How to Effectively Teach Different Ages in Your Homeschool
Marcy Loveless is a homeschool mom of 5 boys. As her kids have grown and she has added more students to her classroom, she has had to change the way she teaches. Her methods not only work with many grade levels, they also have gotten her kids excited about learning and doing better than ever at school.
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About Marcy
Marcy is a homeschooling mom of 5 boys ages 12 to 4. They live in Utah. They started homeschooling about 4 years ago.
Marcy blogs at upliftingmayhem.com
Choosing to Homeschool
Marcy was not against homeschool but she always said there was no way she would homeschool. She thought homeschoolers were fantastic but did not plan to be one herself.
After school got out, she had a feeling that they needed to homeschool their kids. She couldn’t let the feeling go, so she decided that she needed to do it.
Everything aligned perfectly. She had friends help her. She found a great curriculum that people suggested to her.
Learning Together
She feels like their homeschooling journey has been learning a little bit at a time.
They do a lot of things together. They learn a lot of things through songs. Even the youngest listens and catches on. They are so eager to learn and they learn in a different way than we think they do.
She started out using a curriculum and sitting with each child individually. She started looking into other ways to integrate learning with more of her kids. She focuses on the heart rather than the mind and academics. The idea is to help them have a love of learning. They sing songs, they memorize. She wants to teach them to love books and reading.
Reading Together
As a family, they read scriptures, they do read alouds as a family, and the boys read individually to her. They have grown to love stories. They are excited to read. This method has allowed her to cater to her boys’ interests and the things that they really enjoy. They are doing less, but receiving so much more. Her kids are interested and they are engaged and they like what they are learning.
It has changed from being about checking things off to being about, ‘what do you want to learn today?’
Boys Will Be Boys...
“Boys will be boys until someone teaches them more.”
As a mom of boys, Marcy heard the saying “boys will be boys” a lot. She heard this new saying and she said, that is my mantra.
Boys do have a lot of energy, but they can be taught to be respectful and kind, but someone needs to teach t hem that.
“Boys are going to be boys, but as a mother, it is my job to teach them to contribute to society,” says Marcy.
It’s good for your body to be still and to contemplate and to observe the world around you.
Unstructured Time
Her oldest son used to go to school, then soccer, then scouts and her son would feel like he didn’t get to play.
Over the years, she has realized that those were structured times with their friends. They were missing out on that unstructured time and being able to use their imaginations. With homeschooling, they have a lot more time for unstructured play.
Be confident of your role in your children’s life.
Don’t compare yourself to others and their parenting.
One type of schooling isn’t for everyone and it is going to look different for every family.
