Homeschooling "Extra" Kids With Your Own

The first thing you need to know - not everyone will thrive teaching their own kids, let alone extra kids.  I just happen to have a talent for tutoring and teaching, and the bigger my group, the more dedication I put into it.   So for me, teaching others kids actually helps me teach my own.

So ... here's my story .... and how we manage....

Most people who have known me a long time, claim that I was born a teacher.   Now, I really can't make any claims there, but by the time I was in 5th grade, I do know that my mom was already putting me next to the two kids who needed the most help during homework times at night.   We kept foster kids and babysat from the time I was 5 until I was 17.   But at 10 years old, I was usually helping at least 2 younger kids while I did my own homework.   And they thrived!   Their grades improved, their work improved, and their parents or teachers were impressed with how much they learned.   Of course, my mom was also helping, but with sometimes up to a dozen kids, I had my end of the table, and she had hers.

Each summer, we participated in VBS.  Many of them.   Most churches in the 70's had buses that they sent around to pick the kids at 9 am to bring them to VBS.   We usually participated in the same 4 or 5 each year.  My mom always helped when our own church ran VBS, but the rest ... we took the bus.   Now, at 12, you top out of most VBS programs, so my mom asked could she send her 13-year-old to help out?   Unlike today, most churches back then were more than happy to say yes.   Usually, I was put in with one of my younger siblings.   That was when I first heard the term "Born Teacher."   That year I went to 4 or 5 VBS programs, all more or less knew me and my family from the years before attending summers and sometimes other programs.  BUT, that summer, several of the adults that I worked with made a point to seek out one of my parents to thank them for sending me ... telling them I was Born Teacher.   Of course, that meant very little to a 13-year-old kid who was shy and self-conscious about everything.   But the next year, they asked my mom if I would be able to help out again, and they let me be a lot more involved in the program.   I thrived on the positive experience.

At 15, my parents helped our pastor start an AWANA program.  I got to help with Sparkies.  The next year Awana introduced the Cubbie program.   I joined them, and nobody quite knew what they were doing, even at the training, it was fun working out the program.  I loved it.  The main leader quit midway through the year, before Christmas, and I suddenly found myself the Cubbie Expert, as the two of us were the only ones who had gone for the Cubbie Training.  By 18, my dad put me in charge of the whole Cubbie program officially.

I went to college, married, and started teaching at a Christian School.   It took the principal only a few weeks to discover that I was just as good with 3 and 4-year-old kids as I was teaching Geometry to the 10th-grade class.  In fact, while I was not aware he was testing me and observing, he kept putting kids in my path that needed extra help.    Although I can't say I was overly impressed when he moved me down to teach kindergarten!

Then we had Story.  I quit teaching to stay home.  She was a February baby.   But a few weeks into the next school year, maybe it was October, my principal called to ask if I would take on a student who needed some extra help.   In January, I gained another student.  And then a third with 2 who came by for extra tutoring.   That began a kind of symbiont relationship with the school, where I homeschooled kids who just needed away from other kids and a lot of extra help.   We moved when Story was 5.  But most of her babyhood involved other kids in the house with her.

Over the years, I've helped my sisters, friends, and others as a teacher or tutor.   Occasionally, I do still hear that "born teacher" bit, but at 49, most just think I've got a degree in teaching.

About 2 years ago, I took on a friend's two younger kids where were of an age with Scholar and Sunshine, I'm calling them Squirrel and Star.


All that to say .... I have a box load of experience in Homeschooling and teaching other peoples kids.


So how do you handle mixing in other kids?  Some people appear to do this effortlessly - my mom was one of those.  Not me.  Though I try, I rarely feel like I've succeeded.   Just getting a new student in my class was enough to make me panic!

I never panicked teaching Cubbies though - because I had a plan of action, my workers knew I was painfully shy and they knew the plan as well.   As an INTJ - it is always about "The Plan".

So, here is my "plan of action".


Getting Started
First, find out what the laws are in your state.   If you start with kids that have been home schooled all along, it is easier.   The parent just keeps filling out the paperwork and you provide the proof.  Still, there are states that frown at parents sharing the load.

