I spend a lot of time sharing about A’s home education journey, and not so much about how we’re approaching home ed with a toddler. But now that Birdie is steadily moving towards being 2, I’m making a more conscious effort to include his needs and interests in our daily learning. He’s a capable, self-directed little fellow who loves all things with wheels, nurturing plants and babies, and animals. He’s a great help in the kitchen, and is so joyful when he is invited to participate in “big kid” activities like painting, cutting, or doing chores.
One of the biggest bits of learning and letting-go so far in our home ed journey is being flexible about our approach. I’m a Montessorian at heart. I went to Montessori schools as a kid. I read the 3-6 AMI training syllabus in preparation for parenthood. I put A on the list for our local Montessori nursery when he was 4 months old. I bought materials, prepared shelves, and imagined that our home would look a lot like a Montessori classroom. But I’ve intentionally stepped away from having a ‘classic’ Montessori set up for the boys, despite holding so much of the philosophy dear to my heart. Beautiful materials on tidy shelves don’t always fit into a busy family’s life (or budget!). And a home doesn’t need to replicate a classroom to afford children respect or kindle curiosity. With both children, we combine a heart full of Montessori with the beauty and wisdom of Charlotte Mason, the magic of Steiner, and the exciting information of a Classical approach to make our own kind of home ed life…something that a few years ago, as a first time parent, I would have shied away from saying, thinking I need to be a ‘purist’ to be taken seriously. Birdie’s toddler home ed experience is certainly benefitting from my more relaxed approach.
Here’s some of the ways we’re including a toddler in our home education days:
Multi-age Morning Time and Teatime
Morning Time is a movable feast to accommodate our smallest learner - as well as our bigger, wiggly learner. Most mornings, we read a few poems and do writing and maths straightaway while I fix breakfast. Birdie will either draw on plain paper with coloured pencils, or I will prepare some shape or colour matching for him to do while A does copywork. If A is working on maths, Birdie will often line up spare Montessori beads that A is using, or work with a number matching puzzle.As soon as he’s ready to move away from the table, we take our reading books out to the couch. Most mornings, both boys will listen to me read while we sit together, but other mornings one or both boys will play with trains or dance around while I read.
I always include a couple of books that are very simple or are specifically for Birdie - for instance, the Baan Dek Montessori alphabet book, or the simplified version of the Root Children. I usually encourage A to read his reading practice book to Birdie - it’s a brotherly activity, and I’m sure that watching A sound out words is something Birdie is absorbing.
Afternoon teatime is much the same - I try to always have a few things that are just for Birdie to enjoy. On the days that we talk about more advanced concepts, like bravery or peace, I assume that he absorbs what he can from our discussions, but I try to explain in very simple language to give him the best possible chance of understanding. We act out these types of ideas with puppet or doll play scenarios to help communicate big ideas to someone very small. When we read poems or look at art, I make sure to choose a few poems with captivating illustrations and one or two which have rhymes we can clap out.
Independent Quiet Playtime
This is the time in our days when A listens to a story and Birdie and I do some activities together. This is the most ‘Montessori' part of his day - other than the near-constant stream of practical life activities, of course. Although I’ve not supplied trays of curated activities on shelves, there are always a few language and numeracy-related things on the shelves to choose from. I also prepare one or two new activities just for this time of day, and bring them out with an invitation to try them. The main activities I’ll be focusing on for the next few months during this time are:
sound matching games, where I put a sandpaper letter in a collection of objects that begin with that sound
colour matching games
number to quantity correspondence games
lacing cards and threading beads
shape matching and recognition
I don’t make any focused vocabulary work as standard, because we read a lot of factual books that identify the parts of everything from earthworms to space stations (and everything in between!). If Birdie shows a great interest in something, I supply factual books with good, clear illustrations that we look at together. Sometimes we do this during this point in our days, but often we read this type of book throughout the day.
Practical Life Activities - the home
Toddlers spend so much time every day practicing the skills so many of us take for granted: putting on clothes, keeping our surroundings clean and orderly, preparing food, and taking care of others. We all spend a lot of time in our home and garden, and the boys both enjoy helping with the tasks we need to do to keep our family afloat. I divide up the most popular tasks like laundry, dusting, and mopping to make sure that Birdie gets a chance to practice his skills and feel how helpful he is to our family. Other tasks, like food preparation, are divided into simpler and more complex tasks so younger and older brother can work side by side.
Without preparing any isolated, tray-based activities for practical life refinement, Birdie is participating in the life of our family and building himself in so many ways. Here’s some of the practical life activities he’s currently enjoying, related to care of the home:
loading and unloading the washing machine
loading and unloading the dishwasher
dusting and cleaning glass doors
sweeping and mopping the kitchen
cutting soft food, spreading hummus, and loading the blender for smoothies
transferring cut vegetables into a pan for cooking
stirring and mixing
sorting clothing into piles based on who it belongs to
making his bed
wiping up spills
helping to put away the shopping, especially heavy things like cartons of oat milk or potatoes
Practical Life Activities - Care of the Self
It’s been harder for Birdie to have the time and space to naturally gain skills in practical life related to care of the self, because A is always eager to jump in and help him. This has led to some great conversations about the value of struggle and encouragement, and A is trying to give Birdie more space to practice tricky things like putting on his shoes, and provide reassuring helpful advice rather than taking over and doing the task. Stepping back and letting a child work through frustration is one of the harder jobs a parent has! When we manage to sit on our hands and let Birdie take charge, these are some of the care of the self activities he’s working on:
brushing his hair
washing his hands and drying them
putting on a coat independently using the Montessori coat flip
putting on shoes and wellies
lining up things by the door for going out: flask of water, a snack, a book, a small toy
manipulating trousers and underpants during toileting
wiping face after eating
I didn’t share much about Birdie’s potty learning experience, but at 22 months he’s fully able to use the toilet. We followed a relaxed, ‘no pants’ approach at home for a week at 18 months, following a few months of periodic nappy-free time at home. He solidified his understanding in about a week and has had virtually no accidents since then.
Art, Music, and Gross Motor Activities
We have free access to a number of art materials and musical instruments, and recently I’ve moved our art shelves around so that more of the supplies are within Birdie’s eyesight and reach. Both children have access to watercolours, coloured pencils, chalk, and crayons , plus homemade play dough. Birdie tends to prefer using the easel when he’s painting or drawing independently, but will often choose to paint alongside A at the table as well.
At 22 months, he is enjoying peeling and sticking stickers, but we save these for times when he needs a quiet activity out of the house, like during A’s swimming lessons. We like the Usborne sticker books because they can be restuck a number of times, and feature somewhat realistic images of trains and trucks.
I’ve pared back our music shelves because having a quantity of instruments can be overwhelming to a very young child. We keep the piano open during the day, and that’s the primary instrument we all interact with. Birdie also has access to a small ukulele, a wooden recorder, a cajon drum, and a Sonor glockenspiel. Most afternoons I play seasonal or children’s tunes on the piano for 10-15 minutes, which often will spark Birdie’s interest in playing the piano.
Gross motor activities in our home are nearly constant! I rarely set up any specific gross motor games because both boys tend towards kinetic learning, and any play involving A will be physical! At nearly 2, Birdie’s favourite gross motor activities are:
riding a balance bike (he has the smallest Puky, which we love)
jumping on the trampoline
running, wrestling, and playing physical games with A
hanging from gymnastic rings
digging in the garden
It is beautiful to be able to include a second child in so many of our favourite daily activities, and begin to see how the life of a family learning at home takes on a different shape when a second child becomes more actively involved.