Maybe a little unorthodox but doing school stuff at night?

[~Boudicca~]

Does anyone else around here do that?

Basically, my 2.5 y/o is sucking the life out of me and I cannot get a free minute (ok lots of free minutes) to actually sit down and focus with my 6.5 y/o on her school stuff. It has been really challenging.

DD2 does not nap, loves my boobs, and is generally really pissed off when I have one-on-one time with her big sister. I have tried a myriad of toddler friendly crafts (which turn into a huge PITA and more trouble than it's worth), distraction with her own little activities, trying to get her to sit quietly in my lap so I can talk to her sister is unacceptable to her little 2 y/o brain right now. I tried the T.V. too as much as I hate to do it but if my older kid is anywhere near the tube I can't get her attention at all but if we move to the office then the 2 y/o flips out because we left her alone (which in reality is about 15 feet away in another room but that is too far--she's my stalker ). I am having a really hard time even dividing a little time between, we have no rhythm whatsoever and it is making it hard for us to do anything at all.

So I was thinking today that maybe I would do things with DD1 after her little sister is in bed. She usually goes to sleep by the time 8:30 rolls around so it would be after that and we'd actually get a little quiet time with DD1 to practice reading and writing and play a game or something.

What do you think? I really can't see anything wrong with it unless for some reason this is not an optimal time of day for a kid to learn. FTR, DD1 can be quite the night owl so I'm pretty sure she wouldn't be too tired.

[stormborn]

We do! I still have a night owl toddler underfoot but it works for us because all the distractions go away. All of the 8 yo's public schooled friends are in bed, too dark to play outside, etc. MUCH easier to get her to sit down and do it without all that competition.

[ocelotmom]

Originally Posted by ~Boudicca~

Does anyone else around here do that

At least half our school stuff gets done after dinner, sometimes quite late. It's just how it tends to work out for us.

[stormborn]

ooops baby double posted

[~Boudicca~]

Ok good to know! It is just so hard to get a rhythm in our house that works for us right now, it's not something I want to continue forever but at least until the little one is not obsessed with everything that doesn't include her, YK?

[blsilva]

I think its a good idea if your daughter will work better after hours! Whatever works best for you and your little ones. We haven't done much work at night, but we don't always do the early morning thing either. Its all about flexibility.

[theretohere]

I think that's one of the best things about homeschooling- you can school when the time is right. Go for it!

[Oriole]

I think it's a HORRIBLE idea, and it will never work. You really should rethink it.
Studies have shown, that every child should learn between the hours of 8:36 am and 2:48pm. Everything else is just a waste of time. You let your kid stay up past 8:30pm????













Just kidding!
If it works for you and your kid, who's to say "don't do it?"
Go for it, and don't think twice

[proudmamanow]

We are thinking about this too, because I WOH and want to participate, and also because it is so much easier when there are two adults at home, so one can take care of the wild toddler But dd is tired at night and needs her sleep, like her mama, so it's going to take a bit of tweaking of our schedules.

[~Boudicca~]

Originally Posted by Oriole

I think it's a HORRIBLE idea, and it will never work. You really should rethink it.
Studies have shown, that every child should learn between the hours of 8:36 am and 2:48pm. Everything else is just a waste of time. You let your kid stay up past 8:30pm????













Just kidding!
If it works for you and your kid, who's to say "don't do it?"
Go for it, and don't think twice

this is so cool. Yeah, it did seem kind of a no-brainer but I had to ask YK? It is great having this kind of flexibility and that is a big part of why we're doing this in the first place. I just admire those homeschooling peeps that I know that actually having a daytime thing going, I worked nights for years so getting out of that 2nd-3rd shift mentality has been tough but oh well to hell with it. I won't stress about timing so much, now it just seems silly.

