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Schooling Your Kids Separately
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I will have a 3rd and 5th grader in the Fall. I will not be combining them in anything as it has proved to be an absolute disaster for the past 2 years.
I would love some ideas on how to do this using the SCM resources. For example-if I start history chronologically they would both be studying the same thing. Geography and Bible would be combined as well. I hope this makes sense
I have to ask – why was it a disaster? Is it simply character training that needs done on their end or something else entirely?
With those questions out of the way my advice if you’re set on separate lessons for everything is to set times of day to work with each child and then during the other child’s time without mom have them working on things they can do independent of you (like copywork, math practice pages, etc).
Good luck, I think you’re making more work for yourself, but if you only have two it can certainly be done.
My son is easily distractible, rambles on and takes.forever. to do something. Sometimes it just takes him longer becasue he’s younger-like writing out the name of a country on a map or copying a definition. My DD on the other hand is the opposite. She ends up having to wait a lot and it really frustrates her. And yes, there are some character training issues.
At this point, I feel like it would be better for me to seperate them. Already having health issues makes it very hard to deal with the stress her attitude and negativity cause. I am making more work for myself, but (and I’m saying this now), I think it’s better for my health
What I was trying to ask was-looking at the free curriculum guide-how would I separate the subjects that it combines for my kids ages. Can I do different history and not do it chronologically? What about Bible. What resources would I use for thier ages if I’m not doing them together? We’ve used some SCM books before and loved them. I just need to know what to use for each child since I am not doing them together.
Hmm, okay. That helps!
For history – yes, you could do different modules if you want, or just work with each separately. It does not have to be chronological!
If you do the same module for both then here are my thoughts: You would read the family book to them each(or together if they can manage that, it’s usually less than 15 minutes I think), then assign each to go read their individual book chapter for the day. They are actually in different individual book lists for history (one in 1st-3rd, one in 4th-6th) so you won’t need two of any books that I can think of off unless they overlap in the module. Technically you can read these to them if they aren’t strong readers or like being read to.
Oh, and check into ideas for distractible learners from Carol Barnier. Simple things that come to mind are seeing if they listen better with something in their hands, giving them a tri-fold board around their writing space to keep visual distractions to a minimum.
Hi Marcee,
I know where you are coming from. My younger ds is ADHD and sounds a lot like your ds. I spend much of my time trying to get him to focus and back on topic and my older son gets extremely frustrated because the lessons things are taking longer than they should. SO I will be doing more seperatly with them this year. My 6th grader will need to do more independently, which seems fine with him. Yes, I know it’s largely a matter of habit training, but this is a situation where I feel it will be best to keep them seperate in order to best focus on each of their needs.
That said, my plan is to use the same materials/curriculums for each child as much as it is feasible to do so. For example — my older child will be reading Apologia Science Zoology on his own, but my younger son (3rd grader) and I will be reading the same lesson together at a different time. Ideally we will do the experiments/projects together, though that has yet to be seen. I will also keep them in the same history/Bible/Geography (we are starting Mod 1 in September). I have a couple reasons for this: cost effectiveness, and it’s easier planning one lesson even if I end up teaching it twice then planning two different lessons. Also, eventually, I would like to move back to combining them and it will be easier to do if we are already doing essentially the same thing. I will try to keep the Bible going as a family, and then build up from there.
Is your question isolated to the History/Bible issue or are you wondering about lit, poetry and fine arts as well?
Tristan-thank you for the information about the history mods. My DD hates being read aloud to. It was a major issue last year. But she is a very strong reader, so there is no issue with her reading on her own. But I will need some way to test her comprehesion-narration?
4myboys-I’m thinking of doing everything seperately. Even memory verses becuase my DD will point out if she does it faster or better. She’ll point out if he gets something wrong or pronounces something incorrectly. Major character issue, but not something I want to try to deal with on a daily basis. Even asking questions about what we read in the Bible would pose problems
My younger son will sometimes point out mistakes my older ds makes. It is annoying. I can’t work on math with the two of them in the same room as my younger tends to blurt answers and he’s very strong in math where older ds struggles. Same with spelling, reading/pronounciation, etc. My older does much better with narrations and will dominate the conversation while my younger rattles on about something totally unrelated. Which of your children is older?
Yes, narration is exactly how to see what your oldest is understanding from her reading! That’s what I do with my 6th grader, who reads a lot on her own too.
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