Practical Ideas for Homeschooling Multiple Kids

Posted on November 28, 2015 by Christina C

One of the biggest challenges of homeschooling (for those of us with more than one child) is how to work simultaneously with children of different ages and at different developmental stages. There are several options for working with multiple children:

Work with one child at a time on each subject. (This is incredibly time consuming. Personally, I try to only do this with Math and Reading instruction, and only a couple of times per week.)
Work with all children at the same time on the same subject but with different lessons. (For example, if you are doing math, give each child his or her own math lesson and move from child to child as you assist each one separately.)
Work with all children at the same time, using the same lesson, but tailoring each lesson to the abilities and expectations of each child. (I aspire to doing this in most subjects!)

Working with all my kids at the same time is my favorite way to learn. It saves time and planning efforts and it also saves money since I don’t have to buy as much by way of curriculum. Most importantly, though, it is so much more fun! The kids get to work together, help each other, bounce ideas around, challenge each other, learn to cooperate with each other, and so much more.

Here are some of the strategies that I have found helpful for working together. I will break it down, as some subjects may require different resources.

Math: I use the Right Start Math curriculum, Level A for DS1 and Level B for DD. I work with each child independently on this, but the good news is that the each lesson only takes about 15-20 minutes. DS2, who is 3,occasionally joins DS1, especially when he notices the fun manipulatives we are using that day. If he needs help being occupied, we use file folder games (see below), boxed games, and math manipulatives that are exclusively his. If you are short on time or just want to do math together, one great way is to play games! There are a lot of games on the market that really help develop good math skills. Check out my post Fun Games for Learning and my Periscope broadcast to see some of our favorite Math games.
Language Arts: This can be tricky with multiple kids, especially if there is a large span in age. But it can be done! Again, one way is to incorporate games into your routine. I shared some of our favorite Language Arts games here on my blog as well as on Periscope. I also use copywork for a large part of our writing, spelling, and grammar instruction. All kids sit together copying their own passage. A couple of very helpful resources for copywork pages are Notebooking Pages and Worksheet Works. I use Notebooking Pages primarily for DD. They are great because you can select either basic or primary lines and even select a theme for your pages. For my DS1, I love Worksheet Works because I can generate dotted-line passages for him that he can trace. DS2 even gets his passage to try, if he is interested!
History, Science, Read-alouds, Philosophy, Foreign Language, Art, Phys Ed, and just about any other subject you can think of can be done all together. The trick is to tailor your goals and expectations to each child’s needs and abilities. For me, it is easier to to go with DD’s level and then simplify my expectations for my sons. I have been surprised at how much they enjoy doing the science experiments, history read-alouds, Poetry Tea Times, art and philosophy discussions, and much more with my daughter and I. Again, I expect my daughter to process the information differently. I expect her to have a deeper relationship with the material. She does more reading, writing, and manipulation of the topic. My sons get involved as much as they want to, as much as they enjoy it.When they get older, their expectations will be adjusted, just as my daughter’s have been.

For times when not all of my kids are involved in what we are learning, like when DS2 (let me remind you that he is 3) simply wants to do his own thing, I have collected a small arsenal of tools that I use to help occupy him while allowing him to take part in the learning process.

These file IMG_20151128_091227 folder games, recommended by my friend and neighbor, have been a real life saver! File folder games are just what they sound like. My friend gave me some and I re-purposed some old manila file folders of my own, colored some cute printables, laminated them, and stuck them onto the file folders using velcro tabs. My DS2 absolutely loves them. They are “his school” and he is so proud of himself when he does them. IMG_20151128_091149 IMG_20151128_091615

Another helpful thing is to have a plethora of hands-on, creative toys that are freely accessible. My sons help themselves to a bin or two and play for long periods of time. I like to keep blocks, K’Nex, Tinker Toys, MagnaTiles, and anything else they can build. It keeps them busy for sure!

Lastly, I have a drawer in the kitchen that’s full of art supplies that can be grabbed and used right at the kitchen table. The kids know that they can help themselves whenever the creative bug bites.

