Online Homeschooling with Younger Siblings

This is in no small part why most long term homeschoolers don't to "online schooling" where there is an outside agency directing everything (like hours, class times, assignments, etc.). Because there's no freedom. You can't move quickly through some areas, slower through others, set your own hours, etc. It becomes a MAJOR hassle, that is frustrating for everyone.

Does it work for some families? Yep. I just don't personally know any, and only know of 2 families (out of about 600) that I know peripherally.

What a LOT of families do, however, is use the online schooling (like k12) WITHOUT the despised, loathed, hated, abhored "teacher support" option. All the curriculum and lessons and materials... without being on someone else's clock.

Early years... you're only looking at 1-3 hours a day of seatwork to bust through 1-2 years of curriculum PER every 6mo- year. (Later years, like middle and highschool the average is 1 year in 12 weeks). Early years take more time just because of the memorization involved with language and numbers. But it's STILL a max of just a couple hours a day.

Which is fairly easily done during naps, TV time, etc., if you only want to be working with one kid at a time. Again, though, most families don't do one kid at a time. They set the older kid up AND the younger kid up, and work with both at the same time.

3 hours a day... in a 14 hour day... leaves you a LOT of flexibility in when you're working and what you're doing.

The problem with the online schools is that you're asked to basically provide a regular public school curriculum in your home. So you fill the role of teacher and mom at the same time. All home school parents fill both roles, but if you choose the curriculum, you can also choose the timing and how you conduct the school. I have several friends who tried the online public schools and stopped halfway through the year because it was too restrictive.

Hopefully it will work for you. Like the others said, your three year old is old enough to do projects and play quietly while you work with the first grader. Get them both on a routine so they know that the morning starts with breakfast, followed by sitting at their desks (or on the floor - whatever) for 30 minutes "working", then 30 minutes of running around playing, followed by one on one lessons, etc. If you do that daily, they'll both get the hang of the routine.

I don't use online curriculum, but I think my suggestions will work regardless.

I have books, toys, and daily activities planned for even the toddlers during the school day. It's great preparation for when they finally transition into schooling "full-time." When the older kids start school, the smaller children have a routine as well. I've already transitioned young ones into regular school from "pre-school" and it was very smooth...thanks to our pre-k routine.

Formal school time shouldn't last longer than half an hour each day. I spend about 5-10 minutes per subject, then let them free play with their educational toys, art supplies, and videos.

Daily, they learn their alphabet (any flashcards or workbooks of your choice from stores like Target or even a teacher's supply store are fine), practice handwriting (I used handwriting templates purchased at Lakeshore Learning and the Pre-K and K writing curriculum from www.hwtears.com ), and do simple math ( any workbook of your choice ), and reading/phonics activities.

I use Hooked on Phonics see: www.hookedonphonics.com and the book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 easy Lessons for Pre-K reading. See: http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Child-Read-Lessons/dp/06... .

I also provide lots of art and craft supplies and let them create freely most of time. Sometimes I have an actual pre-planned art project, but usually I have all the kids participate in that case. Lakeshore Learning store ( www.lakeshorelearning.com ) and Discount School Supply ( www.discountschoolsupply.com ) are fantastic go-to resources for pre-K learning toys, games, and art supplies in bulk.

Do not mix the school toys, books and games with the regular toys. They are for school hours only. You'll be amazed at how quickly they get used to the routine and will happily look forward to doing their own "school time."

It is not realistic to expect them not to distract you or bother the older kids. Have your arsenal of distractions if you need a few minutes quiet time with an older child. I had lots of luck with educational videos. The Rock and Learn Series is very good (see: http://rocknlearn.com/ ), Disney's Bill Nye the Science Guy (see: http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A###..., DK Eyewitness Science Series (see: http://us.dk.com/nf/Browse/BrowseStdPage/0,,231760,00.html ), and so on.

