To help with homeschooling multiple ages and simplify planning, I expanded our read aloud time to include other activities. That’s where Family Time comes into play.
What kind of activities did we include in Family Time? It varied through the year as to what my goals were for that year.
The most important aspect of Family Time was reading aloud with my kids. Each morning we started our day with a 1-hour Family Time, which included 30 minutes of reading classics and entertaining books to our kids.
I loved read aloud books because they encourage a love of reading, which I did not have growing up. I hoped my kids would love reading. Even my kids who did not like reading would listen & enjoy to our read aloud. Reading aloud together also bonded our family together.
Other Family Time Ideas
But I wanted to cover more than what was in a curriculum. And, I wanted a relaxed atmosphere, so I incorporated several activitie into our 1-hour Family Time. The first 30 minutes included the activities below. The last 30 minutes we read aloud together.
Discuss Kids Bible Study
At times, my kids worked on a Bible study individually. They all worked on the same Bible study, so we could talk about it together once a week. Nothing big. Maybe 10 minutes. It wasn’t long.
If you homeschool multiple ages, doing the same Bible study is an easy way to group kids. Even younger kids can do a Bible study like Inductive Bible Studies for Kids.
Easy Art Appreciation
I love Fine Arts. We had simple Art Appreciation books like Art for Children, by Raboff, or Come Look with Me series. I opened to the next page in our book and we would discuss that one piece of art. It was super-simple. No planning, except to choose which book that day.
Sing Hymns
Another goal for our kids was to learn hymns. Our church seldom sang hymns at the time and we wanted them to know the beautiful hymns of past. We would sing that hymn each day for a week so they could learn it. They might also use the hymn for Copywork.
Poetry Readings
When I was growing up, I did not like Poetry, nor did I understand it.
I wanted my kids to have a different experience, so we had Poetry reading each morning during Family Time. We had fun Poetry books, like Where the Sidewalk Ends or A Light in the Attic, by Shel Silverstein. They loved those poems.
Each child chose a poem to read aloud. When they finished, I would choose a poem, usually more serious, to read aloud. One of my favorite poetry books was Favorite Poems Old and New. Sometimes we discussed my poem. Sometimes I simply read it to my kids.
Family Time was the easiest way I could homeschool multiple ages and cover what was most important to me, especially areas not usually covered in a curriculum.
To get 15 more strategies to develop a Love of Learning, check out our 6-Week Love of Learning E-course
p.s. What would you include in your Family Time? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
This webpage may have affiliate links. See policy for more details.