How Do You Get Organized To Homeschool Elementary Kids?

I never did get organized I provide lots of reading material and I make sure it is available at all times. I enforce a bit of writing and math occasionally, but I don’t get into a strict schedule until between the ages 10 and 13. I’m always amazed at what can be accomplished when one just lets it happen.
We stay home in the mornings and are usually out of the house by 2 pm.
So, that’s how I schedule it all: I don’t But I know that’s not for everyone.
That being said, for a first-grader, I would say 2 hours of actual school time is plenty. I like the idea of focusing on one or two subjects a day rather than jumping from subject to subject. For a pre-schooler.. one hour I think is more than enough. Play it by ear and see what works for each child
Try not to over-schedule things; rather, leave time in a day/week for you to just be with your kids, enjoying their company, doing chores, gardening, going on social outings, or just being still and quiet. For me, that has always been the joy of homeschooling: dropping that frenzied schedule that so many people are on and just enjoying life at a slower pace with my kids.
Good luck!

No we get out and have fun, too!
I have a highschooler and a third grader. When the youngest was in 1st grade I babysat a toddler, and here’s what I did.
The intense one on one subjects I did while the tot was asleep mainly. But I also took advantage of times when he would sit and watch a 20 minute DVD (like Baby Einstein).
Now for the more fun things, art, music, science, get your 3yo. involved in something on their level, let them have fun at the same time.
The three yr. old will probably want to “do school” too, so you may want to look for a small fisher price type desk and put coloring books, and different “school supplies” in it. This worked wonders as it allowed everyone to be together in the office to get school work done, I could keep an eye on the little one and he had a blast “doing school.” You could even find a space in your house that would allow all of you to be together, including the baby.
Your baby is a little more high maintenance, but I was this toddler’s back up babysitter when he was an infant and I homeschooled too. I would just hold him and carry on.
Of course, everyone is portable and we would all go out on field trips and everything. That is one of the great parts of homeschooling, it is very family friendly and flexible.
You will find you wll get a lot done on some days and less on others, but it will even out. don’t stress over the “less” days.

You’ve already discovered one of the secrets to getting it all done – combining as much as possible. When you need to work alone with the 1st grader, here’s a couple of things you can do:
* have a “workbook” that the preschooler needs to work on by herself. It could be a coloring book or a dot-to-dot book, just so she’s doing “her” work while you’re working with your son.
* if the first grader is reading somewhat proficiently, have him read to his little sister.
* have a toy bin that is just for school time. When you need to work with the older one, pull out the toy bin for the preschooler. Then when you’re finished, gather the toys and put the bin away.
Some of these may require time for the preschooler to get used to and they won’t always work. But this should get you started.
Don’t forget, you’ve got 12 years to get through everything and it won’t take nearly as long as the public schools do because you’re working 1-on-1 (or 2-on-1, or 3-on-1), not 30-on-1. You won’t always have a baby and preschooler to contend with, and things will get easier as they grow and mature.

Try to give your 1st Grader a two hour day…still with 2-3 subjects max!!

You have got your work cut out for you. Some times it is demanding,serious,fun and you will learn things you never knew as you go a lone.
I home schooled.I really liked it the work it was never boring.
I didn’t have help, the school system doesn’t want to help you. I ordered books off EBay. We studied, math ,reading, spelling,science,history, geography ,English,art, financial management.
We even studied cooking, house cleaning, laundry, yard work , landscaping and planting flowers.
Also studied planting a garden and growing our own vegetables.
I also got a dictionary, and we started with the A and learned to spell a word ,tell what it mean and to make a sent-ice with it. We would do this while we were watching something on TV so he didn’t get bored.
We also went on trips to the country and went rock hunting. I tried to teach him everything he wanted to learn. He is the best reader and speller ever saw. He uses his words, like a professor.
He is waiting to go to college now he isn’t old enough to go yet. I really enjoyed all This and he did to.
So you teach and work out your schedule ever how is best for you, and the small one will learn from listening to you teach the other child keep them both occupied at the same time. That will save more time for you.
Queen Bee

