Teaching From the Tractor- Literally

When I first started my blog almost 5 years ago, we knew we would be homeschooling our children. I also knew that some of our homeschooling days would take place in the tractor. That’s why I came up with the name Teaching From the Tractor. I also thought that name would fit well for sharing and teaching others about farming. Up until now, I have only shared farm related posts, but I am excited to start sharing about our home school journey as well.  Our biggest challenge right now is homeschooling with a toddler, and I wanted to share several tips that have made this more manageable for us. It definitely isn’t easy homeschooling with a toddler, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world! 

5 Toddler Tips

1. I have a set of educational toys that my toddler can play with only during the time we do schoolwork. These include puzzles, stacking toys, shape and color matching, peg set, felt toys, and special books. I cycle through them so once he starts to get bored with one or two, he gets a different one. This tends to keep him occupied for a little while. This year I purchased the Timberdoodle (we LOVE Timberdoodle) Tiny Tots Curriculum Kit which has so many wonderful educational toys in it.  My toddler loves playing with them, and I love that he is learning through play!  

Playing with his Junior Rainbow Pebbles (a school time only toy)

Toddler’s shelf of fun he only gets to use during school time

2. While big brother is doing independent work and not needing my help, I try to spend some one-on-one time playing with my toddler and reading to him. He loves the attention and it gives his brother some time to complete what he is working on.

3. We let the toddler join in if it’s something he can do while not being a distraction to his big brother. He ALWAYS wants to be doing what big brother is doing, so he loves it when he gets to do just that! Most of the time he is pretty content if I just give him some paper and a pencil (not the mechanical ones with erasers that come out, because he likes to chew on those and then I spend several minutes on the ground trying to find the lead that fell out! ??)

4. We take 1-2 breaks throughout our schoolwork where big brother can just go play with his little brother. I guess we could call this recess. ? They both love this and I have to say what an amazing big brother our toddler has! I hope they love playing together forever!?

5. Take advantage of nap time. When my 2 year old still took a nap, we would try to get done with any schoolwork that still needed to be finished during this time. Sometimes we would even take a long break in the morning and finish up during the afternoon nap. Now that he no longer takes a nap, my toddler does sleep in longer in the mornings. If we can get started with school early enough, we can get quite a bit accomplished before my little guy wakes up.

These are just a few things we have implemented into our home school routine that have helped make homeschooling less stressful. Every day is different and what might work some days may not work the next. Some days end up looking like this:

Learning can be messy sometimes

While other days look like this:

“Maybe if he can’t do his work, then he will play with me instead.”- Toddler

In the end, we make it work no matter what. One of the things I love about homeschooling is the flexibility.  I know this is just a stage, and I will miss the toddler years in the future.  A new stage will be here before we know it, and we will learn to adapt then too.  I would love to hear any tips you have found along the way! Thanks for reading and Happy Homeschooling with a Toddler!