J2's School Time (because he can never be left out!)

One of the best ways to have fun with J2 while the older kids do school is to pull out his "school" things. I like how fellow blogger over at 1+1+1=1 puts it..."tot school".

Any one or two year old is a professional sticker picker, but J2 insisted on spreading glue first and who am I to argue? Glue on littlest man!

Lots of homeschoolers are familiar with the Kumon series of books, but you may not be aware of the little books for 2+. They are pretty prescribed activities with a missing piece of pear or other shape or object that needs a matching sticker or a matching color. They just fill it in, but he had a great time!

I just received an email from Valerie Bendt (she is the author of our reading program and some of my other favorite homeschooling books). She was promoting her book Making the Most of the Preschool Years. In it, she reminds her readers how important the preschool years really are. Before I became a homeschooler I observed many homeschooling moms fall prey to neglecting their preschoolers. So concerned for the welfare of their school aged children (and I don't want to minimize the enormous responsibility we have to school our children and to be consistent and unwavering in our efforts to teach them...) that they left their youngest children to sit aside while they got down to business with the older kids.

I try to engage J2 as much as I can while we are all at the learning table. Sometimes it works and other times it does not. Also, I often begin the day playing with J2 before starting work with our kids. J2 is also a smidge older now so the other kids can play with him while I work one on one or at least one on two with the kids.

I will update with some activities that we've been trying this week.