workspace

[mamabear2three]

Where do you find your kids work best when you are teaching more than one at a time? I am going to have a second grader and am giving into my 4 year old's begging and will do k4 in the fall with her. The second grader has ADHD and I am wondering if having them work on things at separate desks instead of at the dining room table together might be less distracting to her. I have a "homeschool room" but it doesn't have a lot of natural light so I use it more as a resource room. I am wondering if putting desks and more light in there would be beneficial or if I'm just looking for a project (ha, cause I always need another project!).

 

 

 

 

[Arcadia]

How long per day would you be at the desk with your 4 year old?

 

My DS9 talks a lot and annoys my DS10. Sometimes one child takes the dining room and the other child the living room. We have standing floor lamps with 23W daylight bulbs for both rooms as it gets dark in both rooms during winter.

[mamabear2three]

How long per day would you be at the desk with your 4 year old?

 

My DS9 talks a lot and annoys my DS10. Sometimes one child takes the dining room and the other child the living room. We have standing floor lamps with 23W daylight bulbs for both rooms as it gets dark in both rooms during winter.

 

I have planned probably a half hour to hour max - math, phonics and a following directions workbook. Last year she would come to me at the dining room table and we would so some things together at her insistence and she wasn't ever really happy that I didn't just devote a good chunk of 1-1 time to her school. I kept trying to get her to play because that's what 3 year olds should be doing! But I finally got the point that she was not happy being left out of schoolwork and boy did her face light up when I showed her what I got for her to do next year. She wanted to start RIGHT NOW, lol. 

 

The other things she would do are group things (like art, listening in on history/joining in on science) that we would probably still do at the dining room table or in the living room.

 

So I wonder if instead of 2 desks, I need just one for the older and split the two between the dining room and school room.

[Arcadia]

Let your older do the independent part of her work in one room. Then do a one to one with your 4 year old in the other room/area.

 

I find that when I need to help my youngest one to one when he was much younger, I set my oldest to either independent reading time and/or to completing his math work. That would give me at least an hour of time to dedicate to my youngest.

[mamabear2three]

The only problem there is that I need to work on her ability to do anything independently... I was considering implementing workboxes to help with that but if I give her an independent assignment I'd only get about 15 minutes max before she would be back at my elbow again. I guess that's why I was thinking desks in the same room - then I could go back and forth between them a little easier.

[Tawlas]

With my kids, I work at the kitchen table with my kids during group time or one-on-one time. If I'm not working with a child, they're doing independent work in the dining room or living room or thereabouts. My only caveat there is that if I call for them for their turn with me, they need to be close enough that they will hear me lol.

 

On their own, my kids practice piano (with earphones), do copy work, math drill, ETC workbooks and Ecoutez Parlez French practice, and reading A-Z. This year I'm adding in typing for the fourth grader and an independent "run through" of the current chapter of SOTW on audio. They have a check list only for independent work, anything with me, I have a check list for.

 

I'm just starting to consider how to work with my rising fourth grader on getting more independent in math. She's a constant "checker" (like this? Is that right?) I'm thinking of doing her math pages as we usually do, only leaving a few problems in each section blank for her to complete. Then we've gone over a few together, she has some examples to refer to. Maybe that would help?

 

SWB also has a recorded seminar on helping your child work independently. I found it very useful.

 

editing to add: 15 minutes at a time with a four year old might be just right. Do something for 15 minutes, set her up with a Kumon tracing or dot-to-dot page, get your older child set up with her next 15 minutes job, then go back to your four year old? Does your older child still do copy work? Math drill? Start with things like that.

[Heidi]

I would just school them at separate times, first the 4 year old, then the 2nd grader. Both ages need you one on one.

 

I've done desks in the same room and that worked well for my kids too.

[Miss Tick]

i have mine all do math at the same time and I answer questions or redirect as needed. My Ker could get all her work done while my olders were still doing math. 

[Targhee]

I have three with ADHD. We do school work all around the house! In our school room the desks are arranged facing walls, with backs to the center, on 3 different walls (I'm on the 4th one). This helps, but isn't a panacea. Headphones, allowing kids to work in alternative spaces (top of the stairs was a favorite for a while), and time to develop routine have all helped. We had to try a lot of spaces out before kids realized what worked and what didn't. I was always flexible with this as long as work was getting done. Now they mostly do school work in the school room. We do have an hour of "morning basket" in the kitchen together to start the day, which I like for many reasons but one especially is togetherness. Good luck finding what works - and be patient and flexible.

[Tawlas]

I would just school them at separate times, first the 4 year old, then the 2nd grader. Both ages need you one on one.

 

I've done desks in the same room and that worked well for my kids too.

I don't know why now, but for some reason I thought your older child was going into 5th grade! I take back my "working independently suggestions". Second grade is young to do independent work, especially with adhd I'm guessing. My ds does some, but it's stuff that he is mostly doing for review or mastery (math drill, reading A-Z on the ipad, the end of cursive handwriting and part of the review section in CLE math).

 

Instead, I recommend doing separate work as the pp suggested :)

[Ellie]

We just always worked better at the kitchen table. :-)

[Junie]

I sit in the middle of my bed.  I can help two children at the same time, one on each side of me.  I believe that this is what SWB calls "at the elbow".  They are very close!  Sometimes dd4 will also climb up on the bed with a couple of books.  As I finish work with one child, he/she will disappear and another will show up to take the empty slot.  They have learned that I can only help up to two at a time, so if the bed is full, they will work on something independently and then come back.

 

Dd7 and Dd8 do almost all of their homeschool work with me.  Dd10, dd12, and ds14 do most of their work in their rooms -- on their beds or on the floor.  This is probably my fault.  I remember when I was in school, I used to spread out all over my bedroom floor to do my work.  Desks just don't seem big enough...