This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Homeschooling Several Ages at Once with Natalie Burton.

Homeschooling Several Ages at Once with Natalie Burton

Many of us homeschool more than one young person at a time. It CAN be done! That’s why we were excited to talk with our friend, Natalie Burton, again. We had Natalie on the podcast earlier, talking about homeschool and life balance. She is always a giver of wisdom and encouragement!

Natalie Burton’s story

Natalie has four homeschoolers ranging in age from four to eleven. This year is her official first year homeschooling all four of them. However, even though her four-year-old is just starting his official education, he has always been with his sisters at the table when they are doing their lessons. He has always been in the mix of everything homeschool!

Natalie is married into a ministry family. Her husband is a worship leader at Macedonia Baptist Church in Southeast Washington DC. With the busy church life and homeschooling, Natalie has learned to be flexible and open to God’s leadings.

Year-round homeschooling

Natalie and her family homeschool year-round. She uses the summer to map out the upcoming school year. Year-round homeschooling works well for her family. One reason is that her oldest child is neurodivergent. For her, the timeline of a traditional school year felt like too much pressure. The year-round format helped her relax and opened up with her education.

Natalie found that the year-round format allowed for intermittent breaks, so that they never truly get to the place of burnout. Her homeschoolers are mostly always excited to do school.

The beautiful thing about homeschooling is that you can make it fit the rhythm of your family!

Natalie’s tips for homeschooling several ages

One thing Natalie has learned is to be adaptable and open to the Lord’s guidance throughout the year. Here are some of her tips:

One-on-ones and entertaining littles

Natalie has learned that her homeschoolers work much better when they have some time doing one-on-one core-subject lessons with her. The personal time gives her students focus and excitement. To pull this off, Natalie has special activities that her younger ones can do. The special activities generally keep the young ones’ attention until they arrive at lunch, recess, or a family/group activity.

Early rising

The Lord put on Natalie’s heart to get up early in the morning. She felt that God showed her that He blessed her with multiple children, and with that comes more responsibility. It helps her to get up forty-five minutes earlier than she did when the kids were younger. This gives her extra prep time and time to get centered and ready for the day.

Homeschool co-op

Natalie searched for two years to find the right homeschool co-op for her family. She loves this co-op because it is a dynamic, Christ-centered, and all of the moms there make it a safe place for all the homeschoolers to learn together. Her kids love it because they have a great time. The co-op families feel like family for Natalie and her kids.

All the homeschool moms help out at the co-op. For instance, Natalie serves as treasurer. When looking for a co-op, she highly suggests finding one where the moms are involved (as opposed to the ones where parents can drop kids off and leave). The relationships formed by serving together are important for homeschool-mom support and encouragement.

Immediate Breaks

There’s no such thing as an all-the-time, picture-perfect homeschool (or anything). Natalie has instituted “immediate breaks” for herself and her homeschoolers. When anyone is feeling their calm slip away, they are allowed an immediate break to stop, breathe, and self-regulate. After all, it’s hard for moms to teach or students to learn if they are too stressed. A little calm-down time helps everyone to get back on track.

Self-discipline

Natalie has found that God has used her prayer life and homeschooling her kids to develop the fruit of the spirit of self-discipline. This can look like taking an immediate break and breathing for a bit. It can also look like staying on task (and helping her kids learn to do so) when they need to complete their lessons.

Balanced with flexibility

Natalie’s oldest child has been a teacher of flexibility for her. When her daughter becomes overwhelmed, they have learned to take that immediate break. Natalie is naturally a Type A, so educating her daughter has helped her moderate that style and be more adaptable to the needs of her child in the moment.

Find role models

One of Natalie’s closest friends and role models is Anita Gibson. Our listeners know Anita through our interviews with her, including:

No Second-class Homeschoolers
You Are the Right Parent for Your Homeschooler
And her work at National Homeschool Advocacy (Natalie works with Anita in this organization)

Anita and Natalie’s mother started homeschooling their kids when Natalie was a young child. They went to church together. Anita has served as a mentor and support to Natalie for her entire life.

Natalie also helps Anita with the Simply Homeschool Facebook group.

Let the process be the process

Homeschooling is a process for the whole family, so let the process be the process. Give yourself over to it. Learn with your children. Allow yourself to change as the years go by. Homeschooling is a growth process, a learning curve. You can do this!

Forget perfection!

Natalie has learned to remove the lens of trying to be perfect. When you let go of that, things get a lot easier, the pressure comes off, and you can actually inhale!

Remove the lens of trying to be perfect.

Read alouds

Natalie spends some family-learning time reading the Bible, literature, and poetry with her homeschoolers. This gives them shared experiences and builds their listening skills. This is one of her favorite times of the day!

The most important thing that Natalie wants you to know is that with God’s help, you can do this!

Join Vicki and Natalie Burton for tips for homeschooling several ages at once. Thanks to Seth Tillman for editing.

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