Teaching Two Or More Children In The Home

Challenges for the Mother

1. Be aware of limitations in scheduling.
   • Organize meal planning (freeze ahead casseroles, frozen fruit cups, etc.).
   • Organize other household duties (clean on a rotation system, share responsibilities withchildren.).
   • Organize your home, remove clutter, simplify cleaning to free up your time.
   • Balance teaching duties and household duties.
   • Avoid over commitment (e.g., keeping other people's children, additional church responsibilities) the telephone and other distractions during the school year.
2. Protect health to maintain vitality
   • Make time to relax and rest.
   • Schedule regular exercise.
   • Practice good nutrition.
   • Pace yourself.
3. Set aside time for planning.
   • Order materials early -- before summer.
   • Read teacher's manuals or texts before beginning in the fall, (set aside time to do this in the summer).
   • Set realistic goals for the year based on your family needs and your child's abilities, learn how to use lesson objectives, organize planning and record keeping materials.
   • Collect and make necessary teaching visuals ahead of time, maybe as an art project for an older child or as a contribution by a grandparent.

1. Make raising independent learners your aim.
2. Teach some subjects individually.
   • Perhaps one the child likes least or which is most difficult for him.
   • Use teaching materials which have clear, easy to follow instructions and format, to encourage the child to begin to work on their own.
3. Integrate some subjects
   • Use history or Sciience topics for composition or grammar assignments.
   • Combine History and Science activities through biographies, creation science, etc.....
4. Combine and rotate some subjects.
   • Intensive teaching of 3 subjects for 4-6 weeks then teaching three others.
   • Teach some subjects twice weekly.
   • Teach the same subject matter to all age levels but with varying levels of difficulty (e.g. American History, Science subjects, Literature can be fun this way too, with simple read aloud versions for the younger, abridged versions for middle elementary, original work for high school (movie for mom!) makes for lively discussions & dramatizations.
5. Plan for children to help each other.
   • Have older child (or grandparent) check younger (e.g., alphabet, numeral recognition, sequencing, Bible memory).
   • Have older children check or drill each other in similar activity (e.g., multiplication tables.).

1. Schedule independent activities and directed activities to your advantage, keeping in mind the limitations of your child's age.
2. Arrange to teach one child while another (or others) is doing independent worktexts or projects, working with younger children or doing assigned household chores.

1. Give priority time to the younger children.
2. Have older children help the younger.
3. Schedule older students for additional instruction time at night after younger children's bedtime or early in a.m.
4. Recruit Dad, grandparents or interested friends for special teaching tasks.
5. Set aside Saturday a.m. for detailed or individual instruction.
6. Get specialized assistance as needed for high school students. Use community resources (e.g., library, YMCA, museums, community college, correspondence programs).

1. Integrate Bible content, verses and songs into family devotions for review.
2. Use a world map with missionary prayer cards placed on corrresponding location, or talk about the needs of those countries, geographical features as they relate to challenges the missionaries face.

1. Art & Music assistance.
2. Vocational experts.
3. Chruch members or other Christians with specialized backgrounds.
4. Relatives or neighbors with slides of trips.
5. Senior citizens with first hand accounts of history.
6. County and city libraries.
7. Local state parks.
8. City or town history (e.g., local library, courthouse, Historical Society.)
9. Antique collections to study history.
10. Travel magazine listings to write for brochures on other countries.
11. Embassies of foreign countries - write for information.
12. HAM radio demonstrations - contact foreign missionaries.

1. Outing
2. Gardening
3. Trips
4. Camping
5. Family business
6. Games
7. Oral Reading
8. Concerts
9. Devotions (have family members take turns periodically).

1. Use fix-it books for household repairs.
2. Write fournals about things that happen, "A Day in Our Family".
3. Think of ways to bring in math, science, history, problem solving skills, etc.....in everyday activities such as shopping, cleaning, sorting laundry, etc...
4. Use difficult circumstances to teach essential life skills (e.g., funerals, miscarriages teach the value of life, the reality of Heaven, the grieving process. Illness and accidents teach safety and health care, physiology, and nursing skills. A difficult pregnancy can teach fetal development, teamwork and the importance of church life. A job loss can be a time of teaching many essential skills if we will embrace our opportunities.

1. Involve them when ever possible.
2. Provide special time just for them.
3. Take advantage of nap time.
4. Rotate older chldren to supervise, see if grandparents would read one morning weekly or take them on their errands.
5. PLAN activities to keep them busy and entertained, change the pace before they get bored.
6. Have special toys just for use during school time, manipulatives, story cassettes.
7. Give children well-defined limitations regarding playing area & vocal volume.