How to home educate/ school multiple dc? Help!

[Howmanysleepsnow]

Ok, so it’s a bit late to ask but I’ve been trying my best and am panicking it’s not enough!
I have 4dc, aged 6 (y2 summer born), 8 (y3), 12 (y8 summer born) and 14 (y9, was doing GCSEs over 3 years).
They go to 3 different schools.

Ds 14 is set homework on line. He has about 4 pieces a day, plus Oak English and BBC bitesize English.
Dd12 gets 4-5 pieces of work a day. No online teaching other than reading.
Ds6 and ds8 have apps to use (education city, TTRockstars for both, reading plus for ds8). For the first 4 weeks worksheets were sent out.

Ds14 only seems to work while I’m standing over him. 4 hours work takes 9-10 hours. He gives one word answers for 5 mark questions, and I constantly have to prompt to write enough. He’s very easily distracted so can’t work in the same room as his siblings. He also marked a lot of work as done on show my homework early on in lockdown without doing the work (just read the info) so is having to do extra daily to catch up.

Dd12 gets on and does her work to a good standard.

Ds8 is very reluctant to work but can be bribed to do an hour or so a day between sulks. He talks non stop and distracts the others.

Ds6 has speech problems which had a knock on effect on reading so he’s been on the same book band since reception. If got him to the stage he can read chapter books with me over lockdown (and reads ds14’s work to “check”) but he doesn’t believe he can read so won’t even try to read instructions on apps etc

Basically, how do I split myself 4 ways, with dc who can’t work in same room and with completely different needs while working 2 night shifts a week?

You shouldn’t need to , only your year 2 child should need your full input and your year 3 some support. You older dc I would be giving strict consequences if they aren’t working well independently.
I would have your year 2 and year 3 together , teach them the sane thing with a little differentiation again consequences for the constant talking. I have 6 school age dc the four infant age I teach together the same topics , my year four and high school dc work completely independently in their bedrooms.

@ToothFairyNemesis what does that teaching look like? You mentioned topics- do you mean like history, science etc or grammar, comprehension and maths (fractions etc)?
They can both write stories etc at the same time and learn about countries/ plants/ whatever together (and they do) but I’m not clear what would be on the curriculum in terms of English/ maths? Any pointers?

My younger children are reception, year one and year two ages 5,6,6,7. The night before I look on white Rose maths and Oak Academy , also “Ruth Miskin” and “letters and sounds for home and school” on YouTube , to get an idea of the level they should be working at. I also use the cgp books to check what topics they need to have covered by the end of the school year.
Today we learnt about Apollo 11 and the first moon landing, because there was an interesting lesson on Oak Academy.
We watched the video then completed the picture/word timeline.
Followed by making a not great, because I am rubbish at crafts model of a spaceship.
Then I wrote some simple sentences containing split digraphs for my reception and year one dc. Eg “ There was a big flame” and “ You cannot get to the moon on a plane”. My 5 and 6 year olds copied them out and underlined the split digraphs. While they were doing this my 7 year old wrote a short story about visiting the moon. I wrote some key words he should know and asked him to include them.
I had printed of some outlines of rockets and I wrote sums inside for my year two dc. The youngest three coloured in different rockets in-halves, a quarter etc .
My 5 year old was asking questions about Neil Armstrong’s flag and wanted to learn more, so we looked up flags from other countries, and each made made our favourite flag using paper and a straw.
We ended the day with an episode of “where in the world on CBeebies.”
I can’t teach them different things all at the same time it just wouldn’t work. This way we incorporated English, maths, geography, art and history/science all within one topic. It was only 30 mins of maths and an hour of English but I think that’s plenty for their age. Was around 4.5 hours learning in total.

Forgot to tag you @Howmanysleepsnow

Right, first off don't beat yourself up. You can only spread yourself so thin before you stretch too far and snap.

I have 4 dc - 12 (y7), 10(y5 and 8yo twins (y3). 10yo and 8yo dd both have adhd and dd2 also has issues working in the same space as anyone else as well as other battles round getting her to do work.

1st off, chances are the 'cant work with X' is a BS excuse to get round not being supervised. Ask what they would do in class if someone was distracting them - I'm pretty sure their teacher would remind them all to think about others but that they wouldn't be allowed to leave the class or use it as an excuse for no work unless there was significant sen at play.

Try the carrot and stick approach (works somewhat with my lsa students). For every 15 minutes of work they do, they get 5 minutes playing on a game. But if they take the mick when their 5 minutes is up, they lose that option until the next break. At home we have is completed by lunch, they can have x box in the afternoon. If they don't complete it, they lose the x box for the day and the work gets finished in the afternoon. If it doesn't, x box gets banned for the rest of the week.

With your eldest, choose whether to fight over doing work which should have been done and double his workload, or let him take the consequences of marking work done and continue from wherever they are now (week 7 in most places I guess).

Your dd needs to be praised for doing her work and the others need to see there is a reward for this, even if it's something small. - gaming time, sweets, tv choice - whatever works for you.

Your 8yo. Bribes are great, but sometimes they come to expect them. So maintain boundaries around getting a treat when work is done without the griping. What sort of thing does he talk non-stop about and is he easy enough to distract back to work?

The 6yo and their reading. Don't force it by expecting them to read instructions and apps. The text on a page can appear very different on a screen. But, if there is a book they like, I'd suggest a game of 'match the words' - so words you know they can read easily, write them out or highlight them on a page of text and get them to find them in onscreen instructions - it might be a confidence boost that they know that word and oh look, it's there as well.

Mine have tried every trick in the book and still do. But despite their tantrums, my rules are the same. No work = no gaming. Disturbing others or interrupting isn't tolerated and that child is reminded that they have to wait their turn. I try and split my time evenly but the truth is, 2 of mine do need more input so I praise the others for working well independently when they do.

They are also all vying for your attention because they aren't seeing friends, or socialising etc. The younger 2 could be encouraged to write to their school friends and relatives while you sit with the older ones. It doesn't have to be all about formal schooling.

But mostly, remember you are only human and you can only do what you can. The children will be ok as long as you can all be happy and relatively stress free.

@minisoksmakehardwork my bribes are game time (guess “reward” may be a better way of looking at it!)
Ds8 talks about anything... his work, ds6’s work and how easy it is/ how unfair that is (not motivational for ds6!), how much/ little ds14 is doing, what the dog is doing, why I’m helping ds6 more than him (he needs it more!), what he’s heard on the news, why do light bulbs light/ why does water go down the plug hole the opposite way in Australia/ how does your body fight germs... anything!
Helping ds6 requires constant talking- he can only read aloud, needs questions reading to him, does his maths workings out out loud... Ds14 is definitely after an excuse to hide in his room, but I can see why.
And you’re right, dd deserves more recognition (actually they all do, none of their work is marked or gets feedback from school, just me!)

Use the reward as a sanction as well then - ds8, I need X minutes of quiet work from you so I can work with Y. If you can't do it, I'll reduce your game time by those minutes.

Sorry, that perhaps comes across as short and rude. I didn't mean it to. I really do understand your situation and we just have to do our best. If your dc's school aren't giving feedback on work done if maybe contact them and ask if you can have a little - we upload photos to dojo which always get a little comment so the dc know the teachers are looking at their work. The eldest will message her teachers to ask for clarification and I know the school I work at has told their teachers they need to give feedback on work done, not necessarily all of them all of the time but they need to make sure they're in touch with their students.