Charlotte Mason Homeschooling, Part 2: Multiple Ages

This is the second in a three part series of Charlotte Mason Homeschooling. These are the other posts:

Day 1: The Early Years
Day 2: Multiple Ages
Day 3: Enrichment Studies

Most homeschooling families have more than one child, and some have quite a few! I have five children, which seems like a lot at times and not enough at others! Homeschooling multiple children of multiple ages can be tricky. Having to juggle three, four, five, or even six different curriculums would be, in my opinion, impossible. I much prefer, as do many families, to have Family Learning for many of core subjects.

How can you homeschool five kids with a ten year age gap? How can a 13 year old learn alongside a 5 year old? Won't one of them suffer? How is this possible? These are questions I have been asked, and questions I have asked myself at times!

The core subjects that are most easily combinable are history, geography, science, Bible, and enrichment studies {artist, composer, and poetry studies}. Math and grammar will have to be done individually at each child's grade level. However, the core subjects I listed above are very easy to adapt to fit each child's level, while everyone is learning the same thing.

We use BiblioPlan for history and geography. It is written for grades Kindergarten through 12th grade. Of course, my older children understand and remember more, but my younger children do remember key events and people, learn mapping skills, and enjoy creating projects from the time periods we are studying. Here is a post where I explain how we use BiblioPlan for multiple ages.

We are using Christian Kids Explore for Science. It is written for grades Kindergarten through 6th grade, but is very easy to adapt to older children. Simply add more literature, more research, or more experiments.

Here are some things to keep in mind when homeschooling multiple ages with one curriculum:

• Notebooking! This is a wonderful tool that any age can participate in. I simply give a few guidelines for my children's notebook page {a topic or theme} and they create their own pages. My 5 year old may draw a picture and write a word or two, while my 13 year old creates wonderfully illustrated and fact-filled notebook pages. You can also print notebooking pages from sites like, Notebooking.com.
• Mapping! I make copies of the same map for all 5 of my children. My youngest two don't really know what they're doing, but they are learning to follow directions, mapping skills, and pre-writing skills.
• Literature! Buy or borrow a few living, picture books for your younger children that correspond with the same time period or science topic. This will help them understand what you're talking about and creating interest.
• Family projects! Instead of creating 4 or 5 paper crafts each week {that will no doubt be thrown away}, work on a family project from the time period you're studying {or the science topics}. That way, your children will learn teamwork and will work on something that will be useful and kept for many years to come.
• Keep little hands busy! Allow your little ones to play quietly with play-dough or color a picture while you are reading longer passages. Their minds will be listening to you, but their hands will be busy and their mouths will be quiet.
• Narrations! Allow each child to give a narration from different literature or passages read, adjusting expectations for their ages.

I hope these tips have helped you! Check back here tomorrow for some tips on Charlotte Mason Enrichment Studies.

Read some more posts from participating Crew members for more tips for homeschooling parents!

Dawn @ Double O Farms

Dawn @ Guiding Light Homeschool

Debbie @ Debbie's Homeschool Corner

Desiree @ Our Homeschool Notebook

Diana @ Busy Homeschool Days

Diana @ Homeschool Review

Elyse @ Oiralinde: Eternal Song

Emilee @ Pea of Sweetness

Erin @ For Him and My Family

Jen @ Chestnut Grove Academy

Week in Review: Feb. 22 - 26, 2016

We had completed this week of homeschool in North Carolina! We are still trying to get used to a new area - find libraries, grocery stores, parks, and fun stuff. We did an entire week of school though. I always find it easier to do school when we are not "home" {Louisiana}. So many people and activities vie for our time and attention, and it really distracts us. When we are away from "home", it seems we complete much more in school and have more down time.

We finished Week 4 in BiblioPlan: Ancients this week. I cannot tell you enough how perfect this has been for our family so far. Being able to include everyone at their own skill level is just wonderful. We learned about Abraham this week. We read about him in the Bible each morning, and then we read from other sources - Story of the World; the BiblioPlan Companion; and Journey Through the Bible. We had some good discussion, and although we have read this story many times, we learned some new things. For instance, Abraham's father, Terah, worshipped idols and was probably an idol-maker {according to Jewish tradition and other historical writings}. Sarai was even named for a false god! We also learned that Ishmael is credited with being the father of Islam {which I already knew, but the kids didn't}.

