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How to Care for Toddlers While Homeschooling

At this time of year, many families are considering whether or not they should homeschool their children when the new school year (traditionally) begins next fall. Many moms worry that they won’t be able to homeschool their older children well and care for their younger children at the same time. While this can be a tricky situation, many moms have done it successfully, and you can do it too! With a little bit of planning ahead it is quite possible, so don’t let this discourage you from homeschooling if you feel that homeschooling is right for your family. Keep reading to learn some tips for helping you do the job successfully!

HHM How to Care for Toddlers While Homeschooling

As homeschooling moms, we have a lot on our plates.

School.

Housework.

Extra-curricular activities.

Work.

Family budgeting.

Cooking.

And many, many other tasks.

One of the biggest homeschooling challenges is how to care for toddlers, babies, and preschoolers while older children are doing school.

My own kids are six years apart, which means Monkey has had a tag-along throughout most of her school years. My little girl has just recently turned three, which makes me an expert on how to keep small ones busy when the older kids are in school.

How to Care for Toddlers While Homeschooling Other Kids

Today, I’m sharing my tips on how to care for toddlers while homeschooling other kids with you!

Distraction

My youngest, Bo, is often interested in what my eldest is doing. She likes to join in, but usually that just makes it impossible for us to do our school. Instead, we let Bo play with special toys that only come out during school hours. This keeps her occupied and allows us to do school. We also allow Bo to watch some movies during school hours, which may not be the healthiest for her brain, but it is a lot healthier for the rest of our brains!

Naptime

Naptime is where most of our tough schooling happens. We do intensive subjects like science and math during naps. Anything we have to have full concentration for, we save for naptime. As a work-at-home mom, I’ll sneak in a work assignment or two during this period when Monkey is occupied with work she can do on her own.

Easy Totschooling Activities

Now that we are approaching the preschool years, we’ve started to allow Bo to join in a bit of school with totschooling activities. We have come up with over a dozen totschooling activities that are either no-prep or low-prep, meaning you can save your planning brain for the older kids. Some of our favorite totschooling activities are:

Implementing these tricks has allowed us to complete regular school even with a little child in the house. We constantly must adapt our school to fit Bo’s current developmental stage and our house is certainly never boring.

Share your favorite tips for keeping little ones busy during school in the comments!

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