How to homeschool multiple ages of kids in different grades in a limited amount of time is perhaps one of the most daunting aspects of homeschooling. Yikes! One room schoolhouse, anyone?
Fortunately, teaching multiple ages at once is a problem common to most homeschooling families, so parents have come up with amazingly creative ways to do it successfully!
Yep, I’ve personally tried lots of ways to homeschool multiple ages of kids, too! I haven’t yet found a silver bullet that works each year, but I’ve learned that different ideas work different years depending on the ages and needs of my kiddos. And a combo approach is what has worked absolutely the best for our family.
How do you homeschool multiple ages at the same time?
There are seven tried-and-true ways to homeschool multiple ages at once! Find the one that works for you or combine them for a unique style that fits your family.
- Teach family style
- Virtual learning
- Collaborative learning
- Chunking
- Dedicated Mom-time
- College-style
- Rotating subjects
This material is excerpted from my book, Heading into Homeschool. Grab a copy on Amazon!
1. Teach Family Style
Some academic subjects lend themselves really well to teaching and learning as a whole group, family style.
In our home, the best family style subjects have been:
- Science
- History
- Bible
- Reading aloud
These subjects can be taught to several of your children together and then you can differentiate the learning by simply assigning additional writing assignments, further independent reading or other work to older children while modifying instruction to make it easier for the younger ones. Even young readers benefit from listening to stories read aloud to them at a higher level than they can read themselves. Plus, serving it up family style allows for verbal explanation of new vocabulary and great opportunities to talk through concepts as a family.
If this style interests you, some publishers like Sonlight and My Father’s World are complete curricula designed to accommodate several grade levels at once. In fact, they both wrap their instruction around shared history and read-alouds for the whole family.
Family style learning was my fav way of homeschooling in our early years when we were new to homeschooling and my children were small.
2. Virtual Learning
In recent years, virtual classes have become a popular option and are more readily available. In our house, we farm math out to virtual teachers for our older children. Yep! You read that right – I don’t teach math. My kids use Saxon math and watch their math lessons online through Nicole the Math Lady, a phenomenal online math program. Nicole has pre-recorded videos to teach every single lesson as well as options to grade the student’s work for immediate feedback. This incredible program gives my kids a great deal of independence in math and frees me up to work with the other kids!
Disclosure: I’m proud to be working with Nicole the Math Lady as part of her influencer program. All options expressed are my own, and all product claims or program details shared should be verified with Nicole the Math Lady. If you’re interested, jump over to my complete, honest review of her program!
3. Collaborative Learning
Older children can read aloud to younger siblings, give them spelling tests, or go over math facts with them. Everyone knows that the person who learns the most is the one who teaches! Teaching younger siblings – in small chunks – is a great way to foster family love and reinforce learning for all involved! Even children of a similar age can often help each other review math facts, practice spelling words, or memorize poetry. Look for simple, easy tasks where two of your kids can work together!
This is also one of my must-do hacks for homeschooling with a baby or toddler. Kids in lower elementary can take turns reading aloud to baby or spelling out their spelling words. Baby will be delighted and is learning the sounds of the language while big brother or sister get some much needed practice!
>>> READ: How to Match Your Teaching Style to Your Child’s Learning Style?
4. Working Together but Apart – Chunking
Another way to homeschool multiple ages without going crazy is to get all your children to work on the same subject at the same time but at different levels with different materials. For example, you can have all kids do silent reading for 20 minutes, but each is reading on grade level. Wow! 20 minutes of silence! Doesn’t that sound nice? Mom just might need this some days to take a break – or to work with another child one on one.
Another idea is to have all kids work on handwriting together, but one child may be learning to print while another does cursive. We’ve done this before to start off the school day and also right after lunch – everyone does silent reading, following by spelling, followed by Bible or something else for example.
I’ve also heard this called “chunking”. A simple way is to split your day into 3 chunks: (1) language arts, (2) math, (3) science + history. Have all kids work on their assigned material in each chunk at the same time. Yep, they’ll all be working on different material while you walk around helping, encouraging, teaching where needed.
5. Dedicated Mom-Time
While many subjects work well for whole-family instruction, there’s no doubt kids need specific grade level teaching on certain subjects – especially language arts and math. It is hard to “share” reading instruction when kids are on different grade levels.
