Dear Friends,
Does it ever seem like you could apply to the 
circus for a job spinning plates?
Trying to keep this one busy with math, while that one is sounding out the alphabet, each at the same time you are simmering enough spaghetti sauce to serve an army AND trying to find that elusive sock to match the one good pair remaining to you?
Sound familiar? Ah, yes. Welcome to the Wonderful World of Homeschooling, where moms handle more multi-tasking than anyone on the planet. Good job, MOM!!!
When it comes to today’s topic–Teaching Multiple Levels–there are a couple of opposing responses:
“I know, I know!! How on earth am I supposed to have enough time and energy to teach everything to everyone, while getting laundry off the table and dinner on the table?????”
OR,
“Hmmm. If one-room schoolhouse teachers could do this, it must not be impossible! I wonder how they figured it out??”
It is one thing to theorize about how to do this, and something quite different to live it out in the reality of your day-to-day life! With that in mind, let me share one answer that proved to be quite helpful in my homeschool journey … once we discovered it.
First, I had to decide that homeschool is NOT the same as “school at home” —
- where each child is in a separate grade with separate classes and separate texts;
- where mom does lesson planning for as many grades as she has children;
- where the family only joins together for meals, recess, and the occasional read-aloud.
Once we said NO to that model, it opened the door to looking at teaching/learning in a very different way. We began to consider what subjects could actually be studied together, and which subjects had to be studied individually by the child. We decided that math and language arts were the only subjects that would need to be studied separately by our three kids, leaving every ot
her subject open to incredible possibilities.
History, science, literature, government, music, art, architecture, even cultural anthropology were among the subjects we discussed, explored, researched, toured, played with, and creatively expressed. It was one of the MOST delightful aspects of homeschooling, once we shed the old model of “every child to her own desk, to his own books, to be studied alone.”
Have fun spinning the possibilities for YOUR family!!
And, remember, stay relational.
Diana
P.S. Speaking of playing with academics, I would love to share a few reviews of our newest trio of products in the Experience History Through Music series. The entire month of July, you can purchase these three titles for $50!! American history has NEVER been this fun!!
