Teaching Multiple Children
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Younger children learn along with older children.
One morning, I was reading to my son from one of my favorite books, "50 Famous Stories" (containing moral, heroic and historical figures) and after finishing the content, I asked for a narration. My son was reluctantly giving his required narration when my daughter, one year younger and happily playing in the other room, confidently walked into the kitchen and rattled off a stunningly, thorough depiction of what I just read. After picking my jaw up off the floor, I learned a lot from this situation. And, while I might not think they're absorbing what is being taught, they ARE listening.
Provide younger siblings activities of their own.
When I first started homeschooling my son, it was his preschool year and I wanted to flesh out how to go about homeschooling before I legally had to submit an end of year progress statement. Being that my daughter was 3, I thought she'd be satisfied playing nearby. When she expressed interest in learning what her older brother was learning, I worked in some ways for her to be involved. I bought a discounted FAO Schwarz ABC Mat and used its fabric tiles to teach her the ABC's with pictures while using the tiles to build words with her older brother.
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Younger children will require more attention.
Provide younger siblings with their own activities. Don't be afraid of pausing with your older child to meet the needs of your younger one. My Father's World has a great kit for preschoolers (ages 2-3) to give busy little hands something to do. Snacks, play dough, building blocks, foam puzzles also help keep them occupied. Choose your activities wisely; watercolors and paints may require more hands-on time with your littles than you might think. Involve them when you can, distract them when you need concentrated time with your older children.
Accommodate your children's needs.
At the time, Sonlight was offering a free keyboard with purchase of a piano program. While I wanted them both to learn, the application of this was too much for me to implement (they couldn't both use the program at the same time and her hands were too little to reach the keys) So, in flexing my initial plans, I encouraged my daughter to play ABCMouse while her brother learned how to play the piano that year.
Rewrite your notion of schooling
All too often we become mentally constrained will the notion that educating your children has to happen all in one sitting and at your kitchen table. It's your home, your family. We are to lead our children, teaching them throughout the day. A grocery store is a vast world of learning from weighing, sorting, counting, identifying letters, to budgeting, price analysis, cost comparisons, measurements and more! When you use your environment as a place of study, the gas station becomes a teacher of quantities and money (price per gallon) and a restaurant offers us the opportunity to teach fractions (we love pizza!) and percentages (tipping).
Combine activities that you can do together.
Involve younger children in the broader subjects. Subjects like art, music, poetry, nature studies and handicrafts can be done as a family. For example, take a nature walk with your children and discover God's creation together. Let them experience His handiwork in a hands-on way: touching moss, watching ducks swim, etc. Find one tree, flower or bird and learn about it. Simply Charlotte Mason offers some gentle ways to introduce your children to nature. Find a picture of this nature item on the Internet. Read a story about your bird and draw it.
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Separate activities as needed.
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