Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Homeschooling with preschoolers around presents a special challenge. Home School Legal Defense Association Chairman and General Counsel Michael Farris tells us how his family incorporates preschoolers into their homeschooling program.

Michael Farris:
My wife Vickie has homeschooled our 10 children for 16 years. In the early years, we had just a couple of younger students in the primary grades and one or two preschoolers. This is a fairly typical family pattern for new homeschoolers, who need to learn to deal with the little ones.


The most important fact for such families is that it only takes about two hours a day to give a 1st- through 3rd-grader necessary academic instruction. And a parent can switch back and forth between a couple of younger students and get through an entire school day in about three hours. Babies and toddlers, thankfully, take naps. This is prime instruction time, and toddlers have a certain attention span for quiet activities such as coloring, looking at books, or playing with Legos. Vickie can teach Emily in the kitchen while 3-year-old Johnny plays quietly 10 feet away in the family room. While this won't last for long periods, an alert mom can learn to rotate her attention between children to keep things at even keel long enough to get through the two or three hours she needs for younger children. Older children require more instruction time, but they're also more capable of helping with the preschoolers.


Homeschooling with preschoolers is a challenge, but it's far from impossible. Hundreds of thousands of moms have done it successfully. There's probably at least one such mom in your local support group.


I'm Michael Farris.