Homeschooling with a one year old in tow

Since, as I mentioned before, this exact situation (newly walking 1 year old at the beginning of the homeschool year) is new to me but I am going to share my plan.  For the beginning of the school year, Drew will be taking a morning nap.  That will give us between 1 to 2 hours of good schooling.  I'll definitely need more time than that though.  I am hoping that these Montessori bins will buy me some more time.

This was an old purse of mine when I was a kid that I just found again.  It has an assortment of fabrics with different textures in it.

The "Lunch" bin has a plate, bowl, baby utensils, a straw, and a cup.  Eventually I may add a place mat that has the correct placement of dishes and utensils for setting the table drawn on it and a hand-sewn napkin.

Since Drew lloves balls so much, I included a bin of random balls on the shelf he will have access to.  There is a giant slinky to explore, and a musical basket.  The musical basket has a couple of baby musical toys, a water bottle of lentils (duct taped lid), a flute, and a Sing-a-ma-jig (a stuffed animal that makes musical notes each time his tummy is pushed, not something you want to run out and get, but it is a popular toy around here unfortunately.)

These football eggs and egg crate are to practice one to one correspondence by placing them in each spot.

Treasure boxes are something I found on some Montessori sites.  I made two of them and have one partially finished.

Here is a Treasure Box.  It has a spatula, a coozie, a medicine cup, a baby spoon, a jar lid, a satin fabric piece, a pacifier (he just likes to play with them, he never would suck on one), and a plastic short straw.

Here is another Treasure Box.  I have a stop watch, a strainer, honey spoon, wooden spatula, a mesh toddler thing, a roll of packing tape, a crocheted washcloth, a swatch of fabric, a plastic bendy straw, and a miniature colander.

These are two more treasure boxes.  In the top basket, I have an ice tray, silicone baker, a box that slides open, a plastic container with a smaller container inside it, tulle piece, a sponge, a small gift bag, and a ball of yarn.  I have a bubble wand, a soft baby brush, two different fabric swatches, and a tin pencil container.  I have since added a plastic spool and something else I can't remember.

Not pictured is a "Dress up" bin.  I am putting a bath mitt, a hat, a sleeve with 2 open ends, some big kid slipper, and a handkerchief.  The goal here is to have one of the children work with him on where these items go on his body (teaching him his body parts) and then eventually teaching him how to put them on himself.  Also, not shown, is a shoe box with tissue paper in it for tearing.  Yes, I am sure it will be a mess, but a mess worth making if we can get something done.

Also, not pictured are all the things that are just a tad too old for him right now or are to be rotated in through out the year.  For example, the bottles with pipe cleaners, chopsticks, spaghetti, etc are to teach him to put them into the small spaces.  The pom poms and small containers to sort them, lacing of all different levels, the button snake, the road made of old blue jeans for cars, sensory bins, and different kinds of blocks.  That's all I can think of right now!

Isaac's schooling will not take up too much time, so he will be available to help me with Drew also.  I'll report back in a few weeks to let you know what worked and what didn't.

Fourth of July Crafts

We spent all morning doing crafts I came up with (mostly) on the internet when I woke up this morning. So know that none of these are from my own creative mind, but from other wonderfully more energetic than myself and creative mothers.

Here's the first one which was the best because it kept Isaac busy and I had to do very little and no prep. I am really feeling the heat and my growing belly these days and can seriously get very little accomplished. I sent him looking for blue toys and red toys to put in baskets. Then I showed him how to arrange them in the shape of an American flag.

Then we went outside after I cut out some stencils out of cardboard. Brian was out for the morning so we decorated the driveway for his return with sidewalk chalk. It was pretty hot, but not as bad as it is going to be this evening for fireworks.

And finally just before lunch, Isaac did some 4th of July sticker matching while the girls made necklaces from the $1 kits that I got at Joann's.

Here are their necklaces...

Tune in tomorrow to see our pictures from the rest of the day. I have to get my cake out of the oven and lie down for a bit before the busy bodies are up and running around again.

Que Seurat, Seurat!

We read about Georges Seurat this week for S week and learned about pointillism and optical mixing. Some of it went over their little heads, I think. Hannah was, in general, not a fan of his work. She didn't like how he used the wrong colors to make the right ones. She's such a realist and perfectionist!

The art project was to paint this Seurat coloring sheet that I got here using only primary color paint and pencil erasers to make the dots. To be honest, I did not want to include Isaac in this because he has problems with keeping his paint on his own paper (and as you can imagine, for the perfectionist, this is a major problem,) and I was hoping to make lunch while they worked. However, say the word paint in his presence, and it would be cruel not to let him participate in some way. He also had trouble remembering not to mix paint on his eraser. So he made it about five minutes before putting a dot on Hannah's page. Why is it always on Hannah's? Genna probably wouldn't even notice and certainly wouldn't care.

Here they are in their aprons painting away before I left to fix lunch...

Here's Isaac's when he had to stop and come with me since he put a dot on Hannah's paper. Amazingly, he is the only one who actually followed the "dot" instructions. So I say go for this if you have a toddler around 2 1/2 yrs before they develop a preference for style in their art.