The kids made a notebook page on Tuesday about Abraham. I don't give them any instructions; I only give them the topic or theme. I asked them to make a notebook page about Abraham with some interesting facts. That was it. I am including a picture of all 4 of their notebook pages to show how different they all are and how all ages can participate.

{Top Left- Silas, age 5; Top Right - Mercie, age 8;

Bottom Left - Eli, age 10; Bottom Right- Mikaela, age 13}

We had a creative writing or copy-work assignment on Wednesday. Mikaela had to pretend she was a news reporter, reporting on the birth of Isaac. Eli and Mercie did copy-work from the different reading materials.

{Mercie's copywork  - The Abrahamic Covenant}

On Thursday, we worked on our map, mapping Abraham's journeys. Even Titus wants his own map to color, and he does a pretty darn good job. I am glad that even my Kindergartner and 2nd grader are getting mapping practice, even if they don't quite understand. We also added to our timelines.

{Eli's map and Mikaela's timeline}

We did not do science this week, as we are waiting on a new curriculum to come in. It's Christian Kids Explore Biology, and everyone will be participating in this! I am so excited to incorporate family-learning again, and I would love to have as many subjects as possible be completed together. So far, it's Bible, History/Geography, and now Science.

Mikaela worked in Principals of Mathematics and Easy Grammar each day. She is still reading and journaling through "It Couldn't Just Happen!" She and Eli started a new review product on Thursday - literature guides from Memoria Press. She is reading "Door in the Wall", and he is reading "Robin Hood".

Eli is reading and working through Life Of Fred's "Fractions" book. It is very easy for him, and he breezing through it. He and I work a lesson a day in Rod and Staff for grammar, and we do most of it orally.

Mercie has been working on multiplication and division in Singapore math. I also ordered the "Littlest Math Book" from The Thinking Tree for her to use, and she loves it. It starts out pretty simple, with addition and subtraction facts, but she has completed nearly half of it! She is also working through Rod and Staff grammar orally, and she completes a page in her Fun-Schooling Spelling Journal and her cursive workbook daily.

We are reviewing a phonics curriculum with Silas that we are both loving. It's Foundations A from the Logic of English. It's a multi-sensory approach to phonics that is absolutely working for him. I am so excited and so pleased with it! He is also working through Math U See Primer.

We had a pretty quiet week this week, and I enjoyed it! How was your week?

Gentle Homeschool

 

Gentle homeschooling. Those two words comfort me, intrigue me, motivate me, and inspire me. Doesn't it sound perfect? Are the two compatible?

 

gentle: mild in temperament or behavior; kind or tender; not harsh or severe

 

homeschool: the education of children at home by their parents

 

So the very definition of gentle homeschool  is educating your children at home in a kind and tender way, without being harsh or severe.

 

 

I feel like I am leaning more and more into a gentle style of homeschooling. The longer I homeschool, the more I realize that our children don't need to be {and shouldn't be} pushed into learning, forced to sit at the table for hours on end when it's beautiful weather outside, bored to tears as they read another textbook and answer yes or no questions. Homeschooling is not supposed to be stressful, with mom yelling at the kids and scrambling to get everything done. Homeschool is not supposed to look like public school - kids lined up in desks, raising their hands to ask questions, keeping their mouths shut all day, not allowed to fidget and move around, learning what they are "supposed" to learn, and not what they desire to learn.

 

Homeschool is supposed to be a comfortable, relaxed, gentle way of learning.

