This coming school year I will have 4 in school. A kindy, a first grader, sixth grader, and a seventh grader. That is 3 different curr. and it feels a bit overwhelming. I started by making out a grid of what my older kids needed before graduation and then tried to see if I could streamline the younger ones in with the same topic just more age appropriate but it doesnt look possible. The boys are coming up to learning about wars and other things that I dont want the younger ones to know about yet but at the same time I dont know that I could keep up with 3 different curr.
Can your 12 and 10 year old share science and history? I will have a child in K, one in 6th and one in 4th next year. My two older ones share science and history. They have different languange and math books though. My youngest will have all different stuff, obviously. So, it's busy but it does work out. We do science and history at the same time. They both do narration, copywork and spelling to start every morning. Then they do math and language independently. For preK this year...my dd just turned 4 so she didn't do much. HOwever, she did some computer work and I worked with her while the other kids worked independently. You may find you can haver your boys share quite a bit. Your 1st grader will be completely different though. Maybe you could have your older ones take online courses or cd-rom courses like switched on schoolhouse for math and lang to take some pressure off of yourself. Or you can do lifepacs for your dd to take some pressure off. I do suggest organizing and planning out a schedule in advance and have the older ones stick to it...kinda like a syllabus. Maybe that would help??? Ok..I know I contributed nothing..sorry. lol. Hope you get your answer.
I must have written it confusing. The older 2 do the same curr. Next year I will be adding a 1st grader and a kinder. That is where 3 curr came in.
You are using two curriculums for your kindergartner and your first grader? This seems like the easiest to combine, but then again, I don't know what a curric for those two entails because I unschool my younger ones. But the basic social studies and science seem like they should be the same (if you are doing them); my 7.75 yo likes to "teach" her 6 yo bro about what she learns in terms of math, so I'm thinking about combining them as we get bigger.
I would have Collin and Blake do their work together and then have Kimberly and (can't recall the 4 yr olds name, sorry) do their work together. Of course, I would keep math on each individual level. But, you can do Collin and Blake in a different room while the youngers watch Magic School Bus or that Science Kid show on PBS and the baby naps. But much of what my 13 and 14 yr old study do not get discussed out loud a ton when the youngers are around. Mine are 14, 13, 7, and 5 and I am expecting so there is a similar age spread. I would think that what the olders are learning about would not be discussed to a level that the youngers would be exposed to especially sad, angry, etc materials. For example, when we visited Pearl Harbor, the younger children looked over the boats and stuff while the older children read what actually happened and got something completely different out of it.
Loop Scheduling Have you looked into loop scheduling? Here's a post from Audrey, one of the moms on the yahoo group for loop scheduling. I haven't done loop scheduling but I think with several kids of differing ages-it would work well. oops...I'm new here so....I'm not allowed to post links yet ...pm me if you want the link....
Kinder and 1st can be done together very easily since they are both close to the same level. That's what I am doing for the upcoming year. My 4(almost 5)yo and my 6yo basically did Kinder last year though the 4yo still has some difficulty with a few things so this year they will be doing FIAR together and I'll just fill in the gaps for my lo.
Okay, I would first make sure that the younger two worked together on things, just expect a tiny bit more of the older one. Second the other two could work together with History and Science easily! Then you would be close in Math, so test them and see if they are close enough for the younger of the two to move up a level in math, at that age it is possible! The next two years are basic review and slight incline in Math! English too could be worked from the same curric and just a bit of a curve in the levels. you can also choose a curric like SOS for some classes that will take the hard part out of it for you as it teaches, you check the grading to see how accurage it did ( face it computers are falible) and encourage them to find the answers on the pages , show them how too find it and that sort of thing now and again. Very independant yoru older two would love it!
now why didnt I think about using SOS??? *slaps forehead* Up until last year I used a "boxed curr". This year I had great success putting my own together for the older boys but chickened out with doing that for Kindy and bought MFW-K. I did mostly my own thing for Kindy anyway as I thought the TM was confusing. This year I just assumed I would redo kindy phonics with Brandon and at the same go ahead and buy MFW-1 for Kimberly and then try to get my boys on MFW cycle so that I would have all their levels in the end and no longer need to buy curr every year. I am finding that difficult since my older boys need things that the box doesnt provide. The more I think about it I am stressing more over trying to fit into a boxed curr than I am about teaching all 4 of them.
Sos is great at thier ages too. And it works well. One other idea , not sure how finances are for you but MUS or Teachign Textbooks for math are great ideas too. The younger two its basics, Sos math thought gets tedious too much type in this number stuff I think.
I can't help with the older children. But with the youngers I can. If you have to much on your plate make you goal to do math and reading with the youngers and that is it. If they want to hang out and read the history and science with the olders then that is all they need. Kumon has workbooks that are cutting, pasting, numbers etc. My lO's love them they keep them occupied, and helps a ton with the fine motor skills. They also learn some about letters, and numbers in the process ( as a note I do not like the numbers 1-30 or upper case or lower case letters books) They are pretty much self taught, it takes just a second to get them going on it. Your 4yo and possibly your 1yo can do them on their own if you need some time. I think it is a mantra of this site..if the circ. isn't working try sometihng new. Just because you like the way MFW sounds doesn't mean it is what you should use.
I tend to be one of those that doesn't think you need much of a curriculum for K or 1st. If it was me I would work with the K and 1st grader together on subjects such as history/social studies, science, art.......and just work with them individually on reading and math. This way you are really only doing two curriculums but working with each child on their own reading and math level.
You are exactly right. If anyone else wrote this post that would be my advice. The funny thing is I dont really liked boxed curr. I ALWAYS change the lesson plans. I cant figure out why I am getting hung up on it. I guess I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with the idea of teaching 4 kids next year and thought going back to a boxed curr would help. I just need to take a deep breath and chill!!!!
