Welcome back to the How to Begin Homeschooling series!

Did you miss anything?

See Part 1: Getting started with homeschool or

Part 2: Determine your teaching method and your kids’ learning styles!

Here’s Part 3: Curriculum planning with multiple kids

Coming up! Part 4: Homeschooling as a lifestyle

My kids are 12, 7, 6, and 3.

When it was just Elizabeth for our first and second years of homeschooling, it was fun and new and we could do anything we wanted! I was pregnant with Victoria and then she was a great easy baby so we could take her anywhere anytime.

Having one or two kids is a piece of cake. After three or more kids, then they outnumber you and can plan an ambush. Therefore, you must be proactive and plan your attack or you will lose.

After having Kate, it all fell apart. I couldn’t keep the house spotless anymore {I’ll have to tell you about that phase!}. I struggled with schedules and I was late to everything.

Later, Alex came along, but by then, I had come to terms with our life.

We follow a classical school method.

It keeps me sane. We veered off a bit the last couple years, but we’re back to classical and it feels good.

So, where to begin with so many curriculum and scheduling options?

When Elizabeth was 4-going-on-15, I discovered The Well-Trained Mind. I read that book cover to cover and adored it. I thank God I found something so comprehensive right away and could latch onto that and run with it.

I realize it might not work for everyone, but it’s a great launch point. It has recommended schedules so you can judge if you’re doing too much or too little for each age.

Obviously, after you’ve determined your favorite teaching methods and your children’s learning styles, you can search for resources that fit those.

I love reading lists. Since our homeschool is based on history and literature, I acquire lots and lots of books and request a gazillion at a time from our library.

And there will be loss and prayer and tears and searching until you find what exactly works for everyone. Just pray it through. It’s a journey. It’ll be ok.

My husband worried about all the tries and fails of our curriculum over the years. But if it doesn’t work, I won’t force the issue. Why should I when there are so many wonderful options out there? We’re at a time in such freedom of homeschooling and the wonders of technology that we literally have the world at our fingertips and we can and should utilize everything we can to educate our children to the best of our ability.

We’ve finally gotten to a point of comfort and confidence in our homeschool. I pray that you do too! {I fear Alex may throw a monkey wrench in the whole mess! His personality is very different from the girls’.}

How do we function with multiple age children?

Do you ever wonder about the little red school house idea? Remember the school in Little House on the Prairie? How did they do it?

Do school together as much as possible!

Bible, art, history, and science work well for this. And schedule, schedule, plan, and schedule! {But be flexible!}

What about subjects that aren’t so easy to do as a family? Schedule those in so you can work with a child while others are doing assignments on their own.

Here are some of our fails and successes. Of course, what doesn’t work for our family may be perfect for yours!

Bible

We really enjoy Studying God’s Word during her grammar years. They offer workbooks from pre-school to high school.

We loved Grapevine Studies and We Choose Virtues when the kids were young.

The girls liked the comic-book style activity pages in Bible Study Guide.

We’ve read through Hero Tales and The Dig for Kids. Copywork is great for these!
What is your favorite Bible study for your family or homeschool?>

History

See our detailed post about our history studies.

We love Story of the World for elementary ages. We’re now using Tapestry of Grace since we complete so much of the whole cycle the first time ’round.

I love the chronological study of history that our social studies and language arts centers around. It’s great. It takes lots of pressure off and the read alouds are perfect for the whole family. Even my husband loves it after dinner.

We’re flexible and don’t always keep to the weekly schedule {gasp!} Sometimes, we’ll take more or less time depending on interest. Especially since we cycle through several times, so it’s easy to move on if we’re not completely finished with the unit.

Liz really can’t stand to do the projects and the girls love those. They’re finally getting old enough that I can just advise and monitor and they can complete them on their own.

We use notebooking from Notebooking Pages or we make our own with Notebooking Publisher. Sometimes, I use the pages Tapestry of Grace provides.

Science

We especially love Apologia Science – and have never really used anything else since it suits all our needs perfectly. The elementary series is great for the whole family – and the junior high and high school books are comprehensive and fun too!

Math

See our detailed post about how we study math.

We do utilize math journals and notebooking. We focus on a math concept together periodically. We love Life of Fred and the whole family loves the stories. It’s sneaky math. Khan Academy is a good supplement. We’ve used and loved Singapore Math for elementary, but are currently facing a dilemma for upper level math.

Language Arts

See how I don’t teach English.

Following a classical method for English language study begins with First Language Lessons. There are multiple volumes that include all language arts you need!

All About Learning has great reading and spelling programs.

Logic of English is a great comprehensive ELA program. We reviewed IEW. I’m not a huge fan of workbooks, but there are some options that kids just love.

There are many great notebooking tools for grammar and writing. We just read LOTS and narrate it – orally, artistically, or in writing. Older kids reading to the younger ones cheers my heart.

