plans to actually teach two kids

[sarasue7272]

I homeschooled my older son (DS10) when he was in 1st and 2nd grade. Since then, he has been at school along with his younger brother (DS7). I would like to go back to homeschooling in the fall but I am not feeling up to the task. Honestly, I only sortof want to homeschool DS7. He is very energetic and requires a great deal of supervision. He very likely has ADHD. The structure of school is good for him and he likes to see other kids a lot.

I am having a hard time envisioning how it could work! When look for inspiration, blogs and posts are about having toddlers or 6+ kids; or using primarily computer based curriculum. I would prefer to actually teach them myself and I don't see how I can fit it all in and keep DS7 out of trouble and off a screen.

Any advice? Any websites with good advice? I heard about a book that had various families' experiences, but I can't remember the name! It told stories of how people homeschooled to show the differences. 

Thanks

[wendyroo]

This year I had DS8, DS6, DS4, and DD2.  DS8 has autism, ADD and anxiety.  DS6 has ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder.  DS4 isn't old enough for any formal diagnoses, but the writing is on the wall that he also has ADHD.  DD2 is a toddler - 'nuff said ?.

During breakfast we do "Table Time".  I read aloud from a novel and our poem of the day, then while I clean up breakfast the kids watch CNN10 and a Spanish video.  Right after breakfast the older boys wash up, brush teeth, and start their independent work (handwriting, xtramath, Rosetta Stone and assigned reading).  I am always around supervising and inspecting, but I am primarily focused on getting the younger two ready for the day and doing a little preschool with the 4 year old. 

The big boys are finishing independent work just as I am getting the 2 and 4 year olds settled playing.  We start with either science or history which we do together.  (We do science daily for one semester and history daily for the other.)  After their together work, then they work through the day's assignments.  We school 4 days a week, and many subjects are scheduled for either Mon./Wed. or Tues./Thurs.  I spend A LOT of time balancing what they each do on the various days so that I can be heavily involved in the subjects that require it.  For example, they each do writing during the same slot that their brother is doing typing - I can sit right with them one on one to work on writing, while "outsourcing" typing to Typing.com.

My boys do spend some school time on the computer, but not much.  About 5 minutes daily on xtramath, ~10 minutes reviewing Anki flashcards and ~10 minutes on Rosetta Stone.  Then twice a week they spend ~10 minutes typing and the other days they spend 10-15 minutes on programming.  (So ~30 minutes each day total.)  I feel the types of computer learning are actually more important than the amount of time.  Obviously, typing and programming are kind of natural computer subjects.  I also think simple memorization (Anki and xtramath) lend themselves well to a computer format - I think they would have a less positive, patient learning experience if I was sitting with them quizzing physical flash cards.  I also feel that listening and speaking practice on Rosetta Stone can be a very valuable component of their Spanish education - it is only one facet of their Spanish learning, but it nicely complements some of the other non-computer resources we use.

We are normally finishing up "school" around 10am, and we then often head out for an extracurricular activity to round out our day.  We get home, eat lunch, spend around 20 minutes sitting at the table working on math once the little two are resting in their rooms, and then have the afternoons free for play, exercise, chores, handicrafts, free reading, naps, etc.  Meeting everyone's needs always feels like a juggling act, but it has proven to be a very good lifestyle for our family.

Wendy

[2_girls_mommy]

My oldest two are now in late middle school and high school and I have a preschooler. But I have always homeschooled them with very little computer work. Until this past year it was all me teaching them, using the computer occasionally for xtra math practice or something. At one time I had an extra preschooler I was paid to teach and an elementary kid and a middle schooler and a newborn. I just always wrote detailed schedules. We had together time in the afternoons back then so that I could put the preschooler down. So in the mornings, I had written up which I would be working with at what time. I would start with the preschooler. They often joined in for that especially if it was songs or games. Then I got her going on an educational toy or activity. Then I worked with the next one on my list while the other one did a spelling workbook or handwriting page or whatever independent stuff they could do, depending on the age. Then we switched. Once I got one going on her math lesson, then I sat and got the other going on hers. We were all in the same room with the preschooler in an attached room playing with her toys. Once they were both going on a math worksheet the preschooler and I would switch to morning chores like give the baby a quick bath or clean the bathroom. 

