How do I homeschool with little kids?

The lady who posted on a local homeschool forum asking how to teach kids to read then asked what to do about her little ones who make it hard for her to have uninterrupted one on one teaching time with her oldest. I am by no means an expert, but I did attempt to give her a few ideas.

Little kids makes for an extra challenge indeed! One thing I've read about others doing is to keep some toys, or whatever the little kids like, just for when you need to work with the older ones. The special toys only come out when you teach the older. That way the little ones are excited to get to play with toys they usually don't see, and you have a better chance of them leaving you alone. :)

Our boys are almost 8, 4, and 18 months. As long as I give them all something to do, they are usually content. That means giving them all paper to write on, or everyone has books to read, or everyone gets blocks to play with, etc.

For your situation, maybe you could make up a little set of flashcards, etc., for each child, and keep them in a ziploc bag with their name on it.

Some people put in a video for the little ones, but in my case, then my older one wants to watch, so I don't do that.

When trying to teach a young child to read, it's usually best to keep lessons short, maybe 30 minutes a day, and maybe broken up into two 15 minute lessons. I get better results out of setting a timer for 15 minutes and having my almost 8 year old work on math, and then take a break, and then set the timer again.

Boys seem to do better working in short spurts, and then get up and run around, and so on. It's so hard for them to sit still for hours on end, so it's no wonder so many are on medication in school.

Anyway, if you plan to sit with your oldest for 15-30 minutes at a time, you could try to sit the timer for your little ones, give them their special toys and activities, and tell them they can play quietly until the timer goes off while you sit with big brother and teach him. One thing they may really like is if you take a turn with each of them using the timer, even if it's just 5 minutes reading a book. I heard one lady say she spends individual time with the younger ones first and that seems to keep them from clamoring for her attention while she teaches the older ones.

It can be extra challenging, but certainly not impossible to teach several ages of kids successfully. There are lots of great internet sources of teaching tips and encouragement from other moms. If you don't know any, maybe we could all share some favorites. Local co-ops are so nice, too. We just had these people in town to speak and they have lots of great advice: http://www.raisingrealmen.com/