 

 

 I see gentle homeschooling as lots of reading aloud together, snuggling on the couch or sitting beside each other. I see gentle homeschooling as nature study together - walking in the woods, examining flowers and leaves, butterflies and bumblebees. I see gentle homeschooling as playing games together - go-fish to learn letters or Monopoly to practice math. I see gentle homeschooling as talking with your children, discussing history and science, math and grammar. I see gentle homeschooling as letting your child set their own pace, not pushing them to learn to read or rushing them to memorize their times tables. I see gentle homeschooling as creating together - painting pictures of the trees in your backyard or sculpting play-dough animals with your young child. I see gentle homeschooling as involving your children in the household duties - cooking and baking, laundry and dusting. I see gentle homeschooling as lying on a quilt outside, watching the clouds move and listening to the birds chirp. I see gentle homeschooling as demonstrations and experiments that will make your child smile and learn at the same time. I see gentle homeschool as hands-on - using pattern blocks, and puzzles, and beans, and counting cubes, and play-dough, and real coins.

 

 

 

I also see gentle homeschooling as family learning - children of all ages, even mom and dad, learning about history, the Bible, science, and geography together. These subjects are easily adaptable for all ages! The whole family gathered around the table, listening to mom read a story, looking up vocabulary words together, creating notebook pages, and encouraging each other in their education - that is gentle, family homeschooling.

 

 

How do you define gentle homeschool?

 

 



Multi-Age Learning: Why We Love It

With 5 children ranging in ages from 13 to 3, homeschooling can be time-consuming and frustrating. If I am juggling 4 different grade levels and curriculum choices, I will quickly get burnt out. Here is my quick story:

I tried separating my children by grade level for every subject this year - and it didn't work very well. I swapped some curriculum, but still tried to keep them separate, and it still didn't work. I felt like we were disconnected - we were all headed in different directions each morning and never met back up in a central location. I couldn't keep up with what my 7th grader was learning in history and science because I was too busy reading history to my 2nd grader. We were all on different pages; heck, we were in different books!

I prayed about it, and I felt like the Lord was leading me back to multi-age learning. I was kind of skeptical - after all, how can I teach a 7th grader and a non-reading Kindergartener at the same time? Was there even a curriculum that reached this age level? Would one of them suffer, or all of them? And, weren't 7th graders supposed to be independent?

Then I remembered that we have always done it the multi-age way. We used Apologia science one year, Mystery of History one year, My Father's World one year, and then I just wrote my own curriculum to reach the different age gaps. {That was time-consuming.} We read books together, did nature study together, made lapbooks together, learned scripture together. And, I remembered that it worked. All of the children learned and thrived. We were all united in our learning; we helped each other. We had fun. I felt more relaxed and wasn't being pulled in so many different directions. I was learning right along with the children because I was the teacher as opposed to teachers.

After contemplating how our year had gone this year as opposed to previous years, I decided that multi-age learning is what works for our family. I researched some different curriculum, and thanks to a sweet lady on the Crew, found BiblioPlan. I had never heard of them before! I downloaded the first three weeks for free and liked what I saw. We put away our other history textbooks, and since I already had the spines needed to compliment BiblioPlan, I decided to start right away. And after the third day of using it, I ordered the physical copy!

It works for our family. We all sit down at the table right after breakfast together. I read aloud from the Bible, the BiblioPlan Companion, the Story of the World, and other history books. We complete assignments together based on skill. The older ones may have a creative writing assignment while the younger ones do copy-work. The younger ones may draw a picture while the older define vocabulary words. We all do notebooking pages, memorization, discussion, and we all have a good time together. Afterward, we do our nature study journals together; even I have my own! We draw diagrams of trees and leaves, and talk about pollination of flowers, and laugh and giggle while we draw. When we are through with nature study journaling, we disperse to complete grammar and math, cursive and Bible study. I work with my 5 year old on phonics and math, and I play with my 3 year old.

And you know what? We are all learning; we are all thriving. Our day flows much better, and we connected on a deeper level. We can discuss what we are learning throughout the day, and nobody feels left out. We can work on projects together, and the kids can help each other with difficult assignments. I have more time to devote to history and science when I am only preparing for and teaching one lesson plan. We can have great discussions and research the answers to tougher questions together. Most of all, I love having all of my children at the table, together, learning. reading, living, connecting.

Multi-age learning works for us, and we will not turn back.