Probably the most effective way I have found to homeschool multiple ages of children at once is to devote dedicated one-on-one time to each child, focusing on the areas needing direct teaching. Then, that child moves on to independent learning while I work with another of my kids. I allocate around one hour per day of face-to-face time with each child to teach what that child specifically needs, but that flexes each year based on my kids’ needs and ages.
>>> Check it out – Reading Struggles: A Mom’s Guide to When to Worry
6. Independent Learning College-Style
As my kids have grown into junior high and high school, we use more of a college-type approach to homeschooling, where my kids “meet” with me during their time slot and otherwise do their work independently. This method teaches them to learn to read texts for comprehension and understanding and be masters of their own learning!
Remember that daily hour of one-on-one Mom time? With my older kids, we do this on a rotating basis and check all work completed that week for understanding.
For example, my one-on-one time with my daughter might include focusing on different subjects each day like this:
- Monday: math
- Tuesday: reading
- Wednesday: writing
- Thursday: science
- Friday: history
This means, on Thursdays, my daughter and I will do science together, check all the science work done over the previous week, check for understanding, and deep dive into any questions that came up in he readings. I might also do a preview with her of what to expect in her independent work over the next few days. On Friday, we will spend that same time slot on history.
This method works really well with older students who are accustomed to working independently. And if you think only checking in once a week per subject isn’t enough, change it to twice a week and make it work for your crew! This also gets bigger kids ready to thrive in college classes.
7. Rotating Subjects
With younger children, you can also rotate subjects, but a bit differently, since they need more guidance and are less independent. Some families teach science and history on alternate days during the elementary years, doing each only 2-3 days a week. Other families do handwriting and grammar on alternate days. Not every subject needs teaching every day!
If you have several small “extra” subjects you want to teach, you can also set up a rotating schedule to make sure they all get covered, too. Just think of the “quick” subjects that may not need daily instruction but that you’ve been really wanting to teach to your kids. For example,
- Mondays: Spanish
- Tuesdays: Sign language
- Wednesdays: Calligraphy
- Thursdays: Etiquette & manners
- Fridays: Volleyball
This has worked really well for us in the past when I wanted to pull in some extra subjects without doing them every single day. Once a week is a great amount of exposure, especially for elementary kids!
>>> READ: What Subjects to Teach in Homeschool?
A combo wins for homeschooling multiple ages
In reality, a combination of the above approaches is what has really worked in our home for homeschooling multiple ages of kiddos. I do a bit of this and a bit of that. Changing it up as the ages and needs of my kids change.
Our schedule for homeschooling multiple ages of children
I start with one-on-one time with my preschooler. These are sweet, precious moments where I get to focus on her alone – when she’s in the mood. If she’s too bouncy or not-focused, then we just read and play together. I know she’s still learning! Plus, after having that special time with Mommy first thing in the morning, she’s more willing to play independently which frees me up to work with other kids.
While I’m working with my little one, my middle kids are doing their virtual math classes with Nicole the Math Lady. My oldest is completing her independent work, which these days includes dual-credit college courses.
When my preschooler is done with Mom-time, she is free to play! Meanwhile, I shift gears to my second youngest where we spend our one-on-one time doing her language arts together. I check in periodically with my older kids, but they simply continue doing their independent work all morning.
During lunch, we all do Bible together, serving it up family-style just like the food. I’ve learned that my kids learn scripture best when their mouths are full, and their minds can listen. We like to nourish the body and soul at the same time!
After lunch, I sometimes ask everyone to do quiet reading time or sometimes we do history together family-style. It resets everyone and gives them a break from both noise and togetherness. By then, my younger kids are often finished and start play time. If not, they can finish up the last bit of independent work on their own. I dedicate after-lunch time to one-on-one with my older kids. My high school daughter sadly doesn’t need much time with me these days. She rocks and rolls on her own really well! My son in junior high, however, often needs more time, so I love being able to spend these moments with him while the little ones are playing in the background.
So, a combo of approaches to homeschool multiple ages wins the day!
Which approach to homeschooling multiple ages of kids works best for your family?