I was able to help out our Christian School.   If you can work under the umbrella of a Christian School or a Homeschool Co-op, then that is a great option.

If you live in a stricter state, you will want to find the backing of the Homeschool Lawyers.    https://www.hslda.org/   In fact, this is a great idea even if you only school your own.

I also plan homework for the kids to take home.   If the parents are ever questioned, they have some idea of where their child is in school.


Making A Plan
Back in the late 90's and most of the time I have taught and tutored, the kids went home in the afternoon and returned the next morning.   BUT, the two I have now, live with me for several days and then go home.  It pans out at about half of the time they are here, and half at home.   Otherwise, their mom would be driving 4 hours a day.   When I took them on, it was only for a 6 - 8-week agreement and gas was very high.    But that is one thing you will have to consider.

The curriculum will have to be chosen.  We used Alpha Omega lifepacs with my original students.  The school used them too, and they would take the finished ones to the school and get the next one.  This made curriculum easy for me and the parents.   Later, as I helped my sisters and friends, I just adapted to whatever they choose.   But if you know that you are going to assimilate them for an extended time.  It is best to use whatever you are comfortable using with your own kids.  The fewer different curriculums that you have on the table, the easier it is to teach it.  My friend and I share the cost of some of the curriculum because I will be doing the teaching and we only need one set of teacher books.

In my case, my boys are both in 7th grade, and the girls are in 4th and 2nd.   We use a lot of Rod and Staff.   So all of them are in RS English, Spelling, and Reading.   This way the terminology and methods are consistent throughout.  They can help each other, no matter which levels that they are learning, and if they listen to each other's lessons, there is constant new or review information.   In math, I use a computer curriculum, and they take turns.  In Science, they are all together, and I give the boys extra research and reports to challenge them, as well as tests at the end of sections.   History and Bible are much the same, although the boys and girls are separate.    If you have a bigger group, you'll want to clump them up as much as possible.   Lifepaces are a good alternative if you want them all doing their grade level and don't feel confident teaching a group.  There are also some really awesome online schools now that were not available 10 years ago, many have started in the past 5 years.  This allows you to supervise, but also be able to teach multiple ages and grades.  You will need a computer for every  child and room to set them all up.

Space is another consideration.  Where will each child sit?  What will they need for school supplies?  What about bookshelves, art supplies, and other such items?  Wall hangings?  Calenders?

Finally, sit down and make up a calendar.  It won't just be your kids, so having scheduled days of vacation and school will help you all stay together.   You'll need to provide about 36 weeks of work, although most states allow up to a week off per 6 weeks, so the reality is, 30 weeks must be recorded for attendance to be acceptable.    What is working for us?  Starting the beginning of August, we school for 7 weeks (I'm calling them Rotations), take a 2 week break, school for 7 weeks, take a Thanksgiving to New Year break,  Rotation 3 is another 7 weeks, then a week off,  Rotation 4 is another 7 weeks (although Easter we will take off a week in the middle),   then another week off (2 if you count the Easter week), Rotation 5 for a final 7 weeks.   Now, some of the kids will have a tiny bit extra leftover to work on in June, but it will not be a full schedule.


Making It Work
I've never in my life had a plan work on the first run.  Never.   So, now that you have a plan, be ready to tweak it.

In my first set of homeschoolers, back in the 90's.   One of my student's moms could not bring him on Wednesday.   So he stayed home and came to my house for a couple of hours on Saturday's instead.  Another student only came half days on Friday.

This year, Squirrel and Star's dad has decided to run off to get up close and personal with the eclipse.  They left Friday.  But this is week 4 of "The Plan"!   So, we slid the next 4 weeks over.  I'm sure he'll surprise me a few more times before the year is out.

Last year, in the middle of Rotation 3, my extra 2 got sick, the stomach kind, and then horrible colds with fevers.  No sooner were they feeling better, than my entire family finally succumbed to the stomach bug, and a few days later, caught the same cold.   For 3 weeks, they all stayed home, and I did a lot of sleeping.  Being sick was totally not part of the plan!

