Combining K alongside an OLDER program (author response)

[Marie]

You all have been so helpful to me here, thank you, and I value your opinions. Is it too much to take on teaching MFWK AND Creation to the Greeks?? (That's where we'll be in the 2-6 program with my older 2 when my K starts.) I like the hands on stuff in both, but is it going to be overkill for me?? Just wondering if anyone is doing MFW K or 1 AND MFW 2-6?

Author: Marie Hazell
Date: 2/4/2004

Many parents use ECC or Creation to the Greeks with MFW-K or MFW-1. It is definitely manageable. There are some natural breaks for older kids (such as when they do independent reading) and that's a great time to work with your younger one on reading.

When you do a fun, hands-on project in Creation to the Greeks then be sure to include your younger child. And let him look at picture books from the library that you gather for Creation to the Greeks.

There really isn't much prep work for any of our programs, so you can focus on teaching your precious jewels! (When we lived in Siberia, the native people told me I was a rich lady -- my six children were my jewels! They are right!)

[Brenda Pryor]

Author: Brenda Pryor
Date: 2/5/2004

Nancy,
I'm teaching Creation to the Greeks to my 4th & 6th grade daughters and MFW Kindergarten to my 6 year old daughter this year. It is definitely workable and a lot of fun!! As Marie said, there are natural breaks with the older ones that I can use to work with my youngest. I use about half of their math time (once I get them started and answer questions) and when they are doing their Greek.

I don't do every science experiment or every activity suggested with kindergarten so that we have time to do things all together when it works out. In January, we went to a dairy farm (Erica was studying C for Cow) and enjoyed milking a cow, petting calves and watching the milk get bottled. Everyone enjoyed it and learned at their own level. We also had the opportunity to go to a musical "The Mystery of King Tut" which came at the perfect time to make our study of King Tut and Egypt come alive. Again, everyone enjoyed it and learned at their own level.

In my opinion, treasure this year and let God work out the kinks when you get there. ENJOY!

[LSH in MS]

Next year will be my first year to be using two levels at the same time. I am a bit nervous about this. Well, very nervous about this!!!

I know that my 3rd and 5th grader will want to do the activities that my K is doing. It has alot of neat stuff in it. I would really like for them to join in on this stuff too. But when in the world is that going to happpen???? Has anyone else done this? I need some ideas!!
Renee

I am doing CTG and K this year. Like you, I was very nervous in the beginning as I was teaching 3 for the first time.

I began K in the summer (July) so that I could get used to it before starting CTG. That helped me a lot. My older kids did join in on the activities and I realized that it didn't really take long to do.

Once I began CTG I didn't do as many of the activites in K, sometimes we just did the phonics, math, and read alouds. Sometimes we would pick out 1-2 of the best activites to do. They still had fun and learned a lot. The younger ones also enjoyed participating in CTG (BIBLE, memory work, read alouds, some science, feasts, etc).

If I came across a K activity I really wanted to do I would not do History or Science in CTG and do the K activity. You might have time to do it during a lunch break, or while the older ones are reading.

For me, I really focus on the younger ones during the summer and maintain steady progress during the school year and focus on the older ones during the school year.

This year is the first year I have felt that my little ones were getting the attention they needed. I have been very pleased with what we have accomplished.

[mamax3]

I am using CTG and K right now. How it has worked for us is, I start with my youngest at 8am doing K while his older brothers are eating, showering, and doing their chores. Once they are finished, I am usually wrapping up with him. Then we dive right into CTG. He sits with us during bible time and read aloud time. The rest of the time he is doing his own projects of building paper airplanes, coloring or watching Discovery Wings channel or the Wiggles.
This has worked very well for us. Except if he gets a plane built and decides to be flying and making lots of noise. I can usually get him to quiet down though. He also likes to join in on art or science projects too.

[cbollin]

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 4:56 am
Here's what I did that year. The K student started her day 1 hour before the CTG student. If all the K daughter did was her K work, then I figured she had a full day. The K girl was an eariler riser --- so it worked well. And it worked for 1st and RTR together.

I know there were days/weeks that we did skip things. Usually the K student started with her math routine at breakfast, then some language/phonics/books, then move on to fun stuff. The oldest would wake up and then K child had a break.

