momofsix I am a homeschool mom with six children. View all articles | Contact author

     I have six children that are under the age of eleven. They are ages: 11,10,9,7,5, and 3 years old. It is fun and challenging at times to homeschool. I have found that using "stations" (as we refer to them) works well in our home.

I have index cards that are color coded to match certain areas of basement room we use. The orange station is the computer (headphones used), the green station is the book reading area, the red station is for puzzles, the purple station is on the table to work with mom, blue station for basketball or ball playing, yellow station for manipulative toys,brown station listening audio tape with story book-headphones), for  and pink station for watch an educational tv show, etc (we rotate the puzzles, manipulative toys, computer games, etc. out once a week).

The timer is set for 30 minutes. When it rings the older children help to move the younger children to their new stations, and eventually the young children wean themselves from needing the help because they rotate around the room clockwise. By the time they get to the last station with the tv, they are winding down getting ready for lunch.

I know this idea might seem crazy to some because it might sound too rigid. However, it gives me the one on one with the older ones I need. And I do start the first hour of my day, between 7 and 8:00 with the youngest two, playing with them (mommy time).

After lunch the children work on their lapbooks (the youngest ones go down for naps) while I read aloud from our truthquest books. That ends at about 2:30pm That leaves the children time to run around outside, chore duties, read, practice piano (whatever they want to do when their daily do list has been completed).

Dinner is then with daddy at 5pm. They get alone time with him until 7pm (including some Bible reading time). Bedtime at 7pm for youngest ones while the older ones get ready for the next day and read until 8pm. 

We have done the "stations" for about two years and it works really well for us.  I hope that in sharing this idea it will help someone, or it might be a great spring board idea for someone. 

PS  I have a friend that changed this around for her needs. She does school in her living room. She decided to make little stations or play areas with different manipulatives, listening place, etc. in her living room and rotate the younger children while she works with the older ones. I would recommend doing some blanket training and putting a blanket under those areas or something like that for respecting boundary areas so they don't travel off with different things-getting one stations manipulatives mixed with another. The Duggers also do blanket training. It works well for doctor offices, visiting, and this idea of stations as well. I have found it very helpful with young ones to understand their boundaries, which makes for understanding of larger boundaries later as they get older.