For whatever I could I did them all together. If the olders had an assignment from art class to read a book about Audobon and try their hand at a picture I would read a picture book to all of them, then send them out to look for birds and nests and to draw one. 

For read aloud time, I would start with preschool books, get everyone going with art projects or get out the legos and Barbies for preschooler and read for a bit, doing any poetry memorization or other memory work altogether. The 4 year old I watched could chant the books of the Old Testament, the Presidents in order, the states in alphabetical order, the Fruits of the Spirit, and whatever else we were learning just from being with us. Then I would put her off for nap (how I wish my current 4 yr old still napped! ) and read a chapter or two from their older novels while she listened to a book on CD and dozed off. 

My current day is different. I have two teens and a preschooler. We all start at the table together. Currently we are working through a Thinking Tree journal and some other odds and ends for morning time. The activities and readings vary, as we follow the notebooking pages in there. Today it was a film study page. So after my kids did their morning brain wake up activities together at the table with the preschooler working on her coloring books with us ( Theirs are some various thinking games and workbooks we do in the mornings) we got out the computer to watch our chosen film. Today we were trying out a new art curriculum on video. So we got out the needed supplies and set up our stations to watch and work. Even the preschooler did a colored pencil drawing of an avacado with us. Of course hers lasted 3 minutes. Then she got legos all over the living room and everything else- markers, colored pencils, all around us. Once we worked on that for an hour or so, we cleaned up the art. The older girls were assigned to create a notebooking page about a field trip we took yesterday and add it to their state history notebook. One handwrote hers. One used my computer to type it up. Then one started making lunch. I started clean up from the morning mess. One started her math on the computer. This year we did start her on a computer math program for high school. We all ate lunch. We all cleaned up more.  The one that made lunch got out her math. She usually needs me intensely, but today is a continuation of lessons we have been working very hard on together, and she didn't need me. So I got to clean up and get out the next activity for the preschooler. Preschooler got settled on the porch with a basket of toy animals and a tub of water. She began picking out the water animals and set up an aquarium (her own choice of activity. It could have been a river for elephants to swim in if she had wanted!) She collected sea shells from our bathroom and had us all take turns coming to touch the animals as she told us about them. She had me look one fish online so we could identify it. As she was doing that OUTSIDE, I could do some light housecleaning. I got a tub from co-op decluttered and things put away or thrown away and was able to sweep and mop a room and start the dishwasher. High schooler pulled out her history book to read and is going to take notes from it. Then she will do the same with English. Today my main teaching time was the art lesson. Yesterday it was history since we went on a field trip and the math lesson with the middle schooler. Tomorrow I have a latin class scheduled with the middle schooler and a friend and the high schooler will be doing her anatomy class with the friend's mother and brothers. Both have some homework in those classes that they need to finish tonight to be ready for tomorrow. 

So I guess mainly I would say I don't teach every lesson every day. i spend time on math a couple of times a week. I teach a together time every day that rotates through subjects. One day a week we do a long reading discussion time. We will cover Bible, History, Science, and literature that day and discuss. The rest of the week they do readings and writings on those subjects on their own.  When they were younger I would read the entire history or science lesson to them and sit with them while they did the written work at their own levels. Now that they are older I can walk away.  It happened gradually, starting with those 15 minutes at a time that I could walk away with a preschooler and a baby. Now I can just make sure they are focusing for an hour at a time by calling to them if I see them staring off or playing with something. I am pretty much done teaching today. But they still have Latin and Science homework. 

[Momto6inIN]

I teach my kids most things without much computer work. I found a lot of inspiration in The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling by Debra Bell when I first started, although I've since moved more towards classical as in The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer.