Posted Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:35 am by cbollin
One other thing I do to get track of it all...

on the bottom of the ECC grid (below the read aloud box) I write in an extra subject: Kindy.

Then on each day I make a quick note(such as yesterday's work)
K Math routine
Unit 4:d 6 (lit day)
cusinenaire book
music cd

or (today's work)
K Math routine
Unit 5: d1 phonics
Unit 5: d1 activities

That way I can look at a glance and really be ready to rock and roll and get going with the K student. I have limited windows of the day that she is focused enough to work and the last thing I need is to think about where we are in the K manual.

It makes me remember to just get it done. It means I have to write it down (5 minutes prep there once a week).

Postby cbollin » Fri May 27, 2011 12:21 pm
1. for me to get school done with youngest, I started her morning wake up routines to include the math from Kindy, and then 1st. gave her time in phonics. Took break for other things and other kids.
2. returned to Kindy level kid later in the morning when it was her natural time of day to get a little bored, and in trouble and needed attention. some times it meant we played, other time it was activity time from Kindy and let older kiddos join us. sometimes, Kindy activity was done in evening.

my point? math and language arts had "fixed" times (first thing and almost part of waking up)... fun activities -- ready to go when needed in the rest of the day.

How to remember to do it?
On the bottom of my ECC manual, I wrote another box it was:
S (for child's name): MFW K, math
MFW K phonics day 4
MFW K activity day 4
lather rinse repeat.

Ok.... I had a Kindy station set up for this child for math and phonics. At that station I made myself a template for the Kindy routines. That template can be found on some thread around here. http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... 348#p48725 It is not the whole manual. It is a template to make me "go down a grid".

-crystal

[kellybell]

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 7:14 am

Let's see, I've combined ECC and K for an entire year, followed by CTG and 1st grade for a year and near the tail end of that year we slowly added K. We're now doing K and also RTR with three.

It can be done.

What we do now is everyone gets up at 7 and is ready for school at 8:15 (ie. dressed, teeth brushed, breakfast mess cleaned up, etc.) and I read the Bible with them. Sometime after Bible the 5 yo drifts away and starts making things with tape, cotton balls, permanent markers, pipe cleaners, little beads and usually water. She usually displays her masterpieces on the wall. I guess I need to work on that area, eh?

Anyway, I plow through all the "together" work that we do (science, history, sometimes a book to read, art, music) and then I "turn them loose" with a checklist of what they need to do independently (math, language, chores, instrument practice, write a letter to grandma). During this time, I focus on my K kid. Around noon, we're all tired and I send everyone outside to play except "kid of the day" who makes lunch with me. I'm a bad mom so we often watch a video during lunch (but I'm sort of a good mom in that the video is usually related to school). After lunch, the kids wrap up their school work and I finish working with the K student.

I do like Crystal's idea and think my K kid would be "fresher" in the AM so I think we'll try that soon. I'll probably start the day the same and just do Bible and then work with my K (while the others do chores, music practice, etc.) and then round them up for science, history, etc.

When we did ECC and K together, here's what helped (and thank you to the ladies on the board that gave me these ideas):

1. Don't do everything. If all you are doing is ECC, then do it all. Same with K. But when you combine a program, don't do ALL the art or ALL the music, etc. It's fine to pick and choose from the programs. Skip some of the projects. Do what you think the kids would benefit most from.

2. Be sure, too, not to schedule too much away-from-home time for sports, extra classes, scouts, etc. You need that time at home.

3. Spend some time training the older kids in your expectations for independent work. For example, some kids naturally just stop working when they hit a snag in their math (or other individual work). Instead, they need to learn to skip that problem and move on (remembering to ask you later -- maybe with the help of a notepad, etc.) If they are truly stumped in one subject, perhaps they can move to the next subject until you are available.

4. Enjoy the fun ways that ECC and K mesh together. We hit Africa when we did African animals in K, and that was so awesome!

Bottom line: MFW is a great choice for families with more than one "level."

[Elissa Baker]

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 12:08 pm

I am also doing CtG & K together this year, we're only in week 3, but here's what we're doing and it seems to be working for us:

(We are doing the Bible readings, Victor, memory verses the Evening before w/ DH as a family)

6:30 - get up, clean up house, get ready (I have 4 that still need my help, so it takes me a while to get everyone dressed and hair/teeth brushed, etc.)