Homeschooling does not have to be school-at-home, and a first grader does not necessarily need two hours of sit down work every day. Many people recommend no more than four hours a day for high schoolers. Two hours need not be the goal for everyday at this age. I’m only planning on about 30 to 45 minutes of sit down work when my daughter hits first grade, split between math and reading lessons (if still necessary by that time) and vocabulary.
The three-year-old shouldn’t need more than a half hour of school instruction, if that. Your daughter will mainly need some “Mommy time” just to play with you, but playing can be very educational. Many “professional” homeschooling moms emphasize that it is much more important at this age to establish discipline and good life habits and encourage lots of active play.
One of the best and easiest things you can do for all three of your children is to set up a daily read-aloud time. As your child becomes a proficient reader, have him read some to you and his siblings. Throw in some non-fiction kids books to help cover all of those other subjects: science, history, etc. Even if everyone isn’t sitting on the couch staring at the book they still absorb a lot of the information within and about books and reading.
So you figure about an hour of instruction with the first grader, 30 minutes of fun time with your preschooler, 30 minutes of read-a-loud time, and maybe another 30 to 45 minutes of one other joint learning activity/lesson in one of your other subjects per day that’s only about three hours a day. It doesn’t all have to be done back to back, and it’s ok to let some stuff slide from day to day or replace it with outings and social activities or just plain fun and games.
And while most homeschooling moms do not stay home all day, they also learn to discern which errands are really necessary each day and which can be combined on another day. They learn not to over-schedule their families inside or outside the home.
And remember as each child gets older and becomes a more proficient reader he/she will be able to do a lot more work independently and that is when you can expand to longer periods of sit down work. Many large homeschooling families also encourage older children to help with younger children, reading to or entertaining one sibling while Mommy works with another.
Good luck!!

No secrets here, the little ones can come along if you go somewhere, art, and music just let the pre-schooler participate, and concentrate mostly on the academic portions with the first grade level child when ever is the best time for you and him.
If you have to break it up in 3 – 1 hour sessions, or 6 – 1/2 hour sessions you can do that, there is no prescribed schedule, it gets adjusted to your family.
You have to leave enough flexibility in your routine to be able to say, today we will not do “school” because we are taking a day off, or someone is not feeling good.
If all you do is read a book, or cook something together that’s okay, you will not be behind, tomorrow is another day, who says you cannot do some schoolwork on Saturday’s or Sunday afternoon.
There was 4 years between my now teen, and the siblings who were born only a little over a year apart.
Getting much done with two babies, and school really gave me the courage to look towards a very relaxed, un-schooling method.
A few suggestions are:
Math, and language arts in the morning.
Reading can be done in the evening as well, as part of the bed time routine, this gives dad a chance to get involved.
Next tend to family, and children, run errands, go for a walk.
Lunch, naps whatever your children need.
Afternoon; subject of choice, art, history, science, all these can be very fun at this young age, and very little if anything has to be structured.
Read a lot of books together, watch the subjects on DVD, like Magic School Bus for Science.
Go to the library story hours, often they have guest speakers for different topic’s (that’s a class), and, or an art project after the story hour. (art class).
Books like Simple and Fun Science by ELP, or children’s science books from Usborne will do fine.
Science can also become your art for the day, think about building a volcano.
Take pictures of their work, make a bulletin board, and there is another art project.
Instead of doing all the “schooling” yourself join 4H; they have many educational programs, and you can pick and choose.
Swimming, bowling, gymnastics, or any organized sports activity are all PE.
If your family attends Church, Sunday School, and other Bible programs like Awana can be part of the “school” as well.
It is hard at times to think beyond the traditonal schooling methods, and see how much learning really goes on daily basis that is just as valid as “textbook” learning.
Have fun, relax and take it day by day.

