How do you organize work for multiple students. I'm going from homeschooling one who did k12 this year which had it all organized to doing traditional homeschooling with four kids. I have pretty much figured out which curriculum we are going to use. Now I just need to figure out how to organize it all and how I'm going to manage homeschooling all four and getting all the work done. Any advice would be great. Thanks.
Combine as much as possible! History and science are especially good for this, but it becomes more difficult when you've got them in high school. This year, my "grades" 6 and 10 are doing vocabularly together.
I am still learning this as we are ending our first year of homeschooling (we have a 3rd grader, 1st grader, and baby at home). We have been through several organizational methods. Our first system was a portable file box. Each kiddo had their own color of hanging files, one for each subject (i.e., 3rd grader had about 5 yellow hanging files, 1st grader had about 5 blue ones). Inside each folder was a traditional file folder, one for each day of the week for that subject (i.e., they had one file folder marked for each day of the week, so 5 for math; for science they each had 2, one for Mon and one for Thurs, and so on). This ended up not working so well as I learned that our lessons needed to be much more hands-on for their learning styles, and were not simple workbooks and worksheets that my friend's kiddos thrived on. We currently have our buffet-style cabinet filled (6 shelves total), with 2 subjects or so on each of 5 shelves and one shelf has all of my materials. One shelf has art supplies and art books, one has math manipulatives and "bonus" work, one shelf has science and history, etc. Under our easel I have 2 baskets, one for each student, filled with their current workbooks/textbooks/projects. As we are moving soon enough and will have a new space with which to work (and likely even smaller, yikes!), I am making this system work for now, but I hope to find a better one that will suit our needs a bit better. I hope that helps a little!
Since I school Other People's Kids, organizing can be quite a challenge. Especially when one enrolls or leaves unexpectedly during a year... I have a spiral notebook where I grid off the pages myself (very flexible that way), one column for each kid, or if there are more than four or fiive, a day is a two-page spread. Kids' names across the top, subjects down the side, very brief "lesson plans" in the box where rows and columns meet. (Pages 28-32 or Lesson 8 or something like that) Grades in red and circled. I put a similar grid on a whiteboard posted near the front of the room, so the kids can see what they need to do. Mostly I let them decide what order they want to do it in, as long as they get it all done. When it's done, they put it in an "inbox" on my desk and I check it and give it back. The younger the student, the more teacher-time they need. Each student has a desk with a milk-crate type file box beside it, in which they have one hanging folder for their ruler to live in along with some looseleaf paper and any unfinished worksheets. They each have a clipboard, so they can work anywhere in the room they need to. Some subjects are in workbooks, and some are in textbooks with spiral notebooks, so all that lives in the box as well. Crayons and color pencils (and maybe a small scissors and a stick glue, depending) live in a pencil box in the file box. Each desk has a sort of cubby under the seat, but they can put personal items in there if they like. Behind my desk I have another file box, with a hanging folder for each child. Inside there, there's a manila folder and a colored folder. The colored folder holds quizzes and tests, or other worksheets not yet done. The manila one holds finished tests and other worksheets after completion. Another filebox holds workbooks not yet done, so when one is finished, all I have to do is grab the next one and issue it. My desk has a space where I keep my TMs lined up, and one for test booklets or worksheet books that'll be used for making copies from. Hope this in some way helps (even if it's just to tell you what you can avoid! LOL)
When I still had a bunch of kids at home they each had a plastic box (we used the old milk containers) and had all their books in them. Each weekend I wrote up the work for each (a weeks worth) in a spiral tablet. Mine were older when I was doing this. Little ones I just did a bit of work each day with as they needed more one on one.