The best advice I give myself is to do what works. What works today may not work tomorrow. Flexibility is key. Also, it must work for everyone involved. Homeschooling is a joint effort, a communal affair. It has a life of its own and must be tended and cared for…

(This post contains a link to Amazon.com. Should you decide to purchase the item, Thankfully Home will receive a small commission. This will not cost you anything at all! It helps us buy books for our family, so thank you!)

The Evolution of Our Learning

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Christina C

When my husband and I decided back in December of 2013 that we would homeschool our children , I had an idea of how I thought it should look. I pictured planned out and scripted lessons, textbooks, and very specific subjects, like Math, English, Spelling, and Science. I began to explore my options and came up with a couple of complete curricula that looked interesting. Complete curricula, the open-and-go kind, tend to be pricey. Before I committed a huge chunk of change, I did a little more research. A lot, actually.

I liked the idea of the Classical model. I liked Charlotte Mason’s ideas about education. I liked unit-study styles that approached a topic from all angles and subjects, and I loved literature-based programs. My own style was starting to feel a bit eclectic. But that didn’t feel very good at the time. I wanted to belong to a group that shared the same educational ideology, the same philosophy. I wanted a homeschool “identity.”

I decided to go with a unit study, literature-based approach, while at the same time following the Classical progression through the ages. I thought that idea made sense. I felt comfortable with that. I had enough hand holding but still had the freedom to allow for my children to explore their own interests.

All the while I was exploring methods, philosophies, and curricula, I was undergoing a mental transformation as well. My reasons for wanting homeschool were evolving. Originally, I wanted to homeschool DD (my sons were too young for school at this point, so DD was the main consideration) out of fear. I was intimidated by the system. I was afraid of sending my child to be among strangers every day. I was afraid for my daughter’s feelings. She was being regularly mistreated by a few classmates that found her too different to accept as one of their own. She would get off of the bus everyday crying. I was afraid that DD’s self esteem was on a freefall to rock bottom. I was afraid that her zeal for life and learning was going to get squelched by traditional school. I had fear after fear and it took me further and further from my goals…

As my reasons for homeschooling started to evolve, to turn from fears to desires, so did my plan. You see, when you fear something, you tend to run away from it. You shield your eyes. Run for cover. Your fear paralyzes you. It makes you freeze and you are unable to see anything but that which you fear.

An interesting thing started to happen. As I consciously let go the fears that were binding me, my confidence in myself as a homeschooling mom began to grow. I felt like I didn’t need, or want, as much hand holding. The identity I was making for myself became ok. I was in charge! And as my confidence in my decisions grew, my confidence in my kids’ decisions grew as well and I began to let go of some of the control over our learning. I started to give my kids choices.

It started small, like “Do you want to do Math or History?” Now, sometimes entire days are spent chasing rabbits down trails. Figuratively, mostly. We still manage to get the basics, like Math, Reading, and Writing in on a regular basis, but the rest interest driven and as we desire. And field trips are just as important as days spent at home reading.

We also like to add lots of “enchantment” to our days, even when using our more laid-out curricula. I give all the credit for this to Julie Bogart from Brave Writer. Her encouragement and inspiration has been instrumental in transforming my view of homeschooling from one that looks more like “school” as we know it to a place of more enchantment, more freedom, more fun.

So although we love our curriculum choices (eg. Brave Writer for Language Arts, Moving Beyond the Page for a complete, literature based program, All About Reading for Reading, and Right Start Math) we also think that the World is our school. Life is learning.

Every day is different in our “school” and that’s exactly the way we love it…

10 Amazing Apps for Kids

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Christina C

I am not a huge fan of “screen time.” I really don’t advocate for allowing, or worse, encouraging kids to spend lots and lots of time in front of the TV or computer screen. However, let’s be honest, there are times when, especially if you have more than one child, you need to provide a distraction and all of your best intentions fly right out of the window. For those times, why not make it as educational as it is fun?

