We’ve all seen shows like “Little House on the Prairie” with the one room schoolhouse in which all ages and grades are taught. If you are a home schooling parent with multiple children, your daily routine might resemble that old time schoolhouse. It may seem overwhelming to teach multi-age, multi-grade level, and multi-ability level kids at the same time, but it absolutely does not have to be.

There are a couple of options for you to try. First, you can purchase a curriculum for each grade level. These come as a sort of a kit, and make planning lessons, instruction, independent work, and assessments quite a breeze. While these kits may come in handy, keep in mind that it may be quite difficult to follow multiple curriculum guides at the same time.

Another option for you is to use unit or thematic studies. Using this approach, it is possible to teach the same subject or concept to multiple grade or ability levels at the same time. It is also much easier to plan for. Social Studies and Science are the easiest of the subjects to plan units or themes around. Math and Grammar skills may be the subjects for you to consider totally different curriculum for since they entail more complex skills building on lesser complex skills.

The most important skill for the students to acquire in order for multi-level teaching to be successful, is the ability to work independently on assignments or projects while you are spending one on one time with individuals. This teaches kids to think independently, to take ownership and responsibility for their own learning, and how to “figure things out” or problem solve. The younger children will most likely need the most individualized attention, so be sure to plan blocks of time during the day when the older kids are either working independently or helping another younger child, freeing you up to do some one on one instruction.

The idea behind a unit study is to choose a topic or concept, teach the basic idea at the same time, and fashion the individual assignments to multiple learning levels and styles. For instance, if you have chosen to teach the concept of explorers in Social Studies, you can not only integrate different levels of learning, you can integrate other subjects. Your older children can study the cultures of the different explorers, the geographical area from which they came, the politics surrounding the expedition, and the intricate mapping of the exploration. Younger children can study who the explorers were, where they came from, what they were looking for, how long the expedition took, and what the explorers encountered along the way.

Science could be integrated in this unit study by adding the topography of the land, the fauna and flora encountered, the illnesses introduced to the new lands, the weather patterns, and the ocean currents.

Reading materials of all levels can probably be found in the public library on explorers. Your children can choose reading material on their own level and prepare reports on what they have learned. Writing assignments can be modified as well. The more advanced students could be charged with writing a research report, and the first grader could retell the story and illustrate it or write complete sentences about the explorers. Vocabulary and spelling can be pulled from the same unit. This same idea can be applied to most subject matter.

Quiz games can also be tailored for multiple levels of knowledge and ability. These games can be played by all, can provide a great review for older students and an exposure to new, more complex material for younger students, and can be enjoyable and exciting for all participants. Teaching multi-levels takes a lot of creativity and thinking outside of the box. Using unit studies or thematic units can take much of the stress out of the process and has proven to be beneficial to all levels.