Keep It Simple

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a million times. The key to homeschooling littles well is to “KEEP IT SIMPLE”. Why is that so hard? I think one reason is because we never know if what we are doing is enough. I am guilty of trying everything under the sun.

When my now 12 year old was just two, I battled constant messages from the New York City culture that she should be in a five day a week private school at age 3 in order to be on a worthwhile trajectory. I didn’t buy it, but it did produce an endless amount of angst, questioning and discussion in those early years (not to mention loneliness). As a result, I started her at age 4 with a super intense curriculum, which I knew she could handle, to prove to myself and to others that this was a valuable choice. However, halfway through the year I realized something. While it was producing incredible academic results, it wasn’t producing joy. I started streamlining our rhythm, our curriculum and our focus and reminded myself she was f-o-u-r.

This was 8 years ago, when there weren’t near as many options out as there are now, and I wish I could say, with four children ranging from 12 years old down to 4 years old, that it gets easier, but it doesn’t. Each year we have to re-evaluate, re-assess, re-engage and determine what is best for that child that year.

Hands down though, one of my favorite starting places with toddlers and Pre-K children is to work through the calendar. From early on, you can begin to start with the days of the week song and the months of the year song just to create a foundation.

When you wake up, you can say what day it is, what day it was yesterday and what day it will be tomorrow. Kids begin to learn from early on that there is an order to the week. Each of my children want to know (and still do) what is the plan for the day and when something else might be planned. I always point them back to the calendar.

In some seasons it was simply a self-made piece of construction paper with marker drawn lines of the month with pictures showing a plane if we were traveling, or a balloon if we were celebrating. Living so far from some of our family, it helped to know when we were receiving visitors and helped us count down the days. Sometimes we would use stickers to show when a special holiday or activity was planned. Now you can design anything you like on Canva and make it official, but don’t lose the simplicity!

I am intentionally not going to show you all of the pictures of my handmade creations on this blog, because 1. they aren’t that fancy 2. we have moved several times, so I don’t have them, and 3. you don’t need any picture showing you what you should do. Trust yourself and have fun with it. But to give you context, this is what my son uses right now (we couldn’t find the 8 for some reason -ha!).

I bought a calendar set from the teacher aisle at Office Max, then laminated the numbers and labels so they didn’t tear right away. A few velcro dots and a white poster board, and you have yourself a re-usable calendar!

We also use the calendar to discuss seasons. What does the weather feel like today? What season are we in right now? What do you wear in this season? You can mark off science as you address weather and patterns of change.

Then, we count how many days are in that month and there starts our math lesson. As they get a little older, I have my four year old find all of the numbers and put them in order on his own. Once they are up you can leave them up and just count, but the repetition is so valuable. Then with a new month you have an entire new lesson ready to go.

Afterwards read a book or two that relates to the season, get outside and call it a wonderful day! I’ll be sharing some of my favorite spring reads for all ages next up on the blog, so stay tuned.

Have a toddler and wonder what you can start doing each morning to create a rhythm of learning? Start with the calendar!