Hannah's and Genna's respectively...

It is hard to tell, but there are very few actual dots and way more using the eraser to paint and fill in the space. It takes patience. Genna's was closer, but at some point she started copying Hannah and painting with the eraser too.

Another Sticker Activity

Here is another version of this sticker activity. It's called my ink is low on my printer, so I improvised. I had him do this while I did schoolwork with Hannah and Genna in the lab while taking my glucose test yesterday. I had to wait an hour and that is enough time to do reading, a little math, and handwriting. I felt very productive killing two birds with one stone!

Back to the activity, Isaac made me laugh when he told me he didn't want to put the cat on his picture because it goes inside a house and I didn't have one of those in the picture. I assured him that cats could live outside, so he ended up putting him upside down in the tree. It did not keep him busy the whole hour, but I had snacks too. Genevieve asked me to make her an activity like that sometime too. I'll have to see if I can make it more challenging though. I have a few ideas.

Coin Cleaning

I mistakenly let Isaac skip his room time yesterday since we were again having school in the living room. I set him up a Thomas track and thought he would play nicely. He did, but he got tired of it and started interrupting us and pestering his hard working sisters. Hannah was using a jar of coins for her math that he seemed interested in, so I pulled out an idea I got from this blog (sorry that I couldn't find the exact post) and set him up to clean coins with a toothbrush. On the blog, it had said it was a huge hit with their kids. I figured he would like it since it involved soapy water.

(Side note: I have recently had to ban him from the kitchen sink without permission because he hops up on the stool that the girls use to wash their dishes off, and he takes it upon himself to wash my dishes and whatever is nearby on the counter. Superbowl Sunday, we had people over and were watching the game when someone discovered Isaac squeezing soapy dish water into the cheese dip and on the left over tortilla roll-ups. Funny to you, not to me!)

So, how did it go?

It did distract him and keep him out of our hair for the rest of the time. However, overall, I would call it a failure because he spent more time playing in the soapy water than cleaning the coins with the toothbrush. I guess Isaac missed the importance of it being a fine motor activity. Oh well! You win some, and you lose some.

I know I am behind in our alphabet path updates, but I will try to catch up this weekend. You'll have to excuse me, these days I am really tired!

***edited*** I tried later with vinegar and salt solution for the girls to really clean the pennies. I explained the chemical reaction that was happening (the whole acetic acid removing the copper oxide bit.) Hannah had a cut on her hand, so this didn't last long. Then Daddy got home right when Genna was getting started, so it was abandoned.

Sticker Sorting Activity

I got this idea from my friend and thought we would try it out. I have never been one for sticker stuff, but I think I will be in the future because he loved it.

I cut out train and car stickers and printed a page with a road and a page with a train track. I put the stickers in a zip lock bag. I sat down with him and asked him what goes on the road and what goes on the track and he told me. Then I showed him what to do. He had a great time and did not even want to stop when dinner was ready. That's a big deal since he is usually chomping at the bit for food.

My favorite thing was how carefully he stacked the sticker trash in one pile!

Thomas the Train box

Look what we made before I left for the weekend!

Hannah told the sibs a story and illustrated it inside the box too.

Cheap fun!

After getting home from the grocery store, I had an idea to keep this guy busy. He plays cars constantly when he's not playing trains. So I set up these ramps for him. The paper towel tube was the most popular with him even though I liked the other one better since bigger cars could go down it.

Puff Ball Mania

Isaac's favorite thing to play with (with the exception of the Ikea wooden train set) is puff balls! Puff balls are actually little craft pom poms. I got a small bag in the states for high chair play (transferring into cups, sorting colors, etc.) He became obsessed with them and I caved and let him play with them around the house. It makes quite the mess, but he is entertained for what feels like forever so I don't care. I may just start giving these as birthday presents for one year olds! They're cheap, they are small, and they are so much more fun than plastic toys apparently!

Here is a random thing I gave him for high chair play. Cut up paper towel roll and a paper towel holder to stack them on, what more could a little guy want? And I got to do the dishes without "help!"

Good, Clean Fun

I like to get messy as much as the next guy, but... Who am I kidding! I actually have to work at letting my kids get dirty. I have to admit with each kid I get better and better at allowing some messiness though. In this case, however, I was excited to have a fun craft to do with Isaac that was mess free. I found this online somewhere, but I can't remember where. All you need is a sponge to cut up, paints, a large Ziploc bag and a piece of paper. You dip the sponge pieces in different colors and zip them up safely in the bag with a piece of paper. Isaac squeezed and shook and pounded and then he threw it on the floor and was ready for a snack. This was a short craft, needless to say. (Side story: He has been a bit of a monster lately eating everything in site. Hannah has actually taken to spelling foods around him so he won't freak out and start asking for whatever it is repetitively. How considerate of her! Genna is usually oblivious to this and starts trying to guess what food she is spelling, rattling off a half a dozen foods aloud. So in the end he is asking for more than the one food Hannah was trying to spell.)