We also set up their schedule this year so Science is the last subject.   We just finished week 3, and it is not quite working.  So when everyone comes back, Science will be the first subject.   It also didn't work for the girls to do reading first, it takes them a while to get going, and often we didn't get back to finish the lesson.  On the other hand, the boys have a Study hour, and I've decided it will work better to put that at the end of their day.  Working on the girls Reading at the same time as the boys English was also not working.   There is only so much of me to go around!

This is our 3rd year to combine the kids.  So we've worked out most of the bugs, the kids know their routine and who has what chores.    And everyone knows where they will sleep at night, where their clothes go, when to take their showers, and all those little details.   An unexpected side effect of our arrangement ... the kids operate now as a 4 kid unit pretty much everywhere that they go.   We make it work.


Staying Even

Now, if this is all one-sided.  You might burn out, and fast.   This is especially true if one side is doing all of the giving.  (Of course, there are exceptions - like when my friend was very ill and I kept the kids for almost 6 weeks.   But then she has returned the favor many times - though not 6 straight weeks, she would, she just hasn't had a need.)   So it is important in a long term agreement, to make sure neither side feels taken advantage of - it's a great way to ruin a relationship!

For most of the time I've had tutoring or teaching of others kids, I have been paid.  And the kids always help with chores, washing up after lunch, sweeping and vacuuming.  And one year, my student came in 2 hours early and stayed until supper.  Newborn Song was not a good sleeper.  So CH had a key, came in early, fixed the Ref breakfast and lunch, helped Story get her 2 1/2-year-old self up and running for the day, and I slept an extra 2 hours with Song.  At some point, she would come get Song so I could get up (Her absolute favorite time of her day!).   But most of the time there was money involved.

Currently, we get extra groceries and they help with cleaning and big chores.  Just this week, the dad of the family fixed a leaky pipe.  And the kids are a huge help in getting all of the morning and night chores completed so school happens.   Squirrel loves being in charge of breakfast.   The boys do the supper dishes, the girls feed the pets, and everyone has some part of laundry chores to do.   In this way, the job is not a burden, and most of the time, it's a lot of fun.  They certainly giggle a lot about it!  This arrangement had worked very well for us, and I hope we both still feel good about it!

It doesn't really matter what you decide, as long as you both feel like you are getting the better end of the deal - this is Win-Win.   Even the noblest mom or the most strong of friendships will take a beating if one side feels overwhelmed and unappreciated.   Again, I'm not talking about a friend having a long term illness, death in the family, or more on their plate than they can handle and you volunteer to help out to give them a break.   I'm talking about the situations where you are now under a lot of stress, but your friend seems to now have time to bake cookies, run around shopping, and letting you do the work.    When you get tired, your perception can get skewed.    It can make a world of difference if they send a cooked meal, clean the kitchen when they pick up the kids, trim some bushes ... stuff they may be good at and you, not so much.   The point is that both sides need feel happy and content with the situation, and neither should feel taken advantage of.


Prayer

Yes, there is one more area you have got to be sure to do.  Pray.  Because it won't be easy, not even if you are a born teacher.   There will be days you want to pull out your hair and give up entirely.  There was the night 3 of the 4 were sick to their stomach, one right after another.   Thank goodness my aunt was on hand, as well as Story and Song.   That was one really long night!    There was the night (more than one really) that it stormed all night and into the next day.  HARD storms.  Knock your lights out and shake the whole trailer!

But with lots of prayers, we've gotten through.  If God is for us, who can be against us?

Science and History for Kindergarten

Our public library has about 50 books on CD 

in the category of science or history.

Scholar loved to check them out,

and he got to choose the ones he wanted.

He loved Ben Franklin.

And the Bats.

He sat for close to an hour,

with his headset, listening and turning pages

in the books.

Sometimes he changed books,

and sometimes, he didn't.

He did the same thing with his MP3 player.

On his player right now are "50 Famous Stories Retold"

with stories from the Greeks and Alexandar all the way through William Tell.

