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Homeschooling with younger children

Discussion in 'Homeschooling Forum' started by faith.hope.love, Jan 9, 2008.

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  1. faith.hope.love

    faith.hope.love New Member

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    How neat... I just realized this homeschool thread exists. This is my first year of homeschooling and it is going great. The only issue I have is keeping one of my younger children quiet during school hours. My one-year-old is easy to entertain, but I am having issues with my four-year-old. She is noisy, won't stay quiet for more than a few minutes even when she has something to do. I tell her to be quiet or she will have to go play in her room. This works for a few minutes. If I send her to her room, she whines and complains and then will scream and cry in her room for quite awhile. I have tried doing her preschool curriculum at the same time, but she is still very noisy. She is quite a handful all day long (even when not homeschooling).

    Anyone have any solutions to this?
     
    #1 faith.hope.love, Jan 9, 2008
  2. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    I'd recommend getting her involved in school too. You don't want to ignore her while you're schooling because that negates a lot of what homeschooling is about! Set her up with some coloring sheets, some work sheets with some simple preschool work, PlayDough, scissors and glue or some such thing. I HAVE used a video at times when I just really needed some concentrated time but I find if I occupy the littlest ones with something else, then they'll do great. When you tell them that they're doing "school", they get all excited. :) My daughter just turned 5 on New Year's Eve and she did a set of workbooks last year from Rod and Staff that were great - and this year we're working on kindergarten, so she has her OWN work to do!

    I don't blame her for getting sad - she wants to be around the rest of the family! 4 year olds are usually very social and need to be around everyone else.
     
    #2 annsni, Jan 9, 2008
  3. NaasPreacher (C4K)

    NaasPreacher (C4K) Well-Known Member

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    Agreed. We homeschooled our six children (one still in school). I would find a way to get the 4 year old involved, even if not in a curriculum. Fun pages, colouring, painting, whatever, then be sure to brag on her school when you brag on the other.

    Some children are noisy. Noise is not always an indicator of how much or how little they are learning.

    Each student is going to be different, and that is one blessings of homeschooling. You can learn to teach according to their needs and personalities.
     
    #3 NaasPreacher (C4K), Jan 25, 2008
  4. abcgrad94

    abcgrad94 Active Member

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    I had the same problem with my youngest daughter when I homeschooled her older sister. Here's what helped. I made a schedule for my oldest, then put a schedule for the youngest next to it. For example, while the oldest did math, the youngest did playdough. When the oldest did spelling, the youngest painted. I wrote out a long list of activities and rotated them frequently. I found that for history and science, I could easily involve both kids. Playing dress up while studying the Pilgrims was a big hit.

    Here's a few ideas:
    coloring
    tv time
    computer time
    playdough
    paper dolls
    dusting the house with a feather duster
    Leap pad or story reader
    watercolor paint
    stencils and colored pencils
    playtime in her room
     
    #4 abcgrad94, Jan 27, 2008
  5. faith.hope.love

    faith.hope.love New Member

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    Thanks for the replies. The main thing I am concerned about is whether her noise distracts the child that I am teaching. She is so noisy... even when doing an activity... she still talks, hums, and just makes noise probably for the fun of it. I worry it is too distracting for my son, who often tells her to be quiet. She might even make noise just to spite him.
     
    #5 faith.hope.love, Feb 6, 2008
  6. Multimom

    Multimom New Member

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    4 yo's are 4 yo's and as every child is different (trust me I have 6 of my own) you have to teach the children to adapt to each other. Your oldest must learn to tolerate some noise while the youngest must eliminate some of her noise if you don't resolve this, you will spend 10 hours a day homeschooling your children at 2 separate times and dealing with the struggle of helping the other find something to do while you teach the sibling.

    I home schooled for 6 years and when I got to the point where I was teaching algebra to the 6th grader and trying to teach the 6 year old to read, I gave it up, and I nearly killed myself trying to adapt to a situation that was at that point for me un-adaptable.
     
    #6 Multimom, Feb 24, 2008
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