Learning Time with Multiple Ages

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Learning time can be pretty simple if you are working one-on-one with a child. It can also be relatively simple if you are working with multiple children of the same age group (depending on their age :) ). For me, doing something with just my 7 and 5 year old is no difficult task. They are both quite independent and able to follow verbal instructions well. They also have the fine motor skills developed to work on their own.

It is adding the 3 year old to the mix that makes it the challenge. Even if it were a 5 and 3 year old, it would be more of a challenge.

Younger children need more help than older children. Older children can work quickly and they want to do so (especially children who go to school; in school, projects are made quickly). So how do you make learning time work when you have a younger child who needs help step-by-step and older children who want to fly through the activity?

There are a couple of ways you can do it. Here are some tips to make the whole activity more enjoyable for you (fewer "What now mom?" "Mom!" and so on). It will also help you to have less time where a child is just sitting and waiting to know what to do next.

Take Turns
We start learning time out each day with our learning poster and our calendar. I quickly learned that I needed to instruct the older children to not blurt things out when I say, "What shape is this?" I instructed them to wait to be called on. I ask a different child each day about different aspects of the learning poster. I try to make the questions suit their skills. So my three year old gets asked what the number is while my seven year old is asked to give me two parts that make up that number ("What are two parts make that up the number seven?" "5 and 2.").

I don't want my three year old to be sitting in the room while her siblings blurt out answers faster than she can think about the question. I want her to have the chance to think.

Have a Sample Made
This is something teachers do in school. They have a finished product made to show the children before they start. This really helps children have a vision for what you are trying to accomplish. If your activity is one where you want some creativity, be sure to stress that this sample is your project, and that the child is free to do XYZ to their own project. If you have gotten your idea from the Internet or a book, you can show your child a picture from that source instead of making your own ahead of time.

Give a List of Instructions
Walk through the entire process with your children--or at least as far as you think they can remember on their own. This will work for older children who will be moving at a faster pace. The 3 year old or younger will most likely need you to provide one step at a time.

Don't Stress Down Time
What we are trying to do is avoid long periods of down time, but it is not a bad thing to have some down time. Learning to wait patiently is a skill in and of itself, so don't stress if your child ends up needing to wait for a few minutes while you finish helping another sibling. You just don't want constant waiting and constant down time. That leads to boredom and possibly "creativity" being channeled in ways you don't prefer.

Have Enough Supplies
Have enough supplies on hand that a child isn't sitting and waiting for long periods while other children use a certain supply. I try to have a tool per child. So each child has his/her own glue stick, crayons, scissors, etc. There are things, however, that must be shared due to economics and my lack of desire to fill my house with 3 different collections of things like glitter.

Have More Than One Activity
This is something I really focus on for my children. I like to have a few activities ready to go. One will be some sort of art project that I know my three year old will take longer to complete than my seven year old. Others will be activities I can have my seven year old do after he is done with his project. This can be sorting activities, sensory boxes, math worksheets, reading, etc.

Successful Learning Tip: Read To Your Child

Can I push reading any more? I probably could :).

A very important tip for successful learning is to read to your child. Reading is so important because all learning requires reading. Every subject involves reading. I have gone over more in this in this post. I wanted to make sure that as you look over ideas for making learning time successful, reading came on your radar.

Not only do you want to read, but you want to share with your child your own enjoyment of reading. Tell him about the books you liked when you were little. Causally talk about what you like about reading.

Surround your child with good books. Keep them age appropriate. You can check with your local library for ideas or google "reading lists." When I say "surround your child" with books, don't think that means you need to go broke buying him books. Libraries are wonderful resources.

Also, give books as gifts. I always make sure that I give at least one book to each child at Christmas time. I also give a book to each child at Easter. Giving books to children shows them that you value books.

For a great book on teaching your children to love reading, see this post.

Successful Learning Tip: Teach Responsibility

Teaching your child responsibility allows your child to be successful in learning because he learns to be in charge and take ownership of himself. He won't need to be told what to do every step of the way.

Teach your child to take responsibility for his things. Teach him to where to put clothes when he takes them off. Teach him to clean up his toys. Teach him to make his bed.

