Homeschool Your Older Children With Little Ones at Your Feet a Review

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This entry is part 21 of 27 in the series 2014 Homeschool Reviews

Preschoolers and Peace Review
Wouldn’t you just love to be a fly on the wall of a homeschooling family with a passel of children ranging in stairstep ages from newborn to 16?

Well in her new book Preschoolers and Peace: Homeschooling older kids with success while loving the little ones at your feet by Preschoolers and Peace Kendra Fletcher invites you to just that and peek into her daily homeschool life. We were able to review this new resource recently with the SchoolHouse Crew.

Preschoolers and Peace Review
Okay I have an only child so why would I be interested in reviewing a book about homeschooling with little babies and toddlers underfoot?

Well I sort of have this hope, this dream if you will, that sometime in the near future that will be my situation. Having a little one at my knee while also homeschooling my rapidly growing daughter.

Also I’ve also secretly wondered how other families do it. I mean we all know that homeschooling itself takes perseverance, planning, attention, and focus.  All those things that little babies don’t let us have.

So how do you do it? How do you make sure your older children are getting a quality education while your little ones are being nurtured in their neediness?

Preschoolers and Peace: Homeschooling older kids with success while loving the little ones at your feet  shows you how one mother gets it done.

A homeschooling mother of 8 (1 in college, 1 college graduate) Kendra knows what she is talking about. She’s been homeschooling for 16 years and knows first hand what it takes to accomplish this effectively.

Now before I get started telling you all about what’s in this resource Preschoolers and Peace: Homeschooling older kids with success while loving the little ones at your feet can be purchased for the extremely low price of $2.99 and comes in the Kindle format.

This ebook is 47 pages long and geared towards homeschooling parents.

It has 14 chapters including a Meal Planning section because busy moms need to get on board with meal planning.

Here are the topics covered…

  • What a Homeschooling Mom Needs
  • Preparing Yourself to Homeschool Older Kids With Little Ones
  • Planning Around Preschoolers
  • How Do I Keep Them Busy?
  • What Does a 2-Year-Old’s Day Look Like?
  • How Do I Get Any Preschooling Done?
  • How Not to Just Kill Time
  • Circle Time, or How We Pull the Little Ones In
  • Preschool Boys
  • When All of Your Kiddos Are Preschoolers
  • Preschool Chores
  • Planning for Preschool
  • When Mama Is Worn Out (or Pregnant)
  • Meal Planning 101

preschoolers-peace-little-ones

So I sat down and I eagerly gobbled down Kendra’s book. Devouring such topics as…

  • What do you do with toddlers when you have an older child needing your attention?
  • How does a homeschool or even daily schedule look like with preschoolers?
  • How does this same schedule look with a newborn baby?
  • How does a 2 year old’s day look?
  • What preschool type activities can my little one do?

I have none of these situations…yet! But do wonder how people cope who do.

I’m not going to tell you that “the years when they’re little fly by, so just hang in there and enjoy them.”

~Kendra Fletcher

The beauty of Preschoolers and Peace is that Kendra gives you leeway to start from scratch if the previous plan doesn’t work. And about that planning? Don’t plan too much.

That being said she did have plenty of schedules and routines to share.

We teach our little ones to do five things when they get up in the morning:

  1. Get dressed
  2. Make their bed
  3. Brush their teeth
  4. Tidy their room
  5. Pray for their day

~Preschoolers and Peace: Homeschooling older kids with success while loving the little ones at your feet 

The above is probably my favorite part of the book. I don’t think you can outgrow this routine.

Kendra also has precious list of things she wished she had made more time for when her children were little and then turned it around to a list of these same things and how they CAN be accomplished WITH the little ones taking part!

Kendra also talks about using Circle Time (we did a review on that resource last year and you can find it here) to let the smaller children partake of the homeschool day they will gradually grow more fully into.

She’s got a gem of a list of simple toys and activities…here’s the key THAT LITTLE ONES CAN PLAY ALONE! Oh sure you may need to secure them in a highchair or in what we call happy camper but there they can safely entertain themselves for half an hour or so while you get some schooling done with the older children.

Bearing One Another’s Burden:  This is when friends and/or extended family share their time. That valuable resource we never have enough of.

Sharing in the shopping even the cooking and errand running. Sometimes when you just have no time to spare it’s wonderful to have friends or family chip in to help make it through.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I read late at night while the household was asleep. It was like I asked Kendra all these questions about raising and homeschooling multiple ages (because I have been so curious like I mentioned earlier) and she just went down the line answering them.

I don’t know what my future holds but I feel like I can breathe a little easier knowing I have a blueprint just in case one day I find out I’m having twins!!!

I think to label this book as only homeschooling resource is a mistake. This ebook could be a lifesaver for …

  • Mom’s homeschooling more than one child.
  • Families with toddlers and preschoolers.
  • Mom’s of busy boys.

I actually could have used quite a bit of this advice when my daughter was younger.

You can connect with Kendra and Preschooler and Peace online.

 

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