Organisation, organisation, and a little more organisation is the recipe for making homeschooling with multiple children a breeze. When I say breeze I really just mean that you won’t be wanting to pull your hair out on a daily basis.
I had everything going smoothly with child number one. I was homeschooling mother extraordinaire. Soon enough though number two needed to start her formal lessons and it totally threw me off. How was I supposed to make time for her while my six year old was still so dependent on me?
We fumbled around for a few months. We accomplished very little as I tried to juggle 2 school aged kids, a mischief toddler and pregnant with number four. Eventually we sorted it out and I happily made it to the other side to share my words of wisdom with you.
It is Okay to Say No
When you are homeschooling multiple children you really can’t fit everything in. For some reason people seem to think that just because you are home during the day, that means you are available and free.
It is okay to say no to going out to coffee, or to run errands for someone, or to a play date or anything else that may come up. We have school hours that I set for myself. That means that we are unavailable until 2pm each day. Unless something is pre-arranged or an emergency I keep to those hours.
This helps me to know that I have ‘X’ amount of time to get everything done without interruptions to our day. When you have multiple children being homeschooled you need to make use of all the time that you have in the best way possible.
Group Subjects Together
There are certain subjects that generally need to be taught individually but there is a lot that you can teach together. This type of teaching is called a “one room school house approach”. Back when formal schooling was being introduced children were not separated by age groups but were taught as a group.
Subjects like history, geography, science and art can be taught together. Many social science curriculums go in a four year cycle so your first grader will likely revisit the material three times before they finish their grade school education. This will give them the opportunity to add to their knowledge each time.
Younger children tend to really enjoy doing their schoolwork with their older siblings. They are more engaged and attentive to the lessons. You will be surprised at how much even your littlest preschoolers take in while they are playing near by!
The history curriculum we use has work books for different age groups which require assignments in increasing difficulty to reflect the children’s ages. A kindergarten student will usually be asked to colour a map for example but a 10th grader will be assigned a research essay for example.
Encourage Independence
As your children get older they will require less and less from you. I have found it is important to encourage children to take charge of their own learning where possible. If there are tasks they can takle themselves then give them the encouragement to do so.
When you start to hand the reigns over to them so to speak you give them the confidence that they are capable of learning themselves. I started doing this when my oldest was six. I looked at all that we needed to accomplish each day and then found places where he could be completely independent. These were things like practicing his spelling words, and handwriting. He didn’t need me to sit next to him and watch him do those things. He could just as easily do that in his room or sitting at the table while I worked with his sister. One of the results of this approach that I wasn’t expecting was that he became a harder and more studious worker. When he completed the work he would bring it back for me to check.
As the years have progressed then things that he is able to do alone have increased. He now completes his math lessons alone mostly. I will teach the new concept and run through a few examples before he goes off to complete the remainder of the lesson.
This frees up a lot of time for you to be able to work with your children that need more of you.
Make a Schedule
Even if you aren’t a planner even having a rough idea about how you will tackle the day will do you some good.
I like to have a good solid plan. I don’t plan down to the hour but I do have a very set schedule of what get’s done on each day and in what order. I will get the hard parts out of the way first. That means language arts with my daughter. I detest teaching children to read! It is very time intensive and frustrating for me! I need all my patience so that’s why I get it done first. While I do reading with Lili, Auron will do his spelling and handwriting practice. Then they swap and I do Auron’s language arts lesson.
Online Education
Consider online curriculums for some of your children. Online lessons are brilliant in that all the teaching is done for you. We have used online math lessons which have worked exceptionally well in the past. The one we used was called CTC math. The lessons we clear and well explained. As a parent you could go into your parent profile later that night and see how your child went that day and assign the following days work.
There are a multitude of online schools also which will have a teacher dedicated to monitoring and helping your child. They will generally send out the material and assignments for your child to complete then be available should they come into any difficulty. There are also online schools that allow you to attend via video which really neat. This is often a great option for many students who thrive on that classroom environment. If you enrol in one of these schools you can also attend on campus and attend events by the school such as dances and sports.
Utilise Your Older Children.
Your older children are more than capable of listening to a younger sibling read or quizzing them. Homeschooling doesn’t just have to be a mom does it all game. Just as in school classrooms the teacher doesn’t and can’t do it all neither should you.
Pair up an older child as a buddy. This system works well not only for school work but also helps your children to strengthen their relationship with each other.
You can assign an older child to make lunches a few days a week or spread the task out between all your children. Not only does this teach valuable life skills it also creates a nice sense of comradery within the family.
Block Out the Distractions
This is more for me than the children. I have a terrible habit of picking up my phone and getting easily distracted by it’s beeping. It takes me away from the task at hand and I waste precious time. When I am distracted my children become distracted and disinterested in what I am trying to teach. It is also incredibly disrespectful to them.I would not tolerate it if they were playing on their iPads while I was teaching. I now leave my phone in my room on silent.
Make it a tv free zone. I have a no TV or screens rule during school time. That rule applies to the preschooler and toddler too. So I will set them up with activity boxes or quiet activities. They have become so used to the routine that they don’t cause too much chaos anymore. I do keep them close by though because those two will no doubt create some serious disaster if left to the own devices out of sight! I think the trick here is to rotate what activities you provide them with. I mix it up with busy boxes, play doh, magnet tiles, blocks, painting with water. I am really thinking about getting them these extra large foam blocks. They have played with them a the science centre for hours and hours. My 4 year old loves anything designed for building. You need something that keeps their mind working in order to keep them occupied for any decent length of time. I think these would be ideal. Also I have seen them outside so a plus for being all weather toys.
Know When to Call it a Day
Sometimes despite your best efforts you are going to have days that are just horrible. The best thing to do is throw in the towel and go play at the park or get out of the house. We have just had Halloween, school the day after Halloween is not a good idea!
You wont get it right every day and that is fine. Just look at the big picture and it will make you feel better. There are days that we just need to take a break and that is a blessing of homeschooling. You have the freedom to step back and close the books for the day. Some days all kids need is to curl up and listen to you read to them or run themselves ragged on the playground or even just take a nap to reset.