Teach him to concentrate on his tasks. Have him finish what he starts--complete the tasks given him. Teach him to be able to work on tasks independently. While he is working on tasks independently, keep interruptions and distractions away as much as possible

Now, the above can sound really simple until you start thinking about it. Teaching to clean up after self and to make the bed can take time and patience, as well as creativity. Having a preschooler finish what he starts might get frustrating for both of you at times. If you have a little social butterfly, it can be a challenge to get him to work independently. If you have multiple children, removing distractions requires some great juggling by mom.

Take it all one step at a time, and if you need help implementing anything, please let us know!

Successful Learning Tip: Establish Routines

For your child to be at optimal learning ability, she needs to be in good health. That means she needs to have healthy meals and also have regular, consistent sleep patterns.

For meals, be sure to work in all food groups. If you are sending your child off to school or a sport/dance/music lesson, be sure the food you are giving her will sustain her through her time gone. Learning requires brain power, and the brain requires food for power. It is hard to concentrate when you are hungry.

Have bedtime as consistent as possible. Try to not sway more than 30 minutes. Also, have a consistent morning wake time. Sure, if your child will sleep in on weekends and you want her to, let her sleep in a bit. But for most days of the week, have a consistent morning wake time within 30 minutes.

If your child is of the age of still needing naps, be sure to work those into your day.

And don't neglect physical exercise. Play outside each day as possible. Go for walks and bike rides. Play tag. Play on jungle gyms and swings. Play sports. Dance. Chase bubbles. If it is a day you cannot go outside at all, do some indoor activities that are physically challenging (see our gross motor activities for ideas).

These things will help set your child up for optimal learning all day long.

Successful Learning Tip: Talk With Your Child

Hearing vocabulary is a great enhancer of learning. The more words your child hears, the more words are built in her head. A great way to help build up your child's vocabulary is to talk with your child. You talk, your child talks, you listen, and your child listens.

Listening to a child and especially answering 100 questions (you know kids don't play 20 questions; they play 100 questions, most of which start with W and end with HY) can get frustrating sometimes. I have heard people say many times that they couldn't wait for their child to start talking, but then they couldn't get them to quit! Remember, talk to them while they are young, not only to help build vocabulary, but so they want to talk to you when they are teenagers. Don't think you can avoid talking with the 4 year old and strike up conversations at 14 years old.

Children love to talk in most cases. Ask her questions about her day. When she has questions, answer them. Answer them with real answers, not "because" and "I don't know." When she has answers you don't know, go to a resource and look it up together.

Listen to her when she is talking; use good non-verbals that show you are listening. Be interested in what she has to say.

Encourage your child to express herself, speak clearly, and use words correctly. As you speak, set a good example of how to speak correctly. But don't become a nag. You don't want your child to avoid talking to you because of your constant correction. If your child says something incorrectly, you can simply say it back to her, with some emphasis on the word said incorrectly.

Child: "That odder boy did it."
You: "The other boy did it?"

Now, something to be aware of is that in general, boys do not talk as freely as girls. I have seen that sharply with my children. I love to know what is going on with my kids. When Brayden started nursery in church, I would always ask him about his day.

"What did you learn about in nursery today?"

"I don't know."

"What songs did you sing?"

"I don't remember."

That is a typical conversation between Brayden and me after church. As he has gotten older, he has gotten better. But I often have to ask specific questions and get him talking about it for several minutes before he will volunteer information.

Then came Kaitlyn. She would give me so many details, down to conversations she had with people. It was amazing!

Kaitlyn likes to play with a neighbor boy who is a few months older than she. One day at lunch after playing with him, she said, "Mom, guess what me and Max did. We ate weeds! And they were yucky. Bleh!"

Knowing boys, I was sure my neighbor had no idea her son had been out eating weeds, so I told her all about it and we got a kick out of the difference between males and females. You will have to work harder to get your son talk to you than you will your daughter. And that rings true in most cases for adults as well, right?

I have found some tricks with Brayden. I ask him a general question, "Did you have fun playing with the neighbors?" He will reply yes. Then I say, "What did you do?" He will then reply played games and stuff or I don't know....sometime uninformative. I then just sit still and wait, but wait without pressure. I don't stare him down. I might pretend like I am going to read the newspaper or something.

He will then start to tell me things. As I listen, he tells me more and more. I just have to ask a couple of simple, non-pressure questions in the beginning, wait, and he will tell.

