Homeschooling a kid is hard. So what can you do to homeschool more than one from the same grade? How can you efficiently homeschool two, three, or more children, making sure that they are learning properly? We’ve got some tips to help you teach multiple kids in the same grade, without losing your mind.
Today, we will be looking into all that in detail. Let us get started.
How to Teach Multiple Kids in the Same Grade
1. Bring in Some School Furniture
Usually, parents don’t buy school furniture for homeschooling their kids. However, it isn’t a bad idea when you are homeschooling your children. Since you are probably homeschooling two or three kids, you can set up a classroom-like environment at home. Assuming you have space, you can bring in the same furniture they had been using in the classroom.
For purchasing school furniture, you can go through a website, like the School Fix catalog. Look for high-quality products you might need to turn your house into a school. From school desks to chairs, your can purchase several items.
Buying school furniture in bulk will reduce the costs. However, you will probably need three or four desks and chairs. Even then, they are not as expensive as you might think.
2. Get Everyone to Follow a Common Routine
Since all your kids are in the same grade, it is only natural that they should have a fixed homeschool routine. Not only will it help them get into a rhythm, but it will also reduce the effort you have to put in.
Making a common routine isn’t that difficult. It is similar to how you would make a regular homeschool routine. Start by emphasizing the difficult subjects or lessons. Then fill in the gaps with the easy ones.
All your children might not struggle with the same subjects. In that case, you be the judge, and decide which ones need more attention. And thereby assign more slots in the routine to those particular subjects.
3. Engage Them in Read-Alouds
Research suggests that reading something aloud over and over again can help you remember it better. And this phenomenon is widely seen in the case of children. While adults can enjoy the same benefits from reading aloud, this memory-boosting effect is particularly strong among children.
Apart from reading out loud, hearing something repeatedly is also a good way to enhance a child’s memory.
Reading aloud and repeatedly listening to something can easily enhance your kids’ memory retention. And since you are homeschooling two, three, or more of them, it gives you the perfect opportunity to put this technique into use.
4. Make Sure You are Giving Them One-on-One Time
Students often need personal care. And in many cases, schools fail to provide that care. That is one of the reasons many parents prefer to homeschool their children. And now that you are homeschooling multiple children, you wouldn’t want them to feel devoid of your attention.
So after they are done with their daily lectures, sit down with each of them. These one-on-one sessions can last for 15 to 20 minutes. In case you want to spend more time with them, just have one session with one kid every day.
5. Do Lots of Group Activities
Homeschooling a single child is boring, both for you and for your lone pupil. However, with two or three kids, things are a lot more fun. And most importantly, it allows you to do engaging group activities.
Homeschooled kids seldom get the chance to participate in group activities. That is mostly because they have to study alone. Since you have more than one kid at your house, that issue will not bother you.
Group activities will give your kids the chance to develop crucial leadership skills. It will also make them more social, and show them what it feels like to work with others. That way, when they go to school or college later in their lives, they won’t be afraid of doing group projects. Instead, they might even be better at it than their peers.
6. Use Engaging Visual Media
Keeping two or more kids engaged at the same time can get tedious when you’re struggling to teach multiple kids in the same grade. Even professional teachers fail to do so at times. Your best bet is to switch to an alternate mode of learning. And you can easily achieve that through visual media.
A TV with an internet connection is all you need for that. Simply help your kids learn along with a YouTube video of the topic for the day. You can also explore plenty of other EdTech platforms that cover a wide array of topics. Using different forms of media is a great way to keep your kids engaged.
These six tactics will surely help you homeschool multiple kids from the same grade. So, if you are planning to start homeschooling your kids, you now know how to approach it.
