A lot of homeschoolers are in this position and it feels really hard because they have to balance the needs of a newborn (who - let's face it - are high maintenance!) with one, two or even three other children that usually need a lot of attention too. 

Most people in your life will insist that sending your older ones to school will make life easier for you... however this isn't exactly true; Home school with a newborn is waaay easier than sending the older kids school as you don’t have the school schedule, pick ups/drop offs, lunches to make, things to remember for art, dress up days, when kids are at school they tend to get sick alllll the time too.

Let's be honest: If you've been up all night with a newborn, the last thing you want to do is drag yourself out of bed early the next morning. 

There is no shame in it if you do decide to send them to school, it might be a normal public school, a forest school, a community school or even a learning pod. How you educate your child is deeply personal and as flexible as you want it to be. 

Anyway this is a help article so back to the quick advice you can implement today: 

1. Until the age of 7 children learn best through playing so most of us that teach from a Montessori/Steiner approach, allow them the time and support to learn through play. Download a helpful guide here: Preschool guide.

2. You can add a few of these to make your life easier and ensure the children still learn:

A ball pit - colours, sizes, number, gross motor skills, grouping, sorting, 

A bubble machine - gross motor skills, outside time, hand-eye coordination, 

You can pair either of these with a small paddling pool for extra play (but be careful with a pool and a newborn obviously.) 

Water - is great for pouring, mixing, experimenting, sharing out, measuring, use different utensils to pour into and out of, bathbombs are a great way to add fun to bathtime and playtime. 

Sand can be used too, in my experience water is easier to tidy up and it doesn't end up in every crevice of your childs body!! 

A simple cardboard box or a few of these can be used to make towers, dens, boats, cars, a shoebox can be used to collect the same colour of items, to group items together, to collect things from around the house, keep things together... the possibilities are endless. 

Make sure you download the free preschool guide  for lots more ideas and help on introducing vocabulary and another concept -busy bags.  

Busy bags do what they say on the box -erm I mean bag! In the days before screens we used to have a few of these activities with us wherever we went. Snap cards (you can play memory games with them too or Charades depending on the pictures!) or a ball of wool and a laminated picture of a shoe/boot that needs lacing. You could just take simple pencil and paper with you and let them draw pictures, write letters, do some mobile learning activities. As they get older play noughts and crosses, name, animal, place, list countries or cities or A-Z of animals.... the possibilities are endless.

The A-Z list in the homeschool planner is a list of easy to follow of physical activities they can do with no equipment. This helpful video gives you some more ideas of games you can play whilst sitting on your couch feeding or otherwise occupied with your little one. 

Play some of them now, so when baby comes they’ve played them before and are ready.

Finally invest in a good baby carrier and keep a few items for the baby nearby like bouncer, play mat and get used to teaching your older ones from wherever you are.