How the Heck Do You Teach 4 Kids Anyway?
When people hear that we homeschool, we usually get one of three reactions. The first is, “What the heck is wrong with you? Are you sane?” Next comes,”Oh my Gosh! How do you possibly teach four kids at different levels?” And finally, “Oh, you’re home. You must not be busy. Can you watch my kid while I do such and such?” You can imagine the answer to the third choice. While there are families that successfully homeschool far larger broods than ours, here’s how we manage the madness.
Is teaching 4 kids of different ages easy? No. Is it impossible? No again. It’s challenging and a ton of fun. There is seriously never a dull moment in our house. What exactly goes on? A whole lot. There’s a lot of planning and prep-work, patience and perseverance involved.
For your viewing pleasure, here’s an average school day in our modest châteaux. While I recorded our day in pictures largely for our records, there’s a lot you can learn from how other families conduct their school day. Welcome to today:
8:00-8:30- All kids are playing and watching cartoons, eating breakfast and causing mayhem and destruction.
;-)
8:30-9:30- Story Circle (All 4 kids involved). We introduced this week’s topic, space, and discussed astronomy, the solar system, the sun, planets, small bodies like comets, the Milky Way, etc. We recited “Starlight, Starbright,” “Hey Diddle, Diddle,” and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and read lots of space-themed books. To end story time, we played a space travel game. One kid got to be the sun, and the others were planets orbiting the sun. We also pretended to be astronauts traveling through the solar system and remarked on the various planets and stars we saw, reinforcing the information we just read about. Fun!
9:30-10:00- Bella: Morning nap!
Derek: Colored pictures of the sun and a rocket, then colored the moon and stars. He insisted we hang up his amazing art right away. He played in the playroom after this.
Alex and Ethan: Both children colored and practiced reading a book called “Our Solar System.” They also listened to Classical Conversations Memory Work Week 7 in the background. This week’s memory work includes: History (Hinduism), Latin (Noun endings 3rd declension), Geography (Indus River), Science (How do animals reproduce), Grammer (Prepositions in-ne), and Math (13 times 13 table). Ethan is very, very good at memorizing his skip counting facts!
10:00-10:30- Derek: Practiced tracing “I am Derek” and played color matching game with mom
Alex: “French for Kids” Unit 6– En Voyage. She reviewed previous vocabulary, learned how to say things she does and does not like to do, and practiced counting up to 20 in French.
Ethan: Writing/ tracing practice. His practice words this week are space, planets, sun, stars, moon, astronaut, and galaxy.
10:30-11:00- Bella: Up from nap time! She joined in the fun, dancing to nursery rhymes. She surprised me by clapping when I sang “If You’re Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands” for her. Hooray! She also cuddled while I read to her and Derek. Bella spent time playing in the playroom and being held as well.
Alex: She practiced the same space vocabulary words as Ethan, but wrote hers in cursive. Her cursive is improving daily and she can read cursive now! Woohoo! She also re-wrote a paragraph about the solar system, capitalizing proper nouns and adding punctuation. Next, she completed Horizon’s Phonics and Reading Lesson 48, a review of all contractions. To end this time period, miss Alex enjoyed some solitary reading in the living room. This, of course, turned into read-to-the-pesky-three-year-old-brother-time.
Ethan: He watched the Hooked on Phonics First Grade Unit 1 Intro, followed by Lesson One (-ch, -sh words). He then practiced reading the same words in his booklet. He also read a story called “Chad and Liz Set Up Shop.” Next, he tackled his Spectrum Reading K curriculum and practiced letter recognition and writing.
Derek: Derek enjoyed some reading time with mom and later with Alex. He also enjoyed being quizzed on his letter names and sounds. Derek spent a lot of time playing too.
11:00-12:00- Math Hour!
Alex: Alex chose to do math on www.Time4Learning.com today and learned all about addition and subtraction strategies. She completed several lessons, including a quiz. Next, she finished Lessons 82 (shapes) and 83 (counting by 200′s) from her Horizon’s text.
Ethan: Brainquest Kindergarten kept Ethan busy with worksheets on money counting and telling time. These are new concepts for him and require a lot of coaching. We’re getting there! We practiced naming coins and correctly labeling their value, as well as counting by 1′s, 5′s, and 10′s. After this, Ethan enjoyed some solitary reading time and some puzzles.
Derek: Derek worked on his Brainquest Preschool book, tracing the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 and circling corresponding groups of objects. We practiced counting to 20 together. Last, Derek enjoyed some puzzles.
Bella: Bella enjoyed some play time and puzzles. She loves puzzles!
12:00-12:30- Walk and outside play time. Time to enjoy some Florida sun and take advantage of the playground!
12:30-1:00- Lunch
1:00-2:00- Derek, Bella, and Ethan went upstairs to take rests. Yeah!
Alex: Free time on the computer and Ipad (she played a variety of geography, space, and French vocab games). After being denied her request to bring the Ipad in her room for “privacy,” she played with her toys. Ah peace.
2:00-2:30- Derek, Bella, and Ethan are still resting.
Alex: Completed social studies unit, “Families Live in Neighborhoods” while I continued to clean up the day’s messes.
2:30-3:30- Bella gets up from nap time and needs some lovin.’
Alex constructed a model of the solar system out of construction paper and cardboard. It turned out pretty awesome!
