Tips for Teaching Multiple Ages

Today we are going to put our teacher hat on to gain some tips for teaching multiple ages at once!  Can I tell you a secret?  I see a lot of mom bloggers who are giving out advice on all things learning and motherhood who only have one child.  I am in no way saying that they don’t have any wisdom to share, but the truth is teaching and mothering multiple children is different than just one!  So if you are the mom that wants to teach your preschooler, but you also have  a 2 year old and a baby (or some similar combination) then this post is for you!

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Use Independent Activities to Teach Multiple Ages:

Tip number one, in my opinion, is one of the most important tips!  Remember when I said to put on your teacher hat?  This is an example of using our teacher hat!  If you have been in an elementary classroom during reading time you will likely see a teacher working with a small group of students and the rest of the students working on various independent stations.  One of the best ways for you to have time to work one on one with your children is to employ a similar strategy! 

For example, if you want time to work with your 4 year old on an alphabet activity, what are some independent activities your younger children may enjoy?  A few ideas we have used are, sticker books, coloring, playdough, water color books.  Even planning that activity during a morning snack when younger siblings are busy eating could work! 

If you are looking for independent activities for an older child, I used my handwriting worksheets and my Alphabet Math worksheets for my own kids.  The thing you want to look for with independent work is that it is something they are fairly confident with already.  So no brand new information!  I think handwriting work was great for this, because my children already knew how to write the letters, but they definitely still needed practice!

Start Small

Tip number 2 is connected to tip number one!  You will want to start small and build stamina with independent work or even with any academic work.  If your child is not used to doing independent activities, it isn’t reasonable to think they will play independently for 20 minutes just because you put an activity in front of them! 

I have seen that two things will help your child increase their independent play time.  First, be consistent in your routine.  As much as you can try to do your learning routine at the same time of day.  Your child will come to expect their independent play time at the same time and will therefore be more successful. 

The second part of increasing their independent time is to start with small goals and work your way up.  If it were me, I would start with five minutes!  Tell your child you want them to work or play independently for five minutes and then set a timer.  Celebrate when you make the goal!  If they don’t make it, remind them of your expectations and try for five minutes again the next day!  If they made it to five minutes you can increase to 6 minutes the next day!  You can build this into a big kid thing and really celebrate their independence with them!

Modify Activities

My last tip for you is whenever possible, modify activities so they work for all your kids!  So many activities are easily adaptable for multiple skills!  For example, I just did a simple Christmas activity with my toddler.  I drew a Christmas tree on a large piece of paper and put colored dots on the tree.  Then he took dot stickers and identified the colors and covered the dots with the stickers.  If I had older children at home, I could have modified this activity so that I put letters on the tree and had them cover each letter with dot stickers labeled with letters.  OR I could write CVC words on the tree and have them sound out the words and cover them with the correct letter stickers.  Honestly there are so many ways to adapt this!  If you are looking for more easy at home activities to modify, check out my instagram account HERE. 

Let me assure you that none of this will be perfect.  You will still have days when everyone struggles.  (Guess what?  This happens in a regular school classroom too!)  But don’t believe that you are doing it all wrong!  You aren’t!  Stay consistent.  Keep working on that stamina and I know you will find success!!

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