Homeschooling for Two -- What did I get myself into?!?!?!

[JusDelen]

This is my first year homeschooling and it has been a crazy ride. Loads of trial and error (mostly error) but my family is now interested in homeschooling. Well, interested in me homeschooling their babies. I accepted one of the babies because she was being failed by her school. Now I am stuck planning for them both. I am not even sure where to start.

 

My daughter is going to the sixth and our new scholar will be a 1st grader. I have been thinking of trying to put them on the same track while differentiating their levels. I have no idea how to do this or if it would even work. Suggestions?

[Kiara.I]

You mean, homeschooling a child of a family member?  Do make sure you check into the legalities in your province/state/country.  When it's not your own child sometimes it's a bit more complicated.

 

Putting them on the same track:  Well, honestly you won't be combining them for much.  You could combine them for memory work, a bit, maybe.  You could have both studying medieval--the younger could do Story of the World and the older could do outlining from more advanced texts.  But they wouldn't be doing the same thing, really.

 

Math would have to be separate.  Writing would have to be separate.  You have them writing on the same topic--one could do a copywork sentence about monkeys while the older did a report on monkeys--but at that point, why bother?  It's not a big deal if their writing is on different topics, either.

 

My oldest will be Gr. 6 when my youngest is Gr. 1.  I expect them to cover the same period of history, and my youngest might trail along for science too, it depends on what we're doing for science then.  If so, the youngest will answer a couple of questions while the older will write a good deal.

[Garga]

1. Is it legal for you to homeschool someone not your child in your state? It is not legal in my state. You can do so as a tutor, but you need some sort of licensing to do so.

 

2. What family member is that? Your sister's child? Your cousin's child? What sort of relationship do you have with the family? Any tensions ever? Will other family members get strange about it? (A mother or mother-in-law or anyone like that?)

 

3. Do the parents of this child want any say at all in how you educate their child? Do you have total free reign?

 

4. What happens if they don't like what you do with their child?

 

5. Are they paying you? A lot of money? A lot, lot of money?

 

6. Do you want to do this? Why?

[Garga]

Combining 1st and 6th would be pointless. They're just too developmentally separate. Do everything separately and bounce back and forth between the two throughout the day, or school one child all at once, and then the other.

 

Basically, figure out what you're going to teach the first grader as if she was the only student and then buy/create what you need for then. Then, figure out what you're going to teach the sixth grader and buy/create what you need for that. And then create a schedule for when you'll teach each of your students their stuff.

[JusDelen]

Ok, it is legal to homeschool one other family in NC. I am not the head of her school, however. I had her mother file her own Intent to Homeschool Letter. I did not want to be culpable if things went awry. The child is my goddaughter. Her mother has dropped the ball with her as well as the school in multiple places. On top of academics lacking and her not coming into K strong, she has been bullied for most of the year with no interventions from the school. Although she is supposed to go into 1st in the fall, I am not keen on the idea based on things that I have seen her struggling with. She is ok with math but she struggles with things that require memory. Her mom is giving me free reign over her education. She just asked for a supply list and what books does she need to purchase. She is paying but its more of a love offering than tuition because she honestly can't afford more. 

 

I was thinking that combining their studies somewhat would work because they are beginning the cycles together. I didn't do the ancients with my daughter this year but we finished Early Modern and Modern history this year. We are starting the Ancients again in July. I was thinking that I could teach the younger one just the developmental appropriate facts and leave her to color or whatever while delving deeper into the topic with the older kid for history and science. 

[Garga]

I agree that covering science and history could somewhat be done together. I'm not sure how much attention span the youngest will have, but you will have to wing it and see. My kids always did best if they had a coloring sheet when I read history to them. My 6th grader is still that way. So, if it's something like Story of the World with the coloring sheets, both students could have the sheets and color. Afterwards, the oldest could do the narrations and questions while the little one keeps coloring or plays.