Our school day is officially over! Woot woot! Does this mean it’s time for some rest? Unfortunately, no. There’s still more fun to be had. There are games to play and books to read, messes to clean and neighborhood kids to play with at the park. Ethan also had Social Skills Therapy. Whew! This was one busy, fun, productive, and crazy day. On to tomorrow!
Introducing the World’s Most Interesting Breed of Lions!
Introducing the world's most "interesting" lions!
Today’s amazing jungle craft was creating Paper Plate Lions. These homely creatures went well with today’s Story Circle topic, lions and tigers. The kids had a blast making them and the supplies were very basic. Alex wanted to join in as well… and took 1 1/2 hours making a very intricate mane. French time and phonics disappeared today. At least she had fun, right?
Can you guess whose lion is whose? The kids are very proud of their lions and can’t wait to show dad when he comes home from work.
Here’s what you need to make your own creations:
Paper Plate Lion
What You Need:
- Paper Plates
- Crayons/Markers
- Paint and sponges
- Yarn (Cut it up before hand! I wish I had!)
- Scissors
- Glue (heavy duty school glue works best)
What You Do:
- Give the children the materials and let them create a lion. Sponge paint the paper plate to give it color. The kids can glue the yarn to the edges of the plate to create a mane. Once the paint is try, draw or paint on a lion face. Get their creativity flowing and be prepared for some interesting pieces of art.
Related articles
- Jungle Art! Paper Plate Snakes (homeschoolinghelicoptermama.wordpress.com)
The Science and Bonding of Baking With Kids
Homemade Apple Pie
Do you remember the first time you baked with mom or dad? Do you remember the excitement the first time they let you stir the batter, or the moment you took a bite out of a cookie you formed with your own two little hands? Baking is magical to kids. There’s something special about mixing together simple ingredients and creating something new and delicious. Baking is about more than food. It’s about bonding and creating memories that last a lifetime.
As you know, our theme this week was “apples.” What better way to top off the week than to bake an apple pie together? The kids were so excited about this project and have been talking about it anxiously all week. The big day arrived and, after a few hours of school time, we washed little hands, pulled up some stools, and got out the ingredients. They followed directions well today and there were few messes (hooray!). Derek loved being able to help pour the apple mix into the crust. Alex crimped the crust to perfection and spread the mix while Ethan helped me cut an apple shape into the top crust. The end result was great. The kids were so proud to show off their hard work to daddy this evening and we all enjoyed fresh, homemade apple pie after dinner.
What does baking have to do with learning? A lot, really. Measuring for recipes teaches kids real world math. There isn’t a better way to make fractions relevant than measuring ingredients, at least that I know of. Alex has learned all about fractions in math, and seeing “1/4″ and “1/2″ with her own eyes makes these concepts seem more concrete.
Baking also helps kids practice their organizational skills and following directions. They followed directions when they gathered the proper ingredients and organized them on the counter. They followed directions and practiced patience as we read the recipe and followed one step at a time. Listening skills and team work were also engaged. Precision is important in baking and there aren’t many other places in life where young kids practice precision. For Alex, we also practiced reading comprehension and introduced new vocabulary. There are many words in recipes that we don’t see on a daily basis, like “sift, “egg white,” “baking flour,” etc.
Baking also elicits scientific curiosity. Why exactly do certain ingredients combine to create something great while others do not? What makes biscuits and cake rise? How does heat affect ingredients and cause things to bake?
Kids love baking! They love having jobs and creating things with their own two hands. Kids as young as two can help out by stirring and decorating things with sprinkles. It’s a great time for them to build self-confidence, practice fine motor skills, and learn about math and science. As a parent, I had to learn to let go a bit and realize that things wouldn’t get done exactly how I’d do them myself and accept that messes would be made. This took practice. Today, baking is about learning and bonding. My kids ask to “help” nearly every meal and I try to involve at least one child in the kitchen each time. This can be hard in today’s fast-paced world. Make time for it. Our ancestors bonded over baking and cooking together. These moments may sometimes be frustrating and may often involve a counter and floor sprinkled with flour, but they are the moments memories are made of. There really isn’t a much better way to end a week than with some warm apple pie and a table surrounded by a happy family.
Alex proudly pours in and evens the apple mix
The pie is ready to go in the oven!
Apple Painting Art: Watch Out For Splashing Paint!
Alex and Derek Show Off Their Apple Painting Masterpieces
What is one fun and messy way to enjoy Autumn’s abundance? Cut an apple in half and hand it to a three-year old, along with some poster paper and lots of finger paint. Step back and watch your little Picasso at work. Just watch out for splashing paint!
This project was a ton of fun for my preschooler. He loved mixing up his colors, whacking his apples hard on the paper so that paint would haphazardly spray into the air, and creating lots of interesting shapes. By the time he was done, he had paint everywhere. His hands we covered, the apples were unrecognizable, and there was even paint on his forehead and neck. How it got there beats me. It may have had something to do with flying paint particles.
My kindergartener proclaimed the project “Too Messy” and refused to participate, but my first-grader begged to make her own apple poster. I made her finish her phonics first and we salvaged Derek’s apples by running them under water in the kitchen sink. They were … almost… as good as new.
If you’re looking for a fun fall project for little hands, this one is sure to keep your kids busy!