8:30 - school starts, I re-read our scripture portion using the NCV, and we do a quick memory verse practice and pray together.

After that I do things w/ the 9yo and (almost) 7yo while the K and 3yo play quietly, or look at books, draw, etc (baby usually naps for part of the time, keeps me really busy the rest of the time!!) - vocab, handwriting.

Then I do english w/ one while the other does spelling, then vice-versa.

9yo does W.S when scheduled, math drills, then we do the Ctg stuff (sometimes the younger ones like to listen when we read).

When they are working on a notebook page I usually start the calendar/ # chart w/ K child, then we do the phonics during bookbasket. I've been skipping a few of the K activities, but usually do one each day.

We usually have plenty of time to do science/art/music before lunch, but I do math in the afternoon while the youngest 3 are napping.

K does join in some of the art projects, but I've decided that this year they all couldn't be doing each others projects - I let the 3yo do the K activities, but not the 7 & 9yo.

I hope this makes sense & helps a little.

[birthblessed]

Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 1:57 pm

I'm doing both CTG and K together.

My 5yo BEGS almost daily to do the 100 box. But I rarely initiate it myself because I forget... and the few times I've remembered I can't keep his attention.

We pretty much do the 100 box and the card/theme each week. We have only done S and M yet, starting L.

For CTG, my 2nd grader is completely uninterested in the Victor, Streams, but does read a LOT of the book basket books I got. The kids all loved The Tanglewoods Secret. I've added in Mystery of History because it's easier for my K and 2nd grader to listen to than the Streams or Victor. However my 6th and 8th graders are loving Streams and Victor.

The Feasts-- we've read about them but can't get around to *doing* them. For one thing, we eat a high raw vegan diet so the foods of the feasts don't interest us much. We did get apples and honey, and figs which were new to the kids. We have friends who attend a Messianic fellowship, so I might see about going to their services/synogogue this weekend.

My eldest has been a little egyptologist for years so he's perfectly happy teaching everyone else about Egypt, and I'm using a lot of videos... the ones recommended and any others I can find. I'm also hoping to take the kids to Fort Worth to go to the art museum that has a Hatshepsut exhibition, hopefully in October.

[niki]

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 12:38 pm

I'm working on a schedule myself for K and ECC. I guess it's been said many times on this board that you don't have to do everything from each curriculum. So for me I'm teaching ECC to my older 2 and K to my youngest.

While my older two are doing book basket, I'm available to teach my K'er. Sometimes she likes doing book basket too...hmmm, like right now and I'm taking advantage of the alone time. I'm finding she really likes to do what they do so while they are working more or less independently I do a few things with her. I also start with her in the morning while they read from their readers. That gets her the coveted one on one time.

I find that K takes very little time so I'll start with her before I get involved with the big ones and she's welcome to join in with ECC, then I've been finishing up with her when we're done with ECC - which is usually by lunch. It seems to be flowing!? But much needs to be ironed out since it's the beginning of the school year! I just wanted to encourage you that you'll do just fine once you learn to juggle...you'll drop the ball a time or two but after a little practice, you'll be a pro!

MFW K and ECC this year

Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:45 pm

My k'er tagged along with MUCH of ECC this year. We are finishing up the year with another MFW, ECC family with a "presentation" of their favorite "anything" from the ECC year.

My K'er is showing a world map. Naming the continents and putting a picture of an animal that you'd find on each continent...that continent song is a favorite in our house, thanks Marie!

I'd say she got so much out of ECC and I never MADE her do any of it!

I feel so proud of her. She did have to do her MFW K...(that was fun too).

[TurnOurHearts]

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 10:21 pm
I knew there were many posts about this throughout the last year, so I found a link (to more links) for you that might give some suggestions for scheduling a K/ADV year. That is exactly what we did last year. God helped us find our "groove," and it was a fabulous year! If you need a bit more encouragement, feel free to email me.

Here's the link:
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... ght=#19797

PS - the first link on my post has the detail of what I did & with whom & in what order...

Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 5:34 pm
Just wanted to add that we did ADV and MFWK at the same time & thoroughly enjoyed both programs.

