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Young boy showing a book to his baby brother sat in a bouncy chair

Homeschooling in Lockdown – Don’t Forget About Toddlers!

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Stuck at home with multiple children during lockdown? Short of time? We take a look at the importance of toddler learning and engagement at this time

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“Hey, don’t touch that!”

“Stop drawing on the walls!”

“Can you please just sit still for 1 minute!”

Sound familiar? – You’ve got to love toddlers, haven’t you?

Introduction

So, here we are, millions of people are back in lockdown. Children everywhere are stuck at home and in need of educating and entertaining. For anyone with multiple children who finds themselves in this predicament, it is all too easy to neglect your younger ones of pre-school age, in favour of their more demanding older siblings.

However, as a school teacher myself, I am well aware of the importance of education at this early years stage. In order for toddler-age children to gain a firm footing in life and to kick-start a rounded development, different forms of learning and social interaction are absolutely essential. With reduced opportunities for visiting and experiencing new places at this time, this fact has never been more true than right now.

Young boy wearing pyjamas while sat on a fireplace hearth, looking at a magazine
A spot of private ‘reading’

That’s not to say it’s easy to do, especially with older children thrown into the mix. There’s only ever 1 of you to go around, after all! Even with only 1 toddler to look after, it can still be pretty full on. They do like to test us! Despite the challenges though, it is still something that is well worth pursuing. You’ll be sure to see the benefits once they reach school age. With that in mind, here are some of my tried and trusted suggestions for things to do when homeschooling toddlers during lockdown.

If, however, you’re more interested in how to help school age children, also take a look at our tips and resources for homeschooling during lockdown.

Background

Being a mother of 4, I am no stranger to toddlers. My son, Easton (my 3rd child), is currently approaching 2½ so very much at the upper end of this bracket. Prior to lockdown, we were full-time travelling as a family in our motorhome, homeschooling as we went. I am therefore also no stranger to having to deal full-time with (while also attempting to educate) multiple children of different ages.

One thing I’ve noticed, is that having been removed from the range of social classes and all the alternative settings that we’d have experienced at home, Easton’s speech development has been markedly slower than his two older sisters were before him. He’s otherwise very bright, so we’re not overly concerned, but definitely he has been slower to talk. This may just be a ‘boys develop differently to girls’ thing, but it seems likely that his alternative upbringing may also have had some negative influence over this.

A family with 4 small children, sat outside on a rug while looking at a pop-up book
Always a handful!

In contrast, my eldest two girls both had the benefit of an excellent childminder, alongside multiple baby and toddler groups each week. This barrage of social interaction noticeably helped to advance their early development and they have both always been very bright for their ages and early talkers. Attending a preschool back in the UK and now primary school in Spain (where we’re currently living) have helped to build on this platform.

When living a life on the road, we found that when homeschooling a 5 and 3 year old while crammed in a van, it was perhaps too easy to not spend as much time concentrating solely on Easton as a 1 year old as we should have done. I imagine that this is a scenario that is currently being replicated all over the world right now, which is one of my main reasons for writing this piece – to emphasise the importance of this very early years education, while also providing some easy and practical tips for things that you can do at home with your toddlers.

Tips for Homeschooling Toddlers

Singing

The importance of singing with and to young children is something that should never be overlooked, with it having been shown to play a crucial role in speech and language development. Although you may feel a little silly at first joining in, this feeling is soon overcome, especially when joining others who are doing the same. Anyone who has ever been to a formal baby or toddler group will be very accustomed to this (in the UK at least, but I imagine the same is true elsewhere).

I regularly attended several such groups with my first two daughters when living back at home in the UK. They provided the perfect opportunity to escape the house and spend some time with my children one-on-one, while also doing an activity that was both fun and beneficial for them. For those unable or unwilling to pay for such classes, local libraries will often organise similar such singing groups aimed at early years children. I would always take mine to our local library every Friday to take advantage of this.

Young boy wearing a green costume and pretending to use a make-up brush as a microphone
Singing into his brush microphone

However Easton, my third child, missed out on all of this, as we were away travelling throughout this important developmental period of his life. As the majority of these such classes will currently be closed due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, I imagine there are plenty of other young children who are missing out right now in exactly the same way.

Having seen first hand the negative impact on his speech development, I would urge anyone to try and find their own imaginative ways of singing with their children. Even without groups or classes to attend, it is still possible to find time to sing some songs with them at home. If you’re uncomfortable singing yourself, or lacking inspiration, there are a wealth of online resources that you can access to help. Streaming services like Spotify are full of playlists aimed at toddlers, as well as Youtube, that is great for both music and videos for young children to watch. Easton has been particularly keen on listening to The Wiggles singing nursery rhymes.

Reading

While this may seem obvious, the importance of reading to early years children cannot be overstated. It has been shown time and again to be the single most important thing that you can do for your child’s development. If you need any more convincing, take a look at all these benefits of reading to your children.