Why does he need more instruction time? Did he not learn everything he was supposed to last year? To be quite frank, it takes very little time to teach a curriculum to children outside of school, so much time is wasted in public school on discipline, directions and recess, which your kids have built in. When we did a strict school at home, it still look less than two hours a day to do four kids’ schooling, and we still finished in less than four months.
My seventh grader takes less than an hour a day learning his stuff. We spend most of our out of the house, learning application, from setting off rockets to visiting art museums. Reading and math do not need to be separate, of all subjects, those are things that your younger children will benefit from hearing your oldest complete. We have a shelf that has bins of toddler toys, building toys, etc, and those were what our littles played with while I was working one-on-one with our olders. But really that was only while correcting handwriting, math equations, etc, and the younger children still wanted to be at the table with us and ‘working’ on their ‘homework’ while the biggers were there.
Even at six years old, children learn well by breaking up time slots, most PS first grades spend less than twenty minutes on a subject, then have an activity where they are moving around and burning off energy. In fact, when my oldest was in fourth grade, they had only extended that to half an hour. Kids need to move to learn, most do anyway. Kids learn a lot more from outings and social interactions than you imagine, and errands are the best things from which you learn.
Good luck and have fun with it. Remember that there are no cookie cutter solutions in homeschooling, we all have our own needs.

This is so hard. There are some super moms out there who seem to have it all together, but I think we all struggle with the day to day.
I think that it largely depends on you, your level of structure, and your kids. For me I have a 2 1/2 year old and a 8 year old, and yes we stay home a lot. But for us that works. Last year the fact that we used a computer based software saved me. I have no ideas how I could have given my son the quiet time he needed with me. But I missed a lot of the interaction so we are back to the books this year.
I think you could probably do reading and math instruction while your younger one has a nap or quiet time, and once you 1st grader has grasped the math concept (addition, telling time, etc) he can have a little individual work time for math and handwriting where you can work with your preschooler.
Preschool might be an hour a day, but a lot of it is things like puzzles, art, movement, counting, etc. And it should be broken into 10-15 here and there. You might also consider having your 1st grader be your “teachers helper” He could help teach your preschooler the things he already knows while you are busy with the baby or chores.
We also designate Friday as park or field trip days. NO school work those days unless it is learned from doing while we are there. Since that is pay day I usually do groceries on the way home as well as any other errands I can fit in. And this year I am thinking of making Tuesday a 1/2 day so if there are Drs appointments or other things to do I can plan on it for that day. Remember that when you go places and do things there are things to learn there too. When we are in the car we play books on tape now, but when my older son was littler we played games like K says K-K-K like Kite what other words use the K sound? We counted how many stop signs, how many school buses, and talked about EVERYTHING. At the grocery store talk about money. Give your child a list and a budget. Help them work out how much money they have. Talk about servings. The grocery store is a great math trip. Park days are all about horticulture and animal behavior. Playing with friends is problem solving.
School for us is done by 2 almost always and so the afternoon is open for sports, chior, drama, play time and other things. Really for us I think my children are more available then their public school friends.
Hope this helps.

Try searching for the curriculum for the grades your children will be in. You can order lesson plans from the same company you order your curriculum from. Your 1st grader will need way more than 2 hours a day. The law requires a minimum of a 6 hour class a day. It is pretty simple with running errands and so forth…the advantage to homeschooling is you can make your own schedule! You don’t have to do a full 6 hours without taking a break. So, if you need to run errands or whatever you can split up the class to work around your schedule. You can also count certain outings and social interactions as assignments and even field trips. Just be sure to keep up with the 6 hours a day!
Hope this helped! Good luck!!!
PS. If you need any websites where you can purchase your curriculum from or to get free worksheets,arts & crafts, and lots more…you can email me at mikel_taylor21@yahoo.com and I would be happy to supply you with several links.