Here, I am going to focus on some really neat apps that we have stumbled upon that provide as much opportunity for learning as they do entertainment. Best of all, every one of these apps is free! (Some have in-app purchases, so you may want to make sure your device is in airplane mode when your kids are using them.)

Toontastic is by far our family’s favorite. Kids get to create characters, design a setting, provide voices and sound effects, and add animation to create their own cartoons! The app also walks users through the elements of a story, so kids learn about plot, rising action, conflict resolution, and denouement. My kids fight over the i-Pad to get to this one!
TeleStory was created by the same developers as Toontastic. It allows kids to write, direct and star in their own TV show!
Block Craft 3D is a lot like Minecraft. It allows kids to create, build, and grow their own villages. My kids are huge fans of Minecraft, but when we are on the go and don’t have internet, this app is a great substitute.
NGA Kids Art Zone is a great place for kids to learn about famous works of art while interacting with each piece. They even get a chance to create their own artwork.
Poems by Heart by Penguin Classics is a great app for learning and memorizing famous poems.
The POETRY app from the Poetry Foundation is also a fun way to learn about and read poetry. Kids can use the spinner to read random selections or choose their own feelings and topics to generate a related list of poems.
Hooked on Words is a word search app where the kids get to work on a little spelling. My 8-year-old daughter loves this one!
MoMA Art Lab is another great art site where kids get to work on really interesting art projects. Another one of my daughter’s favorites!
Sky View is a great app for exploring the universe. Simply hold the tablet up, down, or anywhere and it will show and tell you what is in the sky. From constellations, planets, satellites, and space stations, the kids will enjoy seeing what’s out there!
Blackfish is another really neat story and game creator. It’s a great way for kids to use their creativity to write, illustrate, set to music, and publish their own books.

I would love to hear about other great finds, so if you have any please do share!

Our Favorite Thanksgiving Read Alouds

Posted on November 10, 2015 by Christina C

We love the Holiday season and one of the ways that we enjoy our time together is by reading great books. We keep our Holiday books separate from our everyday books and it is a great pleasure to pull them out a few weeks before the special day. Now is the time that we begin to pull out our books about Thanksgiving.

Here are our favorites. I found these to be engaging, spark great interest in American History, and foster compassion for the original Americans.

(This post contains links to Amazon.com. Should you decide to purchase any of the books, Thankfully Home will receive a small commission. This will not cost you anything at all! It helps us buy books for our family, so thank you!)

Fun Games for Learning

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Christina C

I have been doing a lot of thinking for the past several months about how to make learning more fun, more engaging, more organic. Part of the reason that we chose to homeschool was to be able to live on our terms. To have the freedom to live and learn in ways that work for us and that make us happy. I love laid out plans, but I also love to wake up in the morning and throw caution to the wind and go down a long rabbit trail and see where it leads us.

One thing we have done lately is add in lots and lots more games. I mean, what’s more fun: Memorizing your math facts or playing dice games? Memorizing maps or playing The Scrambled States of America game? Working on spelling lists or playing Scrabble? You get my drift. Plus, a huge added bonus is that we all get to spend fun, quality time working and playing together. We are together all day every day, but somehow, something is different when we are all playing a game together.

I thought I would put together a list, by subject, of our favorite games.

Math:

Any game that uses dice can be used as a math game. As a matter of fact, my kids and I played Harry Potter and the Mystery at Hogwarts game yesterday and I could see how much my six-year-old was learning about basic addition facts as we played. My three-year-old was also working on counting and subitizing during every turn. We are also using a math curriculum called Right Start Math that includes loads of manipulatives and math games to teach concepts. That being said, we still like to pull out a math game once in a while…

Math Dice and Math Dice, Jr – These games are great for learning addition facts. My two older kids (6 and 8) are very competitive with this game. They learned their basic addition facts so quickly and had such a great time doing it! I pull these out whenever we need a little extra practice…

i sea 10! – My three and six-year-old LOVE this game! It is a bit like Memory in that the child turns over two discs per turn and yells “I see 10!” when the two numbers add up to ten. Then in each consecutive turn, they attempt to make sums up to ten by remembering where each number is. My littles love this! As a matter of fact, I think my three-year-old may have learned to recognize numbers by playing this game.

