Hello Rosine! I have three children, 8, 6, and almost 5. We started RS a few weeks ago. I had the intention of going quickly through B with my 8 yo ds and teaching the two younger as a group, starting in A. My 8 yo is loving it and grasping the concepts, doing 2-3 lessons a day. My 6 yo ds is bored with the pace of A and becoming a trouble-maker (however he likes doing math without worksheets!) My almost-5 yo dd is loving it, too, but not grasping the concepts as quickly as her older brother. So, I am looking at teaching three kids three different levels/pacing. Being very new to RS and having other teacher-intensive curriculum, I am feeling quite overwhelmed. I posted questions on the yahoo group about teaching multiple kids, but didn't get many answers. Any suggestions?

I also need clarification about Joan Cotter's admonition that the children "understand" a concept before proceeding in the lessons. If we are working with the numbers 6-10 with tally sticks, abacus, etc. and my dd doesn't recognize 7, 8, 9, do we just stay on that concept until she easily recognizes them, or do we move ahead because the concept will be reinforced and reviewed? I haven't reviewed the entire teacher manual yet, does RS use a spiral method of teaching?

Thank you for providing this forum, it makes RS even more top-notch than it already is,

Sarah

Dear Sarah,

Thank you for your post. What I recommend when teaching multiple levels to 3 children is to consider rotating days of teaching as well as teaching math on Saturdays, and/or teaching summer school math so you don't feel you need to press forward too quickly and can feel comfortable with skipping days of math.

With your 5 year old who's in Level A and every other day schedule can work well for him. Here's what I propose as an option to consider.

5yr old M-W-Sat.

6yr old T-Th-F-Sat

8yr old M-F

This is just an idea. Of course you should do whatever works best for you and your children. Also, some days you may just want to play math games. Or when one of them has a game for their lesson then you can have everyone play the game providing each of them some math time together.

Homeschooling can easily be overwhelming. Remember, with homeschooling you can let your child lead the way. There will be times when you'll know that your children need time off from formal math lessons because your children need time to assimilate all the information that has been presented. This will allow you time to work more with another child. Also know that some lessons will take more than one day.

The schedule I set before you is still pretty rigorous. You can certainly modify it so it's not so much that way and have your 8yr old do 4 days of math like M-F and have the younger two do three days a week. Whatever way works best for you and your children.

If you choose to do math through out the summer or even partially in the summer you can look at teaching everyone math every other day and relieve the schedule a bit more.

Does any of this sound doable? Let me know. I'm surprised you didn't get a response from the RS board. You might want to try posting it again and see if someone who hasn't been on for a while happens to get on and might post a response.

Let me know if you have any other questions. You can contact us via email, phone of post.

Thanks for giving your children a RightStart in math.

Sincerely, Rosine

Thank you for your reply. I never thought of doing every other day/rotation schedule. That is a big help. I hope that we can make it work. I will let you know if I need some more encouragement and help. Thanks for making yourself available.

Sarah