Teaching 3rd, 2nd, 1st & K - ideas to help us all survive?

[diaperjoys]

I'm choosing materials for our upcoming school year, and taking a hard look at the reality that there may not be enough of me to go around. Any suggestions from seasoned home schoolers?

 

I need to choose materials that we can get done, yet not sacrifice quality. I like most of what we're using this year, and had thought to continue with much of it, but maybe it is humanly impossible!!

 

Any and all input is welcome!

[Momma4Boys]

Have you considered MFW or something that teaches to all levels at the same time? Your kids are all very close in age so you would have other options as well - like HOD or even Sonlight - you could combine the kids into 1 core.

 

I would recommend going with something with a well developed lesson plan so you don't spend hours just planning - you save that time for teaching (speaking from experience here ;))

 

IHTH

[Mandylubug]

combine your science and history together, read the same read aloud to all of them. Try to find some independent work for the older ones. My older boys use TT for math and it frees me up to work independently with my younger two girls. I also have cursive handbooks that I can assign when I am busy with the younglings.

[lotsofpumpkins]

Stick with the CLE Math; your 2nd and 3rd graders will be able to do most of it independently. I haven't used their LA, but I would imagine it works much the same way. R&S English is fine though; I generally spend about 5-10 minutes on it with dc in 2nd and 3rd grade. 1st grade definitely takes the most time; we are using CLE Math and R&S Phonics/Reading. I've tried other programs in the interest of cutting back on the time, but I've found that it really doesn't matter what you use; 1st grade is a big year for learning new things and there's going to be a time commitment there! Kindergarten can be kept very simple. My 3rd and 4th graders actually jump in and help my 5yo with his math and phonics when I'm busy with my 1st grader. I am grateful for their help, and don't worry that it's not me teaching him. He'll get MUCH more teaching time from me when he hits 1st grade!

 

I'd combine all of them for history/science. Maybe even just read library books and get a couple of fun science kits.

Edited March 7, 2012 by lotsofpumpkins

[....]

I'm teaching a 10 yro, 9 yro, 7 yro and a 4 yro (who insists on doing "school" :glare:) and it's been Crazyville lately.

 

I've completely combined my 10 yro and 9 yro and that REALLY helps. I can't stress that enough. Combining kids is probably the best strategy.

 

Merging subjects helps, too. Instead of buying a spelling or handwriting program, you could merge writing+handwriting+spelling for the grammar stage. Also, we combine history+reading after they're able to read on their own. You could even combine writing+history and not do a separate writing program.

 

Also, I had the 7 yro read to the 10 yro this morning, because the 4 yro completely lost her mind. So, enlisting the help of older kids can help sometimes. My older kids usually don't mind helping if I'm in an obvious bind.

 

Being laid back about schedule, routine and who covers what material/when has helped me. I'm perfectly fine with reading Life of Fred Fractions while I cook dinner...or listening to Prima Latina in the car...or finishing Paragraph Town on *gasp* the weekend. :leaving:

 

I *think* it will get easier when they get older. At least everyone will be able to take themselves to the bathroom without me. :glare:

[Love My Life x4]

We are in the middle of our year... my kids are 3rd, 2nd, 1st and PreK. My days are .... interesting :tongue_smilie: I just keep reminding myself that even in all the craziness these are days I will never get back.

 

I combined my older 3 for history/science. I felt like it was just to far of a stretch for my PreK child. I do something different with her.

 

Other than that it just takes me a lot of time. But we make it. Our curriculum includes ETC, BTC, Singapore, MEP, LOF, FLL, GWG, WWE, WWW, LOTS of reading/comprehension, RSO, SOTW plus some other thrown in there. I have a schedule and we have to stick for it to make the day/weeks 'work' right. I have breaks scheduled in, snacks, reading times, I work with math with this one while you complete your language lesson and you study your spelling words, etc...! Lots of learning toys, art supplies and coloring pages, playdoh, sensory bins and manipulatives available to keep my little one busy. I also spent some time putting together file folder games and take it to your seat centers (Evan Moor) that I can hand one of the kids if they finish something sooner than I had planned. I have 'stations' set up too ... writing, ABC sort, audio books, math games, building spelling words, building with blocks, computer games, lego table, etc, etc... to send them too as they finish.

 

Thankfully, all 4 LOVE listening to chapter books. I know my littlest is not fully grasping the story... but she does sit and listen. So when it's time to read we are all together for that. I read to her a couple times a day... but I also have scheduled times for the other kids to read to her. This helps them to continue to build fluency... and she is getting read to :)

 

We do a 'circle time' a couple times a day. We are all together... we go over the calendar, read our bible story/lesson, work on our memory verse and books of the bible, read about our artists/composer/poet of the month, work on math skills (depending on the level this would include skip counting, counting money, clock work, math facts, etc...)....

 

We do school work in the car like studying spelling words, going over math facts, etc... (every night of the week we drive 30 miles away for gymnastics/tumbling practices), there are times we do school work on the weekends (actually we do this a lot and it really helps with the weekly work).

 

Fridays I do keep more simple. We do school work of a morning... afternoons are spent doing an art project, reading books, putting together a lapbook, playing games, etc...! I also schedule a library trip or other outing for Wednesday afternoon. One day a week my PreK'er does a little PreK Connections class. She has SO much fun with the other kids... they read a book or two, do a craft and play games... things like that. I cannot leave the building ... so the other kids and I head to the cafeteria and we get in anything that I needed to do 1 on 1 without a distraction (AKA McKenzee Grace). Or they can read quietly or whatever.

