10 Strategies for Large Family Homeschooling Success
Large family homeschooling presents its own unique set of challenges. It can be tricky to manage homeschooling multiple children of different ages at the same time. Here’s 10 real life strategies for homeschooling in the midst of large family life.
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1. Create a schedule, but be flexible
Most large families who are homeschooling use either a schedule, a routine, or a daily checklist to help each member of the family stay organized and to make sure that everything gets done. There are some key differences between each that will help you know which one is right for your family.
Schedule
Schedules are generally the most rigid way for large families to stay organized. A schedule will include specific times of the day when certain things need to get done. Homeschool schedules can be helpful when you need to make sure that multiple family members are ready to do the same activity at the same time. It can be really challenging for a larger family to stick to a schedule, however. Strict schedules can be discouraging and de-motivating for families who struggle to stick with them.
Routine
Many large families find a good balance of organization and flexibility by creating a routine instead of a schedule. A routine is like a schedule but without the rigidity of needing to do things at specific times. Homeschool families might use a routine to help kids know when it’s time for homeschooling, and even where in the house their homeschool lessons will take place. A routine gives a family flexibility to continue a lesson that the kids are enjoying even past its end time, or to stop early if kids are getting frustrated. Routines are also flexible enough to accommodate the interests or needs of individual children.
Checklist
Some families have found that even the structure of a routine is too much for them, and they prefer to create a checklist instead. They might list the assignments that each child needs to complete, or the tasks the family must get done that day. Then family members can complete the checklist in any order that they like. This system works well for some large families that prefer a bit less structure.
Why do large families need structure?
Whether you choose a schedule, a routine, or a checklist, plans are very important for families who are homeschooling together, and they are more important the larger the family becomes. Routines help kids know what to expect, which helps them to be more secure and confident. Even kids who are too young to tell time can use a routine to help them know what will happen first, next, and later in their day.
Routines are important to homeschoolers because they take away many of the power struggles that can sometimes surround school. If part of a child’s routine is that school happens right after breakfast, they will be much less likely to fight doing their schoolwork when the time comes.
No matter what kind of schedule, routine, or checklist you choose, one of the most important things about homeschooling in a family of any size is that you need to be willing to be flexible. Life happens, plans change, and not everything will go according to the lesson plan every day.
It is also important to spend time observing each child. Are they enjoying the lessons? Are they learning? Is it too hard or too easy for them? Are the lessons structured so that they are learning in the way that they learn best? Take some time on a regular basis to consider these things, and be willing to make changes as needed. You might also ask your kids directly what they think. One of the benefits of homeschooling is that you have the flexibility to make changes to really make education work for each of your children.
Related Post: Use this free printable homeschool attendance sheet to keep track of your routine!
2. Combine homeschool subjects
One of the best ways to make homeschooling more than one child easier is to combine subjects wherever possible. This means choosing a curriculum where more than one child can complete the same lessons at the same time. There are a few reasons why combining subjects makes a lot of sense for large families.
Why should you combine subjects?
It allows you to be more efficient.
When you are teaching more than one child at a time, you will have fewer lessons to teach overall, which makes homeschooling more efficient.
It allows you to go into more depth on each topic.
When you have fewer lessons to teach, you can go into more depth on each one.
It gives your kids an opportunity to work together.
When more than one child is working on the same lesson, kids can work together on projects and lessons. This is a great way for kids to develop relationships with each other, learn important social skills, and even learn from each other as they work together!
How to combine subjects
You have several options when it comes to combining subjects as a large homeschooling family. One is to change the order in which you teach subjects. For example, instead of teaching elementary botany in 1st grade, zoology in 2nd grade, and astronomy in 3rd grade, you could teach these subjects in a 3 year rotation to all your children in that age range together. In this example, all 1st-3rd graders would learn botany in the first year, regardless of their grade. Then they would all learn zoology in the second year and astronomy in the third year.
Another option is to start with the same basic curriculum for multiple children, and adapt it to fit a variety of ages. If your whole family is studying American history, for example, you might choose a history textbook to read together as a family. After listening to the textbook lesson, your youngest children might be finished with their lessons. Older children might have additional projects, papers, or books about that topic assigned to them depending on their age and ability level.
The idea of combining subjects often works especially well for subjects like science or history where kids are studying a variety of different topics. Fine art subjects and elective classes can also provide ample opportunities to combine subjects. However, subjects like math and reading that are focused on building individual skill in the topic area are usually better taught one on one, unless multiple children are at the same skill level.
