How Other People Do It

Family One

(Children: A preschooler, a first grader, and a third grader)

How are you making it work?

“Having a daily and weekly schedule is a must. Routine and predictability are great peacekeepers for kids. We print a weekly lesson plan and mark off as we go.

“I am also a den leader (Cub Scouts), soccer coach, and work on the church newsletter. I have to admit that I have used the grandparents in a pinch with my little one, but never for school day issues.”

Which courses do you combine?

“We found that it is easier and more fun to combine Music. All three participate.”

How do you balance your time?

“[The preschooler] is part of the routine. I don't actively try to instruct him yet. With some prompting, he keeps himself busy with various items in our classroom and around the house. He knows where everything is, loves the different materials, and even has his own supplies on a shelf. He is my classroom helper. I will sometimes set him up with a ‘station’ in a different room with toys. He will participate (in his own way) in many of the lessons, especially Science, Music, and Art. Sometimes he just sits and listens.

“He is a distraction at times, but I am not trying to create a sterile environment. Being able to work through interruptions and distractions is a good skill to acquire. I have the others read aloud their Language Arts/English stories to him at times. It is amazing what he is learning just by being close by.

“My third grader often can work independently once a subject is introduced. He can do History and Science by himself with minimal supervision during experiments and projects (he loves this).

“The first grader requires the most one-on-one teaching. However, I can see that quickly she will be doing a lot of the work on her own.”

What organizational methods do you use?

“I think what has worked best for us it to get the day going early. We try to start school by 9 a.m.  Sometimes, we are able to start earlier. We always do core material in the morning.

“Most often we are through Math and all Language Arts/English by lunch. Then we can eat and relax a bit. (I have found that a big, middle-of-the-day recess is difficult to recover from.)

“After lunch, we complete another lesson or even two of Art, History, Science, or Music. Then we are done for the day.

“What has worked best for me is to involve the kids as much as possible in every aspect of the day. From dusting to quiet reading time, they help keep the ball rolling.”

Family Two

(Children: A kindergartner and a first grader)

Math

“I only do the online activity if my child doesn't understand the concept. So far, both of my children have been able to get through most of the workbook and printed worksheets without me going through the entire online lesson.”

Language Arts/English

“We take all the reading sessions that are four days and make them one or two days. The kids get very bored if we’re reading the same story for more than two days. Sometimes, if our book in first grade is more interesting than the scheduled kindergarten book, we’ll skip the kindergarten book altogether and read the first grade book. I'm trying to consolidate the literature to where I'm reading to both of them from either one or the other’s lessons. It saves time reading one set of literature books, rather than two.”

Art

“Instead of teaching kindergarten and first grade Art, I dropped the kindergarten Art and taught first grade Art to both of them. I did the same thing for Music.”

History

“My son is seven. He’s able to read the History lessons himself on our kitchen computer while I make dinner, and then after dinner he will dictate to me what the lesson was about. I give him any assessments personally. This has helped a lot because I can oversee what he’s learning but not have to be the one reading the lesson to him. This has saved me an hour!”

Family Three

(Children: A kindergartner not enrolled in K12, a first grader, and a third grader)

Supplies

“Next to my desk, I have a hanging file cabinet. I make up packets of the unit we are currently working on. When I tell the kids to get their packet (Math, Language Arts/English, Science, or History), they can find it by their color-coded hanging folder.

“With this system, I have fewer loose papers to keep up with and the kids often want to work ahead when they flip through the packet to see what is next. It does seem to give the lessons more of a unit study feel because if they are really enjoying it, we keep on working through the packet.

“When the lesson is over, the packet goes quickly back in the hanging file. When a packet/unit is finished, we file it away in a binder for that subject. The first year I used K12, I spent a lot of time printing worksheets and finding the worksheet for the lesson. With the unit packets [this year], it is all ready to go.

“Getting the printed materials this year for first grade complete and third grade Language Arts was a big time saver. I definitely recommend this.” (K12 Virtual academy families please note: Check with your virtual academy to see if this is an option.)

Workspace

“Everyone has her own desk at least 10 feet apart and I have an L-shaped desk with plenty of workspace. If they have questions, they come to my desk where I have a chair for the student needing instruction. Let their feet do the walking!”

Schedule

“We start the morning by everyone grabbing their Math packet. While I am giving instruction to one, the other is doing the Skills Update on her own. By the time I get the first and third graders going on their own, I give my five-year-old an assignment (usually handwriting or Math).

“Next, we do Language Arts. I start with the third grader and explain the GUM lesson and send her to her desk to do the work. This usually gives enough time for me to do Phonics with the first grader. I teach the lesson and send her to her desk to complete the work. My husband teaches her Literature. (He uses first grade Literature for bedtime stories to the girls.) I staple the lesson discussion questions inside the Junior Great Books and he takes care of that. This makes her Language Arts lesson relatively short because we are mainly doing the GUM.

“I have found many times that we are covering the same topics in the same day in first and third grade GUM (example: using a dictionary), so I teach them together.

