Someone again, has asked me to talk more about how to manage different ages of children. Before I talk about differentiating types of assignments, I have to say that I think the real struggle in wrapping our brains around teaching multiple ages is our “traditional school centered” mind set. In school, you have children all in the same grade. What’s interesting is that those children are not all at the same level–even if they are the same age. Teachers often group students, pull them out, and otherwise differentiate instruction for kids in their grade. I also have to offer some foresight to parents who have younger children: it gets easier. It is true that while they’re not really reading–it’s awfully hard to differentiate the same material–it can be done, but it’s much harder. With that said, here are a few more tips for teaching the same material. . .just once.
Reading Out Loud
Consider reading your core material out loud to the group. Research says that even high schoolers should get the benefit of read aloud time with mom and dad and that parents should read aloud regularly until at least 8th grade. In other words, reading the material to the child is not just for little kids!
Representative Writing
My 3rd grader can write whole paragraphs while my 1st grader can eek out a sentence. My four year old insists that she too is able to homeschool. . .but only writes letters and some words. We often use a notebooking approach to recording what it is that we’ve learned. So when I ask for a main idea or a concept, we all discuss it and then each child writes in their notebook accordingly.
For example, we recently talked about the six simple machines. My oldest daughter wrote down what each one was, and how they were used, along with some examples. My son wrote down what each one was and listed some examples, while my four year old drew pictures of the examples under headings that I had written. (We also took pictures of one example for each lest we can’t tell what her examples are later.) They all learned the same material but were able to record it according to their understanding.
Look for more tips on teaching to multiple ages soon!
Related Blogs:
Tips: Printable Worksheets for Preschoolers
Tips for Homeschoolig Multi-Aged Children
More Tips: The First Day of the Month
Yet More Tips: Museum Memberships
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