Because both programs were very time-efficient, both of my kids benefited from each program. We did both Bible times (one at breakfast, one at lunch), both sciences & all the art & music together. I just wanted to mention that if you were to go that route, it is definitely doable.

[Dannielle]

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:46 pm

We did K and ECC last year. My oldest did his independent work while I did K, which usually didn't take but an hour to an hour and a half. Then my K child went to his chores and I went to help out w/ ECC.

[jangreer]

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 8:53 am

I just finished ECC and K together. I worked with my K one-on-one for a block of time--usually 45 minutes to an hour and then she was free to join in wherever she liked. I tried to choose a science from one curriculum, sometimes K, sometimes ECC, but this year I'm trying to do science for both MFW1 and CtG. I felt like we missed out on some good stuff. Sometimes my K would do difficult stuff--she loved to color the ECC maps (I wrote in the names of countries), and once did an excellent job on the ocean currents. I always had an extra copy for her if she wanted to do it, but never forced her to. She had her own box (sort of a grown up toddler busy box) with paper dolls, workbooks, seek and find books, crafts etc. that she could do while I was doing ECC with my older 2.

Hope this helps. I want you to have a great year!

[mrs_mike98]

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 9:55 am
I am using Adv and K, and I also have a 2.5 yr old in the mix as well. Some days it is quite exhausting. We do 3 projects everytime a project needs to be done. My 2 yr old colors or scribbles or plays while the older boys are working in their notebooks. My 6.5 yr old in Adv dictates to me his narration, I write it down, he copies it. My K'er narrates to me and I just write it for him in his notebook page.

For example, we just finished Week 1 of Adv. my 6.5 yr old's narration was "The Vikings discovered Iceland and Greenland. Leif Ericsson discovered Vinland" my 5 yr old's narration was "The Vikings found grapes on Vinland" lol! so I don't expect much from the K'er, and if he'd rather opt out of a notebooking then he is free to play or whatever. but he likes joining in.

It does take us longer to get things done some days (for example, we are making our O-o-Octopus badges right now and its taken them almost an HOUR! yikes!). I've found that saving the projects or longer notebooking activities for an afternoon, or our Friday fun/light day, helps balance things a bit.

Knowing that we can just do the bigger ones on a specific day or time when there aren't many other things to get done really helps me stay relaxed about it. So we go through the "bookish" things in the morning, with short breaks when needed, and then the afternoons are free or used for the projects. When I was trying to incorporate the projects into the main school morning, I got terribly overwhelmed.

HTH some!

Older child also enjoyed the younger projects:
Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 12:02 pm
My 7 yr old joined in with all of the extras in K with my 5 yr old (everything except phonics) and loved it. The character lessons aren't age restricted by any means, and the science is fun exploration for all ages! Enjoy MFW! :-)

[LizCT]

My ds is 8, technically a 3rd grader and we are doing Adventures. My dd is 5 and in MFWK.

I am loving the curriculum but have to admit that we skip a lot in K. My problem is that I spend so much time teaching my ds who needs me to sit with him almost the entire time he does any work that I skip more projects in K. My dd joins in a lot in Adventures and she is getting a lot out of it. I thought it was fine until we did a K project a few weeks ago and her whole countenance lit up at how much fun she was having.

Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:33 pm
Is there a way you can use "light Fridays" to do the fun projects from K while moving ahead with Adventures & K? Or maybe when you are done with the K program, you could go back and have some fun weeks where you do review of K in the afternoons and do the fun activities then with both kids.

As for MFW 1st, we did that program last year and loved it. There are really neat activities there that don't take too much time but which would be really fun and memorable for both kids to do.

Liz

[kellybell]

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:02 am

You simply cannot do it all. Something has to give. If your dd is sitting in on a lot of Adventures, she's getting a full education, although it's not the education described in MFWK. It's fine that her "flavor" of education is a bit different than described in MFWK's TM.

I agree with Liz, use the Light Fridays to do fun projects.

I also did a few projects with playdates with the neighbor kids. They'd enjoy making a big elephant mask too! Look back at the fun projects you have skipped and decide which ones would be a "hit" and go ahead and try them. It's okay to say, "Remember when we studied s-s-sun? Let's make a sundial." She'd not care one bit that you didn't do it months ago.