Some of the stories are more legend,

and some are more supported by facts.

He also has a Beatrix Potter Treasury.

Both free through LibriVox.

He had a lot of songs and other stories as well. 

Sometimes, he likes to play with his Legos

while he listens.

So he get's math and physics in too.

Do you like his airplane?

Scholar still learns by listening, though he's added videos to his list of options.

I frequently download videos for him to watch.

Then he deletes them when he is finished.  

I think this is safer than letting him loose with Youtube.

Sometimes it is hard to keep up with him.

School Plans for 2017 - 2018 .... subject to alterations

This year, I will be schooling 4 students.

The boys - Scholar and Squirrel will both be in 6th/7th Grade.

The girls - Star is a 4th grader, and Sunshine is in 2nd.  

Squirrel and Star are only here a few weeks of the year (30 - 35) and just for school, they return home on the weekends.   They live just far enough away that they overnight here rather than their mom being on the road 4 hours a day to transport them.

They have been here for 2 full years, and we do something of a 7 weeks on, then a break.  We do 5 of these and call them rotations, so we run about 35 weeks of the year.    This year we are planning this ...

School's Proposed running = (35 weeks accounted for)

Rotation 1    July 31 -  Sept 15

Fall Break Sept 16 - Oct. 1

Rotation 2     Oct. 2 - November 18

Christmas Vacation    November 19 - Dec. 31

Rotation 3     Jan 1 - Feb 16

Winter Break    Feb 17 - Feb 25

Rotation 4    Feb 26 - April 20
Easter Break April 2 - 6

Spring Break     April 21 - April 29

Rotation 5    April 30 - June 15

Summer Vacation    June 16 - July 28



My own two kids have activity watches - both Garmins, and they remind us to not sit still all day, every day.   School is important for the mind, but so is movement!   So keep in mind that we send them outside to run for at least a few minutes every hour.   They also have an hour of lunch and play, 20 minutes before chores and all of the time after chores (except on bath nights).   Also, if they are ready for school early, they can grab extra minutes before school.   I'm not a school in my PJ's type person though.


Our proposed day will look something like this ....

8am -
Get up, clean rooms, make beds, dressed and hair brushed, morning chores (dishes, start laundry, breakfast, vitamins, animals) ...

9am -
Scholar - Math using Kahn's Academy.   Currently on 5th - 8th Concepts
Squirrel -  will be working in 5th/6th grade Rod and Staff English.
Star - 4th Grade Reading from Rod and Staff
Sunshine - 2nd Grade RS Spelling and Penmanship

10am -
Scholar - 6/7 RS English
Squirrel - Kahn's for Math - Currently on 3rd - 5th Concepts
Star - 4th RS Spelling
Sunshine - 2nd RS Reading

11am -
Scholar - Special Topics and School House Teachers Bible Units - Life of Christ and other studies
Squirrel - Alpha Omega 7th Grade Lifepacs
Star and Sunshine - State History

12 Noon -
Lunch

1pm - 
Scholar and Squirrel - 6th Spelling RS
Star - Math on Kahn's - starting at the 2nd - 3rd concepts
Sunshine - 2nd/3rd RS English

2pm -
Scholar and Squirrel - Electives from Schoolhouse Teachers
Star - 3rd/4th RS English
Sunshine - Kahn's Math - 1st - 3rd Concepts to begin

3pm -
Scholar and Squirrel - World History using Prezi.com ..https://prezi.com/pp28y4maybef/copy-of-world-geography-1-the-water/
I made these for the girls this year ... but will adapt them for the boys for next year.  I will supplement with topics from Schoolhouse Teachers.
Star and Sunshine -  Listen to the Bible chapters from Reading class and draw the story.   Also Awana and Schoolhouse Teachers videos to fill in.

4pm -
All - Science from Schoolhouse Teachers and Youtube with special projects assigned per age.  Our topics will be Geology and  Botony for everyone, with Physics and Chemistry topics as well for the boys.   We chose to not do Apologia this year - as we had purchased the School House Teachers and were loving it.  Scholar also plans to do a unit on Earth Science.


