The primary goal when you are scheduling multi grade school days in your homeschool classroom is to keep it as simple as possible. Naturally the better you organize your plan and study materials the day before, the easier it will be for you to handle every thing that will come your way during the actual school hours. Here are some points to consider as you set your schedule.
Have a Fixed Starting Time
When you mentally know that everyone has to start at a specific time in the homeschool classroom, you can organize their work day better. You can have the naturally early risers work with you during the early morning half with you and the slow, later starters during the later half of the day. This will allow you enough time with each child individually when studying challenging and demanding study material.
One on One Time
Once you have asked them to finish the basic material you have set aside to cover for the day, you can take them individually for one on one time to solve doubts while the others work on more leisurely and creative projects. These projects could be related to a specific subject and outlined in advance. Some may need ongoing data readings like a scientific experiment that lasts a week and others may just be a single day’s craft work. Having the others all involved on one project allows you to spend independent time with a single child.
Give Them Breaks
When you find that a certain child is done with their work planned for the day, give them time off to do what they want to do. It could be extra reading, watching educational videos or anything else that you deem fit. In case they are lagging behind on what they need to finish for the day and enthusiasm levels have dropped considerably, you may like to give them a short unscheduled break. This will help end the monotony of the task and give them time to recharge before they come back to the given task with fresh eyes. Make sure that you give yourself adequate breaks through out the school day as well.
