I can't imagine how stressful the current shutdowns of society would have been to our family had it happened any other year when we both worked outside of the home. I know that many families are struggling so much right now, with worry over income, their family's health, and childcare each day. Amid all this I am hyper aware that we have it easy, because I was already homeschooling. The main difference for us was that now I have a preschooler as well as a fourth grader at home.
The idea of doing homeschool with multiple kids and ages has always boggled my mind. I put some serious thought into our first day, which was yesterday. I didn't want W to lose focus or get grumpy because his little sister was playing or making noise (as preschoolers do). I didn't want either of them to feel I was ignoring them. I wasn't ready to give all the things W had been working on a 3-week (?) hiatus. I wanted them both to keep learning in ways that were meaningful for them. I knew the schedule W and I had been mostly following that had been working for us needed to be overhauled but didn't know what the new routine should be.
I may make a new schedule-- because it helps us around here, let me tell you-- but for now, I just set aside the old one and started over with just some guiding principles that I figured we could work from:
- Find the things we can all do together.
- Make time to give each kid one-on-one time with me individually.
- Teach them to be independent with certain things.
I listed for W all the things he could do independently and went over those with him in the morning and let him pick what order he did them in.
He did some math practice, sorted this week's new spelling words and copied them down in his notebook, and made a web of notes about the culture of the region of the U.S. he is currently studying using a National Geographic kids' atlas to help him.
Meanwhile M was delighted to do "preschool stuff" with me in the next room...
I read her a story (Puppy Mudge Takes a Bath) and asked her to retell it to me. I helped her work her way through a favorite basic and very phonetic story book that she likes to try to read (Mac and Tab). We played several card games using some tens-grid cards I had (simple deck of cards with numbers from 1 to 10 only and the corresponding number of dots on each card). First I just gave her a mixed-up stack of 1 - 10 and asked her to put them in order in front of her. Next we played three rounds of "Trash," a number-ordering game that is simple and perfect for young kids-- my own first-grade teacher recently reminded me of this game! M won every time. Then I gave her the whole deck and let her sort all the numbers out into piles and had her identify each pile. After all the card games, she started a color-by-number picture and worked on recognizing the numbers and colors for each space she colored.
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| Winning smile |
About this time, W came to me with a question and then they both ended up at the living room coffee table, doing their own projects companionably.
After lunch, M rested while W and I talked over the spelling rules for his new word list, then we had writing time during which I guided him through hashing out a plan for a thesis statement and supporting reasons for an essay he's planning. He also reviewed the Bill of Rights and the UN Declaration of Human Rights we'd recently learned about and chose the five rights he thought were most important that he would want if he were starting his own country and he wrote them down and explained his choices.
Later, we had a snack, and went outside, where we checked our two sap buckets, played wiffle ball, and the kids dug in the newly-visible sandbox and tossed the football around.
When we came in, M practiced violin with me while W read his current historical fiction novel. Then M colored at the counter while I started dinner. W put on his headphones, popped some gum in his mouth, and listened to Pandora ("Classical for Studying Radio") while he worked on typing up a little more of his most recent finished writing piece. He was pleased with his words-per-minute rate when he calculated it, as he always likes to do.
I'm here to say at the end of the day that our first day of homeschool for everybody felt full and good. Maybe it was pure luck, but we have several weeks ahead of us to tweak our routine.
Each night this week I've made a list for the next day and each next-day list is quicker to make. I listed out priorities for each kid independently and priorities for each kid to do with my help or teaching, and I also listed out a few things that I think we can do and learn together, even at our very different ages.
I had thought my kids are so far apart in age that it would be really hard to homeschool them at the same time. Yet I was aware that many families homeschool multiple kids and find a way. The exact rhythm W and I have developed this year had to change a bit. But the new rhythm, if it can be called that yet, is good. I feel like they each learned, they each had fun, they each had some attention from me and some time being independent, and they had more time playing together and being cooperative with one another than any typical day (being isolated at home may have some benefits for siblings, up to a point...). I feel very lucky that I get to spend each day with them. Each day will have its challenges and be an adventure right now, for every family I'm sure. I think maybe we can all use some ideas and stories from one another.* Please share yours!
