Homeschooling parents, how do you do it...?

Question

Hello everyone, I have a few questions adressed to parents who homeschool their children.

How do you do to teach all your children the same day when they don't have the same age? And eventually take care of the baby in the same time? (ex : 4 children of 2 4 7 8 10 years old)

How do you do to clean your house, do the laundry, going to the grocery store, cook, put all your kids at their afternoon activities AND homeschool them.

After doing all these tasks, how do you find time to do things for you (maybe a yoga class, art class, some shopping and having a cup of coffee with friends...) and for your couple (having s*x, going out to a nice restaurant etc)

I'm asking this question because my boyfriend would like me to homeschool the 4/5 kids he wants while he's away for work (he works sometime from home and most of the time he's in another state working, but he could manage to be home from fridays to sunday mornings to help me...)

I'd really love to please him but this idea seems completely beyond possibilities.

So people, if yould give me a detailed answer so I understand how people do that! That would help a lot!

Answer 1

well I'm not a mom but i was home schooled along with my brother for 4 years. home schooling is something that you make the schedule for. you can have the older kids wake up earlier and work with them on the subjects they need help with and then have them work on something by themselves while you help the younger kids in their tough subjects then maybe do arts/crafts and music all together, if you keep it structured you can get it all done and still have the afternoon/evenings/nights to work on house hold things. i mean you can do music on the way to the grocery store with your kids, have them sing along with a tape in the car, or work on math at the grocery store adding up costs and things... just get creative with things; it will be difficult at first but you just have to get a system and routine going and you'll be fine. or you can do a whole week of math on Mondays with all your kids and whole weeks worth or English on Tuesdays and so on just so all your kids can be working on the same subjects all at once that might be easier as well.

hope this helps

good luck

Answer 2

First of all, you need to get out of your head that you need to spend your child's entire math time teaching him or her. Let's say you've decided your 10yo needs to spend 45 minutes a day on math. Well, your 7 and 8yo can also be doing math at the same time. You can show them all a little lesson and extend it to something more difficult for the 10yo, or you can give 2 of the kids something easy to start off with, give a little lesson to the other one, then pick one of the other two to give a lesson to. You do not need to be spending 45 minutes teaching the 10yo math. Most of the lesson is practice, practice, practice.

Some people choose a different route--pick one child they need to work with and make a schedule where the other children are doing something they need minimal or no help with. Then when the time's up, mom moves onto another child while the first child has something he can do on his own.

Other parents just do it all at once--everybody does the same history topic, for example, mom just expects different work from each of them.

Some families unschool or have a relaxed style and the kids direct their schooling more.

Honestly, if that Duggar family can homeschool with 17 kids, I'm sure you'll be able to figure out a way to make it work once you hit that stage. :)

Cleaning the house, laundry, groceries, etc., can all have their time. You don't need to be homeschooling formally the entire day. 3-4 hours is lots. Plus, able bodied kids at home can help out and have their own routines in terms of helping with laundry, cooking, etc.

Do you think homeschooled kids have afternoon activities every day? No need. Plenty of homeschooling parents would go insane. As for hanging out with friends, if you're active with other homeschoolers you'll likely find that homeschooling mothers would become your primary friends for socializing and you'd hang out with them at playdates, park days or other homeschooling activities.

The idea is not at all impossible. And you are far away from even having to worry about it. :)

Answer 3

I've only got the one child but several of the families I know have multiple kids who they home educate, a couple of them with new babies. I don't know exactly how they do it, but they manage. I'm told that kids of different ages manage to do project work together, the younger ones often keen to do what big brother is doing, just not at the same level, like the older one is writing while the little one scribbles with crayons and pretends he's writing too :-) Of course in reality you're not suddenly stuck with 4 kids, they come one at a time and you adjust your life around them.

'Me time' gets to be harder to come by, but that's the price of being a parent. You can't 'have it all', that's a myth and a lie. Better to accept that those things will have to go on hold until your youngest is old enough to be left home for a few hours. But don't worry, they'll be grown up and left home before you know it and then you'll be taking those art classes and doing yoga to fill the gap they've left in your life.

Anyway, if you're looking at  having four kids then even if you sent them all to school you'd have got used to no time to yourself for a good 10 years anyway.

The occasional couple time needs someone to baby sit, but that's not different to any parents.

Answer 4

I can't really answer this one because my mother is a single parent and I am the only one she is homeschooling. My brothers moved out already and I'm nearly eighteen, so I work mostly independently, giving her lots of time for all the things you listed above. I do know that there are families with as many as nine or ten kids who homeschool, and if they had that many you can bet they found time for s*x. But I'm not sure how they do it, so I'll be watching this one for answers as well.

Answer 5

Some days I don't.  The house is messy a lot of the time, but we all pitch in and clean it on weekends.  A friend of mine with 9 kids and a farm and a hubby with an outside job gave me the tip that you teach to the oldest child for some subjects and just scale them down to the younger .  I do math separately and everyone has their own spelling list and reading assignments, but we all talk about parts of speech and grammar, and we do a language and music together.  It is what you make it.  One of the other people above mentioned ways to work learning into everyday life, and that is really important.  While you are teaching, you are also delegating.  A 10 year old can cook a simple meal, or prep vegetables for a meal.  A 7 yo can set a table and help with dishes.  a 5 yo can sweep a floor, or help baby pick up toys for the night.  It all works out, and I think it is really healthy for a family to learn to cooperate to accomplish these tasks.  My 10 yo throws a load of laundry in the washer every morning, then he brings a basket of clean laundry to the living room where his 5 and 7 yo sisters fold it and carry everyone's stack to their bed.  Everyone is in charge of putting their own laundry away.   When the 12 yo was working on fractions, we asked him to double recipes or figure out lengths of wood for a project.

As for time for yourself, well, that is a little scarce around here, so I take it whenever (an early morning walk, a late night bath, grocery shopping alone on weekends while hubby watches the kids)  part of being a mom is focusing on the children while they are little and any mom of older children will tell you to enjoy it while you can, so I am trying!  I don't really miss taking classes because I get to learn all day while we are schooling.