During the evening they play, do chores, Eat Supper.

By 7pm we are in the schoolroom to do Tablet Time, Reading Time, Bible Memory Time, and Clean up for tomorrow, as well as checking off our tasks and chores on Habitica.   I would rather do this in the livivngroom, but storage needs have taken over the livingroom again.

9pm - Bedtime and Lights Out.   They can listen to music or Audio books on their devices (mp3 players or old cell phones pretending to be camera/mp3 players)  for an hour.

The schedule seems to work for us, they end up with very little work to do over the 3 day weekend.

We do almost no testing - other than English and Math and other subjects as is required, like spelling tests, until they reach High School.   But they have so much more fun learning when they don't have to worry about what might or might not be on a test.  And it's fun to sneak in an extra book or video about what we are studying.

Homeschooling the Solar System

This activity was suggested in the Apologia Astronomy text for 3rd - 6th graders.

We did not get around to repeating this with Scholar when he went through the book the next year.

We gathered all of the supplies (or my sister did - then all of us joined her on their space trip.

A small soccer ball became the SUN, and the kids wrote that beside their ball.

We carefully measured to Mercury, and then Venus.

The kids were awed at how tiny Venus was after such a long way.

Next stop EARTH.

And MARS.

Then something bad happened ... we ran out of church parking lot, and we were only to Mars.

So we changed directions ... and kept going down the street toward home, over 1/4 of a mile.

Here I am standing at Mars .... and way down there ....

THAT is the great Asteroid Belt.

We made a thick salt barrier to show the Asteroid Belt.

Looking back at Mars, the big kids ran and got the sun ... they couldn't find Mercury or Venus, but they did find a smushed Earth!

Next up was a rock named Jupiter ...  we looked back and could barely see the kids who ran back to the Asteroid Belt.

Uranus was even harder to see when we looked back toward Saturn, but we were nearly to our property line.

We walked past both driveways ... and were right past the other property line when we finally stopped for Neptune.

From the Sun to Neptune, we had travelled over 1/4 of a mile.

We decided to push on for Pluto....

and a long time later, we reached the very, very end of the mile road - so Pluto was 3/4 of a mile from Neptune.

We managed to hike back to Neptune, and the kids were exhausted!

2016 - 1017 School Year Plans

This year will be the first year that I'll not have Story and Song to worry about in school, as both girls graduated in May.   It has been a rough 3 years,  but we've managed to survive.

Scholar will be our oldest school child, he'll be doing 6th grade work this year.    Sunshine will be in 1st and 2nd grade books.  We've also been joyed by their 2 best friends (for the 2nd school year).  Steam (think Steam Engine Train) will be in 4th/5th grade levels, while Star will be in 3rd grade.

All of them will be in Rod and Staff curriculum for English, Reading, Spelling, and Math..   I like how thorough the curriculum is, and because it is very affordable, I don't mind assigning just a few problems.   Reading also uses the Bible as the basis for the stories through 4th grade, so they get Bible at the same time.

Bible for the boys will also be with my aunt.  She is using the Plants Grown Up from Doorposts.  This gives them topics to study and they learn to use concordances, study books, dictionaries and other books to help study the Bible on their own.   This is primarily for Scholar, and Steam will be joining in.  Also, they will work on their 5th grade AWANA books.

The girls will use their AWANA books for Bible, along with their reading program, and just so they don't feel left out, Aunt will take them twice a week and to For Instructions In Righteousness also from Doorposts.

For Science, we are using Apologia.  They will all be working through the book Swimming Creatures.  And the boys will also be working on the Flying Creatures.

Song will take them once a week for Art - again an affordable option from Rod and Staff, while branching out whenever it suits her to learn something extra.

Sunshine will be going through the Rod and Staff Health curriculum for 1st and 2nd graders on Fridays.

Steam and Star are only with us 12 days out of the month, not so very much really.  But it is enough to give their mom some extra time to work with their two special needs siblings.  We do 3 weeks of Mon - Thurs, and then they are home a week with assignments.  It has worked well enough this year, and we plan to continue this at least one or two more years.

