This is a sponsored post from State History by A Helping Hand. All opinions are my own.

Many times, parents of multiple children struggle with balancing the challenge of teaching multiple children across many grades and levels. Often, parents usually feel like one child is getting the short end of the stick, or that the days seem longer, and even like nothing ever gets done to standard.

But what if I told you that there is another way and it's more versatile, fun, and free?

While there will always be issues with which homeschooling parents struggle, here are some tips that will help span the age gap in your one-room schoolhouse.

Tips for Teaching Multiple Grades Together

Head down to the bottom of this post for a grade-specific course combo giveaway from State History by a Helping Hand.

Break your lessons into chunks.

Some subjects are more easily adapted to fit multiple age ranges, where some can be a little more difficult to navigate. But, breaking your lessons into chunks by subject content is a great way to begin teaching multiple grades together in your homeschool.

Easy Subjects to Teach Together

Doing school as a family with subjects such as Bible or Ethics, Science, History, and Geography can be easier to accomplish. With these subjects, you are able to give a basic lecture covering the key facts of the concept you are wanting to teach that day.

These subjects are more versatile in nature and can be adapted per lesson for many ages!

Younger students can be given easier, more basic facts to memorize and simpler crafts or worksheets. While older students can be given additional information to read, study, or maybe even a video to watch.

They can also do more research and are given more difficult, complex tasks to accomplish. Older students could even be included in teaching the basic lesson from time to time. This is another great way to ensure that your family dynamics are running smoothly, while also honing in on life skills and educational retention!

Subjects That Pose A Greater Challenge

Math and Language Arts are the subjects that present more of a challenge because they are subjects that are more rigidly age-specific. If you take a good look at your curriculum at the beginning of the year, you will notice that some materials are repeated year after year and expanded upon.

You may try to teach these concepts for all grades at the same time. However, it is also a good idea to plan certain independent activities for each of your students that can be done at any time during the day; this will free you up to devote your undivided attention when required.

There various choices of curriculum out there to choose from that have been set up in a way that allows you to teach multiple grades together.

For example, State History By A Helping Hand's materials are all correlated. And because of this, you can teach multiple grades together with ease starting at age four, and all the way up to grade 12!

State History by A Helping Hand provides you with curriculum from a Christian perspective so you won’t have to be on alert for overtones of evolution, humanism, socialism, or atheism. Their materials provide an accurate historical account with an emphasis on events and historical figures that are examples of patriotism, character, and Biblical truth.

Different Methods & Curriculum

If you're wanting to teach multiple grades together, then you may want to reconsider your strategy.

Choices like your chosen teaching method, student's learning method, and even your curriculum may all need to be re-evaluated. Each of these plays a huge role in the advantages and smoothness that comes from teaching family-style.

For example, a box curriculum doesn't usually allow for the amount of versatility among ages and grades that you will need to successfully ensure that all your bases are covered in the learning department.

Maybe your teaching method is more hands-off. If you plan to teach multiple grades together in your homeschool, this is a place that you need to begin preparing for. Family-style homeschooling can be very hands-on.

Eclectic homeschooling, unit studies, notebooking, and unschooling are great places to start when exploring your options to teach multiple grades together.

Good Family-Style Curriculum Choices:

Apologia
State History By A Helping Hand
Sonlight
Paths of Exploration

Ideas for Independent Study

Reading, Spelling, and Penmanship are activities that can generally be accomplished alone from 2nd grade and up.
If your child plays an instrument, practice time is a good independent activity.
Doing a chore around the house or taking a recess time are also activities that can free mom up to work individually with a child.
If all else fails, remember that asking a child to please, sit quietly and wait their turn for help is always ok. It builds patience and patience is a virtue.

Teaching multiple grades together is never an easy task; but then, if we wanted it easy, we wouldn’t be homeschooling, right?

On those days when you’re afraid that everything is going way over your 1st graders' head while your 6th grader isn’t learning anything new, remember that your is children are learning so much more than mere Language Arts and Science. They are learning communication skills, how to teach one another, and to be patient; and those skills are timeless!

State History by a Helping Hand GIVEAWAY

Winner’s choice of either Three-Course Combo for grades 3-12 (Fifty States Under God, Geography of the Fifty States, and the 2-piece state history course on the state of choice) or the Two-Course Combo for age 4 – grade 2 (Fifty States Under God for Young Learners and My State History Funbook on the state of choice).

$50-$100 Value. Combo’s can be done in one year or two. Schedules are in the books.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE STATE HISTORY BY A HELPING HAND GIVEAWAY.

This article is a part of our How We Homeschool Series; a collection of content from full-time, veteran homeschoolers sharing their own experiences on the versatility and diversity of homeschooling. You can read more about the series, and see all of the content, by clicking the image below.