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How I Homeschool Multiple Grades: 9th + 5th Grade · Making Everyday Magic: The Podcast

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I only have two,
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and I know that a lot of homeschool families are much bigger than that.
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Welcome back to Making Everyday Magic. My name is Shanna.
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If you are new here, my own home schooling family of four.
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We are in our 10th year of homeschooling.
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I have a ninth grader and a fifth grader, and today I want to talk with you
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about homeschooling, multiple grades, and multiple
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kids.
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Before we go any further, please scroll down and hit the big red subscribe button.
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Turn on the bell for notifications and give this video a thumbs up.
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As always, you can find me right on down in the comments or over an Instagram
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at Making Everyday Magic.
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Today I want to talk about homeschooling, multiple kids
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and multiple grades, so I do have many videos on this channel.
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Again, we have homeschooled for ten years and you guys have been along
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on this channel since, I think the start of homeschooling my second child.
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Now, I know a lot of homeschool families are much bigger than two,
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but the way that we keep our heads above water
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while making sure that everybody gets everything done, everybody gets everything
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that they need, is what we are going to talk about today.
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So I have spoken recently about
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some of the things that we combine and why we combine them.
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But this video, I hope, is a little bit more of an in-depth look on our
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multiple grades and multiple ages levels.
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Children homeschool.
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So many of you know that something that I am very proud of
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and something that I love to do and I search out is combining where possible.
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Now, I know that this is something that will save me time and time and time again.
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Now my kids are very, very far apart.
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My kids are four grade levels apart.
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By the time that my youngest came to the table, she chose at four years old.
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My older daughter was in, going into third grade, I think.
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So they're they're not close.
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They are not close in age and they are not in grade level,
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and therefore they are not close in a lot of skill sets.
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And that is okay. That is to be expected.
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And so what we do is that we
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isolate those things that should stay
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uniquely solo on grade level.
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And if you don't know what those things are, those things are math.
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Of course, they're not doing the same math language arts.
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Of course they are not doing the same language arts.
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I will give you a little funny anecdote on that actually, in a minute.
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But math and language arts are very
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specifically grade level, and so is there a critical thinking
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because their brains just don't think the same.
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And I think that's okay.
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There are many times where I work very hard to find things that we can combine,
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and those things are history, especially any kind of art study
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and science, those things and a lot of kind of,
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like extra
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bonus studies, which for us this year is French
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because everybody could be learning French last year, black American history.
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It has been art history.
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It has been hi, Gatsby.
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I'll put it on the screen
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because everybody always asks, is that how have I got a story for you?
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Which was an art history lesson?
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Again, history is a big one and science is a big one.
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And that is because one, all of those things tend
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to not have a lot of output.
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And all of those things are things that I first of all,
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I think I outsource everything as far as getting a curriculum from somewhere.
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But like science can be a really big deal when you're doing experiments and things
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like that.
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It's kind of a lot of work to put it together.
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And history even is a lot of lesson, right?
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So a lot of information and videos and timelines and maps
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and we've done geography together, things like that.
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So those are things that I feel like are very easy to combine.
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And that is
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because it is a lot of work to set them up, and it's usually a lot more fun.
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Like science.
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Science lessons are a lot more fun when you do them in a group.
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They just are.
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So I think those are things that are just really
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naturally lend themselves to combining.
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However, it is important to me that I understand
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how I can have expectation for output from my students.
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So for example,
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I we will be doing history.
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Well, we are doing history this year with Pneumatic Professor,
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and I will have a deep dive on that coming up soon because it's kind of great.
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So we're doing Nomadic Professor history.
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It is world history like one and two.
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It's a two part thing.
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And they
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I think they kind of think of themselves as like honors history,
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which I can totally see.
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And the way that we're combining that is everybody watches.
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And what we do is we play the audio version while we're reading.
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So it's like hearing and reading along.
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And then,
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we, you know,
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there's notes and timelines and maps and little quizzes and things like that.
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But in the program there will be a
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it gives you like extra credit, which of course,
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my fifth grader isn't working for credit, so don't even worry about that.
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But it gives you a project, a big project to do, which is curating a museum.
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And so I already know that that museum is going to be set up differently.
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That museum is going to be very different based on my children
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at their developmental level.
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Who is putting it together, what it will look like, what is included
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is going to be based on their interest.
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I know that I know that very much.
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Last year when we did things like Black American history.
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It was through Crash Course and I found some Teachers
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Pay Teachers worksheets for my oldest child.
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It was open ended. Fill in the blank full sentence.
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For my younger child, it was word.
