Painted Rock Paperweights and Multi Age Teaching
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We Love Fall!
We are fully immersed in fall over here, hitting up pumpkin patches and harvest festivals, and contriving costumes for the various celebrations we are participating in.
We are also making a high priority of experiencing all the tastes of fall. We made homemade caramel to dip our apples in, pumpkin muffins to eat with our tea, and apple cider to eat with T.J's maple leaf cookies. We love immersing ourselves in each new season and enjoying all the sights, smells and flavors.
Teaching Multiple Ages
I am homeschooling four children this year, and we also have a once a week preschool student. This means that I need to be very creative about how I teach all of these students. It just isn't possible to teach a different curriculum to each child. Because of this reality, I combine several subjects with my children in order to simplify my teaching. This means that my 2nd and 4th grade students do science and history together, and my older boys take an English class together, which combines many high school grades. We also do morning time as a group, which provides great opportunities for the oldest and youngest to learn cooperation skills.
If you are using The Peaceful Preschool curriculum, you may find yourself in a similar situation. You may be trying to teach preschool to a 3-5-year-old, while also doing early elementary studies, and caring for a baby. This takes a lot of creativity, but you can very effectively teach multiple grades by combining subjects.
Here is a sample schedule for ages 0-8.
8:00 Morning Time - Sing, read TPP picture book, along with any devotional literature or memory work. We also alternate adding a science or history read aloud in our morning time. While I read, little ones may play quietly in the same room, do some of their fine motor activities, watercolor paint, or crayon. I try to offer a tidy snack such a dry cereal or cheese cubes to a toddler and I would nurse my infant (when I had one) during morning time to keep it as focused as possible.
9:00 Language - Review letter of the day with little ones, review any missing phonograms or sight words with early elementary students. Play an object game, phonics hop, or other phonics activity with all emergent readers. This is also a good time for copy work, a handwriting workbook such as Handwriting Without Tears, or an easy phonics workbook such as Explode The Code.
10:00 Outside Time - Take a break to look at leaves and insects, have some tea, change the laundry or put the baby down for a nap.
10:30 Math - Set up a counting activity with math learners. Hands-on math is important for all children below the age of 10. A program such as Right Start Math could be used with multiple ages. Finish with a worksheet drill for older students while little ones get some free time.
Any more advanced work such as grammar, map work, or science experiments could then be done in the afternoon while infants and toddlers are napping.
How do you manage teaching multiple ages?
Ladybug Paperweight DIY
As we approach the holidays, I am brainstorming for how some of our craft projects could be turned into gifts for grandparents. I am pulling together a list of these ideas, and our L week craft could easily go into a productivity basket, along with a nice pen and notepad or journal.
As we read the book, "The Grouchy Ladybug" for "L" week, we chose a bunch of nice river rocks to create painted rocks with. Young children are usually pretty happy to paint on anything, so set up an old sheet outside, along with some rocks and a set of paints. Let your children decorate the rocks as they like, or paint bug eyes and spots on the rocks, and then allow them to dry.
An easy fine motor skill, resulting in a great set of bingo markers, or a perfect gift for grandparents.
What letter are you on? Share, by tagging #thepeacefulpreschool on Instagram, or in our encouraging private Facebook group, available with your curriculum purchase.
For a complete list of picture books used for The Peaceful Preschool click here.
For hands-on learning with your K-6 grade students, check out The Playful Pioneers Version 2.0 and The Precious People.