A Recipe for Teaching Multiple Ages

Welcome to 10 Days of Lasagna Learning! I’m so glad you are here. As homeschool mothers, parents, we can all learn from and help each other. I hope that some part of this series will bless you – whether you are balancing the needs of an age range or just starting your homeschool journey. So I am imagining you and I sitting down for a visit to chat about a recipe for teaching multiple ages. Would you like coffee or tea?

And while each of our homeschools and families are different, let me introduce you to our homeschool. Here at Hodgepodge we teach an age range of five children from four up to 14. For a long time I’ve called it Layers and Levels of Learning. That one-room schoolhouse type of learning. But Lasagna Learning describes it much more accurately.

A Recipe for Lasagna Learning: Over the remaining days of this series, I’ll be sharing the list of ingredients, the instructions for teaching multiple ages. It’s a simple recipe, really, going something like this: Place a layer of learning in the pot (like my favorite slow cooker), add another layer, season with sauce, add another layer. Keep alternating layers until it is appetizing. Cook well, seasoned with spices. It’s irresistible! Fill your plate of learning high! Little ones learning from older ones. Middle ones keeping things lively, always asking questions.

A recipe for preserving children – on my family room wall with the reflection of the children playing.

Not only do we have an age range here, we also have a wide range of learning styles. The temperature and conditions in which we serve our lasagna. See if you have any matching these descriptions:

• 14-year-old daughter learns by reading and is visual – give her a book and she’s pretty much got it.
• Almost 13-year-old son – is an auditory learner. He will listen to anything. I wondered why he enjoyed all those audio books when he was little. And now he thrives on Teaching Textbooks math – listening to each lecture and problem.
• Middle Girl, at nine years old could make, create, display, concoct, play, dialogue – she’s a hands-on, kinesthetic learner.
• Six-year-old and four-year-old’s learning styles are still emerging.
• If you need help with determining your child’s learning style, The Way They Learn is a great resource.

So you see that I need to be aware and teaching to not only ages and ability but also to the different ways learning styles mesh together. So each child soaks up the rich vitamins of knowledge.

But I must start by encouraging you. I do not do it all. We do not fit it all in. And I must remind you– there are seasons in this homeschool life. When I was smack in the middle of having babies, we did well to get the basics in. Just the three Rs – reading, writing and arithmetic. So, dear homeschool mama, if that is where you are, please pick some gems out over the next two weeks. Bookmark my series, pin it and save the rest for later.

How to Start a Homeschool Day with a Household? Get up before the children and get on your knees. Most homeschool mamas realize this. But if there is not anything you get from what I share here in Lasagna Learning, I encourage you – impress upon you – start your day with some quiet prayer time. Wow, what 15 minutes of alone time in the morning or late at night can do for a mama! It’s good to keep a daily habit of stepping out of the urgent, into the quiet, out of our regular spot and look to our source of strength. Jesus set the example. (Luke 4: 42-43)

“If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought.” James 1: 1-5, The Message

And over time, I learned a practical way to teach the children to pray – as we go about our day. This has also been key for myself as well. How to keep a prayer life in the day to day of balancing an age range. An excerpt from my Practical Prayer:

• When you hear a siren, stop and pray with the children. Pray not only for those that might be hurting but also for those that are responding to the emergency. Pray for healing. Siren prayers usually prompt us to pray for others we know with urgent needs.
• When that airplane flies overhead pray, “God, please bless the people in the airplane.”
• Can’t find something? Pray. The simple act of stopping and praying for wisdom helps calm everybody down. “Mama, shouldn’t we pray?” a child reminds. We do. And then I find my keys.

Simple, anytime prayers:

• “Help!”
• “Please give me wisdom!”
• “Allow me to show love”

“You can’t change what you have or haven’t done over the past year. Just start where you are, ask the Lord to make you a “joyful mother of children,” pray for grace and wisdom (and strength and patience), and move forward. – Vicki Bentley

That’s what we’ll do tomorrow. We’ll move forward in this series – layering and learning.

You may be interested in a few ways we enjoy Bible learning with multiple ages:

• 365 Days of Celebration and Praise
• Making Habits Stick: 31 in 31 – a Proverb a Day Keeps the Devil Away
• Devotionals for the Age Range

Some of the topics in this series:

• A Recipe for Teaching Multiple Ages {Day 1}
• Helpful Homeschool Habits for Multiple Ages {Day 2}
• The 3 Rs for Multiple Ages {Day 3}
• How to Fit in All the Extras {Day 4}
• Afternoon Quiet Time for All Ages {Day 5}
• Unit Studies for Multiple Ages {Day 6}
• Teaching Art with Multiple Ages {Day 7}
• Hands On Learning, Projects for Multiple Ages {Day 8}
• Technology for All Ages {Day 9}
• I Honestly Don’t Know How You Do It {Day 10)

**Remember to subscribe to Hodgepodge, so you won’t miss any lasagna learning! You can also have free Hodgepodge delivered to your email inbox by entering your email address in the top right hand corner.

The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects. Visit us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. And of course, click the image below to visit all the 10 Days posts from these homeschool moms of the iHomeschool Network. You’ll be blessed with tips on how to handle bad days, cultivating curiosity, teaching with Legos, and much much more!

So, tell me what your homeschool looks like. What are you hoping to take away from lasagna learning?

-originally published April 2012

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