Homeschooling many ages New Baby

One of the challenges that face many Christian homeschooling families (including mine) is How to Best Serve the Needs of Several Children?
Classroom teachers face this challenge as well, usually with a group of 20 or more. As moms & dads we typically have less children than that, but do have the added challenge of differing ages as well as different abilities and strengths among our children.

Having had a new baby arrive on Jan. 13th, this is a fresh topic on my mind. It is not the nursing newborn that disrupts our routine, however. It is the 2 1/2 year old toddler whose place on my lap has been overtaken and while he can do many things on his own, he is not yet ready to join the older children in their lessons.

Here are a few things that we have found work well for us.
1) Partnering older children with younger children. My level 5 math student can easily sit beside her level one brother and guide him through his lessons. This frees up mom and dad to help another older child.
2) Combining as many subjects as possible. We use resources like Sequential Spelling, Mystery of History, and English from the Roots up. These are easy to use as a group with everyone participating in a lesson, and then older children are assigned additional work to supplement what we've done together.
3) Giving older children independent work whenever possible. My oldest is 13, and this is the first year that she has really been able to work through almost all of her subjects on her own, coming to her father and I with questions and guidance as necessary. I no longer have to create daily lesson plans for her. We've also started using more curriculum that is user friendly and needs little in the way of "teaching" on my part. Piano for life is an example; the DVD lessons are taught by a teacher and then each student is responsible for tracking their own practice time. Right now, all five older children are watching a DVD lesson called "Teaching kids to sing". It provides warming up exercises and practice in posture and proper breathing. All the children can watch it together and glean at their own level.
4) We have a posted chart on a dry erase board. The graph (names across the top and subjects down the side) is posted in wet erase so that it stays there when the board is erased - it has to be washed off to be removed. We use dry erase markers to put a check mark into a box after a child has completed a subject. This allows my husband and I to work one on one with a child on different days throughout the week, and everyone knows what is left to do, with a quick glance at the board.
5) For my toddler, I keep a seat on the floor right next to me and set down my infant whenever he is soundly sleeping(usually when he has just finished nursing) and then invite my toddler to take my lap in an effort to give him as much snuggling time as he needs. I can do this at the table and still be available for other children who need help with their lessons.
6) Also, for my toddler; when everyone is working diligently and no one is able to entertain him; we offer "school books" and paper, pencils, crayons, markers, stickers, etc. and give him important "assignments". Today, we received a sheet of stickers in the mail as part of an advertisement. His assignment was to move the stickers from their sheet onto a piece of blank copy paper. Admittedly, this is not necessarily an 'educational' task. I could maybe claim some hand/eye coordination, but primarily it is busy work. However, he is learning that there are times when he must work at a task while he is waiting for his older siblings to play with him. He is learning that even though there are seven other people in this house who could entertain him, sometimes he will have to entertain himself, sometimes he will have to play alone.
7) Using tip#6 there are many other tasks that toddlers can do that are more productive/educational. Coloring books, puzzles, and simple games are great for including them. One of our favorites recently has been a small dry erase board, one or two markers and an eraser. He enjoys imitating mom and dad who often write memorization verses or prayer requests and other things on our big dry erase board. He can write down his ideas and erase them as often as he likes on his little board.
8) Keep things simple. We don't take off on days that the local schools do. Because we continued to work through the public school winter break, we are now able to relax about school work as we prepared for our new baby's birth and as we take time to welcome him and get to know him. If we miss a few days or lessons now, we know that it's okay.
9) Be flexible in your daily schedule. Right now, with a new baby, a toddler, and children 6, 8, 10, and 13; my ten and thirteen year old daughters are desperately needed by me for many tasks around the house. From washing dishes and preparing meals to scrubbing bathroom floors. Some things are more difficult for me to do at this time, and I need their help, but I also want to make sure that they have time to keep up with their studies as well. This means that we never follow a "school" schedule. In the mornings, the girls typically help with chores and the boys do their lessons. After lunch, small children have naps while older children work on lessons. Because our oldest has much more to do academically (7th grade is much more demanding than 3rd), she often has work still to do at the end of the day. We send children to their rooms at 8pm, little ones to sleep and older children are able to use this time for extra studying, finishing lessons or quiet time to read and listen to music. We understand that this means, mom or dad may have to be up at 10pm to answer history or science questions, but that works for our family. Our oldest is much more pleasant and motivated to work in the evenings and enjoys the quiet time after everyone else is asleep - we often allow her to sleep a little later in the mornings. A homeschool blessing! School doesn't have to begin at a certain time.
10) Be flexible in your yearly schedule. We believe that education is a constant, not something that happens during certain times of day or certain seasons of the year. We work on math skills all year, so we don't have to review in the fall what we forgot from the spring. Our science in the summer is focused on things we can explore outdoors; plants and animals, the growth and harvest of our garden, and in the winter, we do more chemistry and science that involves baking. Homeschool Blessing! We can pick and choose our lessons based on where we are and what we feel like doing. Example: Last summer was especially windy here, and we had several tornado warnings, so we studied tornadoes and other weather phenomenon for many weeks.

So, that's my top ten list! I hope you find it helpful. I would love to hear from all of you with any ideas that have worked for your family. One more thing, we regularly use unit studies as a means of studying subjects together as a family. To learn more about the some of the unit studies that we have put together for our family and for yours, please visit our website: www.vacationeducationbooks.net and check out our book series.