Please help me get a grip on my school day!

[KIN]

We started school at the beginning of last week. I have a 3rd grader (advanced), a 1st grader, a pre-K student (who WANTS school) and a 1 year old who is giving up her morning nap.

 

I have my subjects, they are going well. However, it is mass chaos all around the student I'm working with. The 3rd grader is pretty much busy with either me or independent work. There are some new curricula that is new for him and he has more questions than usual b/c of it (we switched grammar, Bible and geography).

 

The other kids aren't organized and after the 1st grader is done with his independent work (which is minimal) they just play, yell, throw balls, make bows and arrows out of K'nex (and then shoot them at each other), and on and on. The baby crawls around and finds pencils, chalk, and more to eat.

 

Should I make some kind of stations for the 1st grader and pre-K ds? What? How? What should I do to help the baby have something safe to do?

 

The kids aren't listening well when I have to yell over the top of them to be quiet (seriously, it is *not* going well this year, can ya tell??). We school in our basement which has one large room I use as the school room, a small room the two oldest boys each have a desk in to do independent work, and a bedroom size room that has a 12 foot trampoline and toys. Should I change up the rooms? How shall I organize my chaos? Oh, please, oh please, I need help.

 

I started to loose it just now and told everyone to take a break. I don't know where to start. Oh, just as another tidbit, my school room did *not* get organized like it should have, so I have a mess on top of everything else.

 

My school day is long (5 hours) and that doesn't include piano for the older boys. Any gentle advice would be very welcome.

[8filltheheart]

I am unclear about a few things....

 

First, is there a reason that the 6 and 4 yos need to stay in the basement or for that matter, any of you? Right now I am sitting outside on our screened porch assisting my older 2 with geometry when they need me while watching the youngest 2 play on our playset and my 4th grader is inside laying on the sofa reading.

 

Where do the kids normally play? Is it possible for them to play there, form a baby safe environment for the 1 yr old near where you want to work with the 3rd grader, and work that way?

[KIN]

First, is there a reason that the 6 and 4 yos need to stay in the basement or for that matter, any of you?

 

Well, the 6 year old does his subjects in chunks, with breaks in between. Like - math, break while I work with the others, spelling, break, etc. I do this with the 4 yo too, only he gets two 15 minutes "chunks" and plays in between. So, they need to be available. It is too much for the 6 yo to do all his work at the same time and the 8 year old is the same way. We don't have to be in the basement. I just keep all of my school stuff there. I don't want school books strewn all over the house with no "home". So, I've just stayed in the school room. We do go upstairs for science, history and a read aloud. We'll do those subjects outside or on the couch or where ever.

 

Where do the kids normally play?

 

Good question. This summer they have played outside almost exclusively. The one year old has a small play area upstairs. The upstairs play area used to be for the boys, but I had to change it this summer. The boys just had too many little toys, so I moved their stuff to the basement.

 

I don't know why it is so chaotic. But, it is. I'm really struggling and the kids have terrible attitudes. How do you do it with 7???? :)

[8filltheheart]

Well, the 6 year old does his subjects in chunks, with breaks in between. Like - math, break while I work with the others, spelling, break, etc. I do this with the 4 yo too, only he gets two 15 minutes "chunks" and plays in between. So, they need to be available. It is too much for the 6 yo to do all his work at the same time and the 8 year old is the same way. We don't have to be in the basement. I just keep all of my school stuff there. I don't want school books strewn all over the house with no "home". So, I've just stayed in the school room. We do go upstairs for science, history and a read aloud. We'll do those subjects outside or on the couch or where ever.

 

 

Good question. This summer they have played outside almost exclusively. The one year old has a small play area upstairs. The upstairs play area used to be for the boys, but I had to change it this summer. The boys just had too many little toys, so I moved their stuff to the basement.

 

I don't know why it is so chaotic. But, it is. I'm really struggling and the kids have terrible attitudes. How do you do it with 7???? :)

 

 

Well, I am probably in the minority, but I have found with little kids I don't give lots of breaks. It is hard enough to get them to focus in the first place. I find it better to sit down work through and get it done. When I have tried giving breaks in the past, it ate up so much of my time getting them to stop what they were doing, re-focusing, etc that just doing it all in the first place was easier. I do break up how it is done, though. For example, we typically start with math. Since that involves writing and a lot of thinking, I follow that with reading science to them. Then I might have them do copywork or play a phonics game. Then read aloud to me. Then they are done. But, my 6 yod that is in first grade spends less than an hour altogether.

 

I also don't do school with 4 yr olds. Our 3 yr sits and either does or pretends to do whatever the 6 yo is doing as long as she wants and then goes and does her own thing.

 

I also do read alouds at bedtime as bedtime stories with my little ones.

 

HTH

[katalaska]

By "formalize" I mean we had to start together, like a class. Think "circle time" from preschool/kindergarten if you are familiar with that.

 

We gathered all together, started with a prayer (obviously if this doesn't suit you, starting with a memory-work item of some type can work just as well) and a song (often associated with memory work). Then we did the read-aloud (from scriptures and then from history).

 

Only after that did we disperse to desks for "seatwork." When my ds was not in school but wanted to be included, I bought the Kumon workbooks so he could have something to do. When he was done (which was entirely dependent upon how much "school" he "felt like" doing) he would go to another part of the house to play. Or, I would get out the educational puzzles (alphabet, United States map, etc.) and he was allowed to use those. He was also allowed to use the math manipulatives we have (we use Saxon and have TONS of manipulatives).

 

I toyed with the idea (but never actually did it) of having "calendar" be part of our morning gathering ("circle time"). This would accomplish the Meeting part of the Saxon early grades by going over the date, day of the week, days of the week, months of the year, etc.

 

These are just my initial thoughts...if I come up with something else I'll post again.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Katalaska has stolen all the things I was going to tell you! One more thing: my dd6 is a "roving scholar" (I just talked about this on another thread!). She has a clipboard that has all of her paperwork plus some extra Kumon worksheet for if she gets bored. She goes with me. If I'm in the bedroom folding clothes, she's there with her clipboard.

 

Favorite extra things to do when my younger one's work was done but the older one still needed Mommy: puzzles, math manipulatives, listen to a book on tape with headphones, do cutting and pasting craftbooks by Kumon, do playdough, blow bubbles outside, do a preschool computer game.

[mycalling]

I am also having a really chaotic beginning to our school cycle. I have lots o' kids (as is apparent by my sig) and little ones at that. The 10yo is in public school so it's just the 7yo and 5 1/2yo hs'ing thankfully.

 

We start our day by me announcing it's time to start school and the boys race to get their bins with supplies inside and we sit down together...then the twins start messing with stuff in the bins...then the 1yo starts wailing and the newborn starts up (he's gassy and cries around the clock) and I can't get through the first directions before the boys and I are annoyed.

 

Today I put the twins and 1yo in front of a movie at the onset and just lost the older boys to distraction from it. Then 30 minutes in the twins were invading again and the 1yo had eaten food all over the house. Did I mention the entire time I dealt with the fussing newborn in my arms? :ack2:

 

This is non-stop through school every day this week. My plans have gone to hell (tossed asside PLL and copy work after Monday and only managed to listen to my 7yo read aloud from a book once - and only for 2 of the 13 pages he read:crying:) and my 5yo has been lessened to 1 subject per day before I tell him to go play because he's not reading and can't get through any solo work. I feel horrible and he feels shoved aside by the little ones' needs :crying: more than the 7yo who got used to the chaos last year.

 

Sorry, just letting you know you're not alone and hoping to find some ideas on this thread also.