sbgrace Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 I really need to teach my two (twin boys, 10) together for some subjects, but they are just distracted, silly and/or instigating each other when together. It's so frustrating. Our days take forever teaching every subject twice. I'm rarely getting to history or science anymore, which we do complete together, because getting through the musts takes so long. I should add that most of our curriculum is teacher involved, and one has special needs causing major attention issues, which means everything with him is 1 on 1. Today I tried again to do a composition lesson together. It involved modeled writing--where we created a story together as a model first. My son suggested the pinata be a likeness of his brother, and it got worse from there. I hate the way I feel about my day (and kids) when I try things together like this, but I can't do so much individually day in and out. Or maybe I need to just suck it up and do the best I can teaching them individually for now? It's just two kids, and lots of people juggle more than that. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 O.k. I'm going to be honest and say I had a hard time with this too. I ended up doing lessons with one early in the morning and lessons with the other one later in the morning. It worked because one child is an extremely early riser and the other one needs more sleep. We HAVE been able to combine some things, but it usually works best if it is stuff where they get to move around or it is more interesting to them. My suggestions below are just brain storming since we are still in the same process you are. Some worked for us and some we haven't tried yet and some only work at times but thought I would share, just in case. 1. What if you outsourced something to an on-line place for the one that has no special issues so that he could be occupied while you worked with the other one? 2. Can you do something really intensely physical in the morning before you start school? Get all that physical energy burned off for a bit? 3. Can they sit on medicine balls while they work so the focus is more on balancing on the ball while they are learning? 4. How much seat work are they doing? Could you break up seat work with more hands on stuff? 5. Could one be listening to an audio book with headsets on while building something or doing an art project while you work with the other one then switch off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 One thing that has worked for me is starting a school session with 10 m&ms or skittles in front of each child. When the school time is over the kids can have how ever many are left. If they are distracting or lack focus I take one with no explanation. It nipped some behavior issues in the bud for me. You could do it with pennies or tickets too and let them exchange x number of tickets for a small prize at the end of the week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 My ten yo twin boys have also had the sillies... or worse, have just been snipping at each other... constantly lately. Ugh. This did not used to be a big issue in our house, but lately they're making me a bit bonkers. No real tips. I've just been breaking them up more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Same problem here. I have separated them as much as possible, but every time they are together, silliness has no boundaries. I wouldn't mind except I don't want to do school all day long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 My boys are a year apart. It takes me much less time to help them individually than for them to be in the same room. For example math takes an hour each but together they would talk until I split them up. I rather split them than waste so much time re-directing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsabelC Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 I have 'only' three and find it very difficult to teach them together. I do blocks of one on one, but still do some things together so that we can practice the skills of working as a group. Is there something that would 'incentivize' them to work better together? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scbusf Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 My kids bicker when they are together. We need to do some subjects together, but they just can't be at the same table. So we have separate desks for them in separate rooms, but the rooms are open to each other and I sit in the middle of them. It seems to be working. I feel your pain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LLMom Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Mine were this way too. Can the one without special needs do more independently in some of those subjects while you work with the other? I gave up more hands on projects (like lapbooks) by this age because I was not going to do it twice, but they were too silly together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Sadly, this is why I teach all 4 of my kids separately - even though they are very close in age. When I do combine them (which I may need to do next year, because we're expecting our 5th), there's trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasmama Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Mine are not silly, but they insult each other, and my boys delight in saying things that make my 8 year old react by crying and yelling. The 14 yo is particularly bad at this. The boys tend to do all of the physical posturing and touching each other like adolescent deer bucks in the wild. When they are disrupting by bothering each other while I am teaching/reading I just stop what I am doing and sit there. I tell them that we will continue when they knock off the disruptions. I think this gets their attention because it feels like we are sitting there quietly for a hundred hours when it is likely less than a minute. The other day the 14 yo and the 8 yo were going back and forth verbally so much that I threatened to send the younger to her room to do her work, which is not the preferred place. Honestly, they probably do pretty well given that we are together much of the day in the relatively small space of our living area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marynamo Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 