Larger families and working individually with children

Well, here’s how it works in my house with 5 kids… 11 yog, 10 yob, 7 yog, 5 yog, 3 yob.  After breakfast and chores, we all meet at the table for reading time.  Everyone but the 3 year old boy has a book to reader (McGuffey, Christian Liberty Press Nature, etc.)  and they each take a turn reading to all of us.  After they read, a different child narrates back on what they read.  We have a box of quiet stuff at the table for them to mess with while the other kids are reading.  This takes us about half an hour.  From here, we do one of our “together” lessons for about 10-15 min.  After this the kids all go into their individual work which I have listed on a board.  I sit on the floor with the 5 year old and do lessons for about 20 minutes.  Although I am with her, because we are all in the room together, the kids stay on track with work and I am there to be able to answer questions.  Once I’m done with her, she leaves and plays with the 3 year old.  Then I just kind of go back and forth between the other three kids helping them as needed.  Then throughout the day I do other things like one-on-one French lesson with the 11 yog, spelling with 7 yog and then with 10 yob, etc.  After lunch and naps, we do another “together” lesson and the older kids finish up their individual work with help from me as needed.  I think the key is that we are all in the same room so everybody stays on task and gets the help they need.

When I had a toddler to deal with, I would bring out his box of special toys, a different box every day of the week, and put them on a little table that I had for him in the room.  I could keep him occupied for about half an hour, sometimes more.  Again, the key is that he was right there with us in the room.  I could easily step away from the table and hand him a new toy or something if needed.  Again, the key is that we were right there together.  I have also been known to give the little ones a laptop and let them practice their letters at starfall.com if they were having a particularly rough time not being disruptive to the rest of the work.

I’m not sure if I have answered any questions for you.  

I think the meeting at the table in the morning is a really good thing for family lessons.  This is when we do our Veritas Press history cards, picture study, discussion of what they’re reading about in their readers, Outdoor Secrets, poetry, etc.  We have learned a lot together just by this habit.

Oh, one other thing we do is listen to a book in the morning while they’re waiting for breakfast.  I play a book from librivox to keep them still and settled while I’m getting breakfast together.  Many times this leads to a good conversation during breakfast.

I don’t have a large family, but my friend w/7 kids has had good luck w/Managers of Their Home/Chores.  She has a very planned out schedule w/times boxed out such as:

10-10:30am: mom does work w/10yr. old whild 6 yo. plays w/3 yo and 13 yo works independently

10:30-11:00: mom does work w/6yo while 10yo plays w/3yo and 13yo works independently

I just made those up, but you get the idea:)  She has times blocked like this all day long.  Don’t know if that helps or not:)  Blessings, Gina

For what it’s worth, here’s how I (try) to make it work – I have 4 kids – 11 (almost 12), 11, 8 and 5.  One of the 11-yr-olds has a lot of learning difficulties so we do a lot of the work together that most kids would do on their own.

We meet as a family for devotional (hymn, memorization, scripture, etc).  Then history (read-aloud and narrate, 25 mins).  Foreign language 10 mins, together.  Then the older two work on their workboxes while I read picture books to the 8 and 5 for 20 mins.  Then 8-yr-old works on workboxes (older 2 keep going) while I work with the 5-yr-old for 20 to 30 mins (he does math, reading and handwriting).  Back together as a family for literature read-aloud (and snack, 20 mins) and science (25 mins).  Then older 2 boys go back to workboxes and I work for 30 mins with 8-yr-old (spelling, reading, math).  Back together AGAIN for nature study or geography (we alternate, 20 mins) then elective (10 mins, artist, composer, poetry or grammar).  After lunch the 2 youngest have play time while I alternate working with the older boys – 30 to 45 mins each.  We do math and spelling for one, math, spelling and reading for the second.

The 5-year-old joins us for everything, but he is allowed to play quietly, draw, get his back scratched, look at books, etc.  He also has some preschool/kindergarten activity type bags he can use.

For the workboxes, the 8-yr-old has his in a 6 drawer plastic file tower.  Each drawer has something for him to do – read his scriptures, copywork, practice piano, Explode the Code book, dictation review.  The older boys use a milk crate with hanging file folders and a 3-ring-binder with the schedule for them to mark it off.  They are supposed to read their scriptures for 10 mins, copywork in print and cursive, review dictation (to be given on Friday), Latin (on Tues and Thurs), math drill sheet and practice the piano.  Almost all of this is easy to print out several weeks worth ahead of time so I don’t have to worry about it every night.  I just need to spend a few minutes at the end of the day correcting the math and making sure the copywork was done well.  They are responsible for giving the stuff to me which helps me remember to get it done, otherwise I won’t mark it as completed.

We switch stuff around all the time.  Sometimes the math is done in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon.  We work with a schedule for a few months then tweak it a bit and do that for a few months.

My boys do NOT work well in a room together, unless we are doing specific family work together.  If I’m working with a kid one-on-one and the others are supposed to be doing their work quietly in the same room, it doesn’t happen.  Everyone gets too distracted.  They (especially the older two) need quiet places to work.

Our situation is different, but I can share what we do here. We’re homeschooling the four youngest (two in college), ages 14, 11, 11 and almost 9. Littlest needs a lot of hands-on, directed attention to get through his schoolwork, the middle boys need a bit less – but do need assistance with LA lessons, history and lit narrations – and we do some of our things together. Ds 14 is mostly independent with the exception of our do-together subjects.

We start our day with Littlest practicing the piano and moving on to math, both of which he can do independently (he will need me during math and to see that he’s attending or not wandering around looking for a pencil or book, but he can usually start it alone). During this time, 14 is doing his work independently, and I start LA with the two 11-year-olds. Once we’ve had a lesson and oral work, they can finish on their own, and I move on to Littlest’s history, story Bible, and reading lesson (we take turns reading aloud to one another from a literature book).

At 10:30ish we break for snack and some days, for a “special;” Mondays, it’s music (just finished Mozart); Tuesdays, it’s a “Poet-tea,” where we read poems to one another and enjoy a fancier snack; Wednesdays, we do SCM’s picture study. After snack, I check in with the two 11-year-olds and 14-year-old, answer questions, get them started on their next pieces of work and then help Littlest finish his work (LA and dictation). In the midst of all these things, I’m usually listening to umpteen narrations from all of them, but they must wait for a break in what I’m doing and keep busy until then.

The three older boys have independent history and Bible reading, but after lunch and some outside time, we read our history read-aloud together, do geography a few days a week, and discuss connections people are making, and then the biggers finish up their work. Dictation is usually done at this time. Littlest

is usually done by then and I can give a bit more focused time to anyone who needs it.

One thing that’s really helped is to have a detailed schedule for the three oldest to follow, so they can check things off as they complete them and not need to wait for me to direct them all the time. I don’t include times in the schedule, but rather, the pages to be read, copywork, LA, etc. The youngest boy’s schedule is not so detailed, but it still lets him know which pieces of work he has yet to accomplish, and keeps him on track a bit better than relying solely on me to do it.

We tried the workboxes…I was a failure at organizing it enough to help my organizationally challenged child.

Have you seen the SCM suggested schedules? They are really great and gave me some ideas as to how I could organize things:

http://simplycharlottemason.com/planning/daily/

Blessings,

Aimee