Running a One Room School House

Posted by Montserrat | 0 comments

I’ve always harbored a secret wish to travel back in time and visit a one room school house. When I was younger I used to fantasize about what they were like as I’d read about them in books like Little House on the Prairie or Anne of Green Gables.

Now as a homeschooling mother of many children I have my own “one room schoolhouse.” There are a few things I would like to ask those school teachers of long ago! How did the teacher handle all those children in varying grades? Did the children work silently? Or was there a general whispered hum? How did the teacher organize it so that the children were occupied while she worked with another group? And, how did the teacher keep track of what to teach and when?

While I don’t have all those answers I have learned some ‘tricks of the trade’ to help when homeschooling so many on different academic levels as well as keeping the toddlers and baby occupied too.

Read Out Loud

Children of all ages, from preschool to teenagers, enjoy listening to good stories. Adults like it too. Reading can be done to help quiet children down, or when the baby needs to be nursed, or at the beginning of the school day to corral everyone together. Who wouldn’t want to come to school and listen to the next exciting chapter?

Here are a few books suggestions to get you started:

The Little House on the Prairie Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White
Just David by Eleanor Porter

While reading a chapter book is a good way to share great literature with your children don’t forget the power of looking at a toddler’s favorite picture book with the whole family, or reading a short story, or even some poems. Take turns reading out loud to help children develop their reading and annunciation skills. Ten minutes a day is all it takes to get the whole family hooked on reading together!

Memorization

Memorizing poems, quotations, and historical speeches was a big part of learning “way back when.” My grandparents have amazing recall of things they memorized when they were in school. What was once an art is fast becoming a lost skill. To overcome that in our homeschool we memorize things together, reciting them over and over. The younger ones can memorize long passages of scripture or poems many times even faster than the older children and mom can! Reciting and memorizing as a family builds fun memories as we work together to help one another learn a new piece of literature.

Recess

We’ve all heard the proverb “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Children are so energetic! They need times set aside where they can run, romp, and move their bodies. In olden day one-room school houses there were three recesses during the day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one to eat lunch. Games such as tag, follow the leader, and jump rope were very popular. During our recess we play games that everyone can participate in. Some of our favorites are Dog Chases Its Tail, Duck, Duck, Goose and on rainy or snowy days we like Hide and Seek or it’s opposite Sardines which we play indoors.

Photo Credit: Melissa, A Familiar Path

One of my favorite techniques to employ in our one-room school house is “divide and conquer.” Divide tasks into smaller portions making it easier to get them done. This is useful is a variety of aspects.

I use it when scheduling subjects (Science, History, Art, etc) spreading them out throughout the week rather than every one every day. We are able to devote more time to each and don’t feel hurried trying to get through each one before the school day is done.

I divide my children into three pairs according to age so I can gear my teaching to their similar academic levels. This makes any unit studies we do easier to plan for while they have a buddy to work on projects with together.

Divide and conquer is a great tactic to use when there are toddlers and babies to keep occupied. For instance, the first hour of our school day my time is dedicated to teaching my 5 year old and 7 year old. For the first half hour my 14 year old will take care of the three month old while my 11 year old will play with the three year old. My other two children, aged 13 and 9, will have individual study time. The second half hour they switch.  By the end of a regular school day each child will have had some bonding time with the three year old, while the three oldest will also have had a turn watching the baby.

Because of this help from the children I am able to devote teaching time to each child free from interruptions from the baby or toddler. The older children learn to study independently when not helping with the younger ones. The time the children spend either with the three year old or baby also provides a nice little break from their studies.

Since starting this approach over a couple of years ago I’ve noticed a greater bond develop among the children. Toddlers enjoy learning and doing “school” like their older siblings who are more than happy to play teacher during their time together. (In the interest of full disclosure here this works about sixty percent of the time. The baby seems to change her schedule constantly and the older children are sometimes needed to help rake or swath hay.)

So, there’s a few things I’ve learned to help our family. While I can’t go back in time and ask those one-room school teachers how they did it I can ask their fellow counterparts, YOU!

What have you found works well in your homeschool to include all ages in the learning? What do you do when you have toddlers and/or babies?

Please share your insights. I’m always looking for ways to improve, as I’m sure others are too. Your suggestion might be just the answer someone is looking for.

Montserrat is completely devoted to her wonderful husband, Joseph, and their seven (soon to be eight) children. They live on a 2,500 acre alfalfa farm nestled in a small Northern Nevada valley. They’ve been homeschooling for 10+ years. Montserrat enjoys, photography, cooking, crafting, chocolate, and sloppy goodnight kisses. She strives to live each day as God would have her do following Mary’s biblical supplication, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” (Luke 1:38) You can find her at her blog Chocolate On My Cranium.