Completing our second quarter of the school year, I'd appreciate a little brainstorming about classroom management.
If I could educate one seven-year-old alone at a table, he and I would do just beautifully and it would be a joy.
Add in one five-year-old preschooler, a two-and-a-half-year-old, and a mobile ten-month-old, and there are moments of joy, but a lot of other emotions and stress mixed in!
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| John reading his story for the day: during moments like this, I am very often floating about the room, continually picking up messes created by the littler ones so our classroom isn't a danger zone. |
What are some of the tricks up your sleeve to manage the other young children in your home classroom?
Recently I used a large gate to section off a portion of our bonus room. That is now what I call the Play Area. Children who are playing are sent into that corner of the room, and they're required to keep their toys in that area. I am attempting to create a stronger sense that the other areas of the room are for schooling, which means being quiet, not strewing toys about, and not doing wild gymnastics.
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| John reading on the sofa with the Play Area in the background |
I know some homeschooling mothers have a room dedicated just to toys that is adjacent to their school room: they can send their toddlers and preschoolers to the play room to basically go wild, but stay out of the way for a couple of hours. I think that is a great solution, but our house layout doesn't provide for it, and I'm unwilling so far to let my younger kids wander our large house unsupervised because they really get into a lot of trouble I can't see or hear. If we had a smaller house whose layout allowed more wandering (and I've been in many such homes), I'd be all for it.
Sometimes younger children can be given small crafts or activities to do, but I've discovered that the key to success is that the activity must be one that can be done independently. If it requires my guidance, it doesn't do me any good for occupying the children while I give a lesson to the other child.
I've recently discovered Melissa & Doug Reusable Sticker Pads. Each pack comes with five pages with accompanying reusable stickers for about $1.25 per page. These are novel and working well for us now, and I'm guarding them, handing them out one at a time, requiring them to be 'checked back in,' so they will last some months, I hope. This is a good example of a project that can be done totally independently even by a two-year-old and is quiet. I need many more of these activities!
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| Usually we do our spelling orally, but that day I had John use wooden letters. Note the wiggly disc I recently purchased to see if it will help John sit still. |
Sometimes I can tell that the toddler would benefit from attention, so I do a lesson on the fly with her. She came to me this week asking to 'do math.' So I grabbed the nearby checker pieces and we worked on counting numbers one, two, and three, over and over until her need for attention was filled and I could go back to working with John.
Other tricks I do:
- I will let the children do Starfall or XtraMath (have any other interactive educational website suggestions?). They love this, but if I have the computer in the kitchen, then they're on the Internet unsupervised (dangerous). If I bring the computer into the bonus room, then it is a big distraction to the child having a lesson, plus only one child can be on the computer at a time because I have only one plug for earphones (envision two-year-old or five-year-old throwing tantrum).
- I will let one child at a time listen with earphones to a music CD or an audiobook.
- I will let two children do crafts at the kitchen table by themselves. Dangers: Unsupervised, they can sneak off and do mischief, they make a huge mess, or they get frustrated because they need my help and tantrums ensue.
It truly is asking a lot for the youngest set,--especially ages two, three, and four--to occupy themselves for the approximately two hours I need to do a full school day. I need more tricks up my sleeve. Doing school time is like a dance (or a boxing match!), in which I'm constantly shifting, prancing, adapting to the next interruption. It is mentally exhausting for me.
Meanwhile, Joseph at ten months is still a young-enough baby that he is pretty easy during school. If he's happy and awake, he creeps around playing with toys. If he is hungry, I nurse him right there, no need to go get him solid foods. If he's tired, I have found it is too disruptive for me to step away and nurse him down in bed (leaving the bigger kids unsupervised = ALWAYS trouble), so I put him on my back in the Ergo and he naps there. But next year when he is between one and two years old, that is a tough year for homeschooling!
Tricks? Tips? Ideas? Great products? Let's share, please!
You could use a headphone jack splitter to create a spot for two headphones to be plugged into your computer or for audio books. If you already have two pairs of headphones, the splitters are less than $5.
ReplyDeleteHi! This is my first year homeschooling. It started out a little easier because my almost two year old was still taking 2, 2 hour, naps per day! What a blessing! So then I just had to keep my 3 year old happy for about 45 min. while I do school with my 5 year old. She has some work books which she LOVES (Kumon mostly) and I basically have one child on each side of me and switch rapidly back and forth between them. I find the one major issue with this is during reading when Jack needs NO interruptions. During this time (10 min?) Ann has to be quiet or she gets a time out. A friend made me a sorting game which is also a big hit and now that the almost two year old is napping only once he is usually involved too and he can sort of help the three year old with sorting. Maybe check out pintrest also my friend recommends Montessori on a shoe string for lots of easy to make cheap games for kids.
ReplyDeleteI think you're doing a great job, Katherine!
ReplyDeleteJust a couple of notes:
1. When I had 4-6 home schooling, including babies or toddlers, what really helped was scheduling out the entire day using Managers of Their Homes. You can do the same thing by gridding out the hours vertically, and assigning each person a column. Then you use small stickies to write down their assignment (like Math with Mom, or Play with Joseph) for each half-hour or even 15 min. increment. That way you can have someone working with you, someone working independently, and someone playing with Joseph. When it came to playing with the baby they could choose from a jar of suitable activities (blocks, dolls, even letters or numbers for older tots. It's great to have them help educate the youngers!)
It's not a perfect system, but it gives a lot of structure that helps!
2. Re: the internet. Our computer, a Mac, allows for different logins. Parents have access to everything that is not filtered. Children don't have to use a password for the children's login, and that section has access to ONLY the websites that are specifically whitelisted. So, if you only allow them on 3 sites, you put those in. Everything else is blocked.
3. I'd probably have the baby napping on that sofa when he's too big for my back! :-)
Lindsay: Thanks for letting me know about the splitter!
ReplyDeleteSara: I got really 'into' MOTH after Joseph was born but have gotten more relaxed. But maybe I should move back toward it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for telling me about the Mac computer. I need to learn a lot more about computers and filtering.
I'm totally feel the same way about homeschooling this year, Katherine, exhausting! I have similar ages 2nd grade, K, 3yro, and rug rat - try to mix in some laundry, dishes, or dinner prep and things can get pretty CRAZY :-) I try to have the older kids working independently as much as possible in 15 or 20 min. blocks. I get them started on a subject and can leave while they do a workbook page, etc. Would love to hear more ideas though! The stickers sound fun for my 3yro!
ReplyDeleteIt's never easy! The internet is dangerous. Our rule is always we go to the site for them and then they can use it in our plain view but not navigate away from that site or search for anything. Either way make sure they are in plain view, just not worth it! I like the Preschool prep dvds for shapes, colors, letters and numbers for little ones. You can put it on the computer and they will watch it closely. The sight words one is also good for emergent readers. The most effective tip I have found is Ginny Seuffert's idea of getting the older ones to take turns babysitting the younger ones during times you need to work one on one. It will get easier, John will work more independently before you know it!
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