Math War – My daughter loves to play this game! It gets her really thinking on her feet because I am fast and she is competitive…Plus, it’s a great way to reinforce what she is learning in her regular math curriculum.

And to introduce and work on money while at the same time practicing addition and skip counting, this little game is so great. My kids beg to play it!

This game is a lot like scrabble in that you use tiles to make equation “sentences.” It includes all four of the basic operations, although we will only use addition, subtraction,
and multiplication. I purchased this one to help my daughter master her math facts.

We discovered this gem while on a trip to Colonial Williamsburg. Apparently it was a popular pub game as well as a game frequently played by sailors and pirates on ships. When we got home to our hotel, the kids and I played this for a couple of hours. Honestly, my 6yo DS learned his math addition facts up to 12 in one evening! It is called Shut the Box and the object is to roll two dice, add them up and flip the number tile that matches your roll. You may flip one tile or two tiles that add up to your number. We created a “House Rule” that if your number had already been flipped, and all of the numbers that add up to your roll have also been flipped, you may look for two numbers that subtract to your number. The game ends when either you “shut the box” by flipping all of the numbers or you cannot flip any more. Your score is the sum of the remaining numbers. You want a low score. We have absolutely loved playing this game!

Language Arts:

The absolute best thing you can do to instill a love of language in your kids is to read aloud to them. We do that every day, but in addition to our “school” work, we also like to play word and language games. Here are a few that we love.

These next several games are fantastic for developing creative, descriptive, and imaginative language. The kids use dice, cards, and story prompts to weave fantastic tales. My kids adore all of these! We even have fun sometimes by writing down the stories we come up with. These are a lot of fun to read later and look back on what we wrote together.

These games are great for working on spelling: (there are too many fun games for preschoolers to mention here, so I will stick with the slightly older set of k+)

Thinking and Strategy:

We play these games to reinforce and improve abstract thinking skills. All of these are absolute favorites.

This is my older son’s favorite puzzle game. He and my younger son often pull it out and plat by themselves for a long time. They love trying to copy the designs and are so proud when they complete one!

We love playing this as a family. It is a little bit of a reach for my kids, but they really love trying to figure out the pattern. It’s wonderful for reinforcing color, pattern, and shape discrimination.

These puzzles keep my sons busy for an hour sometimes. They love trying to copy the images on the cards, all the while learning about spacial relationships, shapes, colors, and sorting.

Obstacles is a fantastic game for the whole family to play together. You progress through a series of cards with various obstacles depicted on them and use “tool” cards in your hand to come up with creative ways to overcome the obstacles. We have a lot of fun playing this!

This game involves looking at a set of cards and determining what they have in common. It is a bit like another one of our favorites.

Categories is a bit more abstract, but this gets the kids sorting, visually discriminating and categorizing too!

This game is as much a challenge for the grown-ups as it is for the kids and it really helps develop visual perception and build abstract thinking and classifying skills.

We got these three games for Christmas from a friend and we can’t stop playing them! All three are strategy card games and are easy to understand and great fun!

Geography:

This was our first Geography game. It is accompanied by a very funny book by the same name. My 8-year-old daughter loves playing this and it is a really great way to learn U.S. geography.

Take Off! is a really fun game. It includes a huge laminated World map that also depicts flags of the countries of the World. Players race from destination to destination across the World from east to west.

These following games are also great for learning the locations of states and countries. Players construct 10-day trips from destination to destination using specific modes of travel. Very cool!

This list is by no means exhaustive, but these are our favorites. I have absolutely no problem pulling any one of these off the shelf when the kids ask for them. As a matter of fact, I also “count” these as school time because I consider playing games just as educational (if not more) as filling out a worksheet, only it is tons more fun! Who said learning and fun don’t go together?

(This post contains links to Amazon.com. Should you decide to purchase any of the games, Thankfully Home will receive a small commission. This will not cost you anything at all! It helps us buy books and resources for our family, so thank you!)