My ds and dd have been taught together from day one. Same grade level but actually 1 year apart in age (dd the younger one) Never had any problems and for us (mostly my sanity) I really can't see how else this could work. My ds is very competitive but this just inspired both of them to just work harder. Guess I have just been lucky. All the best ((hugs)) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiffaninichole Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 One thing that has worked for me is starting a school session with 10 m&ms or skittles in front of each child. When the school time is over the kids can have how ever many are left. If they are distracting or lack focus I take one with no explanation. It nipped some behavior issues in the bud for me. You could do it with pennies or tickets too and let them exchange x number of tickets for a small prize at the end of the week. Fabulous idea! While in PS, my first grader's teacher had a "treasure box" and the students who were good for the week got to choose a cheap little toy from out of the treasure box. You would be surprised at how excited they were to rummage through all of those cheap little toys and pick the one that they wanted. :-D I'm going to try out the treasure box (bedazzled shoe box! LOL!) and buy up a bunch of little dollar store toys. I'll also do the tickets. Ten a day. Fifty will get you a trip to the treasure box at the end of the week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama27 Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 OMG! I have this SAME problem with my youngest 4 kids! 3 boys and a girl. What I have been doing lately is just staring at them until they stop and after a few minutes if that doesn't work, I make them do jumping jacks till they calm down. This has helped some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Sorry to say that this sort of difficulty is part of what keeps me from homeschooling. Out of my six, right now my ds11s are the most work, just in ordinary family life, with the horsing around, the teasing, the chasing, the wrestling, the screaming/crying/whining, the it's-all-fun-and-games-till-someone-loses-an-eye. They each have their issues and I swear they take turns being the whiner/sensitive one - just when one is finally under control and behaving with any degree of maturity, the other one falls apart. (They are in separate classrooms at school. ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiMi 4under3 Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 When I taught my 4 all at once, I had to take something for heartburn twice a day from the stress of their bickering or silliness. On the other hand, when I split them up, it took way too long to teach some things four times! Even when I split them up 2 and 2, I was teaching it all twice! I was never free. Laundry would pile up, meals were late, errands didn't get done... Right now, it's just DD13 at home, but I'll probably have 3 girls home next year. I plan to give them a lot more independent work so they can do it at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Critterfixer Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 I teach my two together and so far I've not had more silliness that I can cope with. Yet. As I'm beginning to open more time for discussion I expect I may have more sibling rivalry to deal with. Not looking forward to being the moderator, but I think when we start adding our discussions about writing, history, science and other subjects where we will be offering critical analysis and advice I will probably have a planning session with them both about ground rules for how we will handle arguments. We haven't started Logic yet, but when we do, I think that will also play into how we conduct a session where we are going to be saying things that are not exactly pleasant to each other. (Like, "Your paragraph isn't cohesive" or "If you start a scene at sunset, getting to sunrise three sentences later is going to require explanation.") School goes mostly well (little silliness, little complaining and little dawdling) when we are all focused on what we need to do and when we need to be done with it. Having a set schedule for the day, and certain days where free time is really precious and deeply enjoyed by all, helps to keep us motivated and working hard. I'm nearly always at the table with them, working. Either we are working on something together (like writing or Latin) or working on the same material (I do Algebra while they do math) so I'm there to remind or step in if someone feels like starting something. Worst comes to worst, I've been known to start belting out choruses of songs, which is such ridiculous silliness that it offends their sense of dignity, and gets them on the same page. "Mo-OOMMM!" :laugh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweetandSimple Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 I just wanted to say thank you to the OP and to all the posters in this thread. I've been going crazy thinking that I must be the only one who can't teach more than one child at a time! Everything has to be one-on-one here, and it makes for a very long school day. My 12-year-old is capable of working independently, but he can't stand being alone in a room. He is also highly distractable, so he can't work in the room if I am teaching DD7, and she still needs a lot of my time. I've decided that I really have to take turns with them The one thing that has helped was buying a little fold-up table. I set it up right in the kitchen next to the sink, and the kids take turns sitting there during their school time. That way, even though the school days are really long, as least I can do dishes and cook meals while we're at it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbgrace Posted October 22, 2014 Author Share Posted October 22, 2014 Wow! Thank you all for the replies. I have some ideas from this thread I'm going to try, but it truly helps to know the struggle might be typical! It sounds like I'm probably better off with one at a time work for most things, though I think I'll try some of the ideas with our few shared subjects. Thank you. This has helped my perspective and mood! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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