3. Choose a curriculum that is designed for large family homeschooling
Many homeschool curricula offer adaptations and suggestions for using the curriculum with multiple children of different ages. Here are a few examples of curricula that work especially well for homeschooling kids of multiple ages using the same lessons:
Berean Elementary Science in History by Jay Wile
This curriculum is designed for a wide range of elementary school aged kids. Each lesson ends with a section of review questions and activities, and they are divided up into 3 sections, labeled “youngest students,” “Older students,” and “Oldest students.” The “Youngest students” section includes 2 simple comprehension questions that could be answered verbally after listening to the lesson. The older and oldest students have written assignments to complete in a science notebook. Large families could read the lesson together, and then each child could complete the review questions or assignment that is most appropriate for their ability level.
The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer
This curriculum includes 4 volumes of books that tell the story of world history from ancient times to the modern age. For large family homeschooling, these books can be read once every 4 years on a loop. Kids can begin to listen when their attention spans permit, no matter where in the loop the family is. They will eventually cycle back to the beginning to learn about early history again.
Schoolhouseteachers.com
This online resource is a fantastic fit for large families because it includes curriculum options for kids from preschool all the way through high school. It also includes a number of elective classes that could be taught to kids of multiple different ages at the same time!
4. Look for opportunities for hands on learning and homeschool group projects
How can your kids learn about this topic together, using real life scenarios? If you are studying budgeting, can your kids create a small business at home and run it together? Younger kids can practice counting money and making change while older kids explore concepts in economics like supply and demand, for example. Group projects give kids of multiple ages the opportunity to learn and contribute at their own ability levels. Group projects also give kids the opportunity to learn from each other, and to practice social skills and develop relationships as they learn to work together as a team.
5. Start Your Day Together as a Family
When homeschooling multiple kids of different ages, it helps to start the day by doing something together as a group. Some families call this “morning time.” This simple concept comes from Pam Barnhill. Choose some lessons that the whole family can do together as a group, regardless of the age or ability level of your children, and start with those lessons first. Morning time is a great time to fit in art or music studies, read a poem or read aloud book, or do a nature study. Morning time is also the perfect time to do a Bible study or memorize verses together.
Spending the first part of your day together will help you to remember that even though you go different directions and do different things all day, you are schooling together as a family. This is a great time to focus on family relationships and to remember the things that draw your family together. This can also be a great time to check in with older kids to make sure that they understand assignments and to share information that the whole family will need to know for their day.
How to Get Started with Morning Time
A great time to do this morning time is while your children are eating breakfast. Especially if you have younger children, breakfast time is a great opportunity to get some focused lessons completed. Kids will already be seated at the table, and they will have something to eat- which will help them stay focused and quiet during the lesson. This year I started getting out all the things I needed to read to my kids as part of our lessons and doing all the reading during breakfast. I found that my kids were able to pay attention to what they were learning much better. We were able to read more, with fewer distractions from the 2 year old. And, even the 2 year old listened to some of what was being read (and even remembered a bit of it!)
6. Teach Your Kids to Learn Independently
It is really important that your kids learn how to learn on their own. Not only is this an important life skill, it is absolutely critical to large family homeschooling. Even with just 2 kids, you will not be able to sit next to every child for every minute of learning that they ever do. So, it is critical to start early with teaching kids how to learn for themselves. This includes:
Working independently
The best way to teach this is with practice. Make sure your child has at least one subject with regular assignments that they can complete on their own. Set your child up with everything they need to complete the assignment, and make sure they understand what they will need to do. Then, walk away. Check back in at regular intervals to make sure things are going well. At first, the interval will be really short- maybe only 30 seconds for a preschool or kindergarten aged student. Over time, and as your child matures, you can leave them to work independently for increasingly longer stretches of time.
Having good work ethic
Make sure that from the beginning, you are teaching your child how to focus on their work while they are working, and to do their best work on their assignments. Teaching focus works best with short lessons. By keeping the lessons short (no more than 2-5 minutes per year of the child’s age) you give them the opportunity to complete the whole lesson before they get distracted and their mind starts to wander. In addition, it is important to make sure they don’t feel overwhelmed by the amount of work and tempted to cut corners with quality to get it all done.
Enjoying learning
As much as possible, it is critical to make homeschooling fun so that kids are enjoying learning. How can you add more child-directed learning to your homeschool? Can you give your kids freedom to explore topics they are interested in, rather than having everything be dictated by the textbooks and worksheets? Or maybe you can take your kids to the library to pick out reading books they would enjoy? Or leverage a topic they are interested in to create challenges they would like to do?
Example
My favorite example of this is “garbage truck math.” My son went through a period where he was obsessed with garbage trucks. The day the truck came through our neighborhood to pick up the trash was like a national holiday- and it happened every week! My son wanted to read all the books about garbage trucks, but I wanted to introduce the concept of addition. So, we got out 2 toy trash cans. We put some pretend trash in each can, and then I had him dump both cans into his toy trash truck, and count the resulting pile. He loved this game- and I loved that he was learning about addition in the process!