My toddlers particularly liked the Scholastic Book Treasury series. You can have the read-along option and the kids do learn while enjoying popular children's classics read to them. The animation is lovely and the stories are all books most schools introduce to early readers in grades Pre-K through 3rd grade. (See: www.newkideo.com )

Last but not least, the two following resources are handy for simple and easy lesson ideas and guidance.

http://books.coreknowledge.org/home.php?cat=298
http://www.welltrainedmind.com/

I have found having a special set of materials and a special table/desk and play area set up for the younger children works very well. I don't force them to stay. They will wander around in other rooms and so forth, but if you secure the house in case you get distracted and start a routine for them, they will in time follow through. Be sure to have plenty of breaks between lessons for outside time or to stretch, and offer everyone at least one snack to keep their focus strong as well.

And yes, there are bad days and crazy days even with this. As Riley mentioned you can always change things around and pick up lessons later in the day or if you need to tackle tougher subjects that require your full concentration, do so when the toddlers are napping. This is the beauty of homeschooling for those not using a rigid program... you can do it anytime and anywhere. There is lots of room for flexibility and that means lots of room for success.

One other interesting note...apparently my younger children listened to the older children's lessons..even though it appeared they were playing and making a mess at their desk. My now 2nd grader learned the mulitplication tables while he was in Kindergarten and by 1st grade was proficient because he heard and memorized by osmosis as the older kids practiced their math facts. LOL. So there are truly benefits in keeping the little noise machines around. In time you will find it isn't that bad at all and everyone finds their groove. It will all work out...so don't worry.

Hi K.,
I home school 2 boys (12,6) and I don't use an online public education system to educate my children. My goal is that my kids love learning and learn more. With the oldest, I use a formal and accredited curriculum religion based which gives me all the material I need to cover in 7th grade, course plans, record of hours, tests, textbooks, etc. (you can choose any curriculum according to what you want your children to learn and how). With my little one, I don't use any boxed curriculum, I use the simple textbooks from the Library, fun educative stuff from Barnes & Nobles, and the internet to cover with him the basics and some additional things that I want him to learn. We visit museums and parks, playgrounds and places where both can learn new things and enjoy.
I taught both of my kids they have a time and place to play and a time and place to study . So while the older one is studying with me or doing some work on his own, the little one is coloring, cutting, building (construction paper, legos, cardboard, etc), reading, etc.
Your oldest is very young, so you may want to put aside some things for him to play, educational DVD's, legos, or toys that help him with motor skills and such.
JL, and Everley have given you excellent recommendation and
a great brief overview about a real way to home school your kids.
I agree that you cannot expect your little ones to be perfectly quiet or focused, you won't need to spend 4 hours straight with the oldest, and it will be helpful for your kid and yourself to take breaks in between, have a snack, or cook something together at lunch time for instance, and mostly make every day, your daily life a moment to teach something to your kids (outdoors and indoors)....Last but not least..read, read a lot with your kids, both of them, anytime not just at bedtime.
Get books about homeschooling and do your search, you will find lots of ideas and suggestions that will help you on this journey whether you do it just for a year or more time. (I thought I would home school for one year....this is our 4th.....and we do like it).

A lot of 3 year olds are in classrooms through Head Start or even their local pre-school programs. I think that if you are sitting down in a formal classroom time that the little one needs to be there right along with the big one. It won't be the same work of course but they can do coloring, cutting, sorting, and a huge host of things they would be doing in a classroom with other kids the same age. I know our local Head Start has the kids sitting and doing stuff from 8:30am until about 11am, then recess and lunch, nap time until about 2, then back up to do a craft or a different activity. Then until it's time to be picked up they play toys.

We use online schooling and it is phenomenal! Curriculum is advanced a good year above traditional school and although you have to make sure you submit your time and keep progress up, you do enjoy the freedom of doing school whenever or wherever you want.
Last year I had my son in 2nd grade online learning and my twins were 4. What I did was set up a computer and paid for Starfall. It is $36 a year. So when it was school time I would have one of them in their room looking at books, coloring and putting puzzles together while the other one would be on Starfall. Then I would have them switch. I would also check and see how they were doing, get really excited and tell them good job, etc. Now this year my oldest is in 3rd grade and the twins are in Kindergarten. I paid for Starfall again so that when they get done with their lesson they can click the Starfall tab and work with it until I can get back to them. They are very excited about it and Starfall teaches them so much through games and stories. www.starfall.com is the free version. www.more.starfall.com is the $36 a month one.