How To Home School Your Children Of Different Ages
Are you brand new to home schooling? Perhaps you became disenchanted with regular schooling. Or maybe you just decided that your children could be safer at home and that they could learn more from one-on-one instruction. If you have children of different ages, you may be wondering how to give each of them appropriate learning activities. Think of your home school as a one-room school like the ones they had in the olden days.
The World Is Your Classroom
Naturally, you will have books to learn from, but there's a lot to learn right outside your home. Going on field trips can challenge your children in different ways. For example, if you go to a zoo, your youngest children might learn a lot just by taking a drawing pad and colored pencils and being little artists as they draw the animals. At the same time, your older children may read all of the plaques and make notes of the different animals they see.
The same goes with a trip to a planetarium. The little ones will more than likely simply love the new experience of watching the planetarium show while your older children could do a report of the different planets and other amazing things they saw.
At Home
Think of having different work stations for your children. For example, your little children could have your attention while you teach them things like the alphabet and the seasons of the year with music and dancing. Meanwhile, your older children could be at the computer while they study things like history, the weather, and even a foreign language.
Think about having your children write their own books. For instance, the little ones could create little books with drawings of different kinds of flowers. Your older children would write more in-depth books as they do botanical research and write about what they learned. Illustrations would just add to the learning.
Don't forget that your older children can learn just by teaching their younger siblings. For example, teaching the multiplication tables to the younger ones will reinforce them for the older kids. And, remember that good literature can be for all ages. Think of having a special time set aside each day where you read books you have loved. Children of all ages will more than likely enjoy listening to you as you read books like Harry Potter, Heidi, or even classics by Shakespeare.
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