Homeschooling a Toddler 🙏

Prayer hands up because you're gonna need it.

If you've found yourself suddenly responsible for your child's entertainment and education - I feel your pain. If you just so happen to be a parent to a toddler - I feel you even more.

Toddlers are such an interesting little breed of human. They are wildly independent but also need so much help to do everything, they have a knack for getting into situations that can seriously hurt them and toddlers have an attention span of about 2.5 seconds. All of these make it hard as hell to teach a toddler (without giving up, losing your mind, and/or teaching your tot some new $%@# words).

But I'm here to tell you, it can be done!

I've semi-mastered it and feel semi-confident in my ability to hold my tot's attention, help her retain information and not lose my marbles in the midst of it all so I feel like it's my duty to share a few tips with you!

How to Homeschool a Toddler & Keep Your Sanity

1. Understand that kids WANT to learn:

It may feel like Jackson doesn't want to learn but at this age, kids crave structure, routine, and new skills! Even on their crabbiest days, they want to learn and enjoy the attention that comes from the time you all spend together. Milk this for alllll it's worth!

2. Pick the right time of day:

This means avoid anything right before nap, directly after eating, or immediately after playtime. It sounds crazy but even if your lesson is 15 minutes, block off 30-45 minutes in your day to hunker down with your tot- undistracted (yep - put the phone away). Trust me, you'll need the extra time in the beginning.

3. Don't expect the attention to be all on you!

I had to learn this one while I was in the classroom. The more you can let your students / tot lead - the better invested they will be in the task. This means, if they are distracted by something else, let them be distracted! So you're trying to teach colors but Janet is more focused on the lint on the rug - let the lint win! Pull the attention to the lint by asking questions,

"Oooh what color is the lint? How does it feel? Can you throw the lint? Can you stretch it? Wow! Now we were just talking about the color green, can you find any green specks in that lint? Look closely..."

4. This goes with #3... Recognize that toddlers have short attention spans and accept it!

This is where those extra minutes come in handy. Let your tot get distracted and then gently bring them back. Another tip that works super well in my house is to make what you're doing more interesting than what they are doing.

Imagine with me for a sec. You're going through your lesson and your toddler is totally losing focus. LET THEM and then turn up what you were working on 5-10 notches. Get louder, get more excited, say WOW a lot (something about a good 'wow' really captures their attention). Chances are, your tot will want to see what's so cool about what you're doing and come back to you. Be careful not to overuse this technique, they are super smart and will start to see through your crap, lol

If all else fails, say something to signal the end of the lesson (more on that in #5) and start to pack up. You can resume in a few minutes or a few hours but always come back to it that same day!

5. Have clear signals to start and stop each lesson.

Play a song, pull out a certain prop, say something about school or learning and watch your toddler's face light up after a few days when they catch on. Make sure it is something that you can do the same each day and stay consistent.

For us, I pull out a yellow, dollar store table cloth and that's when Clarke knows it's time to learn! She gets so excited and starts to giggle and dance and comes and sits on the floor waiting for us to begin. At the end of each lesson, I give her a hug and a high five and tell her how amazing she did. Always always end with praise (even/especially if the whole thing was a 💩 show!) and a hint at what you want to see during the next lesson to get them excited. A simple, "Wow! Great job listening to the song about monkeys today, tomorrow I want to hear you sing it with me okay? You gonna be ready?! High five! Big hug!"

6. Create a productive learning environment.

How's your productivity when you've been yelled at or punished? I bet it's crap. You can't expect much else from your toddler. If you find yourself getting so frustrated that you are yelling or threatening time out - it's time to signal the end of the lesson and come back to it later. Plain and simple.

7. I'm not big on offering rewards or stickers for making it through lessons BUT things like this work really well for some kids. Use at your discretion but be careful about the expectations you set.

8. Make learning FUN!

Enjoy these few years before your kid starts doing common core math (don't get me started!) where you can spend 30 minutes playing in play-doh or sand or singing silly songs with them. Let them have fun, make a mess, and do things on their own and you'll be surprised at how much they are actually learning from what feels like playtime.

Hopefully, these tips help but keep in mind each kid is unique and will probably need a different set of techniques. Use the tips above as a starting point and go from there. Honestly, just have fun and don't put too much pressure or stress on the experience and you can't go wrong!

What worked for you? Tell me all about it :)