Homeschooling a single child is challenging enough. But parents with large families? That’s a whole different ballgame. Luckily, there are plenty of ways you can make your routine easier by being strategic with your scheduling and teaching methods. These tips will make it easier.
Create a Routine
The easiest way to keep multiple kids on track is to have everyone follow a similar schedule. While minor adjustments will need to be made for younger children, try to keep everyone together as much as possible. Everyone should eat meals together, start classes at the same time, and work on homework in the same timeframe. If someone needs to work outside of this schedule (i.e. a teenager working on college essays) help your other children respect their time. Keep noise and playtime to a minimum until everyone is done with school for the day.
Prioritize Young Ones
Little children have shorter attention spans and crave more attention from their parents. After tending to them first, they’ll usually be more content while you help out the older kids. Older kids are also more adaptable and can handle being off schedule a bit if you need to spend extra time with your young ones.
Streamline Other Tasks
No matter how organized your day is, you are going to be very busy if you’re homeschooling multiple children. Make your life less stressful by streamlining other tasks. Having trouble getting dinner on the table? Research crockpot recipes that can be thrown together and stewed all day. Laundry piling up? Consider hiring a local teenager to help with household tasks for a few hours each week. Be creative and you’ll find pockets of time beginning to open up.
Enlist Your Kids
You don’t have to do this alone! Your kids can (and should) be involved in their homeschooling process more than just reading and doing homework. Younger children will need more personalized attention but allow older ones to be more involved when they can. Your kids can help with meals, housekeeping, and watching their siblings while you teach or tutor someone else. Older teenagers can even help shuttle siblings between extracurricular activities and run errands for the family.
HomeschoolFacts.com has a complete list of support groups to help support you in your homeschooling endeavors and connect with homeschoolers near you. You can search the list of support groups here: https://www.homeschoolfacts.com/homeschool-support-groups.html