Would you teach a 4yo dd and 5yo ds same stuff next year?

[redmom3]

She will be 4 in Aug and he will turn 6 in Nov. -they are 21 months apart. They are doing preschool work together now. I know it would be different if she were older. He is bright, but too active to learn alot at one time. I don't know if he will be ready to start R&S grade 1 or Horizons Math K. Do I bridge the gap and do whatever we do for both? I guess I know my own answer, she will probably be offended at doing "easier" stuff, but right now he finishes coloring pages etc faster and she can get a little upset. Any curriculum suggestions that help with this?

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

She will be 4 in Aug and he will turn 6 in Nov. -they are 21 months apart. They are doing preschool work together now. I know it would be different if she were older. He is bright, but too active to learn alot at one time. I don't know if he will be ready to start R&S grade 1 or Horizons Math K. Do I bridge the gap and do whatever we do for both? I guess I know my own answer, she will probably be offended at doing "easier" stuff, but right now he finishes coloring pages etc faster and she can get a little upset. Any curriculum suggestions that help with this?

 

 

I am in the same situation. I have a 5 year old who will be 6 in Oct and a 4yo who will be 5 in feb. They are 16 months apart. Mine are both boys. My boys are not so, well, ready to settle as my girls were at this age. I am not going to stop my 4y/o from participating, but I am not going to make him. I am going to keep them a year apart so that my older son does not feel "behind" if his little brother were in the same grade as him. I am planning on doing history and science together when my younger ds is in K and my older ds is in 1st. That will be easier on me, but as somebody else on here suggested to me when I had a similar question, the math and english grade level will cement the grade difference!

[rootsnwings]

I have a boy & girl that are 20 months apart and plan on schooling them together. We will start K when they are 5 & 6. He has an early august birthday so if he were in public school I'd be holding him back til 6 to start K anyway.

 

I just think it wil be important to remember that each of them will have their individual strengths and weaknesses, no matter the grade level & each will need to be challenged in areas where they excel & they'll need more 1 on 1 in areas where they struggle. I imagine myself presenting the material to them both & then giving an assignment where one child may have different expectations than the other. It doesn't necissarily have to be more or less work, but rathe more or less in-depth work, yk?

 

IDK if that makes sense but something I've really appreciated while homeschooling my 9 yo is that his education is tailored to HIM. He's doing 2nd grade spelling, LA & writing. 3rd grade science & history. 5th grade math and has a 7th grade reading level. I try not to specify to him what level he's on with any given subject & will probably need to do the same student-tailored curriculum for the littles, when they're ready! :)

[Sebastian (a lady)]

She will be 4 in Aug and he will turn 6 in Nov. -they are 21 months apart. They are doing preschool work together now. I know it would be different if she were older. He is bright, but too active to learn alot at one time. I don't know if he will be ready to start R&S grade 1 or Horizons Math K. Do I bridge the gap and do whatever we do for both? I guess I know my own answer, she will probably be offended at doing "easier" stuff, but right now he finishes coloring pages etc faster and she can get a little upset. Any curriculum suggestions that help with this?

 

Well, you know your kids best, but this is not unlike what we did when we started. Our oldest was a little younger than kindergarten when I started to do Saxon K and 100 Easy Lessons for phonics.

 

His younger brother thought that I wasn't letting him play when he saw the math manipulatives, so I let him in on it. I figured that he'd last for a couple weeks. Seven years later, he's still right there with his brother and they are doing pre-algebra.

 

I didn't start him in reading at exactly the same time, although once I did (about a year after his brother started), he took off and is at least as good a reader as his brother. So there is really nothing wrong with teaching both of them together, especially if you are moving prudently and gradually with the older and the younger is ready for the work.

 

On the other hand, there were things that I tried to do and fell flat on, because they kids just weren't ready for it. So it is also possible to paint yourself into a corner by pushing.

[EthiopianFood]

IDK if that makes sense but something I've really appreciated while homeschooling my 9 yo is that his education is tailored to HIM. He's doing 2nd grade spelling, LA & writing. 3rd grade science & history. 5th grade math and has a 7th grade reading level. I try not to specify to him what level he's on with any given subject & will probably need to do the same student-tailored curriculum for the littles, when they're ready! :)

 

This is such a good point. One of the reasons many of us have chosen to homeschool is that we don't want our child held back by a classroom pace or standard. This includes children who need more time to learn some concepts, as well as children who learn quickly and are ready to move on long before their neighbor. Both of these types of children just end up frustrated.

 

Let them go at their own pace, whatever that happens to be. As a PP said, children have different strengths, and siblings will need to deal with that fact at some point. Just have a positive attitude about the whole thing and support them where they're at.