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Bank matched the word in a sentence because again, developmentally.
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But it is really important to me.
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They say on grade level for
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math and language arts.
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And it's so funny when we do language arts, you guys know we use
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Michael Thompson.
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And so it sinks that when we're doing the grammar portion of that lesson
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every year, it sinks up where we're reading like nouns with one
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noun to the other, verbs with one versus the other.
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And so it's so funny because you can really tell.
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And my husband did this actually on Labor Day.
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He was teaching this dad's school.
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And even he said, it's really interesting how you can tell where it's like,
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you know, the fifth grader.
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It's a lot more kind of like topsoil.
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And the ninth grader, I mean, we are like digging into the study.
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And so it's the same kind of thing.
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It's just, you know, we're a little bit
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lighter up here with the younger one and definitely deeper with the older one.
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Now, why do I do this?
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I do this because guys, we spend half of every single day
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doing school, doing school work, and that is
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with our things that are combined and are things that are individual.
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And every day I have something to do and I have involvement
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in every day they have involvement.
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And if we didn't combine things,
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especially since we do outsource so much as far as like,
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you know, online math and digital online kind of history,
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if we didn't, if we didn't do that, it would be all day, every day.
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And so each child would likely still only have half a days of work.
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But between reading every little thing and saying every little thing
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like, I can't imagine tackling history at this level
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with this volume
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for two kids, it'd be so it would be so much.
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Same thing with science lessons.
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I think it's really important to note that that my philosophy is always
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we teach to the older child and we pull the other one up.
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So we are doing, you know, biology 101.
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And my younger one, who is very interested in animals, is struggling
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right along and super happy. So.
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My again, my kids are far apart.
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If you have six kids and you've got two that are closer and two that are closer
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and two that are closer, then yeah, maybe you're doing three different things
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with them.
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Maybe you're doing three different levels throughout the day, but
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if you can combine, it will make your lives a lot easier.
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Another very, very, very important aspect of homeschooling multiple kids
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at multiple grade levels
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is your expectation of consistency.
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And you guys know it always comes back to consistency with me.
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But my children know if I am reading
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30 minutes of verbs and verbs sections with big Sister.
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Little sister knows that her expectation is
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that she's working on the things she can work on on her own.
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So we've already done a math lesson. She can fill out her math sheet.
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She can start working those problems.
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We've already done a lesson.
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She can move on to her page of day geography.
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It is important that you set yourself up for success,
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both in parenting and in homeschooling, especially if you have multiple children,
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to help them learn to work independently.
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And I know that this is a big pain point in the homeschool world.
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Children being able to work in.
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Children being able to stay on task, children being able
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to get anything done without you hovering and hand-holding.
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And this is something that I have put into them very, very young.
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So if you're just starting out, start now.
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Start loud, start proud
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because you're going to build into it and it's going to serve you so well later.
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We haven't had to address this guys in years because again,
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there's a big gap in my kids.
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My fourth grader was my fault.
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My four year old at the time was so ready to come to the table.
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She wanted her own stuff to work on because she saw that we were working.
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We were doing things.
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We were learning things.
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It was fun, it was entertaining, it was engaging.
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And so she wanted to come along.
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And that started early.
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Guys that started with letting her color letters.
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While Big Sister and I were working on phonics.
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That started with letting her sit in on any amount of video lesson
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that we had that started with her just listening to his request in the car.
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Okay, so she has been exposed to so much,
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so many things over the years simply by existing
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and being part of the team and being drug along.
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So I do want to let you know it's possible.
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I do want to let you know.
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Just start early and stay consistent.
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It is so hard.
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And of course, please teach everybody the math they need to know.
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Teach everybody the language arts. They need to know.
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I am not saying to cut corners.
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What I am saying is to combine where you can combine,
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where it makes sense,
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combine where everybody is still going to get the best possible
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educational model that they can.
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I know that my fifth grader is not going to put out a high school
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honors level history assignment.
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I am okay with that.
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Okay, so adjust your expectations, but keep your expectations consistent.
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It is not ever going to get any easier.
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So you might as well go through the the work and the pain
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of setting up both your parenting, your home and your homeschool.
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All, all of it is going to have to work hand in hand.
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If you are doing anything with multiple children, okay,
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you're going to need the consistency.
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You're going to need a bit of that rigidity
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to make sure that you're getting things done. Okay.
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And if you can go in with a plan, please,
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please combine some things where possible.
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Not each child needs to have their own science program
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as specially if they're a year or two apart.