Foreign Language

We focus on Latin ‘round here.

We also have ASL, Spanish, French, and German each week. The kids love it! It’s fun to learn language together. I am amazed by how they soak it up like sponges.

All Those Extras

How in the world do we fit in the extra things?

Music, art, nature study, exercise…

Liz took formal piano lessons from a wonderful teacher who lives down the street. Tori takes guitar and Katie takes piano. I’m sure Alex will eventually take some music lessons.

We love love love ARTistic Pursuits ! We love composer and artist studies and try to do something weekly. And we currently use art and music units from Harmony Fine Arts.

We are very interested in this new music appreciation study: SQUILT.

As for nature study, we love Handbook of Nature Study. The End.

My kids love living books for nature and animals and biographies about musicians and artists.

Exercise or PE? Tori, Kate, and Alex take gymnastics classes each week. Tori is quite the little track star, running 2 5K’s with Dad this spring. Kate loves soccer in the fall. Liz is in Civil Air Patrol and must keep up with PT scores each month.

And get ’em outside to play! Schedule this into your day. Sunshine and fresh air are important! Go to parks. Go on hikes. Go to pools. Play ball. Organize a weekly homeschool play group with some of your friends. Our kids also join Dad in the gardening and yard work. It counts!

What About the Littles?

Babies are easy and older children are often very forgiving. But when they become toddlers and preschoolers, you have to get proactive and occupy those little monsters. And keep the older sibs’ history projects and science experiments well out of reach. {Who knew they could reach that far?!}

Check out my beginning homeschool post!

I’ve known families with littles who didn’t schedule or plan and just allowed for free play until school age, and that may work for you, but I think everyone misses out on so much in that environment. My kids are often bored or destructive if they don’t have some direction. Weekends are crazy for that very reason.

With so many wonderful Montessori and Tot School resources floating around on blogs and websites, you’re doing a disservice to your family if you leave that baby or toddler to him or herself. And you’ll have so many more messes to clean up. Also, schedule for older siblings to spend “baby time” as part of school time. Train your older children to be a “mama’s helper” and this will benefit all.

More on that in our next post!

Organizing

• Circle Time

We do “circle time” together most mornings. All of us together…we do our Bible lesson and read alouds, focusing on memorization, recitation, narration. The littles learn so much during this time. We also work on calendar notebooks, sing our morning songs, and love on each other. Sometimes we do yoga together. We learn facts together with occasional calendar themes. We discuss science, literature, and history we’re studying. This often just transitions into regular assigned work so smoothly. Liz has gotten to where she doesn’t participate as much with circle time. After Bible, she uses the time to get ’er done since they’re all occupied.

• Workboxes

We have used several different workbox systems over the years. It’s great for planning, visualizing what needs to be accomplished, and what has been completed.

Sue set up the workboxes for her autistic son to visualize his work. Her system calls for 12 plastic shoeboxes on a wire rack, but why not beautify it? No space? I’ve seen work folders that follow the same concept. I’ve seen some gorgeous examples of shelving and bins that could work with any budget. Google “workboxes” because I can’t list them all here. Also, you can find great free cards for labeling if you so choose. We don’t really label anymore.

Right now, we have 9-cube units from Target that work as our “boxes.” I put baskets, trays, activities, or books into the cubes and that’s what the kids work on for each week. They choose the order they do their assignments. I monitor to make sure they do what they need to do. Otherwise, Kate would do all the science and Latin and Tori would do all that math and they wouldn’t ever get to history or writing.

This is what Tori’s and Kate’s cubes look like this week. They do the same work, so I just double up in the cubes. They’re the perfect size.

Top row: We have fractions. Then Spanish and Latin.

Middle row: I have some money cards and money math pages. Then I have a Montessori letter tray and activities. We’re finishing up Land Animals science.

Bottom row: Then our Harmony Fine Arts notebooks and art journals. We have Draw Write Now. Last, we have life cycles and Charlotte’s Web unit (review soon!).

The girls place any completed pages in the trays on top. The frames on the wall are to keep me on track with weekly themes. Their notebooks are propped on the floor beside the unit. We got through and place their pages in the notebooks when the trays are full.

Alex has a unit too with preschool activities. Toys are in the plastic bins and he lays out his Montessori rugs for his activities to stay contained.

I have a bigger red pocket chart now that we put up all our week’s work.

Liz has a 6-cube unit laid horizontally so she has a big shelf on top for her desk supplies. She has one cubby for every subject (science, math, history, language arts, Bible, Latin) and a big lovely thrifted basket beside it for art. Her notebooks are propped up beside her unit and she organizes her own now when her tray gets full. I give her a printable checklist each week.

See how we homeschool high school?

The girls have homeschool planners to learn time managment.

See how I plan a homeschool year.

How do you stay organized or schedule many children?

Stay tuned for part 4.