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5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 3: Challenges of Teaching Kids Together

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have teaching kids together tips.

I would love to craft each blog post so that you come away more energized than the previous one, but there are times I have to tell it like it is when it comes to homeschooling. 

I guess thinking about it though, saving you stress and plain downright frustration is a way of breathing life into your day.

Perfect Homeschool Approaches

The challenges of teaching kids together is not imaginary and it does have its drawbacks. When it comes down to the nitty-gritty of homeschooling, any approach will have a negative.

There is simply NOT ONE approach that will fit every family perfectly. 

Too, sometimes we just don’t have a lot of wiggle room to experiment with new approaches because of the age of our children, our limited time for a learning curve on a new approach and our age. (okay, okay maybe not our age unless you feel really old. Not me.)

Knowledge is power in understanding the downside to teaching multiple children so that we avoid wasted time and for goodness sake ALL that energy it takes as both a teacher and a child.

Here are the things that we need to be on guard for when we are homeschooling our children together.

  • It is not easy to accommodate ALL your children’s learning styles.

It is a known fact that among homeschoolers we have a lot of gifted children and this is not something just perceived by us as parents.

For me, taking Mr. Senior 2013 out of school was partly due to the fact that he was so above grade level academically than his peers.

Homeschooling Multiple Children Diversions

Too, though we also have children that may seem delayed to the public school standards. Along came wonderful Mr. Awesome who just did not race to learning academically.

He was more comfortable doing hands-on things as he learned.  He was just way more wiggly than Mr. Senior 2013 so I had to adjust my view of what is normal because by all rights he is brilliant using a different part of his brain.

  • Preschoolers and Toddlers Unite in their Mayhem.

It’s true or at least it seems like they unite in their efforts to sabotage your day with all your beautiful lesson plans written out so nicely. For being the sweetest and the littlest things in the house, they wield such power.

It gets quite the juggling act and your day may look more like a three ring circus as you try to manage the older children while keeping one eye on the toddler turmoil.

  • The young child may get out shined by the older child.

Because of the fact they are working together or side by side in some cases,  a younger child may compare his work to his older sibling. Right away, he sees that his penmanship, drawing skills or art skills are different. As moms, we accept this and are so proud of all of our children’s work.

More Homeschooling Multiple Ages Tips

But, for younger children it can start to affect their confidence and sadly some withdraw emotionally.

They are always trying to measure up to some standard that you have not set, but have you unintentionally? Yikes. I made this mistake and I had tears (my tears) before I figured it out.

Now that we covered some of these things to earmark and watch for, how can we overcome some of those challenges? I will share some tips on Day 4.

Have you noticed any of these things creeping up in your school day repeatedly?

Read the other posts in this series:

5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 2: Benefits Of Homeschooling Together

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I am excited to share about the benefits of teaching your children together. I think just about everybody starts off getting full grade levels of curriculum for each child.

5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 2: Benefits Of Homeschooling Together

Moreover, I think we have curriculum comfort padding and it just makes us feel good knowing that we have it around.

Then a few weeks if not months into our school year, we get subject and curriculum overload.

However, there are many benefits to teaching children together besides streamlining your curriculum which obviously is good on the budget too.

  • It is a sanity preserver because you are only preparing/reviewing one lesson plan for several children.
  • Streamlines the teacher’s time.
  • Whole family can be involved together which is more natural than segregating a teen or a tot.
  • Easier to do one hands-on project or one lapbook and have all your children contribute something. I can’t imagine doing 7 lapbooks or growing 7 beans in a jar at one time.
image

Younger children benefit from the modeling of an older children.
  • Older children learn to mentor their younger siblings which is a valuable life skill for leadership.
  • If an older child is struggling with some of the basics, he benefits from your explanation to the youngest children.
  • Family ties and sibling bonds are strengthened which is what we all want.
5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 2: Benefits Of Homeschooling Together

Teaching kids today is very similar to the one room school house where they had younger children sit in the front and older children sit in the back.

Of course, on our field trip we tried to follow that model, but you can see how small the room was and its obvious how the different ages were going to learn from each other.

So that is another key to teaching kids together: scoop up the younger ones and have them sit closer to you so you can give them the attention first.

Of course no unique method is without its challenges. On Day 3, I will share some of the challenges that we face in homeschooling multiple children.

Are you up for the challenging of teaching multiple children together?

Read the other posts in this series:

5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 2: Benefits Of Homeschooling Together
5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 2: Benefits Of Homeschooling Together
5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 2: Benefits Of Homeschooling Together
5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 2: Benefits Of Homeschooling Together
5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 2: Benefits Of Homeschooling Together

5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 1: One Room Schools – A Thing of the Past?

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have tips on teaching mixed ages together.

Last year, we went on a field trip to a one room school house. They are suppose to be a thing of the past so we just had to go.

5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together - Day 1: One Room Schools - A Thing of the Past?
5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 1: One Room Schools – A Thing of the Past?

More Homeschooling Multiple Ages Tips

5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 1: One Room Schools – A Thing of the Past?

With our highschoolers standing in the back and younger kids standing in the front of our group picture, I think our group must be pretty typical of the age range that one teacher had in one class about 100 years ago.

Too, I think we have a huge advantage over one room teachers of the past because we don’t have 20 kids, but I also think we can reach back to the past for some lessons on teaching mixed ages.

Homeschooling Multiple Levels of Children Confusion

However, I have a bit of a confession.

The first day I officially added Mr. Awesome to my new school year after teaching Mr. Senior 2013 for a few years, I had a complete meltdown. 

Besides, I admit that all the planning and organization didn’t help one bit in knowing how to teach more than one child at a time.

Looking back now, I realized that a much more comprehensive definition would have been of great help instead of thinking I had a grasp on what I thought was apparently so simple to understand.

Look at how I broke down the definition.

It means . . .

It could mean . . .

It doesn’t mean . . .

  • Teaching all of your children together.
  • Some children are doing another activity independently.
  • You have to teach them at the same time.
  • Creating unique assignments based on each child’s level.
  • That the whole family is involved.
  • You have to do all the teaching.
  • Learning from others and not segregating our children by ages.
  • Creating one unique project that everybody works on instead of several projects going on.
  • You have to teach one topic.
  • That children that are even the same age, like  twins, have the same ability. They do not. So why do we keep trying to segregate our children by grade?

Teaching Mixed Ages

5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 1: One Room Schools – A Thing of the Past?

Fascinated by the way teachers of the past so effortlessly and gracefully taught a one room school house, I have learned along the way that a clear understanding of what teaching mixed ages is determines what will and will not work for my family.

If you were to ask a seasoned homeschooling veteran if a one room schoolhouse is a thing of the past, they would probably have to say no. The building may be long gone but the idea of teaching mixed ages together is alive and strong in the homeschool world.

Benefits and challenges are equally important to understand. Next, I will share some of the benefits of teaching mixed ages together.

Read the other posts in this series:

5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together - Day 1: One Room Schools - A Thing of the Past?
5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together - Day 1: One Room Schools - A Thing of the Past?
5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together - Day 1: One Room Schools - A Thing of the Past?
5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together - Day 1: One Room Schools - A Thing of the Past?
5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together - Day 1: One Room Schools - A Thing of the Past?