We’ve gotten through our first day of homeschooling. One down, a bazillion to go! (It worries you that I’m teaching her with words like “bazillion” in my vocabulary, doesn’t it?)
It actually went quite well. Other than calling the elderly neighbors because their dog was running down the street, and the boys taking turns screaming for my attention, and Samantha whining because she was bored with the first few workbook pages, there weren’t too many distractions to our day. 
But, seriously, we had a good time overall. I think our favorite subject together will be Language Arts. Loved reading the stories and poems and discussing them together. We haven’t had a History lesson yet, though. That could be fun.
I’ll keep you updated on our progress. But, seriously, if there are some other homeschoolers out there with younger kids in the house, I could use some ideas on how to keep them entertained and out of the school stuff! Thanks. 
You’re a braver soul than I am. We’re doing something similar. Our daughter will be in Cyber school this year, with our granddaughter who is 1 1/2 at home. That is a lot easier than homeschooling, though. We just have to keep the daughter on task in her work area while the granddaughter is entertained. Our daughter has access to teachers by telephone and the internet.
Rick: It sounds the same as what we’re doing. Our daughter is officially enrolled in a virtual academy (I feel so Star Wars or something saying that!). I definitely am starting with a very structured program and curriculum. I’ve not got much organization myself, so I’m taking all the help I can get! At kindergarten level, it’s 100% of me working with her (other than about 15 minutes of individual reading time each day). She also has an official teacher from the school, but that’s mostly support for me this year. I think it gets more independent on her part in the later years. But so far, so good!
Definitely a lot of support and supervision on your part needed for a kindergartener. I thought you were talking about a traditional homeschool situation. Put on your Yoda face!:-) Seeing their older sister learning may make it easier to get the boys excited about starting school when their times come.
If you have the room, a separate room or nook for school may help some. It deliminates school psychologically from the rest of life, and could make it easier to teach the boys what they aren’t allowed to touch. I’m not home during the day, so my wife gets the joy of keeping our granddaughter occupied and entertained during school. In the evening I get my turn while our daughter is doing homework (strange concept when all of school is done at home). We play, go outside, sing songs, and watch Elmo or Wishbone.
My daughter is sixteen, so it makes life easier. She had the option of attending a virtual classroom with realtime interaction with other students and the teacher, but we thought independent study and contact with the teacher as needed would work out better for her. At her age, the only real problems I see are with labs (though she hasn’t elected to take chemistry or physics
), and gym class. I’m going to be doing yoga with her for at least part of that.
Yeah, I’m definitely not disciplined enough to come up with the schooling on my own. I need the structure and organization already laid out for me. And the virtual school curriculum and supplies (including the computer) are free! Free definitely fits into our budget.
We converted the dining room into our school room. It was a good excuse to get it cleaned up. We never eat there anyway (just at the kitchen table where clean-up with two toddlers is much more simple!). It is definitely beneficial to us to have the physical space set aside for most of our schooling. We have a baby gate that often goes up while we’re in there b/c the boys haven’t been convinced yet that they don’t deserve access to the computer! It does help that the youngest still naps.
I’m still wondering how we’ll get all the phys. ed. in. Her tap counts for some, and soccer if she gets signed up again. The yoga with your daughter sounds like fun! Maybe we’ll have to give that a try.