Organizing your time can be fun! You may want to start out with a daily lesson schedule even to get things rolling out daily. I personally work better under a schedule but my ds does his work according to a list. I time stamp things when we need it done by a certain time that day now. I found that at 14 he would finish things faster than he had in the past some days and take twice as long on other days. When I had three 'students' my kids all had different schedules of lessons but it got too confusing for me to jump from middle school math to 2nd grade then back to intermediate math. So I changed things up a bit so that I would teach each math lesson at a different time of day. ds 1 would be taught when I was freshest because he needed the most work, dd mostly needed explanation of new concepts and she would take off! little ds2 back the would get his last, only because he worked on a lower level and my brain was worn out by then! haha! SO -- write out what work they will need to be done each week, I tried monthly and quarterly even a whole year at least once... things change in our kids lives and ours way to much to go that far ahead without a back up. So go with weekly lesson planning. Set up what you need for any instruction you need to do in advance too on weekends. of course if your boys are like my kids weekends will be filled with sports or other activities so you will have to plan a time to work on it. I have been home schooling since my oldest (21 this year) was in K. So I have been through one, then two then three, and then reversing that lol. All in all I find having the lessons down for the week works best to keep things organised. There IS a fantastic planner out there that you can plan your whole life on, I watched a webinar about it and though I would not be able to keep it up some people an thrive with it! Its like the planner from heaven! OF course if you are working on a budget like me you could also get a dollar planner from Target in August. They give me lots of teacher stuff at Staples each year too! For free even! I also suggest that you get a white board to have kids write what they need from you while you are working with one of the other boys because it really helps you stay focused , I am thinking Math, and English which are classes we totally did not do together. History and Science can be done together and PE can be inserted in to help any kids who cant sit still long to stay focused. We used to make ds2 do calisthenics and run laps to get him wiggled out lol . I would write a book (dh said I should) of advice for you but you are getting lots from the other wise peeps on this Spot! Enjoy!
Just repeating what all the others have said.... ORGANIZE! Not only me but having the kids be organized as well. A place for everything and everything in it's place. Now, this is GREAT advice that I learned the hard way.... There were days my brain felt like it wanted to explode!~
I am just beginning to organize this year since our oldest is doing mainly 1st grade work. I am going to have our oldest 2 doing history and science together. Paddy always wants to do work with Beau so I gave him some file folders to do while he waits his turn. DH and I actually split up the subjects. Math and science are his bag, and I do LA, art appreciation. Reading is something that we both do. It takes the stress out of getting it all done. This way I can spend all the time I need on my side during the morning and early afternoon, and for the rest of the afternoon DH works on his 2 subjects while I do what I need to do (like cook and clean).
Since I went from 2 to 3 and now 4 kids, I found I did need a planner (I wish I would have bought it last year. LOL) I picked the Well Planned Day and got mine off of amazon. It is great, except it is last year's planner. (2011-2012) But I didn't let that stop me. I got some white out and have been slowly changing the dates. I put "current" curriculum in their locker (Yes, I hunted down a set of lockers on Craigslist. We have that in their room instead of a dresser. Clothes are kept in the garage.) I keep all extra in a rubbermaid bin labeled per child. (Since it is a new school year these are full, as we work these will empty.) Each kid has a desk or table to work at. And 2 have a soda boxes to take back and forth to their locker and desk that houses the current work.) The oldest has too many books for a box and the youngest has a cart next to my desk. Since 2 "do" math on the computer we take turns. (The oldest can use my laptop to listen to his TT lessons, since Geo. isn't actually done on the computer.) HS is my domain, Dh will help once he gets home from work (during football season that is late.) but that is only if 1 child needs extra help on a project or assignment. I'm still trying to balance housework and HS.
I am still trying to figure it out with this being our first year. I think it depends on the child/your style. I am sure it will change for us as the year progresses but we will see. Thankfully you can change it and mold it to what works for you!
I have a place for everything and most things are in their places. :lol: As for organizing the flow of the day we just try stuff until it works. Right now what's working is me doing school with the younger two first while the older two play upstairs in their rooms together. Then pulling them down to begin their things while the little two watch a video. Then it's lunch time and Sierra's nap and we finish school while she's napping. The afternoon from about 3pm on is free time. Our curriculum is very much open and go and do the next thing so there isn't a lot of pre-planning required from me. I prefer it that way. This week we started studying Ancient Egypt, mummies, etc. all because of the independent reading book my son picked earlier in the week. So our content we do kinda by the seat of our pants but we're lapbooking it this year so I will be able to say "This is what we learned about in social studies, geography, and history this year" at the end of the school year.