It is crucial that you teach your kids to learn independently, because when they can do so, you can work with a sibling one on one. This will allow you to concentrate on spending quality time with each child, rather than running around putting out fires when kids can’t work independently.
7. Take Advantage of Homeschooling Technology
Technology can be a great resource for large family homeschooling. Often, technology can be used to help even younger kids learn independently for a period of time. This can be particularly useful when you would like to have some one on one time to work with a particular child, but need something educational for the other children to do. There are a variety of resources available to help with this:
Educational Apps
Consider downloading one or more educational apps to a phone or tablet that your children can use as part of their school time. Look for apps that reinforce skills that your kids are learning in your regular homeschool curriculum. Kids learn best when they hear the same information repeated multiple times in different ways, and apps can be a great way to reinforce information over and over again. It is helpful to spend some time in advance making sure that the apps are easy to use and are set up for each child. You should also make sure that parental controls are set up on devices that your kids will be using- although you should still keep an eye on what kids are doing any time they are using technology.
Related Post: How to Use ABCMouse Free for Homeschool
YouTube videos
YouTube is a fantastic resource for homeschoolers! There are a wide variety of videos available that explain tricky concepts, teach new lessons, and allow kids to explore new information in a fun and engaging way. I have put together a huge list of 135+ of our favorite YouTube channels for homeschoolers that will be a great starting point. Make sure that you preview any videos that your child will be watching in advance.
Podcasts
There are a wide variety of podcasts that are created specifically for kids. Finding a few podcasts that your kids enjoy can be a great way for them to continue the learning even when you are not available to help them directly.
8. Outsource some of the teaching
Parents who are struggling with large family homeschooling might consider finding other resources to help with some of the teaching. There are many resources available which include:
Video textbooks
Curricula like Teaching Textbooks come with video lessons so that kids can watch the lectures and complete the lessons independently. This is a great solution for older kids who are studying complex subjects that would require a lot of preparation to be able to teach.
Homeschool co-ops
Large families might consider joining a homeschool group or co-op to help with the burden of teaching all the classes. Homeschool co-ops provide a variety of classes that homeschoolers can take. The co-op might pay for a teacher for the class, or the classes might be taught by a parent in the co-op who has expertise in the subject area. This is a great way for parents to be able to teach classes in subjects they enjoy, while taking advantage of the expertise of others. This is also a great way to share the load of teaching with other families. A great place to find a co-op is through your state or local homeschool organization.
Community classes
With a little creativity, there are many opportunities for classes for homeschoolers. Can your child join a local sports team or league? Take classes at a local library, museum, or zoo? There are often a wealth of resources for homeschoolers within the local community. In addition to being a fun supplement to other homeschool curriculum at home, these classes may also provide an opportunity to build relationships with other homeschoolers and practice social skills as well.
9. Take Advantage of Nap Time
Kids of different ages tend to have very different sleep schedules, and this can be used to help make sure everyone gets some focused homeschool time. Nap time for smaller children can be a great opportunity for some one on one time with the older kids. This can also work in reverse first thing in the morning. Since younger kids tend to wake up much earlier and older kids often like to sleep in, many large families have found that it works well to do homeschool for the youngest kids first thing in the morning, while the older kids are still asleep.
A note about this one though: it is perfectly OK not to use this strategy. Many homeschool moms (myself included) take advantage of naptime as an opportunity to get other things done, or even to take a short break. It is fine to make the intentional choice not to use naptime for homeschool at all, if it is more important to do other things during that time.
10. Have a Backup Plan when Large Family Homeschooling Goes Wrong
Sometimes, there are days where nothing goes right. Maybe the baby is sick. Or the dishwasher just broke and the repair person is on the way. Or for whatever reason, life is happening. For these kinds of days, it is critical to have a backup plan in place. The backup plan could be a choice not to do school on that day. But it is also helpful to have some other ideas available to pull out at a moment’s notice.
Maybe there is a longer documentary that would supplement what you are learning about in one of your subjects that your kids could watch. Or maybe the older kids could take turns reading books to the younger ones. Or maybe everyone could go outside to do a scavenger hunt in the backyard. It helps to make several different plans of varying complexity. Gather all the supplies that you will need to complete each of these activities and put it somewhere, just in case. Because that day is coming, and you will definitely thank yourself when it does!
Implementing one or more of these strategies will help you find success in homeschooling multiple children, and kids of different ages. With a little planning and creativity you can find large family homeschooling success!
A great tool that can be very helpful for large family homeschooling is homeschool workboxes. Check out my post on how to use those in your homeschool!
