Youngest bored by history studies

[…..]

*only* 5 😂. 8 years between oldest and youngest.  I honestly wasn’t sure why I couldn’t get it together more, but looking back to just a few years ago they were all still so young!!  As the ratio changes it is getting easier.

[Ruralmama]

We have “only” 5 for a few more days…hours…6 has been eagerly expected for about a week;) I think the bigger children and dear husband are more impatient than I am;) Oldest will be 12 in a bit over a week so my spread is a bit more…. Last year was hard though and that group was 1-10…. I think homeschooling with a 1 yr old is about the hardest….they get so board….perhaps I should have carried him more. I’ll try it with this next one. Thanks for your ideas.

[sarah2106]

Something that was suggested to me years ago on the SCM forum was to start with my little ones each day. Let my older ones do some independent work, or self led interest activity first while I spend time with my youngest (or younger group of kids). sSometimes it was 30 minutes, other days an hour.

By “filling their cup” first the younger ones are more willing and ready to play independently while I worked with the older kids. It was not a “fix all” but for my kids it really did help. I always wanted to get right to work with my older kids and then work with my youngest, but by flipping the schedule my youngest was a lot happier to let me work with he big kids.

I also found between 1 and 2 years of age is a big challenge. They want to be a part of everything 🙂 Other ideas are to have your older ones read to younger siblings as part of their school, listen to audio books (I know a family and they get the audio books to go along with science so the mom does not have to read, she was getting worn out with reading so much, but the kids follow along in the book as they listen). You could have your older kids read to you while you make meals (my kids did this often even into middle school, it gave them time to practice reading aloud and I got to hear some fun books).

And lastly… you will not get to everything  You will always want to read another book and explore another topic, but the goal is to create life long learners who want to continue to learn, so do your best but don’t overly stress getting everything “just right”. My oldest is going to be a senior and our homeschool journey has been a constant stage of changing plans 🙂