Here are a few things to consider:

1. Yes, your ds is "needy" right now. Remember he's right at that age where many children start becoming more independent in their work. It won't happen overnight, but you can give him more and more independent work, allowing you to spend more time with dd and her projects.

2. ECC is FUN. It's perfect for a 9 year old... AND a 6 year old.

3. One thing that has helped me (and, no I don't do it all the time -- we still are experimenting) is to reschedule my day. You might want to work with your dd first and get done all that you want and THEN work one-on-one with ds. While you are working with dd, have your ds do something on his own (chore, piano practice, book basket, math, LA, an art assignment that you've already assigned, copywork).

[LSH in MS]

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 1:06 pm

What about doing some K projects in the summer for fun? Then you can start ECC and 1st in the fall. You do have to pick and choose, but ECC has a lot of fun things in it for a younger child. The picture books for book basket are fabulous. I would read aloud a lot to my 1st grader and preschoolers since they couldn't read the book basket books yet.

[Staceyliza]

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:24 am

I spoke to David Hazell at a conference in February about doing K and ADV together and he said it's very doable and shouldn't take more than 3 hours a day MAX. We're planning on doing this in the fall!

[Heidi]

Those of you who have done ECC and K together, how did you involve your K student with ECC? This year I let her make her own US Notebook. She colored the state sheets and even some of the notebook pages. Is the geography notebook similar to the US notebook?

Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 2:12 pm
In addition to the all of Cathy's list above, my ds loved the game we played with the passports each time we "entered" a new country. We looked on the map, decided whether to go by plane, boat or car or a combination. Then we "boarded" (got out four chairs, etc.) and flew, shipped, etc to the destination calling out what we were passing by. The olders would discuss which direction and countries going by too. Then we "landed" and exited to the "Customs office" (me) where I would use the langauge sheet to speak a few words of the current country greetings and stamp their passport. The olders had to tell then write in country name and capital as well as the sticker.

He also remembers the continent song and many of the songs on the Wee Sing Around the World CD.

[Mommyto3boys]

Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 7:00 pm

I did ECC and MFWK this year. I did not do all the projects in both. While my oldest did some independent work, I taught my ds5 MFWK (math, LA section). It usually took about 30 minutes (sometimes longer with the games since we had to play bingo at least 3x). Then later in the day I would do the letter theme part. Some days I would just go over the bible point (like V for vegetables reminds us that God gives me all that I need). All my boys did the fun crafts and music time in ECC. They listened in on the history and the science as well.

HTH,

Debbie in NC
Mom to 3ds (9, 6.25, and 3.9) and 1 dd (15 mo.)

[my3boys]

I will be having 3 boys doing CTG this fall and I am wondering what to do with my 1st and k children. I don't think I want to do a K prog, 1st program and CTG (not to mention I have 3 year old twins to deal with). Any experience with younger kids while using CTG?
Cheri

Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 8:52 am
I have multiple children under the age of 6 and a 9yo fourth grader. Last year I thought instead of buying two programs, that I would just get one for my oldest ds and then add a reading program for 2 of my little guys. That was harder then it sounds, because the little ones who didn't have any 'school' were very disruptive - also the reading program had way too much busy work in the way of worksheets and whatnot (very time consuming).

Now we are doing MFWK + a program for my older ds. It is working way better!! With MFWK I can do a 'circle time' with all the children ages 2-6 and then have a short individual reading lesson with the two that are learning to read in about the same amount of time that it took to just do the other reading program. The reading lessons are very short and focused and there are only two worksheets a lesson - my kids are remembering everything! Being able to include the 2 and 3 yos in the rest of the school time helps me keep things under control.

I spend about 1hour or so teaching my oldest first thing in the morning while occupying the others with morning TV (thank goodness for Dora :0)) and computer games. Then he gets a schedule with the day's assignments and works independently until lunch time.