“We do Science and History on alternating days. Sometimes we will do several lessons at one time and make it a mini-unit, then pick the optional activities to add. We do Art with the corresponding History level and all children participate.”

Subjects

“I decided to combine subjects to make my teaching time more efficient, especially knowing that I will be adding my five-year-old in the fall. We stopped the third grade Science and History and everyone (five-, seven-, and nine-year-olds) started the first grade Science and History classes together.

“At first, my third grader was not too happy about it, thinking it would be too easy, but I just required more work on her part. When the younger ones may be coloring a fish to learn about the anatomy, the older one is writing a report and reading additional materials from the library.

“I was concerned about [my third grader] missing things from her Science level but I found that when I was trying to teach so many subjects, I was skimming too much and skipping the fun parts. It was either skim both first and third grade Science or dive deep into one. We like to dive deep into Science and this gives us the time to do it. My third grader is probably learning more since I have the teaching time to dig deeper.”

Assessments

“They do their Math and Language Arts/English assessments individually but we do the Science and History assessments together. My third grader is also graded on her extra assignments that I give to bring the first grade Science to her level.”

Other Lessons Learned

“Make K12 work for you. Don't become a slave to it. It is designed to be a wonderful tool. It took over a year for me to figure out how best to use it, but with standardized test scores going up 25 percent and everyone enjoying school, I couldn’t ask for more. No more going to homeschool fairs trying to figure out what to use. I have complete confidence with K12.

“I have really learned how to be more time efficient this year and make sure everyone is learning and enjoying it. It doesn’t matter to me which level the Science or History is, as long as the Math and Language Arts/English are on grade level. I felt I had to make these changes in order to be ready for adding another child to the schedule in the fall.

“I love homeschooling and knew that I had to do what works for me so that I can continue to homeschool without being stressed or taking on too much.”

Family Four

(Children: A kindergartner and a first grader)

“Before I start teaching, I read the Course Introductions for each subject. This may have been obvious for some people and may have been in my K12® instructions somewhere, but I was so excited when I started that I made the mistake of just jumping into teaching. In retrospect, I wish I had read the introductions first!

“I suggest that when you start using K12 that you ease into it one or two subjects at a time until you get your routine going. Start with Math or Language Arts/English and perhaps a ‘fun’ subject. Then after a while, even weeks, add one or two more subjects. This keeps us from getting overwhelmed. (K12 Virtual academy families please note: Check with your virtual academy to see if this is an option.)

“I found that I had to get my daughters up to a point in Math and Phonics where it started to challenge them. We moved through lessons very quickly at first. If your children are bored at the beginning, try speeding up to get them to the point where they are challenged.

“Remember, you don't have to do everything in the lesson for your child to meet the learning objective. Experiment until you find what your child likes and learns with best. For example, one child did not like the letter tiles, so she does not use them, but she still learns what she needs to. (Sometimes I write, sometimes I have her spell words aloud.)

“If we really get interested in a subject, we spend a lot of time on that one and forgo the others. It evens out over time. The K12® scheduling tools are great for this. The progress section will show you when you start to lag in one subject and get ahead in another.

“Each child does her own Math and Language Arts/English. (I get one started, and then work with the other and go back and forth as they need me.)

“With Language Arts/English stories, I usually read the stories to both of them and direct most of the discussion to the one who it was intended for. Having both in the discussion is more stimulating for them.

“For the Junior Great Books, you can photocopy the pages that they draw on for the other child or you can order an extra sets of books from greatbooks.com. Using this approach has slowed us down, but both children are benefiting. We usually don't read the stories as many times as K12 says, nor do we discuss all the questions, but we read each story at least two times.

“Don't forget to look ahead on the materials lists for books you need to get from the library or buy. I have found that most of the optional stories have been worth spending the extra time to read to the children (even just as bedtime stories).

“And lastly, one of the reasons that I think homeschooling works so well for us (in addition to using K12’s great curriculum) is that we have fun together. We really enjoy being together.”

Family Five

(Children: A preschooler and a first grader)

How are you making it work?

“This year my [preschool] son is only doing kindergarten Phonics and kindergarten Math a few days a week. My husband helps by teaching a Science and/or Art lesson about once a week.”

Which courses do you combine?

“The younger one piggybacks the first grader’s Science, Music, Art, and sometimes History. Next year we will combine and finish grade 1 Music and grade 2 Art together. For Science, I will try to teach some of it together when kindergarten and grade 2 topics can correlate with one another.

“For History, they will do kindergarten and second grade but I will have [the older child] sit with the kindergartner to do his History. It will be a great review.”

How do you balance your time?

“My husband is home until 2 p.m. each day so he plays with and reads to the preschooler in the morning. He teaches Science and Art to both about once a week so I can catch up and do other things. He also teaches PE most mornings.”

What organizational methods do you use?

“We have a schedule as a guide to go by, but it does not have specific times on it. I have found that I only need about 30 minutes to teach a lesson one-on-one. This speeds things up a bit. My boys are fairly quick learners, so at times we skip parts of lessons if they do not need the extra practice. They can finish some work independently while I start on the next subject with other child. We are flexible and the schedule varies as needed.”