How can I tackle teaching multiple ages of children?

What if we have multiple ages of children at home? Do we need to teach each child separately all the time? It will be huge commitment and it can be very daunting to crazy busy mums. Good news is that we do not have to.

What we can do is presenting the exact same assignment for all ages of children, always at the age level of the older girls. To teach my two children one is 8 and the other is 4 years old, here is what I did. In order for my youngest to keep up, I would have separated classes at first, and taught him to read and how to spell while the older girl was reading from their own books. This may seem unfair or stressful for younger kid, but in reality they catch on faster than we give them credit for. Sure, my littlest one didn’t grasp everything all the time, so if he had questions he asked. Kids are great at asking questions!  As parents we should be just as eager to answer.

He was able to understand the art, math, science, and any other lessons we were having at the time. Naturally, I would explain it on his level whenever needed or would have him do the same assignment but within his capabilities.

For example, when we did creative writing, the older girl would write a story and illustrate it, but my youngest would just draw pictures or narrate the story to me and I would write it for him.

In the beginning he did need a bit more help and guidance, but I truly feel that by having him keep up with his older sister, it allowed him to excel at a rate that many children – who learns from public childcare or kindergarten only – wouldn’t have.

Fewer Daily Subjects and More Fun

Don’t feel pressured to teach all subjects each day of the week. My kids enjoyed longer sessions of fewer subjects rather than trying to squeeze in 4~5 subjects each day. I often do something like this;

Mon – Math, Science (Animals)

Tue – Geography, Creative writing

Wed – Language, Arts

Thu – Math, Science (Plants)

Fri – Music (piano), Art

You may choose to cover one subject several times a week or only once a week.  If you find that covering a topic only once a week doesn’t work for your children, do it twice a week.

You want to keep things fresh, interesting and relaxed and have lessons with play.

We did each lesson for 20~30 minutes and try to relate subject to be based on play so children do not get bored and have fun while learning.

This worked out well for my family. It will be rare when things are smooth sailing with kids, so staying flexible and trying different strategies are important to running a happy, harmonious teaching at home.