[kittie313]

We'll be doing that probably when dd4 stops napping. Right now that child takes a 3hr or so nap in the afternoons after we have lunch, so that's when we do the bulk of our hsing. But when she quits napping here soon (probably in the spring I'm guessing if she's anything like her biggest sister, who she seems to be the mirror image of in every way so far developmentally) I'll be moving lessons for dd1 to EARLY mornings before dd4 is awake and dd2's lessons to at night while dh is getting the little 2 to bed (then he will play a board game or read with dd1 and those two can go to bed when dd2 finishes lessons) I hate the thought of having to do it like that, but if that's how it needs done we'll do it. You do what you have to when you have a 2yo in the house..................... LOL

[moominmamma]

We did it that way for years. Evenings are still music practicing, history and readaloud, even though math, science, writing and the like have gravitated to the morning. Ten pm used to see several of my kids all hunkered down with hot chocolates doing math in their pyjamas.

Whatever works.

Miranda

[karemore]

We're just doing K, but most of our schooling is done at night right now. We have most of our activities during the day, and nights are when we are home and everything is quiet and calm.

I love that we can work "school" into our life rather than try to schedule life around a public school calendar.

[bandgeek]

We do "school" at night. DS will be 5 next month and just wants to go, go, go all day long. At night he calms down, wants to snuggle up with me and a book, and he's more focused. So that's when I drag out the math manipulatives and writing paper and educational games. So far it's working out well.

[Lemon Juice]

I tell ya, funny how I was thinking about you today and here you are! Since we know the same hs peeps, I do totally understand what you mean. I admire them as well...but I know that most of us w/ littles at home are not on that kind of schedule. We have to do what works for our families and damn the clock! Eventually you may or may not evolve into a different rhythm...but if you try it and it works, go for it! I know you know it...but just adding my support.

Oh..and I have a message coming your way. Mini homeschool co-op in the works...

[~Boudicca~]

Yes LC you do totally know what I'm talking about! How do they do it? And you know how Avery is, this kid just doesn't make anything easy ever! So yeah to hell with the clock, after hours homeschooling it is.

Looking forward to the info, see you later!

[coleslaw]

I know you've made up your mind, but I wanted to chime in to say that my dd does her best work at night. Generally more focused for whatever reason even though I can't get it through my head and keep trying to do our thing in the morning. Grrr to me. Thanks for reminding me of this option. (I have a 3.5yo who sounds just like your 2yo, so I really need to rethink our day.)

[Collinsky]

I always have done my best work at night. Always. It was really detrimental to being in public school, but once I was homeschooled in high school it worked out just fine. Most of my learning happened at night -- probably significantly later than you're talking about, too!

I think that whatever works for your family is best! I've heard that the original public school schedule was set up around a farming lifestyle, and not around child development or educational philosophy -- basically it was to allow the children a couple hours in the morning to help out with farm chores before school, and leave them enough daylight in the evening to help out some more. Otherwise the farmer would have had to veto his children leaving for school.

We're still pretty unschooly in attitude, even though we're doing more "schoolwork" and more planning ahead and structured stuff now, so basically it's wherever it fits into the day, as it makes sense and feels good for us. If I'm able to be more responsive and present, and my children are more relaxed and receptive/active and motivated/interested and focused/whatever at a certain time of day, then that's when we should go for it. Trying to smash ourselves into someone else's idea of when all kids should learn (based on nothing but opinion, because that's what they're used to) would mean LESS learning and LESS enjoyment for all of us. The whole point of homeschooling (well, one of them) for us is to get away from the one-size-fits-all approach, to tailor the experience for each person, and to encourage absolute joy and freedom in learning and exploring... there's no way anyone else could determine our schedule for doing that. Do what works for you! If it isn't successful, or stops working, say, well, that was fun, and then move on to the next thing.

[PJsmomma]

We had school Monday a.m. then we had school Mon p.m. because we had a lot of errands to run on Tuesday.

I say whatever works for you is super!

[phathui5]

When does your older dd usually go to bed?