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We are adopting out of birth order, 2 older kids from Latvia. We have 2 other children (who also were adopted (but as infant & toddler). Did you wait a few months after the older kids were home before you officially started homeschooling and just use that first few months for attachment building and language immersion? Ours will be 9 & 10 when they get home (hopefully).
We actually jumped in with schooling almost right away. John and Kayla came home at the end of August and they were ready to start school when I would normally start the other kids. Because our kids were so much older and used to a lot of structure in their day, school gave us something to bond over. In hindsight, we were blessed with a honeymoon period where they would do anything we asked willingly. However, as reality collided with expectations, life started getting ugly. This winter and spring, I spent as many as 15 hours sitting with raging or dysregulated children. There were many days that little or no school happened because I was not available to facilitate it. I am thankful for what we did accomplish during our honeymoon. All that to say, hold schooling loosely. Do what you can and know that the most important lessons to be taught are how to live in a family. While we didn’t do much by academic standards this year, the kids were learning so many other life lessons. Even the kids who were already in our house learned a lot as they were sanctified and stretched by having to integrate 3 new (and sometimes hard-to-love) kids into our family.
If you do start school right away, I would keep it easy. I way over estimated my kids and they were quickly disheartened. We’ve now had to move to a system where school happens in timed increments (rather than quantity of work). Whatever gets done, gets done and whatever doesn’t, waits. I also make corrections optional now but they keep receiving similar work until I see improvement or mastery. This perceived control over their work has made them much more willing to do school and even correct it.
How do you homeschool six kids?
Not very well this year. I had the equivalent of a preschooler, 2 kindergartners, 2 second graders, and a fourth grader. Three of the kids needed me almost constantly and only one was mostly independent. I struggled all year with trying to make everyone feel like their needs were being met and trying to adjust my expectations of everyone so they all didn’t hate me. Our new system (only a couple weeks old) is that each child (minus my youngest and 4th grader) has a binder full of work divided by subject. They are allowed to work in any subject during school hours as long as they work through that subject in order skipping only parts they don’t understand. Having a plethora of work allows them to always have something to move to so they don’t have to bother me if they get stuck. I work with our youngest for about 10 minutes, then dismiss him to play. Then I set a timer and work with each child for about 15 minutes. I answer as many questions as I can during that time and then move on. We do this cycle until I deem a break or the end of school for that day. Once CC starts again in the fall, we’ll tweak this a bit to include group memory work review and some other activities. I am also blessed to have one child who is almost completely independent. You can read how he’s doing his work these days here.
Thanks for advice! I agree with the comment above mine that says everything will be school for them in the first few (or even several) months. As our kids will be just learning English, I know that for sure will be true.
I agree with starting soon, but having a very open mind on what school will look like. My son came home from China at 7 1/2 and those first few months we did things like: 1) draw and color together. I had a simple book on how to draw animals. At first, he was scared to try, so I’d sit with him and help draw it, and then we’d color it together, all the while, talking about it. I might write the word, “lion” on the picture of the lion and so on. 2)We played with fridge magnets and play doh and traced the alphabet in shaving cream. 3)I read aloud constantly, and believe this was the best thing I did. The thing to remember is that those first few months everything will be school for them.