An excellent way to help your homeschool day run smoothly is having a subject that you do with all your students together, at the same time. This may sound chaotic if you have a wide age range spanned in your children, but it has proven beneficial and successful through generations. This method used to work in the one-room school house, and certain aspects of it can still be successful today.
One of the biggest things missing in modern schooling is the opportunity for the older students to help teach the younger students, and for the younger students to encourage broader, more imaginative in their thought process. Homeschooling generally does an amazing job at eliminating these age barriers so that students can learn from each other. Use this theory and take the time each week to have a subject that you teach your children at the same time.
Reading a Book
Reading a book together can help children learn about a collective subject on different emotional and educational levels. This will encourage educational conversations between your children, without them even realizing it. This will also give your family time together each day, or week, doing something they can all enjoy. Use your local library as a resource in this activity. Many times the library will have seasonal books displayed to aid in your decision making. If you need further inspiration, use the Days of the Year calender we featured in an earlier post!
Group Projects
Having your children work on a group project together can make everyone feel important. Some great ideas for this are leaf or flower collections (allow the little ones to collect, and the older ones to research), art projects or even a Home Economics assignment, like baking, can effectively done by all ages together. Depending on the number of children you have, you may even have them work on, and perform an educational play. For instance, with the holidays coming up, you could give them a specific theme, like Thanksgiving, and have them write and perform a play on that theme. The oldest students could write the script and help the younger ones with parts and lines, etc. This way, not only are they reinforcing the subject matter through performance, but again, the older can help teach the younger as well.
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