However, with multiple children, it is not always easy to find the time amidst the chaos. Also, younger toddlers can be hard work when it comes to their limited attention span. Easton would never sit still for more than about 10 seconds so reading books to him was simply impossible. That said, we persisted and now he loves having books read to him (although he still always want to turn the pages long before you’ve finished reading them!).

Books that offer interaction, like flaps to lift or things to touch, are often better for retaining attention. Another problem we had when living in the van was that we only had a few books away with us (only limited space on board). This restricted the choice on offer, although fortunately kids seem to enjoy repetition, so even if you only own one book you can still read to your children and know that they’ll enjoy it.

Father reading his young son a bedtime story in bed
Story time

It is a good idea to have a consistent and routine time each day for reading books if you can. That way, they learn to get used to it as being normal. We try to read to Easton before he goes to bed (at least, when things aren’t too crazy with the other 3!). One help is that our eldest, at 6, is now just about able to read independently. If you have older children who can do this, make use of them – get them to read to the toddlers and that’s two of them entertained doing something beneficial at the same time – it’s not often that happens!

For some inspiration for what to read, take a look at these classic favourite toddler books. Alternatively, for some alternative fun books for younger children that we’ve been asked to take a look at in the past, check out our book reviews.

Toddler Games

Playing games is another great way to develop brain function. We’ve always enjoyed playing the range of games from Orchard Toys with our children. They’re great for helping to foster abilities like thinking and planning, as well as fine tuning basic motor skills.

While we had some games with us when we left for our year of travel (see our top 5 compact travel games), they were all aimed at our older 2 children, as Easton was still not much more than a baby when we set off. By the time the year was up though, we definitely could have done with some for him.

Young boy sat on a carpeted floor completing a simple children's wooden jigsaw
Jigsaw fun

Since being more settled, we now have a selection of basic games that we can play that Easton seems to enjoy. We also have some simple jigsaws. These are also great for developing motor skills and spacial awareness, on top of the sense of satisfaction gained from completing them.

Educational Apps

While I would never advocate sitting toddlers in front of screens excessively (one of our reasons for living in the van in the first place was to be outside and away from screens more), some screen time can be used intermittently as a force for good. There are now an enormous range of smartphone/tablet apps aimed specifically at early years children. These can be really useful for entertaining and educating young children, although admittedly you will usually need to supervise (if your toddlers are anything like mine have been, just stopping them from continually pressing the ‘home’ button is the first major hurdle to overcome!).

A few of the apps that we have used to particularly good effect with Easton are:

  • Speech Blubs – This app has been specifically designed to help with speech learning and development in younger children. Because of Easton’s delayed speech development, we have recently started using it with him, with encouraging initial results. The app is based around watching other children vocalising sounds and simple words, with encouragement for the watcher to try and copy these. This is followed up by some fun games and photo opportunities with a range of amusing filters, to help keep little ones interested.

  • Edukid – Based around colourful animal characters, the Edukid app comes with over 50 different learning games for young children. These games cover themes like shapes, numbers and colours, helping to develop a range of skills, such as concentration, imagination and memory. There’s plenty there to keep little ones engaged while they learn.

Young boy looking at an iPad, displaying an educational app
Learning with the Edukid app

  • Reading Eggs – Though aimed primarily at older children, there is also a junior section for younger children aged 2-4. This contains a range of things for toddlers to watch and interact with, covering alphabet, numbers, short story videos, singing and reading books. Admittedly you may not want to pay the subscription fee for a toddler alone, but if you have older children, a family subscription is a good option (I cannot recommend the app enough for older children as a homeschooling companion – see our top 5 apps for homeschooling).

In Summary

The Covid-19 pandemic has presented everyone with different challenges. Although not as physically at risk as older people, the long term mental and developmental effects on children should not be overlooked. Extended separation from classrooms and the usual social interactions are sure to leave their mark.

While people everywhere are struggling in this context to entertain and educate their school-age children (while also juggling other responsibilities), another group that are perhaps even easier to neglect are younger toddlers and pre-school children. Having unfortunately been a little guilty of this myself in the past, I am keen to now emphasise this point to others who may not realise the importance of learning at this young age, so that they don’t fall into the same trap.

Young boy showing a book to his baby brother sat in a bouncy chair
Sharing his books with his baby brother

I hope that my past experiences can be enough to inspire people to try and find a little more time to dedicate to their toddlers, especially if they are currently completely missing out on any classes/groups or their normal range of social situations. You’ll be rewarded to see the progress that you can make with just a little input. Remember, variety is everything. The more different influences and experiences that you can expose your toddlers to, the better they’ll be for it. At least, that’s what I’ve always found to be true…

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Children of Wanderlust Administrator
We are Rachel & John, parents from the UK with 4 small children. After persuing separate jobs for many years, including being an experienced science teacher, we have now moved to Spain for a fresh challenge. We have always had a passion for travel and exploration. Nowadays, that means bringing our 4 children, Savannah (9), Aurora (7), Easton (5) and Tiago (3) along with us. This oftens means taking a road trip in our beloved vintage camper, touring all corners of Europe and Morocco. We hope that you enjoy reading about our family adventures all over the world.

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