I mentioned that a lot of people ask what my littles do while I homeschool and I shared the humorous side of it with you all. As I sorted through some of my thoughts on the matter, I wanted to also share a few things I don't use to occupy the littles while I homeschool the older girls.
#1 - Television
There is no TV on at all. I don't believe that watching television is helpful or healthy to a child. It fries their brain! It kills their imagination! It makes them drooling zombies! :) Therefore, I do not use TV to entertain the littles. I've refused to change my approaches to childhood for my own convenience. I want the younger Blossoms to have the same wholesome and imaginative days that Blossom1 and Blossom2 had prior to their school days.
#2 - Video Games
See point #1, especially, "It fries their brain! It kills their imagination! It makes them drooling zombies!" And, have you ever noticed how cranky children are when they are finished watching a movie or playing video games for long amounts of time?
#3 - Captivity
A caged lion is never a happy lion, or at least that's my philosophy. Young children (or at least, our young children) just want to be with Mama, so I try to keep as much WITH Mama time as possible. I don't send them into a room to play for long periods of time all by themselves, UNLESS they are old enough to really want to do that. Blossom3 and Blossom4 spend most of their time playing directly in the school room.
#4 - Naps
Most people assume, "Oh, you must wait til naptime to do school."
Firstly, my girls (and most children) do best hitting the schoolwork right away in the morning. I'd have WAY more attitude problems on my hands if I waited til naptime to work with the older Blossoms.
Secondly, most moms' self discipline level is already stretched thin. They do best doing the most important item of their day first or the day gets away from them. Hence, we have devotions, get dressed, knock out a few chores, eat breakfast and jump into our schoolwork.
Thirdly, this Mama is tired by 1 o'clock in the afternoon, so naptime is a rest time I look forward to. Fourthly, there's no way we could fit all of schoolwork in during naptime.
Lastly, what happens when they outgrow naptime?
#5 - Sugar
It backfires. Let's just put it that way. They bounce off the walls and then, they crash and it gets really bad.
So, there it is; a few things that I don't use to occupy the little Blossoms. We don't have perfect days here, by any means. We try though. And, little by little, we have good, steady progress in schoolwork AND we have younger Blossoms who play imaginatively. Perhaps you can benefit by the little peek into our lives.
