One of the most common objections to homeschooling is, “You can’t homeschool your older kids when you have younger kids. The littles kids get in the way and mess everything up.” Right? Nope. Wrong. I won’t deny that a three-year can’t make a mess. They certainly can, and they will, but that reason alone doesn’t have to make you not consider homeschooling. You can in fact successfully homeschool older siblings with younger siblings present. A few days ago, I was thinking about what my three-year old learned while being present with her brother as they do their school. She learned a lot (I will share more on that later)! What I saw was that homeschooling a three-year old with older siblings has a number of benefits.
Homeschooling a Three-Year Old
What does it look like to homeschool a three-year old? For me, it means zero workbooks. If I have to write out the curriculum I used for my three-year old, it would look like this:
- Dot art markers
- Baking & cooking (she’s pretty good at cracking eggs!)
- Trips to the library
- Read alouds (books she picks out and books from the boys’ nature study and geography curriculum)
- Playing outside
- Walks
- Playdates
- Errands
- Candyland
- Playdough
- Naps
- Playing with dolls
- Go to a park
- Field trips
- Singing songs
- Saying nursery rhymes
I don’t care to teach ger how to read any time soon. Having plenty of playtime is the best thing for her age. Some might not call this homeschooling, but I do because I am aware of what her educational needs are, and I am providing her with a suitable environment at home where those needs are met. Sounds like not a whole lot is going on with her schoolwise, but let me share what she has learned.
That list makes homeschooling with a three-year old sound like fun, and it is. But when there are older kids to school, I found that my three-year old daughter was almost always present and participating in our lessons or close by playing on her own. Either way, I think she listens more than I first thought. The lessons are geared for my eight-year old and six-year old, but my daughter old can easily participate in Spanish, geography, and nature study.
The Older Child Teaches the Younger Child
One benefit of homeschooling mixed ages is that the older children can teach the younger children. Earlier in the year, my six-year old son would practice counting to 100 every day. His little sister was nearby, but I had no idea she was listening until one day she counted all the way to 20 by herself. I never taught her how to count. She listened to her brother count every day. The older child taught the younger child, although he wasn’t very happy about his little sister copying him.
One of her brothers also taught her how to play Candyland and matching games. He also wrote her name in bubble letters so she could learn her name (I actually did the same thing the day before, but I liked that he wanted to do it too). My point is that having older kids and younger kids in a homeschooling context can actually be a benefit to everyone. The older ones learn how to teach someone a skill, and the younger ones learn how to listen and follow directions. This doesn’t mean I abdicate my role as the teacher, but rather I enjoy the natural ways in which they teach each other.
This is something schools try to have as well – students learning from each other – but homeschoolers have a more natural, organic setting for this because there’s no creating the groups and everyone already knows everyone.
Read Alouds
My favorite part of homeschooling is reading aloud. I love it because it’s so simple, but yet everyone learns so much. Since January, we have been reading through lots of picture books about animals and plants in the Sonoran Desert. The picture books are above my daughter’s level, but I have found that even when a book is too hard for her to understand, she still learns something.
For example, when we were learning about lizards, she was able to explain why a lizard needs to be in the sun and why it needs to be in the shade. I wasn’t aiming my lessons for her level, but rather her brothers’, but she still learns plenty in that way. This is one the reasons why some content is done in a family style learning.
Part of doing family style learning means the kids are all learning the same content, but are taking in whatever they learn at their own level. When we walk past a saguaro, my three-year old always tells me, “Animals live in there, Mommy.” She learned that from Cactus Hotel. Or whenever we see a lizard in the yard, we dash around trying very hard to see it and identify it. Now she shouts, “Lizard!” when she sees a lizard. If we see a group of hawks hunting in our neighborhood, we all stop everything at once and watch. As always, she joins in our learning and read alouds, and learns more than I thought she would.
Last Thoughts
I think preschools are great, and many of my friends’ kids are in preschool, but you can give your preschooler a preschool skills by living side-by-side with siblings. Homeschooling a three-year old doesn’t have to be stressful or complicated. You can practice counting while you scoop flour into the mixing bowl. Small kids can play with playdough while you do math with the older ones. Older kids can read aloud to younger kids. It won’t be perfect (because three-year olds are kind of a handful), but it sure will be special.
Carly from DeserHomeschoolDays.com
