Hi all,
I am going to start homeschooling my oldest this year, he'll be in kindergarten... He has 3 younger siblings who are 3, 16 months, and 2 months... Has anyone had experience homeschooling kindergarten with all the younger siblings too young for school? What would a typical day look like? What do you do with your younger ones while working with the oldest?

My oldest child's typical day in kindy consisted of only phonics and reading at first. After she was off to a good start with those I brought in some math second semester. Then I introduced a light science and history the last quarter. She doubled up on phonics lessons because she caught on VERY fast, so was done with it in February. After that we did some sight words workbooks and generally had fun with hands-on science and living books for history study. Official schooling took us about an hour each day. I would divide it in half. It wasn't long enough for anyone to feel slighted or ignored. It worked out very well.

I have 4 dc. We have only homeschooled them.

This is my 2nd time so far doing K (2nd dc). I have two younger ones, 2 and almost 4 months.
We are using the workbox system for schooling for both my 7 and 5 year olds.

For K I pretty much just focus on phonics/reading instruction, handwriting practice and math. Anything else is just gravy. But my K dd does school along with my older dd. So she hears the history, the science and so on.


Last year I would school when my ds napped. But this year seems to be fine schooling while he's in there with us.
Sometimes he might go watch program, like Super Why on PBS (which he loves). But mostly he sits in with us.

I also make up workboxes for my 2 year old. So if he wants to be in the school room with us he will take something from his box to do. With the baby, she's either in my arms or in a carrier in the school room as well.

Sometimes I think it's just trial and error. Sometimes the little ones cooperate and other times they just are not having it.
Don't worry, you'll find what works best for your family after a few test runs.

Can a person homeschool if they work full time? I am a Christian mom who is going through a divorce and my kids hate their school. What are the options for a Mother?
Thanks for your help. Also, if I remarry and am able to stay home again what are my chances of regaining Primary Custody of my Children in Texas? Anyone know?

Mom with heart-aches,

BobbieMalloyLin@yahoo.com

I agree with focusing on Phonics/Reading, handwriting, & math for Kindergarten. Honestly a day of K shouldn't take long at all. I didn't require a lot of writing out of my K-er because he couldn't sit still for very long! We spent about 45 mintues to an hour each day focusing on "school". We've kicked it up this year for first grade.

Oh, another thing. I broke the "lessons" up into 10-15 minutes each. DS lost focus easily so this worked for us. That was actually the first advice I received from a homeschooling friend when I began my first K year. :)