Teaching Multiple Children at Once

 

 

The average public-school teacher has 1 or 2 grades with only one or two subjects. The lower-grade teachers do teach multiple subjects but will often split the core subjects with her team.

 

Then there are some who teach one-room classrooms.

There are homeschooling families who have various ages and must cover multiple grades.

There are families who have children with a wide span of academic abilities.

 

I experienced all of this.

I also taught co-ops where I had a wide range of ages.

 

For me, I loved teaching in a one-room classroom, covering the basics, but also Bible, life skills, and emergency preparedness.

 

Lesson plans were a challenge, but I loved it.

 

Today, I will share some ideas to help those families who have multiple grades to cover.

 

To begin with, no child is on the same academic level for all the subjects. A child could be ahead in one area and ‘behind’ in another. That’s life.

This is one of the beauties of homeschooling. We can teach each subject at their ability level. Then move on from there.

 

For me, the easiest way to teach multiple grades is to use unit studies. One topic with different requirements for each child, according to their academic ability.

 

Another option would be project-based learning. (This is my favorite.) Each child studies topics according to their interests. They are more apt to go further and stay on task longer. They will often exhibit more interest in hated subjects if it is tied to a liked topic they are studying.

 

There are some families who have ‘packs’ that each child will work on. Reading the material, filling in the blanks. Not only is this an expensive way to teach, but I truly question the retention levels and their ability to transfer this reading/fill in the blank stye of school to real life application. But that’s just my personal professional opinion.

 

I’ve shared one site, Schoolhouse Teachers, where the family can pay a small quarterly fee and have all their children work on the computer at their grade level. I used this website for years as a resource, but I did not have the children work through the site themselves. I used the site for electives.

 

Homeschooling children across the spectrum of grades and abilities can be a challenge, but there are ways to make it work. Hands down, unit studies are probably the easiest to plan with real-life application. PBL offers real-life applications but often takes more parental planning for each child, depending on the child.

 

The main point here is that it CAN be done. Many families are succeeding. Being educated with a group of same-aged peers is not the natural way of learning. It’s not how life operates.

The one-room schoolhouse model is where home education shines.

 

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