Homeschooling and the 18 Month Old

Last year schooling with a baby was pretty easy. He was just a few months old when we started up for the year. He slept a lot. He was easily contained. He slept a lot.

Now, he isn't so easily contained. Very occasionally I can get him to play in the exersaucer (which he is by far too tall for) and sometimes I can lure him into his room, put up the baby gate and sneak out while he is playing. He still naps really well but not as long. He seems to have transitioned to an hour morning nap and a couple hours afternoon nap.

This week I've been working more on having the girls work somewhat independently. I will set them up with what they need to do and then sit down and work with Hurricane Haden.

He really likes to color and look at books. Here we have Haden and the Purple Crayon and him looking at an Usborne book, Telling Time.

He really, really likes to color. I bought him a cute monkey pencil pouch and a pack of his very own crayons last week. He really appreciated it.

After coloring today (we are really working on where he is allowed to color and where he isn't) I got out the 'gummy bears' and we practiced sorting. He was doing pretty good to begin with, putting each bear in the cup that I pointed to. Then he got a little bored with it which is fine with me. He played with the bears for a bit longer putting them in the cups and dumping them out. Then he started throwing them all over the living room and 'drinking' out of the cups.



Coloring and sorting lasted for a little more than 30 minutes. That was enough time for Kennedy to do her grammar lesson and for Aubrey to do her Get Ready for the Code lesson. I try to always save any read alouds for when he is in bed.

What do you do to keep your toddler entertained during school time?