Another trick with all males in general is they tend to prefer talking while doing something (like folding laundry, doing dishes, or even playing in the sand) and prefer to be side by side--not sitting and facing each other. So if you are trying to get your son to talk to you, try sitting down and building Legos or inviting him to join you work on something while you casually ask him questions.

Talking with your child is a great way to both teach your child about language and social skills, and also to remain aware of what is going on in his world. You can help him work through his feelings and decipher his thoughts on what is going on.

Successful Learning Tip: Provide Experiences

There are many ways for a child to learn, but the best way to learn is through first hand experiences. As often as you can, provide first-hand experiences for your child. Today, I will discuss three ideas: trips, pets, and friends.

Trips bring the world around your child to life. They expand his horizons. Reading about a bunny is nice. Touching a live bunny teaches the child a lot more about that bunny. Telling a child a cow says moo is great. The child hearing the cow say moo will bring a smile to her face. Explaining to your child how big a fighter jet is no match for taking him to the museum and having him walk around it.

For each week, I try to do a "field trip" that is in conjunction with our theme for the week. This hasn't always been possible. During light house week, I had no lighthouse to go visit. I live in the West....no lighthouses here. But you can talk about how lighthouses are on shore lines, and so is sand, and play in the sand.

The experiences your child has will make him more interested in learning about topics. He might think it is fun to look at books of dinosaurs and to play with dinosaurs. But if you go to a dinosaur museum, he is going to have so much more interest when you learn about dinosaurs in the future. This is one reason why I think it is so valuable to visit actual history museums and historical sites. The places and people become more real. This is one reason why I think every citizen of the US should visit Washington DC and take in all of the historical sites (well, as many as they can. ALL is a bit hard to do in an average vacation). It lights a fire and appreciation in you. You want to learn more and you want to do more.

You don't have to go far. Most places have lots of museums around them. Look into what tourists do in your area. Go to the County Fair to see lots of different animals. Check out the Simple Summer Fun posts for more ideas.

Field trips and vacations aren't the only important experiences for your child to have. Another great experience for the child is a family pet. As a child, I grew up with countless pets. I had dogs, cats, hamsters, gerbils, birds, fish, rabbits, goats, sheep, horses...lots of pets. I learned so much from these pets. Now, as a parent, I fully recognize pets are not easy and not always fun. I thought getting a puppy would be great fun and a breeze. I had about 10 dogs in my life to that point. I could handle it. Well, having a dog as the parent is a different experience than having it as the child. But no matter how mad I get at that dog (did I mention she is a Lab? Ever see Marley and Me? That is a true depiction of life with labs), she brings joy to my children, and I have to forgive her :).

But don't just have the pet. As your child gets older, add responsibilities for your child to care for the pet. And you don't have to go to dog. Fish can work great, too. I once had a goldfish live over 8 years. That was more than I bargained for when I brought it home :). That is a lot of tank cleaning. But don't be scared; most goldfish don't live that long.

Another great way to provide experiences for your child is to provide opportunities for your child to play with other children. Play with neighbors and cousins. Have playdates. Go to the park and encourage your child to make friends with the children there. Social skills are important in life. We have to learn to get along with people, and learning to make friends is a great skill.

These are all some basic ways to provide opportunities for your child to be set up for successful learning.

Successful Learning Tip: Positive Anticipation

When used correctly, I think anticipation can be one of your most effective tools for raising your child. I use it for everything from potty training to convincing a child the dentist will be fun. If not used correctly, anticipation becomes anxiety, which leads to physical and emotional problems. For the purposes of this blog, I will discuss anticipation in relation to learning.

There will be many moments to anticipate in your child's life. Perhaps you have a new plan for learning set up to do at home. Don't just spring it on your child one day. Tell her in advance, "After Labor Day, we are going to be starting some new learning activities at home. It is going to be so much fun. I think you will like it." Remind her often. Always be excited. Talk about the fun things you will do. "We will learn about letters, numbers, and shapes."

You might send your child to preschool one day, or you might be sending him to Kindergarten. Talk about the positive things. Talk about the new friends he will meet. Talk about how nice his teacher is. Talk about all the fun things he will learn.

Build up this positive and pleasant anticipation and your child will find herself excited for a the new experience rather than nervous or indifferent. He will be ready to face his new adventure head on and without fear.