Postby sartasd » Sat Oct 02, 2010 4:34 pm
First, slow down. There is no reason you have do it all today.
I have a siister with 4 kids. She homeschooled 2 who are doing online college and still has 2 in homeschool.
She had things they did together as a family such as Bible reading time. others who don't put Bible in their day, could be reading a classical literature book as a read aloud.
When one child is have instructional time with Mom, the others will be doing independent work. (usually the time for a 8 yr is limited to about 30 min at one sitting.) Give the 3 year old puzzles, coloring pages, blocks or legos to play with while you are busy with the 8 yo. the 5 yo could be doing something on the computer while you work with another child. the 5 yr old could be working on phonic using starfall.com to reforce the phonics. Then rotate the kids, doing instructional time with another child while the others use the computer for math pracitce (mathbrain) or other educational sites or your own CD-roms. make centers so they rotate from center to center. allow break time, (recess) go outside if the weather allows and run and play and laugh.
While the 3,5, and 8 play you can hold and play with your 11 mo.
Organize the time and also plan read a loud times. Reading aloud to the group will aid all of them in reading, language, vocabulary, grammar, and much more as you read from a interesting book, pick chaphter books, pick classics such as Charlotte's Web, Little House books, fairy tales, Bible stories, and many more.
Children's picture books are great too, but don't limit read aloud time to children's book, put book that will be read slowly over a period of a week or more. Read aloud should be limited to about 10 to 15 min. at the most. Most young ones can't sit that long.
Sharon
. But I have read that some people have their older dc spend time with younger siblings while the mothers teach the others. So, maybe your 8yo could play with the 3yo while you teach the 5yo and bounce the 11mo on your lap? (Your 3yo doesn't need to be doing phonics yet.) Then you could work again with the 8yo while the 5 and 3yo play and you bounce the 11mo, then you could love on the the 3yo while the 5yo and 8yo play...