Here he is squishing away.

Here is his masterpiece.


Such easy clean up! Dump the sponges in the sink and rinse them out and voile!

Christmas Kid Craft Time

The girls painted their hand prints that we made a couple weeks ago in salt dough for ornaments. I painted Isaac's hand print ornament, and just gave him construction paper, a paint brush, and water with which to play. He was content with that. I just wasn't brave enough to give him paints yet.

Tunnel Vision

I set this tunnel up for Isaac’s activity this week. His interest in it waxes and wanes, but it definitely doesn’t keep his attention as long as I had expected. A few times through and he is done unless I am playing with him. If I try to get the girls to play with him in it, he ends up over in the toy corner while the girls play with the tunnel.

One day, I put him on one side and worked on getting him to follow instructions. I gave him things to do, starting with “Go through the tunnel” and “Bring me the duck through the tunnel.” Then we had fun rolling cars back and forth through the tunnel. I was working on the signs for duck and car. Duck he knows, but for car, he just makes the vroom sound.

Zip Lock Bags!

Hannah and I made the Zip Lock bag book on your right. First I stapled the correct number of bags together on the closed side. Then I printed out a story tailored just for her from a website that I am now having trouble finding in my bookmarks. Oops! Anyway, she colored the pages. I cut them out even though she is excellent at cutting. We were short on time that day, and I cut them all simultaneously to save time. Then we folded them and slid them into the empty Zip Lock book. Then, of course, she had to read it to me while I did the dishes.

Here is the inside of hers...

The one on your left was a book I made (slightly sturdier) for Isaac. This is for the upcoming long airplane ride, so I have not tried giving it to him yet. So I can not say for sure that he won't destroy it quickly. We shall see. I made his on the computer using pictures of him and his daddy from his recent visit. Then I captioned them. I guess now Genna needs one too, right? My problem is after making two of something, I am usually ready to move on to the next project. I still owe Hannah a hooded towel since I made Genna and Isaac one. Maybe it all evens out in the end. Isaac doesn't have a mommy-made scarf or apron like the girls do, not that he really wants one anyway.

Another activity I made for the plane trip are these touch and feel boards. I drew animals on index cards and cut them out to leave the outline of the animal. Then I collected materials (in order: a boa, pink thin wavy ribbon, duct tape, towel, tulle, wide white cotton ribbon, shiny blue ribbon) from around the house to glue to card board. Then I placed the index card on top and a whole on on the bottom. To make it more durable for my rough and tumble boy, I used clear packing tape all the way around it to keep it all together in addition to gluing the index cards down. The only one that the girls couldn't decipher was the first one which is a baby chick.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the best part of the Zip Lock bag books, you can replace the pages inside super easily! So I guess there is no reason I can't make one of these for Genna too!

What am I teaching the baby?

Isaac seems to need more structure to his day so that he doesn't get into trouble, so I am working on spreading out his free play time with more structured play times. Sometimes I play with him, sometimes the girls (more likely one of the girls at a time) play with him, and then sometimes he plays alone. Here are some of the activities we have been doing lately.

Puzzles- He loves to help me put them back in place and then clap for himself. Occasionally he gets one in by himself too.

Reading- He is sitting stiller for longer now and seems to enjoy books even more. He likes to pick them out himself now occasionally. His favorites are McDuff's Favorite Things, Five Little Ducklings, I See a Monster, and Noah's Crew Came Two by Two at the moment. These are all touch and feel books. He also enjoys lifting the flaps on the monster book. We always read two books before naps and bedtime as well.

Singing- He is loving the songs with hand motions these days. (I am seeing a pattern here. He's a hands on kind of guy.) His favorites to join in with are Patty Cake and Twinkle Twinkle. He loves to "Roll 'em" in Patty Cake and to do the twinkly stars and make the diamond for Twinkle Twinkle. He will even do this when the song comes on in the car all by himself.

Physical activities- We roll the ball or practice walking.

Walks in the stroller- We walk to go pick up the girls a couple times a week. He loves the stroller when we are outside, but walk inside a building and he is ready to get out. Don't know why, but he is much better at staying in the shopping cart than he was a few months ago. I wear him in the sling so often out of convenience and speed and I think he gets used to being carried around when we are shopping. He is heavy though, so I only do it if it's a fast trip into a store.

New activities- I am trying to do one new activity each week with him. In the last couple of weeks we have done a fine motor skill developmental game with pipe cleaners and an ice cube game.

Here is Isaac enjoying the pipe cleaner activity while I cook dinner.

Here is the whole gang enjoying the ice cube fun!


Isaac mostly sucked on it and moved them around with his hands, not quite able to pick them up with a spoon to move them yet.


The girls had way more fun than I thought they would moving the ice around with various tongs and spoons. Then we turned it into a science lesson and watched the ice melt at high speed when we put them in hot water. My plan was to make cucumber lime popsicles afterward to demonstrate freezing in opposition to melting, but our cucumber molded much to my dismay.


I love Genna's tongue hanging out in all her concentration!


**Isaac is fever-free now by the way!**