How to Become a Multi-Student Teacher

[glperky]

Lots of talk going on about schedules and how to do more than one guide at a time. I am a multitasker in pretty much every area of my life except in the kitchen. I HS in the kitchen! You know what that means, I can't teach more than one at a time. I can't even get one child going on independent work and then start with the other. Because is the independent one needs help or interrupts I get all flustered. (Maybe I shouldn't HS in the kitchen! ). Anyway, I have one that will be doing Beyond and one that will be doing a different K program. So, my first question is, would I be crazy or would it make for a really long morning if I just schooled one completely and then the other one? Does anyone else do this? #2. Any tips on becoming a multi-student teacher?

[MomtoJGJE]

I pretty much do that at those stages. There's very little a Beyond child can do independently. Mine do handwriting/copywork, finish up math after we do hands on, and spelling. I don't know about the other K program but in LHFHG my kids can finish up math and do handwriting/FMS (because they do handwriting for fun and filler instead of my caring )

Right now I have CTC, Bigger, LHFHG, and LHTH... So my CTC child gets going with her ind work. Then whoever is kid of the day (KOTD) goes first with me. So say for instance LHFHG child is KOTD.... here's the "schedule"

CTC - takes her work to her room and works.
Bigger - does math (she's independent in math now...), cursive, vocab, reads her English lesson and goes over the questions, and gets her other books ready to go.
LHFHG - I do everything with her and leave handwriting and math for last. Go over math, and send her off just in time to do the rest of Bigger.
LHTH - gets done as soon as everyone else is done and before CTC child gets ready for teacher stuff.

So basically if I were in your shoes I'd get your Beyond child independent on ANYTHING possible.... then I'd sit down and do school down to the ind parts. Then I'd send that child off to a different room to do her work and I'd do work with the K child. The Beyond child would then finish, come back to me and sit there until I got to a stopping place. Then I'd quickly check the work and go over any mistakes and as soon as it was corrected that child would be DONE Off they go. Then I'd finish K and off that one goes for you to finish up whatever work you need to do.

[MelInKansas]

Yeah at that stage I agree, they need your whole focus and can't really work independently for very long. I bounce back and forth, and generally my children know that if I'm working with someone on school they should not interrupt me unless it is EXTREMELY urgent. Even something like "baby brother just unrolled a whole roll of toilet paper because I left the bathroom door open" I usually just say "okay thanks for telling me, I'll be there in a minute." Because I think, well, nobody is in danger, right? The toilet paper is already wasted right? But because the "segments" I have planned are pretty short, I can go take care of baby brother and assign someone TP cleanup pretty quickly after that.

Some days it is really hard to multitask, especially if there are discipline issues and my toddler is having a bad day (today). I have to take a lot of deep breaths and ask the Lord for patience and a gentle answer. But if your other child(ren) could be kept doing something else semi-productive while you school one all the way through, I say go for it. That's just not a reality in my house. School is kind of choppy because if I spend too much time focussed on one child everything with the other 3 is spiraling into chaos before I can get done.

[glperky]

Thank you both for the help and encouragement!

[mom23]

I've struggled with this, too! When I had only 2 kids going, I did do each child start to finish and then move on to the next kid. Adding in another school aged child made it necessary to come up with a schedule, but I think at the end of the year I was again doing that in a sense (while my dd was doing independent work in Preparing, I did all of Beyond and then all of LHFHG and then finished up everything else with Preparing.) Honestly, though, it has not been the most effective way of school work at our house! Things work so much better if I have a regular routine with certain things the kids are to do within certain blocks of time; and it's also better for the kids, I think, to have some break built in there, rather than having Mom insist that they sit there and get the whole thing out of the way so I can move on with my day. It's more my bad habits and feelings of being overwhelmed with other things that drive me back to this start-to-finish, one-at-a-time type of schooling. I'd encourage you to come up with some type of schedule, even if one kid takes a break while you work with someone else, sometimes they need that! It is best, though, to have them do something independently while you're focusing on the other one-makes the school day faster.

[glperky]

Thank you so much Becky for your insight.

Now if someone could make a schedule for me, it would be great! I am much more of a routine girl than schedule girl and I just can't seem to come up with a schedule. It always comes out to a "start to finish" one.

[RestInHim]

Mine are young as well, and they really can't work independently right now. But it's also too much for them to simply work straight through their schoolwork for the day start to finish. So, this is what we do:

Beyond kid does math & LA, then takes a break.
LHTH kid does math (he wanted more so we've added in a math book for him), fine motor skills, then gets a break.
Beyond kid does history and rotating box, then break.
LHTH kid has Bible box and does his finger play, break.
Beyond kid does poetry and Bible and music, then break.
LHTH kid does letter activity box and Bible Activity and music, then break.
Beyond kid does story time and reading boxes, then she's done.
LHTH kid works with me on phonics (The Reading Lesson) and maybe a page of Explode the Code (not part of HOD, but he loves the books), and then he's done.

Basically I do a couple of boxes and then switch to the other kid. If I try to make them do everything at once, they get completely burnt out. It's a simple system, and it works slick It does still take up most of our morning, though. Which is actually very good, because in my house, 3 kids under 6 with nothing to do = trouble! HTH a little bit.

[glperky]

Sara,

Thank you for telling me how it works in your house! At this point and time my guys seem to do better if they just keep going. If they stop to take a break, I don't ever seem to get there mind back even though their bodies are ther. Does that come with time?