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You are doing yourself a disservice,
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and I know there's going to be a lot of people who get really mad at me
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and tell me otherwise, but those are the same people
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who are asking me how we get so much done, how my home functions the way it does.
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So you can either think I'm crazy, okay, and stay in naysayer, and that's fine.
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But I can tell you that we spend half a day on our academics.
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My kids get stuff done.
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They are motivated on their own.
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They still got stuff done the first week of school
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when I had a dentist appointment.
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They know what they need to do and they get it done
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and a lot of the group things.
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So history and science, they will start these things up on their own.
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And there is a wonderful accountability that comes.
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So when everybody is doing science at the same time, it is good
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and it is done and it is holding everybody accountable.
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Everybody else has to chip in to make this thing done.
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And it is boom, boom, 30 minutes
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and we're in and we're out on science and it is great and it is all done.
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So I have to tell you, I'm not saying I'm an expert, I'm just telling you
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what works for us.
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And these methods work for us.
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So it is possible to homeschool many grades.
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It is possible to homeschool many kids and it is maybe one of those things.
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Maybe you do have like a really, really big spread.
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Let's say you've got a first grader and ninth grader.
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Have the first grader study with the ninth grader studying.
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Listen to me.
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The ninth grader is studying biology.
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The first grader can learn about animals.
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The first grader can learn about cells.
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The first grader can color a printout of an animal cell.
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While the ninth grader is learning about animal cells.
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The first grader can understand taxonomy.
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And maybe do like a matching for what comes first and next.
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Well, the ninth grader is doing it from memory.
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You can incorporate your kids, you can combine them.
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They will love it.
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They really will.
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Okay.
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Group learning in a home is so wonderful.
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It really makes me think that this is what homeschool is all about.
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When we're all sitting together, when we're all learning, when we're all
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increasing our knowledge together in a way
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that is enjoyable, that we can make, I think is really nice.
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Because what I don't want, at least not for my homeschool,
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is everybody going their separate ways, doing their own things.
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That doesn't sound fun for anybody at all.
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So the more we can combine, the more we can enjoy doing together.
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I know that it's going to serve them really well
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and set them up for a better success, because it is so possible.
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It is so possible to homeschool multiple grade levels and multiple kids.
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And again, I'm just you know, these are my caveats and my kids are old.
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Okay. So my youngest is a fifth grader.
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So she is like well in to understanding how this works.
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My youngest has been homeschooled for.
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Eight
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years, seven years, seven years, seven years
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probably, let's say pre-K for kinder, first, second, third, fourth.
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Okay. Seven years.
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This is my youngest seventh year of homeschooling.
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Okay. So she knows how the game works.
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She knows how it goes.
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My ninth grader, my kids are old now, so I do not have young kids.
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And again I only have two.
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But you can apply this to 50.
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You can apply this to one.
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Consistency is always going to serve you best.
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Combine where possible
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and just remember that there are only a few things that truly need to be
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taught on individual grade level.
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Make sure that what you're pouring into them is a lot,
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but what you expect from them is reasonable
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for their developmental stage age, grade level.
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Okay, because that I think is really, really easy to do.
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Your first grader can color and label, okay, your ninth grader can maybe do it
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a section. It's just different. Okay, okay.
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Well guys, I hope you found any of this helpful, entertaining or informative.
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If you did,
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please scroll down, hit that big red subscribe button,
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turn on the bell for notifications and give this video a thumbs up.
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As always, you can find me down in the comments
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or over on Instagram at Making Every Day Magic.
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I am really excited to hear guys, what do you want to hear coming up soon?
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What is it that you want to see?
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I'm doing deep dives on a few things.
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I think I'm going to circle back to our planners.
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I've had so many more questions on that and like my kids
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suggested a thing that they then implemented.
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So I have to show it to you.
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There is so much going on.
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This year has started out really, really awesome.
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Oh my gosh. We're almost are we?
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We're almost a month in. Who knew?
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And we're having a great time.
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We are having a truly great time.
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It's going really well.
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Everybody just got right back into that groove on week one, which was so great
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because I was so nervous about starting late.
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But I'm going to show back up with,
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Nomadic professor for sure.
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Is getting a deep dive really soon.
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And then I think homeschool planners is coming back around deep dive really soon.
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So let me know what else you want to see, okay?
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Because we've got a lot.
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We've always got things we can talk about, and I am super happy to share
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what is working for us or what is that working for us.
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Just to save you a little bit of time and grief and to hopefully spare
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you trying to try it yourself, if maybe it won't be a good fit.
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Guys, I think that's it. Together.
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Let's keep making everyday magic.