are tired the environment becomes hostile.

Let us continue to create what we desire in our homes! Surely nothing can be too hard fro a parent but if its normal chalkenging then you can use what you already have to create a great atmosphere for your homeschooled children.

Wrapped in love,

Futhi Mkhwanazi

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