[MelInKansas]

I make a schedule but we don't really stick to it, at least not by minutes. And I am even bad after a week or two at just "winging it" which doesn't go as well. Once we are all used to the routine we don't really consult the paper schedule anymore, but it is a tool to get us going on a good track.

I used Managers of their Homes by Steve and Teri Maxwell. I read through it once, but now I just kind of use the process. You make a page for each of your kiddos, and list on their page all of their tasks, or for littles who either aren't schooled yet or whose school is MUCH shorter than their sibs, you list out anything they typically do or can do during a school day. Coloring, sensory toys, raiding your cabinet, just whatever they could do. By each item you list how long that item takes and whether or not anyone else is involved in it. Then you try to think through things like preparing lunch, cleaning up after breakfast, daily hygene and routine things like brushing teeth, making beds, getting dressed. Snack time. List everything in detail. I do also like to stick with each child and keep them going as long as I possibly can, because we have the same problem, if someone is allowed to go off for too long I can't get them back. My older 2 kids basically have two blocks, one of "seatwork" type things, and one of me reading to them and "active" type things. My 2nd needs me with her for seatwork and my oldest (mostly) does not. My oldest practices piano during part of my 2nd's read-to and active block. My oldest was also supposed to read to the 3rd born during that time but I haven't been good about having her do that as sometimes they fight. Anyway, then you create a spreadsheet, or a visual of some kind, where you have everybody all lined up and you list out what each person is doing at a given time, and with who. I posted my most recent effort at a schedule in the sticky post about schedules. Anyway, I know how you feel, I really hate creating a schedule, and I even more hate trying to stick to it. But it is a wonderful tool and I have found when I have put more thought into planning how our day goes, it goes much more smoothly. God uses that tool to create peace and order. There are days the schedule gets thrown out the window. Since I am not a scheduled person by nature, that's usually okay with me. But even having the idea of the schedule in my head, I can plan to see what we can still try to accomplish, or what it will take for us to go ahead and finish school out even though we are off. I end up just dropping the whole thing a lot less that way.

I hope this helps.

[RestInHim]

Sara,

Thank you for telling me how it works in your house! At this point and time my guys seem to do better if they just keep going. If they stop to take a break, I don't ever seem to get there mind back even though their bodies are ther. Does that come with time?

I was just wondering if mine would grow into working longer periods at a time!

I don't know why that works better for my kids...but if it works better for you to just push right through, then flow with it! I can't think of any reason why you shouldn't

[glperky]

Sara,

Thank you for telling me how it works in your house! At this point and time my guys seem to do better if they just keep going. If they stop to take a break, I don't ever seem to get there mind back even though their bodies are ther. Does that come with time?

I was just wondering if mine would grow into working longer periods at a time!

I don't know why that works better for my kids...but if it works better for you to just push right through, then flow with it! I can't think of any reason why you shouldn't

I think mine are the exception. People are always telling I should give mine breaks. It just never seems to work with mine, even or I should say especially my 16 yr. old.

[glperky]

Thank you Melissa! That was a huge help!

[MelInKansas]

You're welcome! I also think this kind of thing can be a bit freeing from you feeling like you are the hub and nothing moves forward without you. If you have some older kids who can be more independent, and they have their own copy of at least their schedule, if they get to a place where they are supposed to work with you but for some reason they can't, they should be able to keep going down the schedule until you are available. Technically that's how it should work. I know it often doesn't. My 8YO liked the schedule and hopefully when we start school back up again I can get back on track with it again because she liked the independence of being able to look at it and see what we were all doing, and what she was supposed to be doing.

[glperky]

You're welcome! I also think this kind of thing can be a bit freeing from you feeling like you are the hub and nothing moves forward without you. If you have some older kids who can be more independent, and they have their own copy of at least their schedule, if they get to a place where they are supposed to work with you but for some reason they can't, they should be able to keep going down the schedule until you are available. Technically that's how it should work. I know it often doesn't. My 8YO liked the schedule and hopefully when we start school back up again I can get back on track with it again because she liked the independence of being able to look at it and see what we were all doing, and what she was supposed to be doing.

After reading this, I can see who having his own schedule might help my 8 yo get back on focus when it was his turn. He is very time/clock oriented. He knows what time we eat every meal, when it's time to go rest, go to bed, church, etc. and his world kind of revolves around it but is OK also if things aren't "on time." But until I read this, I never thought about having a schedule might help him tune back in! Thanks again!

[psreit]

Years ago , when my oldest three were homeschooling, my son would take his work to his room and just work at it until he was finished. He was always done before noon. My girls were a different story. They took more breaks, so their school work took longer. They were older, so they could do most things independently. I should have had a schedule or at least a routine for them. I am doing the same with my 10yo and finding her school work is taking too long. I tried a schedule last year and we didn't stick with it. I, too, would rather go with a 'routine'. We have had and will have medical appts. to deal with, so we always get thrown off of even a routine. That is what makes me crazy. I just can't seem to find a way to structure things that even when we are interrupted by appts., things can keep flowing. And I'm homeschooling only one! It's not just the homeschooling. It's chores and things I need to get done around the house. I will work on something with my dd and then say, 'I need to get some laundry done' or something else will jump out at me and call for my attention. Just the other day, I came across the 'schedule' I made last year. Thanks for this extra reminder that I need to at least *try* to run our school days in this way. I have the determination to begin. But, keeping it going is the challenge. I know my dd needs routine, but it is a challenge to 'teach this old *gal* new tricks'.

Sorry, I know this was about multi-students, but the scheduling concept can apply to just one. I admire you all who can work with multiple children in multiple guides. A schedule would definitely be a must if I was in your shoes.