People often ask me how I homeschool with multiple kids. I have a teenager, a ten year old, a seven year old and five year old. So the ages and responsibilities vary, which also means so do the expectations. To be clear, "homeschooling" a toddler is not the same as a teaching a high school kid about the periodic table. So the first thing I think people have to understand is that my teaching changes from year to year. As the kids get older, the needs change more. Next year for example, all of the kids will have spelling lists, for the first time.
The other thing I have to explain that is I don't do "school at home". By that I mean that I don't set up a certain designated time for school each day. I tend to do it in the morning but sometimes that doesn't work out. My older child volunteers so sometimes I use her volunteer time to take the younger kids to the library or a mini field trip. I like to schedule doctor's appointments during the school day because there are more open appointments (I try to get all my kids seen at one time to avoid multiple trips). If my husband is going to help with a project or an assignment this may mean waiting until he gets home from work. I have to be flexible in what we get done every day.
However, we do use textbooks and a lot of my childrens' work is turned into a third party. So I do plot out a general schedule. For example, my teenager can complete a book report on her own from start to finish. This is an assignment that is graded by our "umbrella" school so other than few pointers from me on things like margins, she does it solo. I will however, make sure to give her a guideline of how long she should take to work on it.
My ten year old, on the other hand, needs more help with book reports because he is still learning how to do them. So while he reads the book on his own, I will stop and go over chapters with him from time to time. I also spend more time with him on how to do outlines, good sentence structure, and grammar.
Meanwhile, my two little ones aren't doing book reports so their reading assignments involve more reading to me (or each other) and verbal questions. That's another point to keep in mind: kids can help each other. My younger ones read to each other or to their older siblings all the time. I strongly believe that being able to teach something truly shows your understanding and ability to do it well yourself.
Sounds like a lot right? Well, we don't do every subject, every day. Nor do we do a set amount of time every day. If it takes a lot longer to get through something on Monday, I may decide Tuesday to review a topic instead of moving on to what I had for Tuesday. One day, after a week of rain, the weather was so beautiful, we decided to drop everything and go to the zoo. It's all about flexibility.
Here's a sample of a day for me:
- PERSONAL TIME: Wake up and have personal time (sometimes that's watching TV and drinking tea, other times it's exercise). This is essential when you spend ALL day with your kids.
- GET THE OLDER KIDS GOING FIRST: Once the kids are up and have had breakfast (and other morning routine stuff), I make sure the teenager is focused on what she needs to do during the day.
Then I get started with the ten year old. I generally give him a few things he can do on his own like reading an assignment and answering the questions at the end of the chapter. While he is doing that, I may start working with the younger kids. As their grades are close together I do a lot of their work at the same time. Sometimes though I get one started on a solo activity (like copying spelling words) while the other one works with me on something.
- RETURN TO THE OLDER KIDS: Because the younger kids don't spend as much time doing work, eventually they are "dismissed" to do something else, and I return to the older child. This is when the more hands on work comes up.
- At a certain point everyone stops for the day (I will let the older child stop on her own because I am trying to teach time management and being responsible for her actions). We then do chores or free time.
Of course, everyday is not like this. We are going to put together a solar system and each child will help. But of course, I will give age appropriate explanations of things. I don't expect the five year old to know about gravity and different gases on each planet.
Now add into this LIFE and you'll see why flexibility is the key. One kid woke up sick. Really sick, like changing the sheets sick. Another kid "forgot" to tell me she needed a baked item for an event that evening. Another kid decides to "help" with cleaning, which requires a second cleaning. The neighbor needs help, the husband forgot something at home and needs you to bring it to him, someone put hair bows on the dog, a glass was knocked over while trying to kill a fly .....the list goes on and on.
We are also a military family, so there's that. I think the need to be flexible in our address forced me to learn early on that be too structured just means constant let downs and frustrations. Again, this is what works for me. I do see the TV shows and online stories of very structured school at home type environments. That just doesn't work for me. But even with those, they allow for flexibility of illness, weather, etc.
So multiple kids, multiple lessons, multiple ages...it's totally possible. Sometimes you just have to throw out the plans and go with the flow!
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