I agree that a lot of the blogs seem to focus on computer based learning, which can be frustrating when you have a different goal.

At age 10 you can be done school in about 4ish hours. For my 5th grader I spend time teaching the lesson and then she works independently for a little while on the practice/assignment and then we move on to the next subject, so it seems to me like you've have some back and forth time in there to work with your 7 year old and keep him on track.

Good luck!

[sarasue7272]

Thanks for the responses! Perhaps if I choose actual curriculum it will be easier to plan out what to do when. I will look for that book.

Something I forgot to mention is that I teach for VIPKID, which throws another wrench in. I will have to train the kids to do a few things while I finish up in the mornings. 

[....]

17 hours ago, sarasue7272 said:

I would prefer to actually teach them myself and I don't see how I can fit it all in and keep DS7 out of trouble and off a screen.

 

You might have to structure most of his day to keep him off screens.  And with a 10 year old and a 7 year old, I would teach them both together.  They could do their own math and language arts, then combine them for everything else.  If you look around on The Well-Trained Mind website, there are articles about combining kids.  Up at the top of the site, it says "Articles and Videos", I would look in there.        

That's how I taught my kids when they were younger and I have 5.  They would do their own readers, math and language arts (if even, sometimes I even combined them in language arts).  Then, they would spend the rest of the school day working together on read-alouds, science, history, art, projects, field trip, etc, or a unit study (we did a lot of unit studies over the years).  I've always taught them myself, too.  No outsourcing/co-ops...no computers.  And my oldest two are still pretty combined.  They're doing about 2/3 of their stuff together this year.    

You said you needed them to be independent in the mornings, so you can finish your stuff.  I would probably have mine use that time for chores, independent reading...maybe anything they can get done on their own without help (like if anyone is doing a handwriting workbook) and then some quiet free time before you need to start school.  I'm not a big fan of independent schoolwork at that age, so I probably would find other things for them to do.

[carriede]

Not being snarky, but...

You only sorta want to homeschool your 7 year old. He has known learning issues and is doing well at the public school.

So, why do you want to bring him home?

ETA, I don't think that bring him home would be a bad thing... I just wanted to put the option out there that homeschooling doesn't have to be all or nothing.

You can consider my question rhetorical if you'd like. ?

[sarasue7272]

4 hours ago, carriede said:

You only sorta want to homeschool your 7 year old. He has known learning issues and is doing well at the public school.

?

I wouldn't say he's doing well. Pre-k was wonderful at an old-fashioned preschool; Kindergarten was good also with a teacher that was a perfect fit. This year has been meh. I don't feel like he has made a lot of academic progress and his behavior has been a problem. Also, out of the 176 days he's been to school, he has said he wants to be homeschooled about 70 of them. I couldn't have brother at home and not him.

I loved school and want so much for my kids to thrive at school, but that is definitely not happening for DS10. I don't foresee that happening for DS7 as he gets older because of his difficulty sitting still.

[Moncha]

I just wanted to add that since you'll be homeschooling you can really move at his pace.  I would stick to a routine... after breakfast, bible time, getting ready and chore... we do table work first since that is the least "enjoyable" ... so math, reading and writing then if I have time I move on to read alouds, history, science or whatever I have planned for that day. And honestly at 7 yrs, you don't need to do history and all the other stuff. (Not sure what "all" you are trying to fit in)

You may have to implement a rule of no screen time until a certain time of day... we don't do any screen time until after dinner and then it's limited to 30 min, on weekends I'm a bit more flexible but still limit the time.

My almost 7 year old is also very active, I try to incorporate a few runs around the house, getting a break to do 5 flips, etc into our table work time if I see him getting too whiny or antsy. Also limiting each subject to a certain amount of time helps, even if we don't "finish" the lesson. 

[Moncha]

If you are a christian these books might be helpful... if not... ignore ?  Teaching From Rest  and this sounds similar to the book you've heard of Things We Wish We'd Known (it's a bit older but I think there's a lot of wisdom shared)