 

We do not follow a typical 36 week year. There's just TO much going on for me to be able to do that. We school year round and break it up a little more so I don't feel like I'm going so incredibly crazy :001_huh: I can only fit so much in to each day. By doing this I have noticed that I am able to add in more games/hands on materials so my children are fully grasping concepts, which makes the whole process easier for me.

 

Anyways.... somehow... it all gets done :D

Edited March 7, 2012 by Home Grown Hearts

[5LittleMonkeys]

Ideas for teaching all 4 of your dc together:

 

Grammar-land with a grammar lapbook. This can also be purchased at Amazon or downloaded onto Kindle. There are 17 chapters so you could stretch this to half a year. Read one chapter on Mon., Tue do the activity suggested in the chapter (you can get pre-made worksheets for these from homeschoolshare), Wed. work on your lapbook, and Thur. work on basic diagramming. For the second half of the year continue to re-visit the parts of speech by using the lapbook when they work on writing and copywork.

 

You would be able to work on poetry for the second half of the year in the grammar time slot. Choose one poem for all. The older two could use it as dictation, the younger two as copywork. Do a couple lines per day and at the end of the week (or two weeks) they should be able to recite it. Talk about poetry terms at the level of your oldest and the youngers will pick up a lot of it.

 

Story of the World with Activity Guide. Perfect ages to start Ancients! When you get to the mummifying chickens activity use Cornish Hens; they're more manageable!:tongue_smilie:

 

I would look for a science that you can do with all of them too. I have a terrible history for picking science though so I'll leave someone else to give you some suggestions. Well, I will say that NOEO would probably be fairly manageable. Lots of reading aloud and notebooking with a few experiments. Very easy to adjust expectations according to skill level.

 

I see you are using WWE and if you are happy with it that is GREAT! - don't switch, but if you are interested in something else you might look into IEW. You could start your 2nd and 3rd with SWI-A and just take it at their pace. Mr. Peduwa does the teaching on the dvd - walks them through every step while they work. Then they work on an assignment or two with your help during the week. If they are ready they watch the next lesson the following week or you give them a few more assignments to practice if they need another week for that skill.

 

IEW also has Primary Arts of Language (Reading and Writing) that you could use for your younger two if they are very close in skill level. At the end of this program dc are usually ready to start with the first level of IEW's Student Writing Intensive I mentioned above.

 

For spelling you might look into Spelling Power. It is for 1st through 12th. Your dc would be on different spelling lists but you would only be working out of one book. *If you are a stickler for teaching spelling rules you would need to add some rule memorization work to this program.

 

Art is easy to do all together so the only suggestion I would make is to check out Teach Art at Home. I think this is a really great, inexpensive art program, but it doesn't get a lot of attention (I think because it isn't very flashy). They have several programs for varying levels of skill but their Phonics of Drawing can be used from K up to 12th. It doesn't have any artist study, it is purely drawing\sketching\painting. It starts with basic line and moves up. The style of drawing is realistic instead of cartoonish, which was very appealing to me.

 

That's all I've got! Good luck to you!

[TracyR]

With 4 children at the same time I suggest using CLE or ACE. That will save your sanity. Trust me. Well, along with some alcohol for you of course too. LOL

[Caribbean Queen]

I am not very seasoned, but I teach 3 and it is not stressful and it doesn't take all day long. I'd drop the Latin and Greek. Sorry. I would teach the children all together when possible. I'd have the older ones do their seat work in one chunk of time so I could have one-on-one time with the younger children. I'd train them not to interupt. I would not load the children up with seat work.

 

Here is a schedule.

 

1. Science, Bible and Social Studies lessons all together. No seat work yet.

 

2. The two youngest amuse themselves quietly.

3rd grader starts on his seatwork, independantly.

2nd grader gets an English and Math lesson. No seat work yet.

 

3. The 3rd grader gets a math and English lesson. S/he finishes seatwork.

2nd grader is still working independantly on seatwork.

 

4. Half an hour with your Ker

 

5. 40 min. with your 1st grader

 

6. Check the older children's work. School's out!

 

7. Mom reads aloud before bed.

 

See how it could be done before lunch? :hurray:

Edited March 8, 2012 by Caribbean Queen

[alpidarkomama]

I'm in a similar situation! :) My kids will be in 4th/2nd/1st/K next year.

 

You're probably already doing a lot of this, but here's what we do:

 

Everyone does history and science together, with narration questions at their own level + extended activities as we can fit them in (I treat anything beyond the basic story as an elective for me!).

 

We all do math at the same time around the table and I just circulate. Usually there's something in their two pages of math that they are able to do w/o my help!

 

Reading lessons = OPGTR only. Then they can pick up any books they want whenever they want and read them. Worked for DD8!

 

DD5 & DS6 are at the same level for language arts, so they're doing WWE and FFL together.

 

I really have wanted to record spelling words, dictations, etc., but I haven't gotten that organized yet! :) DD8 & 6 also do some letter/reading practice with DS4. DD6 likes to help him with numbers.

 

It's definitely challenging with all of them so young and not yet very independent in their learning!