When I decided to homeschool my kids, I was itching to get started. I knew the benefits – a stronger family bond, flexible schedules, freedom to travel, time to explore individual passions and interests. But with my oldest daughter just turning 2, here’s what I didn’t know: What does it look like right now? Where do I start? How does this whole thing work?
And everyone I asked said the same thing: “Don’t worry! You’ve got plenty of time to figure it out.”
But I knew one thing: I didn’t want to waste it.
If you’re on the fence about when to begin homeschooling – and how – today’s post is for you.
FORGET BABY EINSTEIN
Now that I’m nearly a decade into this gig, I can whisper to you a big, big secret: Homeschooling a toddler has nothing to do with “getting ahead.” It’s not about creating tiny Einsteins. It’s not even – gasp! – about your child!
It’s about you getting in your practice hours. It’s testing the waters, assessing what might work for your family. It’s about experimenting, about seeing what it feels like to fail and try again. Learning the many areas you excel in, and learning the many areas in which you can improve.
Aristotle once wrote “For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”
That’s good news for those of us who want to start homeschooling! It means we don’t need a degree in childhood development or a teaching certification. It means we don’t need a ton of money, or to live in a certain area. It means we’re getting better every single day. We’re learning by doing, right alongside our kids!
But we’ve got to start somewhere.
WHAT THE EARLY YEARS ARE REALLY FOR
This is exactly why I love kicking off our homeschooling efforts in these sticky, early years. The stakes are low! We can swim around and flail a little without worrying about chemistry compounds. Maybe we’ll discover we’re impatient or scatterbrained, a little too rigid or a little too lax. Maybe we’ll find that our child needs a little more structure, or a little more freedom. Maybe we’ll learn that poetry works best after everyone has a brownie or two.
The point is: by creating intentional, teachable moments, you’ll learn a LOT about you and you’ll learn a LOT about your child. And in doing so, you’ll build your foundation on far more than the ABCs.
In fact, a recent PhD study from Indiana University found that “the most accurate predictors of student achievement are …the extent to which the family creates a home environment that encourages learning and is foremost involved in the child’s education.”
Homeschooling in the early years is simply that: creating a home environment that encourages learning from the get-go.
BUILDING A RHYTHM
Here’s the truth: when your child is 2 or 3, you have FAR more control and influence over the home environment than you will when your child is older. You can establish traditions that outdate your child’s memory. You can create routines that your child will assume were just “always” there. Read-alouds over breakfast, baking on Tuesdays, family hikes every weekend. While it’s never too late to create a family rhythm, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how much easier it is when you begin early.
BUT HOW?
I remember the day I poured a strong cup of coffee and started a list of what would make the toddler years “count.” Which activities were busy work and which were meaningful? What mattered and what didn’t? I researched furiously, edited ruthlessly, and over the course of many weeks and many coffee refills – 10 clear goals emerged. (Spoiler alert: these goals are now the very foundation of our Other Goose program!)
Toddlers need both structure and freedom. They need simplicity. They need logic and math and foundations and relationships and nature and creativity and literature and rhythm and habits and language – all ready to be discovered in an open-ended, no-pressure, play-based, fully-adaptable environment. They need penny walks and banging walls and upside-down art.
In my endless research, what I realized was this: learning can happen in the simplest of moments. All I really needed was to learn how to lasso the learning. I needed to train myself to recognize the teachable moments that were already there, and to help my child see them, too.
(Want to get better at this? Join us here!)
WHAT YOUR TODDLER DOESN’T NEED
While Instagram might lead you to believe otherwise, toddlers don’t need the works. They don’t need modern flashcards you could re-create with a few Post-It notes from the kitchen drawer. They don’t need a playroom filled with one-off play hacks from the Target dollar bin. They don’t need elaborate tea times with fine china and a Bundt cake, and most importantly? They don’t need a stressed-out parent who has spent all afternoon dying rainbow rice for a Pinterest-approved sensory bin.
Allison Gopnik, American professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, argues this: “Our job [as parents] is to provide a protected space of love, safety, and stability in which children of many unpredictable kinds can flourish. Our job is not to shape our children’s minds; it’s to let those minds explore all the possibilities that the world allows… We can’t make children learn, but we can let them learn.”
No flashcards necessary.
PROMPTS > PLANS
Want to know why we call our daily activities lesson prompts, rather than lesson plans? Because we believe deeply in the idea of letting children learn, rather than making them. A prompt leads toward discovery. It guides, it boosts, it steers a child gently into an unknown, uncharted territory. But a plan directs and controls. A plan dictates.
A plan guides children toward answers. A prompt guides children toward questions.
Sure – learning involves both questions and answers, but in the early years: questions are critical. Did you know that our brain’s chemistry changes when it becomes curious? By engaging in questions that spark curiosity, a toddler’s brain is more primed to retain foundational information for years to come.
(This is exactly why we recommend wordless prep for each of our prompts. Here’s how it works!)
THE BOTTOM LINE
If your definition of homeschooling means to sit down your child for rote memorization and desk work, give your toddler a few years before you try tackling a more formal education. But if you’re looking for a new way to engage your 2-3-year old that sparks a love for learning while building a strong family foundation for years to come? Start here, and start today.