How To Homeschool Multiple Grades (without losing your mind!)

As a busy homeschool mom, you are always looking for easy methods you can implement that are going to simplify and streamline your days. You don’t have time to learn a 10-step method, read a 300-page book, or attend a 45-minute webinar at 9 pm because your days are crammed and cramped and crowded enough. All you need is a simple, surefire method that will help you homeschool multiple grades, successfully, without losing your mind. 

And I have just the thing! 

How To Homeschool Multiple Kids

I have always been a homeschooler with multiple kids because we did not start our homeschool journey when our children began school. At that time, we did what everyone else did and plopped our kids on the school bus and waved goodbye. 

Fast forward a little and I’m at home researching teaching methods and learning styles as we were taking control of our children’s education – and I was determined to succeed. 

Those early years, however, were nothing short of a glorious failure (that give me plenty to write to about). They were so rough, in fact, that I quit homeschooling for a brief period of time until I realized that just because homeschooling was hard did not mean that we could not do it. 

Being A Homeschooler and A Student

As the years progressed, we tried a variety of methods, approaches, and styles. Some were easy to ditch as soon as we began. Some required a little more time to make a decision. 

Nothing was perfect though. 

And over the years I began to learn that homeschooling one child means you can easily fit into just a single box… but homeschooling multiple children means you don’t. 

Just like you cannot put a square peg into a round hole, you cannot put a hands-on learner into an audio class. You can’t place an extroverted child into an introverted homeschool environment. 

And you simply will not be doing anyone any good by putting all of your children into the same programs, courses, and academic paths. 

3 Tricks to Homeschool Multiple Grades Without Losing Your Mind

Over the years, I have learned that our homeschool does best when I am willing to learn myself. When I am willing to try and do what I need to do to make sure our home education is a success for all of my children. 

This realization has led to 3 truths about homeschooling that will help you homeschool multiple kids as well.

1. Be Flexible

Be willing to skip the science experiment if there simply isn’t time.

Be willing to pause if your child needs more time with a skill, concept, or activity.

Don’t box your children into a curriculum (no matter how much you love it), lesson plan (no matter how well it works or is recommended), or even a grade level (these are manmade and artificial anyway).

Know that one program may be amazing for one child, but will be tortuous for another simply because they learn differently.

Homeschooling is all about freedom. The freedom to blaze a personalized path, but that freedom is snuffed out far too often by well-meaning programs, homeschool methods, and moms who think they need to recreate public school at home.

2. Teach Together As Often As Possible!

This may seem completely counter-intuitive, especially after number 1, but hear me out. 😉

In our homeschool, the only class we do individually is math! History, language arts, and even science can be combined in glorious ways that free up your time, allow for amazing discussions, and help your children learn from each other.

How? In history, we study the same time period for all grade levels. We start together in the mornings with a community resource that naturally breeds discussion. This discussion challenges all four of my children to think, to reason, and to question what they know, what they have learned, and how it all lines up in the timeline that is history. From here we branch into more age-appropriate resources, projects, and tasks that will further push them to grow.

The same is true for Language Arts where we cover grammar together on a regular basis, work on free writing and other writing projects, and enjoy read-alouds from a variety of authors, genres, and topics.

And if there is a movie that goes with the book, well, that’s the perfect excuse for a compare and contrast session complete with our favorite snacks! 😉

As for science, the subject that I personally find the most challenging to cover, I have also learned that group lessons are an amazing resource that help me as a busy homeschool mom and help my kids as they can learn and grow together – which they do because all four of them enjoy this particular subject a lot!

3. Plan Only What You Must and Leave Plenty of Room For Whatever Life Throws At You

I am a planner, so this was the hardest lesson for me to learn – but I think it might be the most important one!

As a type-A, planner-extraordinaire, I could schedule our days in a beautiful way. Everything ebbed and flowed on that glorious sheet of paper that magically had our days organized, aligned, and peaceful. Lessons were learned, chores were completed, and dinner was done – on time.

But, only on paper.

In reality, the dryer started making a funny noise, or the baby’s diaper leaked during pre-Algebra.

Dinner was planned, but meat was never defrosted. And even though I had just bought 2 gallons, we were nearly out of milk.

In reality, the lesson was only supposed to take 15-minutes, but we started 10-minutes late (due to the diaper) and the phone rang and my child ended up frustrated because it didn’t make sense.

And 45-minutes later everyone is crying, including me.

This lead to the biggest experiment our homeschool has ever taken on – 2 glorious years of unplanned homeschooling. This experiment forced me to face my own worst fear – the fear of falling behind and failing my kids – and instead trust the process of homeschooling.

Yet it was through those years that I learned the biggest key of all when it comes to homeschooling multiple kids – they won’t fall behind and I won’t fail if we simply make learning the priority of each and every day.

Now, with two in high school, one starting middle school, and one in elementary school, we are back to planning, but we plan from that freedom mindset.

We utilize a unique planning method that we found during our unplanning years and have a planner that is big enough to cover both home and homeschool, and pivot when life needs it.

Homeschooling Multiple Children, Without Losing My Mind

As any veteran homeschool mom will tell you, we learn right alongside our children. 

But the biggest lesson for me was not new history facts or interesting science lessons. 

The biggest lesson was learning how to homeschool four very different children in a way that worked for them individually and as a group. 

And in order to learn that lesson, and learn it as well as I could, I needed to learn to listen to my children – to what they said and how they responded – and adapt to meet them where they were at while trying to bring them to where they would like to be. 

Learning how to homeschool multiple kids is a lesson that is always evolving and shifting as my kids grow, change interests, and pursue new avenues. 

Yet, my years of homeschooling have taught me that these 3 tricks are all I need to remember – the basics that I need to get back to – when life gets a little too chaotic.

Be flexible, combine whenever possible, and plan for plenty of detours along your homeschooling journey.

These truly are the secret to homeschooling multiple kids, successfully.