[seibert4kids]

Similar age differences and genders here, too. My older (boy) is much more studious than my younger (girl), so there is not much that they do together. However, I'll have them do history/science together (mostly just listening to mom read aloud) and then do the application part separately, according to their individual ability.

Reading and math would never work for them together, since they are in FAR different places from one another!

[Love My Life x4]

My first two are 13 months apart and I do not have them together for phonics, language, math. I do have them together for science, history, geography, etc...!

[Tabrett]

I have 2 that are 18 months apart. I taught them together during preschool for my oldest and it was great. I tried to separate them this year and it was a disaster! I ended up only working with my older dc and doing nothing with my younger. I am combining them again next year. My dc are 5 yo ds and 6 yo dd who will turn 7 in October. My 5yo grasps concepts easier than my 6yo. I am going to use LHFHG with both next year with k options for ds and 1st options with dd.

 

The great thing about your plan with reading is it doesn't matter what you do with phonics this year because R&S assumes you dc doesn't know how to read when entering 1st.

 

I would suggest looking at MFW K. It only teaches up to cvc words. A 4yo could do it with some handwriting modifications if needed. It would make the transition to R&S reading easy. Math in MFW K is calendar math which is good for multiple grades.

 

Also look at HOD LHTH or LHFHG. You could do calendar math with either or maybe try some R&S K workbooks for you math and phonics. Have you looked at the R&S ABC series? They might be perfect for your ds and your dd.

 

If you ds starts to show reading readiness, you could always start R&S reading and horizons K math after Christmas and let you dd continue with what you were previously doing. If you used HOD, that could easily be done.

Edited May 12, 2010 by Tabrett

[Tess in the Burbs]

Mine are 20 months apart. In the beginning everything was different. The oldest did math and reading a year ahead. I had the bright idea of putting them together for LA this year and worked the year before to prepare them for this. I got to summer and just knew it wouldn't work. While my dd was almost to my son's level of reading and writing, it affected him being in the same level as my dd. But I can see this year she's really not keeping up with his writing and thinking. I am glad I didn't push them together in LA.

 

But they do History, Bible, Science, Latin, Art together with no problems. I do ask my son for extra writing at times b/c he is capable as well as extra reading.

 

So math and LA is the only subjects separated and it has worked for the ages and personalities of my children.

 

I always think my dd will meet or surpass my son at times but then he moves ahead in some area and the combining idea goes away again. So we plan to keep them on their own grade in those areas. My dd does a LOT of extra math fun stuff on her own. Most are a grade level below where she's capable but she loves the fun worksheets. I keep them available for her and she can do 30 a day when she's in the mood. All her choice and desire for that. My son will go read History books on his own. My dd would never, lol.

 

So that is my advice. Keep the math and LA separate and combine everything else knowing you may need the younger to do a little less or the older a little more.

[myfatherslily]

My oldest and middle are 21 months apart, also. They ARE two years apart in skill, so I wouldn't even try to have them do the same work. DD will be 1st grade.

 

The middle and youngest are 26 months apart and I'm thinking about having them use the same preschool curriculum, depending on what I choose. They are still quite different in skill - obviously they would be at 2 and 4 - but could more easily be blended due to their own personalities and abilities.

 

Keep in mind that your two kiddos are almost 2 year apart, even though the school cutoff puts them just one grade apart. It really depends on the kids!:)

[ThreeBlessings]

I say do as much together as you possibly can without pushing it on the younger. I'd consider participation optional for the most part with a 4 year old. When she's ready to start schooling in earnest I would have her do LA and Math on her level, likely separately, and combine the rest. In my experience its worked well to combine science, history, read alouds, and art together. So far they have both had separate LA and Math, however next year I'm combining them because they are both so close together in their abilities. I'll have no problem changing this again if one of them pushes ahead of the other.

[simka2]

I'm going to be reduntant here. :) I have dd and twin sons, there is only 12 months between dd and the dss. In the begining, ages 6 and 5, I did some things together. But even then not all because dss were not ready...or maybe I was overwhelmed ;)

 

Now at 9,8,8 we definately do many thing seperately and others together. My surprise, is that since bringing them home, my strong math son has switched places with my strong reader.

 

Even the twins, don't do things on the same level :) Some things yes, but not all!!!!

 

Have fun....that's most important right now!!!