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*List of Ideas and Resources for Sudden Homeschoolers
I've seen online over the last couple of days so many ideas of engaging, educational things parents are making up or finding for their kids to do. We'd been homeschooling a 9-year-old for six months already, so he had no shortage of things to do at home. But, I suddenly needed ideas for preschooler, as well as ideas for multiple ages to do together. So, like everybody else, things changed for us and we needed some new ideas too this week. Here are some fun things we already enjoyed or have come across in the last two days (or things that have come into existence within the last couple of days, thanks to some generous sources). NOT on this list are the curricula we use systematically or anything that requires planning or costs money. This is the fun and easy-to-access stuff if you need ideas of what to do to fill in the gaps.
Multiple ages/things to do all together:
Mystery Science is always awesome, but the company was extra amazing this week by gathering all their lessons that are easiest to do at home into one place and making them available for free without an account.
Art for Kids Hub-- fun step-by-step drawing lessons for all sorts of things (Star Wars characters, pugs, George Washington, a birthday cake, you name it...)
Story of Painting art history half-hour videos on YouTube
Games
Go outside
Cook-- we made doughnuts today for the first time for my kids
Learn a dance online with YouTube-- do your kids know oldies like the Chicken Dance?
Mo Willems Lunch Doodles-- the artist is doing a half-hour live session every day for the next few weeks where he chats, shows you around his studio, and draws with you every day at 1 P.M. (or available to watch anytime afterward)
Listen to an astronaut read aloud a book from space! We listened to Rosie Revere and loved watching astronaut Kate Rubins float around a bit with her ponytail stick up in the air!
Animal cams-- fascinating
Virtual tours of museums. Also, this that we haven't checked it out yet.
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History virtual tours
New England Aquarium virtual visits and live presentations
Core Knowledge social studies-- basically a free social studies textbook. You can download for free the student reader for different units on all sorts of topics for any grade and kids can read chapters on their own or with you. The teacher's guide you can also download for free has good discussion and comprehension questions you can ask.
KiwiCo resource hub has hands-on science activities that you can usually do with things you have on hand. Some of these projects are a lot of fun. You can browse activities by age or theme.
Especially for Preschoolers/Young Kids:
Read to them
Read to them and then ask them to retell the story to you (they're allowed to look back through it to tell it-- that's the point)
Have them practice reading to you super simple repetitive books (think Brown Bear, Brown Bear) or short phonetic books like Bob books or Primary Phonics
Go outside
Draw-- Young Rembrandts drawing lessons are fun if you need inspiration. The Mo Willems lesson on drawing the pigeon was a hit today
Card games-- Trash, Go Fish, put numbers in order, put numbers in backwards order
Color and Shape Bingo
Color-by-number pictures
Sort household items-- beads shapes, washcloth colors, types of writing implements, silverware in the utensil drawer...
Letter games (memory games, find something that starts with___, what letter says /a/...)
Especially for Older Kids/Upper Elementary
Ducksters has informational pages on lots of history, science, and geography topics, such as the Bill of Rights. You can even scroll to the bottom of the page and click "play" and have the page read to you. There is also a 10-question online quiz that goes with it that kids can take after reading/listening.
Liberty's Kids-- about 40 half-hour animated episodes available on YouTube featuring lots of famous voices like Walter Cronkite as Ben Franklin, Sylvester Stallone as Paul Revere, and Billy Crystal as John Adams. My son loves these. They chronicle the American Revolution and founding of the nation.
Aerial America from the Smithsonian Channel-- a 45-minute episode showing aerial footage for each state with narration on important places and history. You can get a free 30-day trial of this channel through Amazon Prime which is how we watched several episodes.
You are incredible! I wanted to take a nap after reading how busy your days are now. Thank for all the resources, too. Very useful.
ReplyDeleteStay well!
Julia
Thanks, Julia! Stay well, too!
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