Mischievous Toddlers and Homeschool

This week I got a reminder of what it's like to homeschool preschool.  I babysat my little niece and nephew, ages three and four. Right now the kids are in preschool while mom and dad work. However, mom hopes to homeschool some day.  She's asked questions about how to homeschool and what curriculum we've used. I think she'll do a great job because already the kids are very inquisitive and bright. The oldest was continuously asking how this works or why this happens or what this word means. He'll be easy to teach because he seems to enjoy learning new things.

My kids are in upper elementary and high school.  So I think I had forgotten what it's like to have toddlers. I had to find different ways to keep the kids busy.  I found that the moment I left them to play alone, they got into mischief.  For example, we still have our Christmas tree up.  The youngest crawled under the Christmas tree and pulled out a small box. She must have been enthralled with the tiny Styrofoam balls inside the lid of the box, which are made to look like snow. Wouldn't you know she found a way to take the lid apart!  Now mind you, I only turned my back on her for a few minutes, but next thing I knew, the living room floor was covered with snow...err Styrofoam balls. When she saw the look on my face, she knew she had done something wrong.  I said, "Willow!"  And she looked up at me and said, "I sorry."  Uggh!  My heart melted.  I wanted to just pick her up and hug her.  I know. There was a huge mess of little Styrofoam balls everywhere. But she's so cute. And so sweet.  And she helped me pick up as many as we could so I could put them back in the lid and seal it back.  No harm done.  My kids are growing so fast that I can truly appreciate toddlers, even when they get into mischief.

So that happened on Monday.  This was a clue to me that I needed to plan ahead and keep them active.  We went to the library and borrowed as many books as we could fit in a bag and we read often throughout the week. But we didn't just read. We acted out scenes from the books, too.  Samantha has a lot of puppets. So we put on some skits using some of the stories from the books we read.  I want to make reading fun for the kids because I know they'll soon be learning to read.  So when Samantha or I read to them, we'd change our voices and make funny noises. The kids loved that. Samantha and I enjoyed ourselves, too.

In addition to reading books we played games, made cookies, made some crafts, colored, hand-painted, and even walked to the park. It helps that they're both close in age. It's easier to entertain two than it is to entertain one, I think.  They play well together, too.  I think it would be more challenging to have only one child to homeschool.  I'd love to hear your thoughts. Especially if you have one child now. Kids learn best through active play at this young age, and engaging as many of their senses as possible.  So what do you do with your child?