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A Helping Hand
by Kristenea M. LaVelle (Kristenea's bio)

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Homeschooling is a challenge to all families, but especially to those families with a wide range of school aged children. Perhaps your family falls into this category. If so, you may have noticed a tendency to scramble about the house getting lessons and activities prepared for each level of teaching that you must accomplish in a single day. This is quite a challenge indeed. It was during one of "these days" that I stumbled upon a simple, yet very helpful technique that has changed the way I school my children. This simple approach to teaching has added benefits that will improve not only the relational skills of your children, but it will strengthen and encourage while building self-esteem and confidence. It is simple: let the older children instruct the younger children.

Now, before eyebrows are raised and hair is bristled over this subject, know that I am not implying that all the responsibility of schooling the younger children should fall upon the older siblings. I am merely suggesting that there are several simple tasks, activities and games that an older child would delight in teaching the younger ones. I have found this to be very effective in our household, and these are the direct benefits I see:

To begin with, it proves to be a great help to the homeschooling mother who "just needs an extra set of hands" to help out. Some simple tasks include: reading books to preschoolers and kindergarten levels (this improves the reading skills of the older child as well), passing back corrected papers, helping with craft and science projects or even teaching colors, numbers and the alphabet to a younger sibling. (Brainstorm simple tasks and activities that could be easily accomplished by a 2-6 th grader or older.)
I have found that allowing an older child to "help" with the teaching actually fosters a respect in the younger children while helping them to build better relationships with their siblings.
It encourages a desire for learning in both parties, but especially in the child who is doing the teaching. They want to teach the younger ones what they have already mastered and by doing this, they are strengthened in the knowledge they already possess, so it builds up their self-esteem as well.
It is good training to "show" a child how to teach because you are preparing them to teach their own children. In essence, you are sowing seeds into the future…your potential grandchildren.
It is also effective for building up family unity. All the children will come to understand that we grow and learn together, as a family unit, and that it takes all of us doing our part to be successful.

One final tip that is as fun as it is effective. We like to play a game where one of the older students gets to play teacher, while the rest of us (including mom) get to be the students. The teacher makes up the lessons and assignments that we work on and then corrects each of the papers and hands them back, being careful to explain our mistakes in an uplifting and gentle way. The children love this game and I often find them playing it amongst themselves in their free time. Since children learn most effectively through play, this makes it even better. This way, schooling never stops, and the children come to understand that learning is fun.

I encourage you to give it a trial run in your own home school setting. What you experience could change your whole way of thinking in regard to teaching your children.

About Kristenea M. LaVelle: I am a wife of 10 years and a homeschooling mother of five dedicated to teaching and living the truth of Jesus Christ. David and I make our home in Spokane, Washington where we can serve our family and friends with the love of Christ. It was through His direction that I began writing and found myself on a fascinating new journey in life. Now my joy is made complete by writing for Him and about Him. E-mail Kristenea

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