Using Mother Goose Time Curriculum to Multi-Age Homeschool

I have this annoying thing that I do...I brag that I never ever get sick. When my hubby does his little sneezing and pathetic coughing, I smugly smile and talk about how being around students for so long gave me total immunity. Well, my words came back to bite me on Sunday. I think I have the plague. I literally can barely move from my bed. My throat feels like it's been plunged by a thousand knives. Fun times!

I've been writing about homeschooling multi-aged children and the topic is becoming increasingly interesting to me. I want to show you how I used a few Mother Goose Time activities to differentiate their learning needs based on the objectives that they're each focusing on. 

We did a simple counting game. Spin the clock and move that number of spaces. Strong B is learning about numbers so the steps of this game were sufficient enough for his learning. For Tiny B, because she is in kindergarten, I had her compare numbers...Who spun a higher number...Who spun a lower number...How many more it would take to be equal...And the bonus was that Strong B got to hear this as well. I'm noticing that he does a lot of his learning by listening to me and Tiny B!

 

We also did some counting with our sheep manipulatives from this month's box.

 

Then we read from the read loud for the month, which is always a "must do" lesson because of the passion that I hold for teaching my kiddos reading comprehension skills. 

 

We brought in some of Tiny B's kindergarten objectives. For example, we discussed which nursery rhymes could really happen and which are make believe. We spent quite a bit of time on this. 

 

I remember when I used to be sick, and I'd have to write detailed sub plans for my substitute. I was so thankful today when I recalled those days and instead of furiously trying to get plans written, I simply allowed the children to play while I laid in bed. Of course I worried that I wasn't going to be able to send Tiny B to her two days of school "caught up" but I reassured myself that it was okay...that it would be okay...and that homeschooling is just so different.