One of the main challenges of homeschooling is to keep children in different grades gainfully occupied during the school day. There is a tendency for the homeschool teacher to get side tracked with the demands and tantrums of the younger child if there is not enough planned to keep the younger one occupied while the elder one is being taught. Here are a few techniques that you can use to ensure that neither of the children is neglected during school hours and both get a full school day’s work done.
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Use Differentiation Technique to Teach Them Both Together
Just because you plan to teach the elder child about magnetism, does not mean that the younger one can not listen in. Describe what all a magnet can do and then give the younger one physical experiments to conduct with the magnet, while you have the elder one write out the properties of a magnet in their notebook. Similarly you can read out a story from a book to both of them. Then while the elder one does a book report the younger one can draw out a scene that he liked in the book. Get creative and keep them both working.
Use Learning Activities and Toys
You have so many educational toys available in the house. Ensure that you have an activity planned with one of these educational tools for one child while you teach the other child individually. The younger child can be asked to do art work and craft work while the elder one could do a research project or a simple to replicate science experiment. The activity must be such that a tangible product can be seen at the end of the hour. This will allow you to grade how well they managed to do the activity as well.
It will be easier in both the above techniques to dish out lessons and activities if you take some time out at the beginning of the school year to make a list. Include about 20 different activities for each child as per the age and grade that can be easily taken on and you are set for the year. These activities can be repeated as often as the child likes if they are enjoyed.
Article Inspiration: About Homeschooling
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