Posted Tue Aug 19, 2008 12:58 pm by my3boys
Here's our schedule I had posted on another thread recently.
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... 576#p39576

I have three preschoolers (2 and 3yos) here. I try to include them in the MFWK theme lessons by making it more of a 'circle time' with songs and picture books on the theme (less focus on giving lots of info. on the topic) - we also do calendar and 100 chart/cup at this time. The littlest ones are learning their letters and numbers painlessly this way, while my older boys are mostly having an exercise in sitting still for a few minutes and focusing :0) This may work for you to engage your 18m old. We then do the 'reading lesson' part while the preschoolers are having a rest time in the afternoon (and I do use the TV at that time to help me). We also do music, art and nature study all together (including the littlest). It does get noisy in the playroom as the little ones play beside us as I do academics and geography with my third grader, but I've just decided to try and ignore the noise, because it's the best that I can do - and it won't be that way forever!

[baileymom]

Now, for K, they say to take 6 days for one lesson. I am probably going to do four day weeks with Friday open for MOPS and playdates. So, how would I work this out? Would I go, M, T, W, Th, M, T, to complete one lesson for K... Then, do a lesson a week for my 3rd grader?

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 11:14 pm
Hi Christine!
Happy Box Day!!!

We got our K box at the beginning of the week, there's a lot to think about and go over, I know. My older 2 girls will be doing CTG.

We're going to do the 6 day unit studies like the TM suggests, that just means Mondays will be lighter book days for Connor. This will probably work out well for us since Mondays are always, well, Mondays :) and I can give a little more attention to the girls.

Have a good year!

[dhudson]

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 11:22 pm

Just thought I'd throw in a totally different option....

When my oldest was in ECC my twins were in K and I just condensed the six days into 4 because I wanted to start on a new idea on Mondays with the twins. We always like having Mon to dig into something new.

I never had a problem with the twins finishing earlier in the year either, as it started to get nice outside and they were getting antsy and restless towards spring. They had many more days of studying ants in the backyard or drawing the trees with new leaves or just practice writing their letters in the sand box. It also gave me the chance to make sure I finished well with my oldest.

[LynnD]

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 2:30 pm

Hi Christine!
We did CtG last year along with MFW K. I tried lots of variations of scheduling, but this is what worked best.

I would do the things with my boys that needed my attention and then I would give them some seat work like math or handwriting. While they did that, I would get my K girl (she was usually in her room playing) and do her reading and math lesson. Then I would give her a break.

In the afternoon I would do one of the activities from the back of the teacher's guide and read her a story from her book basket (more about that in the next paragraph).

I didn't always take six days to do a letter either. Most of the time I did five. Instead of doing one book day I found 6-10 fun books about the topic (including the ones listed in the teacher's guide) and made her own little book basket. I wouldn't always be able to get to all the activities, so I would choose my favorite, making sure to never miss the Bible lessons.

That's what worked for us... I hope this wasn't too confusing.

To answer your question about running out of things to do with one while still having lots to do for the other... It could happen. My boys finished CtG mid-June and my dd still has 4 weeks to go in A-Z. It's OK, I have the boys on a "summer schedule" -- they do math, write in their journal and read to me most every day. This gives me time to finish up the K program with my dd.

She's pretty pumped to get it done know that she's seen her first grade box! LOL

MFW from A-Z is a wonderful program. I hope you have a great year

[TurnOurHearts]

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 2:46 pm

We did ADV & MFWK at the same time, so I know how you feel. We started off the year doing exactly what you've planned, only our day to do other things was Wednesday. So ours was, M T Th F M T. By the end of the year, Halle was ready for a faster pace, so we began condensing the units to one unit per 4 days. The beauty of homeschooling ~ when you're ready to change it up a bit, you can! Anyway, this worked for us. I hope you have a fantastic year! :)

[RB]

Next year we will be doing ECC with my then 9 and 7 year old and K with my then 5 year old. My plan is to start the older two with work they can do on their own (math, handwriting, etc) then work with my Kindergartener. After we are finished, then I plan to teach the older two (and of course if anyone want to listen in on the other's work that is fine).

I am just wondering if this is the best way to do it or if any one has any BTDT tips. Thanks!

We are doing ECC and K this year and loving it!
I started off with a schedule similar to what you described...but for some reason it didn't work for us. This is what has evolved:
ECC Bible (all)
Math for older 2 (youngest plays)
Book Basket and Music
K with youngest while girls do independent reading and sometimes math facts and have a snack
Science
Older 2 do English, Spelling
Geography
After lunch sometimes Art, Science experiment or Project if not completed

I think you can start with whatever you think will work best and then adjust as needed. Enjoy your year!