Homeschool Activities for a 1 to 2-year-old and Our Daily Schedule plus a Weekly Preschool Schedule

How in the world do we keep little miss occupied so we can get some school work done?

Homeschooling any number of kids can be difficult at times but when you add a baby or toddler to the mix it can get really crazy. Some days are easier than others as she is pretty good at keeping herself entertained but other days she can be extremely clingy and doesn’t want to be ‘left out’. We have to come up with some clever tricks to keep her entertained at times and sometimes we just take turns having someone play with her to keep her happy, although we don’t give in to every little whine or cry because sometimes she will figure out a way to entertain herself without us.

We have the basic routines that we have tried to stick to, even through the rough year that we had last year. During our numerous in-patient stays, I did my best to keep her routine as similar to our home routine as I could. It was difficult but it helped us both tremendously. Big sister also kept the kiddos at home on a regular schedule and that helped keep some of the chaos to a minimum.

Now that we are home and doing well we really had to get a little bit stricter with our routines as we’ve had a lot of adjustments to make. Shyanne missed her big brothers and sisters and they missed her but sometimes they get on each other’s nerves just as all siblings do. It’s a normal part of having a big family but it can lead to many distractions which are not good when we need to get certain things accomplished.

The basic areas we try to include in her daily schedule are:

  • Life Skills/Character Development
  • Language/Communication
  • Math
  • Science/STEM/Sensory
  • PT/OT (Gross/Fine Motor Skills)
  • Art/Music
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2021-2022 Weekly Lesson Plans: ‘Remote’ Schooling During a Crisis (Updated)

How we will use these lesson plans:

This year is a little different for us as Baby Shyanne is undergoing chemotherapy for AML and Momma is away at the hospital with her which makes our schooling a bit complicated but we will find a way. These are the lessons that we have come up with to make life easier for everyone who is helping out at home. I plan to print out copies of worksheets and such for each child’s binders when I am home but in the event that I am not able to anyone can see what needs to be completed for the week.

(Its hard to believe that the featured photo was taken just a couple of weeks before we got her AML diagnosis… how fast life can change!)

I basically took the books and activities that we wanted to include for this next year and then figured out approximately how many lessons were in each one. We plan to school for the 3-4 weeks while we are inpatient and then take a week or so off when Shyanne and Mommy are home. I know that we will be schooling for 36-40 weeks this time around so I just tried to divide them up as equally as possible… Will we finish them all? Probably not but we’ll have fun trying.

I will continue to update this as more books and activities come in or if we make any changes to the plans. (We may switch out our math curriculum when I get a better idea of how well everyone can work independently.) We hope you can find ideas to use in your own homeschooling experience. We happened to have a lot of these resources already available as I have WAY TOO MUCH homeschooling stuff… please don’t tell my husband I said that ya’ll! You can also find lots of FREE resources HERE and under the Homeschool Tab.

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Remote homeschooling

I know that many of you have had to try virtual/remote learning over the past year. Some have liked it and some have not. We were homeschoolers before the pandemic and continue to do so through our latest crisis.

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Keeping The Crazy Away By Keeping Busy

How’s everyone doing? If you are like a lot of folks then you might be getting a little stir crazy right now and it seems that the shutdowns in our area are only getting started.

Many parents are having to deal with the stresses of their kids being out of school… we all know how easily kids can get bored. Well, if you need some ideas to keep those kiddos entertained then be sure to check out some of the links I have listed under our Homeschool Tab! There are tons of fun (and educational) things to keep the kiddos busy.

I might even recommend that you check out our ‘Little House Academic Adventures’ if you’re kiddos are out of school. There are tons of great links and videos that they can do for FREE while learning about how things were in the 1800s. My kiddos have really enjoyed these lessons so far and we are looking forward to getting moved and getting started with them again!

You can also check out some of the other programs like Kids Cook Real Foods (link under the Homeschool tab), Mystery Science, and/or Skill Trek for ideas to keep your kids in learning mode.

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DIY Playdough

I think every kid loves playdough and mine are no exception. I recently pinned a bunch of playdough recipes on one of my boards but as luck would have it I actually found one of my own recipes in my old recipe box… it also happened to be the last recipe in the box.

Don’t worry though because I’ve got recipes stashed everywhere in this little house and I have some packed away in the shed so I’ll get them posted… hopefully faster than it took me to get through the recipe box though!

I have also seen some new recipes that are using essential oils which would smell so good. You could probably use this recipe and omit the Kool-aid pack. You could also color them with some natural dyes if you desired too.

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