Home Educating with toddlers/preschoolers

There are many, many articles out there about coping with toddlers while home educating, and I have read and utilised a lot of them.

The main thing I have learned, both from reading and my own experience is that every family is different! So the first thing you need to keep in mind while trying to work out your own journey is that what works for another family may not work for you - but it may give you ideas that you can "tweak"

We are very relaxed with our home education, we don't do a lot of structure but neither are we totally autonomous (well not most days) we like to cover topics that interest us and our main aim is that our children grow up with good character, knowing and loving Jesus.

We have been using Heart of Dakota - little hands to heaven with our 3 and 4 year old (even the older ones join in) and we love it, we just do from it what we feel fits and although it is "scheduled" for half an hour every week day we don't always manage to fit it in, for example if the little ones are happily occupied with imaginative play or if baby is fussing a lot then we don't do it. I find that if I try to force it too much then it becomes a burden and does not encourage my little ones to have a love of learning.

And while the older two are busy with their school work, I either find a relevant thing for the little ones, or bring out the tots trays.

There is no "magic formula" or special way of home educating with little ones but I find the best way for us is to involve the whole family!