[TracyR]

You could at this age. My oldest two are 22 months apart. When my daughter was about 6ish my 2nd daughter went to preschool. I figured just going to preschool would be enough for her and didn't expect her to do anything more. Wrong. She saw her sister learning to read, so she wanted to learn to read, and she did at age 4.5 with using 100 EZ lessons. I also used Saxon K with her and she was ready for Saxon 1 at the age of 5. So now at age 10 she reads just as well as her 12 year old sister, she reads about 122 wpm, and well she is doing Saxon 5/4( would of probably been in at least 6/5 this year had we continued on with Saxon and not of had to backtrack)

 

I agree though it can come back to bit ya. Sometimes they can hit a wall with a particular subject that may have work that turns into not being age appropriate. For instance when my daughter hit 4th grade the writing assignments were to demanding for her because she was still young and not ready to write multiparagraph compositions.

Of course this can be remedied by piecing your curriculum together rather then going with a complete curriculum like I did.

 

I say if you have a child that has the want, let her do. LOL.

I find that 2nd children are very competitive with their older siblings. Especially children born close together. They feel they have to be just as good or better than the oldest sibling.

 

My younger two are three years apart and I've adapted the work for my 3.5 yr old. For example the Saxon K and Saxon 1 math have meeting books. I've combined the meeting books to our wall and both my preker and 1st grader have learned their days of the week, months of the year, how to read a calendar. Of course I have my 1st grader count her money and do her number pattern, and then I have my 3.5 fill in her little weather chart. So I am covering the material for both yet they are learning pretty much the same stuff. My 3.5 yr old can look at a calendar and tell me what day of the week it is on the calendar now. I just go with the flow and when they are ready I go with it.

[Lovedtodeath]

I just have to say that my first thought was "how perfect for Rightstart math". MFW K would be great too, or even more so Accelerated Achievement, as the phonics and grammar is taught by playing games.

 

You can always start out with them together and separate when it is needed. You could also put one of your children through K twice. I see that your subject line says "next year".

Edited May 12, 2010 by Lovedtodeath

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

Another here to basically post the same thing... My three are each 19 months apart. My feeling is that teaching content subjects together and skill subjects separately gives everyone what they need while still keeping mom sane!

[FO4UR]

At those ages, yes.

 

I am planning on combining my dd5 and ds4 in as much as possible this coming year. They are 14mo apart.

 

At some point we will split them up, but for now...when school is relaxed and mostly play, it makes sense to combine.

[redmom3]

Another here to basically post the same thing... My three are each 19 months apart. My feeling is that teaching content subjects together and skill subjects separately gives everyone what they need while still keeping mom sane!

 

I like this approach of some subjects together and others apart, also the fact that some have mentioned that siblings are just going to have to face that they have different strengths. I needed relax-they are still so young :) I have taught my almost 16yo since she was 2 almost every day=now with four that is just not possible---and not necessary. I will look into the curriculum suggestions here-thanks so much!

[KrissiK]

My boys are 9 months apart. I started them both together in A Beka's k4 program, but as they have grown, they are definitely moving apart. DS2 is reading at the same level as DS1, but I had to move him back in math this year. (they're 6 & almost 7 years old now) I'm keeping them together in Science & History, but there's definitely a gap in their abilities to narrate, writing abilities (DS2 has handwriting issues) and all that. I'd say start them together, but if they show differing abilities, don't feel like you must keep them together.

[Lightly Salted]

My first two are 13 months apart and I do not have them together for phonics, language, math. I do have them together for science, history, geography, etc...!

 

Mine are 20 months apart and combined (in Sonlight K) for history/geography/literature read-alouds but separated for language arts and reading. They're actually combined for math since DS is advanced and DD needs a lot of review, but we didn't start out that way.

 

That said, I don't know that it hurts to start combining them and see where it leads. You'll know soon enough if it's working or if one needs to move ahead or slow down ... Enjoy the ride! :D

[Holly]

I'm combining my older two in HOD next year (1st and 3rd), but they will be doing separate math, reading/phonics, and grammar. They will have the same copywork, Bible, history, science, and art.

[2_girls_mommy]

I have 2 girls 23 mos. apart, so pretty close to yours. Mine are so different in personality and learning style and attention span that I could never do them together. The 4 yr old would not have been close at all ready to do what the 6 yr old was doing.

 

If you are doing R&S 1st, I think it is a lot of writing work. I don't know if all 4 yr olds could handle it. I would look at the R&S ABC workbooks for something for the younger one. When we bought them, I got the Bible reader and 2 copies of the Bible coloring book, so that there was something they did together. Plus we always did music, art, science and history together. But it is all optional work (narrations, coloring sheets, mapwork) until 1st grade.

 

Just my cents. If however my 2 dds had been switched, we could have done all together, since the one is capable of work a couple of years ahead. It just so happens that she is my older, so in my case it puts a bigger gap between their levels of most things. Yours may be the opposite, which would be really nice.