I almost forgot History.  The girls will be doing a World Geography exploration with me.  We're winging it mostly, but I'm trying to set up Prezi.com to allow them some self study time.   Of course that is the plan, but I'm still working on the one for the first 4 weeks!    The boys are working together on Texas State study, then will return to the State Study that they have both been working on for the past couple of years.  https://www.statehistory.net/   ...  We've been very pleased with this curriculum and have taken time to read extra books and watch movies with each state.   Doing this has given Scholar a good overview of the US history at the same time.  Steam started the curriculum last year, so we've not spent as much time doing extra to catch him up to where Scholar is.  We actually know the family who publishes these books, as her father was our pastor years ago.... small world!

Scholar will also do some extra spelling and vocabulary work on Fridays, as well as writing a blog entry each week ... although plans don't always work out as neatly as planned ... so we'll do our best and trust God for the rest.

Scholar and the USA Project

*** Blast from our Past***

Every few days, Scholar studies a new state.

Standard is ... 1.  Workbook and short reader.  

2.  Sleeping Bear Alphabet State Book (or similar)

3.  State print outs.

sometimes

friends send packages or pictures or postcards.

Here you can see his workbook.

And his worksheet.

So what state was he studying just before Sunshine turned 2?

We just finished Louisiana's worksheet.

I forgot to print a few, so we have 4 or 5 more to go to catch up.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Ironically, at this point,

the world went awry and time stopped.

Really.

My BFF's family of 7 moved in with us,

and the school room was difficult to get to ...

six months later (almost)

they left ...

but before we could reclaim our school room,

time froze again!

and we began to prepare for my Aunt to move in permanently.

So in spite of the fact that the following was written 

almost

1 year ago ...

the facts are

almost

the same ...

BUT

We WILL get it done!

-----------------------------------------------------------

So over the Christmas Break

(which starts today through Jan 1)

We will cover

MAINE

MARYLAND

MASSACHUSETTS

MICHIGAN

MINNESOTA

MISSISSIPPI

and 

MISSOURI

maybe ... it will depend a little on how many presents we make

and if we have time.

BY FAR ... his favorite state has been Idaho.

He got TWO HUGE boxes from that state.

One was full of postcards, books, and stuff like that.

The other one had snacks, beans, a hat, garnets, and a LOT of other stuff.

Most of the stuff is still in the box, and he pulls it out to look at everything now and again.

MAPS  have been a huge favorite.

As have the old style pennents - he's gotten some from

three different sources - one person 

sent a big handful of them.

What a great way to learn - don't you think!

Keeping Track of School Goals

Two weeks ago,
I realized that I wasn't prepared to do workboxes.
Maybe later,
but not right now.
But I was getting really confused about what
Scholar had and had not finished.
So I whipped up a schedule for him.

It worked so well,
that I did a "table" in Word,
and printed it out.

Song liked the look of it,
and asked for her own sets of boxes.

Instead of workboxes,
I put his school tags from his last years chart
on binder clips,
and we hung them in front of his desk.

As he finishes a subject for the day,
he gets to turn it around.

So,
he does whatever it says in the little block,
and turns around a clip.

 

 

 

 

At the end of the day,

he counts them up,

receives points for the ones turned around,

and then gets a penny for each point.

He uses his pennies to buy time on the computer 

and movies.

At least in theory.

We've been just barely keeping any type of schedule,

while getting the house ready for my Aunt's arrival.

Lots of comings and goings of relatives and friends as well,

helping out and lending hands.

I hope to get into a firm rhythm next month.

Crossbow assignment : Middle Ages

Repost from my Family Blog ..

from this Spring.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

We are studying the Middle Ages.

And one of the activities that the girls got to choose from 

was

Make a crossbow.

So Song searched (with Swagbucks) on Youtube and Crafting sites

until she found one to make.

I gave her an A.

She used this tutorial from YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz-JQ2e_vBo&feature=share