Keeping little ones busy while tutoring olders…

I only have 4 daughters.   And I have come to the place in my life where I figure that 1/2 hour or 1 hour of a movie every day is not going to ruin my children for life.  When I use the VCR (what are DVD players called?) as a babysitter, I MUST remain strong and not let them watch any more than absolutely necessary.  But, over time, I’ve found that my “no more movies” muscle has gotten pretty strong….and my daughters don’t pester for more movies once I’ve said to turn it off – they spend all their “non-school” time engaged in mess-making play (they’re 10yo, 8yo, 6yo, and 5yo) and fighting with one another, so they have great imaginations and can play (or fight) happily for hours.

I’m assuming that asking your older children to “tutor” or play with the younger children hasn’t worked.

So, perhaps you need to scale back on your expectations.  (Don’t throw things! *L*)  Perhaps there are some subjects you’re currently doing one-on-one that you can either turn into independent work or into family work.  Perhaps you can have time with the younger ones while the older ones are doing chores.

Perhaps you need to spread things out – don’t do history every day if that’s making trouble…..do art once a week (or once a month) and just allow the children to create on their own.  My girls have such fun working through a craft how-to book on their own (I choose to stay out of it, except for yelling about the mess! *L*).

Mine are out of that real little stage now, but I remember the importance of spending time with the littlest ones first and utilizing nap times.  (Of course, I always took a nap with the little ones and asked the slightly bigger ones to do chores that hopefully wouldn’t result in messes. *L*)

Best wishes!  And remember, your goal as a homeschooling mom (probably) is to turn them into people who enjoy learning and who know how to learn on their own – how you get there is between you and God – what’s right for one family is not always right for another.