This is fay 5, tips for homeschooling multiple grades. Also, look at my page The Dynamics of How to Homeschool Easily and Smarter for more tips.
I love sharing nitty gritty blog posts with you.
I know thee practical know how can help you to smooth out one day. Or if helps you to leap into trying something new, it is worth it to me.
We do need to learn to let go of the thinking that children need to be segregated by age.
Its not easy and by nature we fight it.
We are so very aware of the fact that the educational future of our children is in our direct hands.
However, I think knowing we are not trekking alone empowers us.
So the nitty gritty of homeschooling multiple grade levels can be reduced to 3 practical and lasting tips.
Nuts and Bolts Of How To Homeschool Multiple Grades – Read Aloud First
Reading aloud is my number one help mate. Yep, it’s not laid out curriculum, well initially anyway.
Building back ground information on the subject gives you a direction.
From there, you can decide a subject.
Not only that, the whole purpose in teaching together is so that each of your children can delight in what interests them.
So I look for a book on a topic
- that spans many grades or ages.
- that covers just that topic. It’s unlike a text book which can veer off the main topic you are trying to teach.
- that includes some hands-on activities.
- that teaches a content subject.
Remember from my form above, right away you can see which subjects you can teach together.
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For example, look at his book I used for teaching the rainforest.
The title is Discover the Amazon.
It spanned many ages, had lots of sub-topics, vocabulary was marked throughout the book AND it had 20 activities to choose from. You can look at it here.
Too, living books are some of the best books to encourage a love of learning and to get excited about teaching a subject together.
You can take a look at my boards on Pinterest too for living books, but really just putting your hands on them and viewing them is the best way to see if they will work for you.
Reading – Then to Grade Level Lesson Plan
After reading, you want to actually turn that material or background information into workable lesson plans.
This may seem scary at first, but remember the insider’s tip to homeschooling multiple children is that we are focusing on just the content subjects.
Does it matter if your lesson plan ends up being too easy or too much? Try again until you get it right on target for your children’s age.
You can NOT mess up content subjects AND you always can revise your lesson plans the next month, the next year or even the next day.
More Homeschooling Multiple Ages Tips
- 65 Best Teaching Tips for Embracing Homeschooling Multiple Ages
- 6 Best Homeschool Hacks Teaching Multi-Aged Children
- 26 Nature Unit Studies for Multiple Ages
- 5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 4: Embrace Homeschooling Multiple Grades
- 5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 5: Tips For Homeschooling Multiple Grades
I get my ideas from many sources, but my main source of inspiration is my children.
As we are reading, I am noting or highlighting (yep I highlight my books, probably a bad habit, but it works for me) in the book what they find interesting or are talking about with me.
For a library book, having a pad of sticky notes works too.
Also, look at the chapters on the book because they are your main ideas or objectives. Too, the index of words gives you an idea of where to head on your lesson plan if your children are too small to mouth their choice. You CAN do this!
A specific example of how I have done this is on Chapter 1: What is the Amazon? For my youngest children, I just explained from the book what is a rain forest and they did a minibook.
For my oldest, I had him compare/contrast to a temperate rain forest and turned that into a table.
To me, that is very basic information of studying the rain forest because we have to know what it is.
It doesn’t matter their grades if you have never learned about it. So go in as much depth as your children want to.
More Homeschooling Multiple Ages Tips
- 65 Best Teaching Tips for Embracing Homeschooling Multiple Ages
- 5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 5: Tips For Homeschooling Multiple Grades
- How to Choose the Perfect Homeschool Planner for Multiple Students
- 26 Free Nature Unit Studies for Multiple Ages
- 5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 4: Embrace Homeschooling Multiple Grades
Skill Subject Laid Out Lesson Plans Equals Simplified Homeschooling
I can remember the time when I started homeschooling and it wasn’t really called doing your own teaching unless you prepared every single subject.
I am hoping never to return to those insane days because life is very different now.
Too, we just have many wonderful curriculum providers to choose from that there should be very little stress because we do have choices for math and language arts.
Using something out laid to cover the skill subjects is the trick and secret to honing your teaching and making the time count when homeschooling multiple grades.
Don’t get me wrong, I still feel like learning math, vocabulary words or spelling in the context of what you’re learning about is not disjointed teaching and has long term practical value.
I do tend to assign copy work and vocabulary words for what we are learning about because I want my children immersed in the subject, but that is not the only way to do it.
Reading aloud, making lesson plans on content subject eases the teaching time and using laid out curriculum for skill subjects are the top 3 survival tools of homeschooling multiple grades.
As you can see sometimes we are together when we are covering content subjects and maybe not so much when covering skill subjects. Too, some separation is needed so that the younger children do not get overshadowed by the work of the older children.
It is natural for our kids to compare themselves to each other, but it is our job to be sure we nurture them in their own unique talents.
This means separate time for the little ones so they can shine and not be overshadowed.
The one room school house is still alive and well in homeschooling today though it has its challenges, the rewards are well worth it.
You know I love you much and hope you enjoyed this series.
What do you struggle with when teaching your children together?
Read the other posts in this series:
- One Room Schools – A Thing of the Past? Day 1
- Benefits Of Homeschooling Together Day 2
- Challenges of Teaching Kids Together Day 3
- Embrace Homeschooling Multiple Grades Day 4
- Tips For Homeschooling Multiple Grades Day 5
Tina,
Great series! I am teaching 3 grades too, 8th, 6th & 1st. I essentially do what you talked about using a grade level curriculum for the skill subjects (Math, English and health too). We do unit studies for the rest although this year I am trying appologia science for my 8th grader. What I
struggle with most is
keeping my kids focused on
the lesson during unit
studies instead of on our
8month old who they all adore to pieces!
Hey Susan,
Well that is a hard one :o) Its tough to compete with a sweetie! lol..
But one tip that helped me is that when he or she takes that second nap for the day, I DROPPED everything literally and did school. It was TOUGH because that second name was my time to catch up on housework
But I didn’t, I did school with no break and then baby woke up and I kept on going..It was REAL tough but it gets better…
On the other hand your advantage is that your 8th grader is old enough to entertain a little bit while you get some supper going….
That is just a tough stage because the baby is all over the place..but one saving grace was NAPS..