 

For science, it will depend on what curric you get. I had sketchy luck finding science currics that I liked. This past year for my 6th grader I used BJU and it is completely too much for a first grader, but surely there's something out there that you can sort of use with both ages.

 

What I did one year, when my oldest was in 7th and the youngest was in 4th, is that whatever topics were in my 7th grader's book, I found books about that subject for the 4th grader from the library. I'd have the 4th grader read his library books and then draw a picture of something he found interesting in the book and label it. By the end of the year, he had a bunch of pictures in a binder of various science topics. That would sort of combine science for both kids in a way.

 

Things like math and grammar and reading would be separate. You could probably do art and music together without much trouble.

[RootAnn]

I don't envy you.

 

I'd definitely do some work at the beginning of the year to see where the 1st grader is at in reading, spelling, writing, and math. I'd hit the 3Rs hard, let her listen to any reading you do for your own kid. Otherwise, let her listen to good quality audiobooks and music, do crafts, or whatever she's interested in that she can do on her own while you do your teacher-intensive stuff with your kid.

 

As she catches up (as I'm assuming she needs to based on what you wrote) and as you have time, you can add extra subjects for her through the year. 

[Garga]

I don't envy you.

 

I'd definitely do some work at the beginning of the year to see where the 1st grader is at in reading, spelling, writing, and math. I'd hit the 3Rs hard, let her listen to any reading you do for your own kid. Otherwise, let her listen to good quality audiobooks and music, do crafts, or whatever she's interested in that she can do on her own while you do your teacher-intensive stuff with your kid.

 

As she catches up (as I'm assuming she needs to based on what you wrote) and as you have time, you can add extra subjects for her through the year.

This is a great plan! Reading, writing, arithmetic for the 1st grade and that's it, at least for the first half of the school year. Just see where she is and if she needs intense help in those basics.

 

History, science, art, music, and things like that are just for fun and not necessary in 1st grade.

 

Adding to reading, writing, and arithmetic, I'd do a lot of read-alouds with her. I suppose that could be history and science, but I'd go for brightly colored skinny library books for history and science at this stage, and lots of storybooks.

 

After a good 1/2 school year of doing just the 3 r's you'll have a better feel for what her needs will be.

Edited April 28, 2017 by Garga

[JusDelenH]

We are starting with tutoring next week. We did assessments with her this evening and her reading was not that far off the mark. She seems to have issues with retaining information. She can't remember the months or days of the week. I don't know if it's a lack of consistency or if something else is going on there. I forgot to mention both of the kids have ADHD. My kid is medicated but her mom is still on the fence about her.

 

 

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[Ausmumof3]

I'd be concerned about the learning difficulties. Is mum likely to blame you if there's a lack of progress due to learning issues?

 

I combine for history by just doing story of the world and getting my older kid to do more extended extra reading.

[2_girls_mommy]

Sixth grade is not too young to listen to SOTW, especially if she has never heard it before! Read it aloud to both. Have them both do the coloring sheet if interested while you read. Even my high schooler colors her adult coloring books while I read aloud daily. Have them do the maps, but you could add the geography coloring book for the 6th grader and have her work on the same area in the more grown up mapbook. Do memory work together. My young DN often learned advanced memorywork lists by sitting in daily with my kids. Then take a narration from the younger while 6th grader reads through her history encyclopedia on the time period and puts dates on her timeline. Help her learn to make a simple outline from her encyclopedia. Put all of their papers into their history notebooks ala WTM. Then do any SOTW projects together. 

 

For their individual reading, you will be reading with the 1st grader, but 6th grader can be reading through older books from WTM or SOTW activity guide on her own. Get lots of books from the library on all topics and read together or have a basket full of them for them to pick through. 

 

We have always had a family read aloud/memory work time. I read books from all levels to everyone at the time. I might be reading a younger version of the Greek myths aloud, but then during silent reading my high schooler is tackling the Illiad on her own. It helps her with the plot and keeps us all on the same discussions.  Of course my toddler isn't in on much yet, but I have an elementary dn that is here part of the year, and she fits right in when we do all of this.