Welcome back as we continue our 10 Days of Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Homeschooling!

Click to go to first post.

Please welcome Meg from Homeschoolin Mama who addresses one of the MOST. ASKED. questions I hear about homeschooling: “How in the world do I homeschool with a toddler underfoot??” I love Meg’s answer; we think a lot alike. =) Enjoy!

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See Image Credit Below

Homeschooling and…

The Tater Tot.

I know I haven’t been homeschooling very long – I’m only on my third year!  But it was going great the first two years.  Roo was so attentive and anxious to learn every day and I loved watching that “I Get It” moment every time – it was wonderful.  Granted it was only Pre-School and Kindergarten but I thought we had a fantastic start – I was going to ROCK at home educating my kiddos!!!

It’s no secret that I want more kids – four to be exact (total not more)!  It just sounds like a nice even number.  So when we found out we were pregnant (when Roo was 4 years old) I was beyond thrilled!  Here we go!  We were adding on to our fabulous homeschooling family!  This was going to be great!

Finishing out the school year last year was great!  I nursed Boo and she took a lot of naps.  So Roo and I kept plugging away at school each day – she’s my hard working little sponge!  We moved at the end of the school year and it took me a little longer to get our school started back up this year than I would have liked.  But no big deal – I’m a Pro at this right?!

Well, let me just tell you (although if you are a homeschool mom you already know this) working around a baby is much more different than working around a mobile 1 year old!  WOW – I totally have had my “Pro” title taken away (if I ever really had it in the first place that is).  One year olds can and do get into every thing and with a lot of noise.  Plus, they have such short attention spans (like 5 min. at a time) that you can’t keep up with them.

I don’t know about you but my one year old is also very needy.  What I mean is she needs to be touching me at all times or she is screaming.  Seriously, even when my hubby is home she needs to be with me and only me.  My oldest was not like this at all.  She has always been very independent and wanting to play on her own.  So I have been totally thrown on how to parent this new little cutie patootie of mine.

Massive frustration set in when it came to our homeschooling.  We began to fall be hind on our lessons because I couldn’t get my head wrapped around this precious one year old and her new needs.  I mean, you have a little one screaming and you’re trying to teach your 6 year old Math – how do you do it?  I’m so not Mama Duggar – I don’t do well with all this noise and chaos going on around me.

Then one day it finally clicked – stop trying to work around her – work with her!  I am so ashamed to admit that this just recently occurred to me (like just a couple of months ago) – I’m just glad it finally did.  I was so busy trying to keep her busy and away from her sister it never occurred to me that she just might do great being with her sister!
Tot School

So I found some seriously awesome printables for Tater Tots with letters and fun pictures to color. Then I bought a package of those ginormous crayons just for her.  I set Boo’s chair up next to Roo and … Vuala – instant Tater Tot School!

Her attention span still only last about 5-10 minutes at a time for me but this has been such an answer to prayers in our house.  Boo feels like such a big girl sitting right in the middle of it all and Roo can actually concentrate on her school work.  I am so thankful (and a little disappointed in myself that I didn’t think to do this earlier on) that our school is back in session and moving right along!  I’m still not crazy enough to call myself a Pro-Homeschoolin Mama but I’m back to lovin my job – Home Educating my little chix!

 

Have you homeschooled older kiddos with a Tater Tot running around?  How have you over come the chaos that tends to come with them?

Love Life, Love God and Live For HIM …

Meg is a happily crazy Homeschoolin Mama (trying to over come her OCD side)!  She’s married to her best friend and loves home educating their two Little Chix (most days).  Though their family moves around a lot keeping God as their “center” is what really holds her awesome family together.  You can find her blogging about all of this and more at: Homeschoolin Mama on Facebook ~ Twitter ~ even Google+!

Image Credit:Attribution Some rights reserved by purplbutrfly

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Thank you for following along on our journey through 10 Days of Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Homeschooling!

If you’re just now joining in, you can start at the beginning by clicking here.

Or if you want you can go straight to the next post in this series.

“The 10 Days” Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects. Visit them on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

To find ALL the blogs participating in this run of “The 10 Days” Series, click the image below, a collage of photos for all 28 ladies participating. You’ll be blessed with tips on how to handle bad days, cultivating curiosity, teaching with Legos, and much, much more. Many thanks to iHomeschool Network for organizing this fun blog hop!

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Amber

Hey, y’all! I’m Amber and I wear many hats. I drink a ton of coffee and I’m constantly sweeping crumbs off the floor. After 18 years of homeschooling, I’m getting close to graduating my third child and now we are starting over at preschool with our fourth, Lil Miss Mouse. She keeps us young and she’s the main reason for my excessive coffee consumption. Drink up!