Organizing the Day w/ 6th, 2nd, and Pre-K

[LauraP]

I have three children who are all going to be students this year. My little guy is almost 5yo, so his days are the most light in subject matter, but I plan to have a specific read aloud time for him as well as some letter learning. I'm mostly trying to develop a good routine to balance independent work and teacher directed work with my older kids, in 6th and 2nd grades using primarily MP content. My daughter works through many subjects independently, but still need math instruction, Latin help, and some discussion time for literature and writing work. She moves through a list of other subjects on her own, including cursive copywork, grammar, spelling, independent literature and history reading, and piano practice. My 2nd grade child is on the verge of independently reading, but isn't quite there yet. So his work load is of course less than his 6th grade sibling, in some ways it is also more time consuming. If you have suggestions for a workable routine I'd love your tips!

[CarrieAnne]

Last year, my second grader needed me before he could work independently every day. To protect early story/learning time with the little ones, I sent him to practice piano right after family devotion. That gave me 30 minutes with the Littles before he was looking for directions (even though he had a check list full of them…). I found my older, self-directed child could easily work on a couple subjects, especially math and Latin except new lesson days, before she has any time with Mom. Having a clear lesson plan for her to follow where she knew what to do independently and what needed me empowered her to make progress until later in the morning.

[enbateau]

Last year, I did a lot of toggling between my two. On Monday, it was pretty much only my eldest until after lunch. I needed that first day as a primary teaching day for Latin, math, spelling words, EGR rule explanation, and some time doing the erasable line technique with the poem, timeline date or scripture memory verse of the week. Monday mornings we tended to read our Bible selection at the breakfast table anyway, so the guide was independent work with me checking in later. CC was also a 3-day-a-week "class" with another kid pretty late in the day, but we always looked forward to it. Tuesdays-Thursdays, after prayer and pledge, I prioritized my youngest (K). We usually knocked out our work in 2-ish hours. As needed, my eldest could pop in with a question. I know that's incredibly distracting for most people, but my eldest tended to stop all work if she couldn't move forward. By Friday, I was administering quite a few quizzes and tests, so I would review and give directions and whisk away to work at elbow with my MPK-er. We had dedicated breaks between subjects (after Latin and math, then after spelling and EGR, and between lit and afternoon studies). We would always meet in the kitchen for a snack, and I would run flashcards with my eldest for those subjects. My youngest got a lot of exposure to the different subjects during that time.

[smithamykat]

My kids are different ages than yours, but we have the same challenge of organizing multiple levels. Last year, I would set up my 3 year old with a quiet independent activity after breakfast (Legos, lacing cards, sorting bears, coloring/tracing in a wipe-off activity book, "reading" picture books). My older 4 kids would gather with me for prayer, pledge, hymn, and Bible reading. Then I worked one-on-one with my kindergartener until she was finished, usually 1-1.5 hours. During this time, the older 3 kids (7th, 5th, 3rd) would work mostly independently on math, progressing to spelling, grammar, and handwriting if they finished math. I did take a few minutes to present new concepts to them when needed, and I did take questions from them sometimes, but I mostly reminded them that I needed uninterrupted time to teach kindergarten unless the question was urgent. When kindergarten work was done, my daughter was free to go play with her little brother. They often went outside to play in our fenced yard. Then I turned my attention to the older kids, reviewing what they had completed on their own, correcting where necessary, and teaching/discussing literature and Latin before lunch break. Somewhere in there I would go nurse the baby and lay him down for a nap. It was more of a routine than a schedule, and it didn't work perfectly every day, but it was pretty good. The only thing I will probably change this year is to have my oldest kid go to a different room for math. He always wanted to stay with the rest of us (we have a dedicated homeschool room), but his math sometimes (often?) dragged on for too long because he was totally distracted by the kindergartener reading, reciting, etc. He would rather listen to "Shep and the Pups" read extremely slowly by a 5 year old than solve for x 😂