Maybe you’re a single homeschooling household. Perhaps your oldest child is a preschooler. Maybe you are questioning whether or not you can homeschool multiple grades? I’m here to tell you can! With a little bit of planning, homeschooling preschool to high school isn’t all that bad! What does a day teaching preschool to high school look like? I’ll let you in on a secret. Our present-day homeschool looks quite different than it did many years ago. As my children reach adulthood and graduate, I’m walking down memory lane, remembering what I needed to do to keep all my ducks in a row, homeschool three children, plus keep the inquisitive toddler alive.
When I had a high schooler, middle schooler, an elementary schooler, and our rambunctious toddler, our days were action-packed! Most days, mornings began differently for each child. The high schooler rises extra early to start his work. This gives him the quiet he needs to work through complex subjects that require a lot of concentration. After his siblings wake up, he joins everyone for breakfast. Once devotions and clean-up are complete, it’s school time for all.
First and foremost, my attention is turned to the youngest. I spend about 30 minutes one-on-one with the toddler. His favorite things to do are to color or build with Duplos. Each of the remaining children has about 30 minutes of one-on-one toddler time in their schedule throughout the day. The elementary child reads to him or plays a variety of blocks, my middle schooler wrestles with him or plays trains and cars, and my high schooler likes to do puzzles with his little brother.
While the oldest is entertaining the “baby,” I do spelling with my middle children. We also go through some geography and copy work. As my middle schooler takes his turn with the youngest, I work on reading and phonics with my elementary schooler. My high schooler has completed math, literature, history, writing, computer science, and martial arts class at the end of the day. My middle schooler has completed math, spelling, grammar, geography and participated in martial arts class. My elementary school has completed math, spelling, handwriting, geography, phonics, and martial arts class. My toddler: played, exercised fine motor skills, interacted positively with parents and siblings, and stayed safe while the rest of the siblings completed their work.
The key to making it all work is flexibility and having things prepared as best as possible. This year, with my oldest working independently, his schedule is a copy of My Father’s World’s weekly plans. I write in the extras onto the family school schedule and include them in his binder. Aside from math, I fill out everyone else’s portion of this schedule once a week. Math is done every day and dependent upon whether or not each child has achieved mastery of a concept. I don’t move them forward until they are ready. I also put out their books the night before, so everything is ready to go the next morning. This has shown to be a very effective way to deal with any morning meltdowns!
Do you teach multiple grade levels?
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