Honest question here......how do u have a productive day when every kid is at a diff place and keeping up with each progressing and not getting bored in the shuffle? I have 2 kids and this terrifies me lol. Although i love it
I was homeschooled up through college, as were my siblings and several friends. Disclaimer, I graduated from home school some 20 years ago, so there may be some changes.
Early years are relatively simple, schools are mostly babysitting and indoctrinating kids at this point, so you really only need an hour or so with each kid and an extra hour or two where the kid is working through stuff and you are available for answering questions and the like.
Middle school is probably the toughest, your kids will start learning the more advanced stuff, but they haven't quite hit the point where they can do a full day without supervision. Again though, one parent keeping an eye on kids from various grade levels just to make sure they're not messing around too much should do the trick. My mom would often take care of any household chores she needed to do while keeping an eye on us.
High school is where you simultaneously hit the easiest and the hardest part. At this point, homeschoolers are pretty much on autopilot until they hit a concept or problem that is too hard for them. Don't be afraid to tackle the hard stuff with them, they're resilient and they're learn.
Obviously, every family is different. I'd say my mom was smarter than the average person, but that's not why it worked so well for us. Think about it this way: 1. Is the average teacher really that much smarter than everyone in your family? (sometimes it helps to call in an aunt or a cousin who is especially good at math, grammar, etc.) 2. Does the average teacher know your kid as well as you do? 3. How many kids does the average teacher have to deal with?
Basically, you're probably just as smart, if not smarter than the average teacher. You know your kid better than they do, so you'll know when they're struggling, when they're faking, etc. 3. Let's say you've got 6 kids, if you can manage a half hour with each kid specifically and an hour of general work with all 6, you've spent 3 and a half hours of your day on school, each kid has gotten 30 minutes one on one time and an hour where only 5 other kids have eaten away their teacher to student time. If the average teacher has 30 students (I'm being awfully generous there), minus all the wasted time, you're looking at what, maybe 4 hours of solid learning divided by 30 kids.
Lastly, schools work with the lowest common denominator, which means that out of all your kids friends, they're teaching to the level of the dumbest one.
Advantage: homeschooling.
Heck, even if you can't figure out a home school system, at least try to look for something outside of the norm of the public school system like a co-op system or some such. I know plenty of home schoolers whose parents weren't confident in a specific subject so they partnered with other home school families to help with specializing in tougher concepts.
What curriculum are you using? How old are your children? I only had one, but many of our group had large families. One of the biggest reasons we choose to homeschool was watching the children within a family, how they watched out for siblings and how they treated others.
Honest question here......how do u have a productive day when every kid is at a diff place and keeping up with each progressing and not getting bored in the shuffle? I have 2 kids and this terrifies me lol. Although i love it
I was homeschooled up through college, as were my siblings and several friends. Disclaimer, I graduated from home school some 20 years ago, so there may be some changes.
Early years are relatively simple, schools are mostly babysitting and indoctrinating kids at this point, so you really only need an hour or so with each kid and an extra hour or two where the kid is working through stuff and you are available for answering questions and the like. Middle school is probably the toughest, your kids will start learning the more advanced stuff, but they haven't quite hit the point where they can do a full day without supervision. Again though, one parent keeping an eye on kids from various grade levels just to make sure they're not messing around too much should do the trick. My mom would often take care of any household chores she needed to do while keeping an eye on us.
High school is where you simultaneously hit the easiest and the hardest part. At this point, homeschoolers are pretty much on autopilot until they hit a concept or problem that is too hard for them. Don't be afraid to tackle the hard stuff with them, they're resilient and they're learn.
Obviously, every family is different. I'd say my mom was smarter than the average person, but that's not why it worked so well for us. Think about it this way: 1. Is the average teacher really that much smarter than everyone in your family? (sometimes it helps to call in an aunt or a cousin who is especially good at math, grammar, etc.) 2. Does the average teacher know your kid as well as you do? 3. How many kids does the average teacher have to deal with?
Basically, you're probably just as smart, if not smarter than the average teacher. You know your kid better than they do, so you'll know when they're struggling, when they're faking, etc. 3. Let's say you've got 6 kids, if you can manage a half hour with each kid specifically and an hour of general work with all 6, you've spent 3 and a half hours of your day on school, each kid has gotten 30 minutes one on one time and an hour where only 5 other kids have eaten away their teacher to student time. If the average teacher has 30 students (I'm being awfully generous there), minus all the wasted time, you're looking at what, maybe 4 hours of solid learning divided by 30 kids.
Lastly, schools work with the lowest common denominator, which means that out of all your kids friends, they're teaching to the level of the dumbest one.
Advantage: homeschooling.
Heck, even if you can't figure out a home school system, at least try to look for something outside of the norm of the public school system like a co-op system or some such. I know plenty of home schoolers whose parents weren't confident in a specific subject so they partnered with other home school families to help with specializing in tougher concepts.
What curriculum are you using? How old are your children? I only had one, but many of our group had large families. One of the biggest reasons we choose to homeschool was watching the children within a family, how they watched out for siblings and how they treated others.