Teaching Science to Multiple Ages at One Table

The simplest way to teach science to several ages at once is to teach one topic to everyone, once, and let each child go as deep as they’re ready for. The youngest works with her hands and her eyes. The oldest writes more, measures more and gets the harder questions. Same lesson, same table.

Most of us don’t have time to teach two or three science programs side by side, and you don’t need to.

Why does science work so well across ages?

Because everyone can look at the same thing. A kindergartner and a fourth grader can both hold the same leaf, smell it and draw it. What changes with age is what comes next. The little one tells you what she noticed. The older one writes it down, measures it and starts asking why.

It’s an old way to learn, too. Moses told parents to talk about God’s words “when you sit in your house” (Deuteronomy 6:7, NASB). A family learning together around one table isn’t a new idea.

How does one lesson work for two ages?

In Eden’s Table, every lesson is written at two depths, so a younger and an older child can work the same week at one table. In Sprouts (K-2), most days in the Teacher’s Guide have a line for Little Sprouts and one for Older Sprouts.

You can see it in Week 1. Wednesday’s kitchen lab is lavender tea. Little Sprouts measure the lavender buds and smell them before the water is poured. Older Sprouts watch the clock for the five-minute steep and strain the buds out by themselves. Then everyone tastes it once it cools, and the Notebook page asks each child for the color, smell, taste and texture.

So you teach one lab. You set out one set of supplies. Each child does the part that fits them.

What does the older child do differently?

An older child simply goes further within the same week:

• longer notebook entries
• the botanical drawing done properly
• the harder questions in the Teacher’s Guide

Older kids also tend to move faster, so a year of Sprouts often takes an older child a good deal less than a year.

When they’re ready for more, Seedlings (3-5) takes the same kind of week further. Color, smell, taste and texture at K-2 become measurements, ratios and a hypothesis at 3-5. Seedlings also brings in body systems and herb profiles, and your child writes a hypothesis and then tests it.

Here’s how one mom put it after reviewing the lessons:

“The lessons for younger kids are easy to understand and get a little more in depth when moving up a level.” (Amanda, homeschooling 18 years)

Which level do we start with if my kids span K-5?

• Children in K-2: start with Sprouts.
• Children in grades 3-5 who are new to herbs: start with Sprouts too.
• Children in grades 3-5 who already know the basics: go straight to Seedlings.
• Children in both: teach Sprouts to everyone together, then Seedlings the next year.

Sprouts and Seedlings teach different plants. They aren’t the same plants at two reading levels. Sprouts covers 36 and Seedlings covers another 36, so a family who does both finishes with 72, and the Sprouts plants are the ones Seedlings builds on. You can see every plant for both years on the scope and sequence, and there’s a page for each grade, from kindergarten to fifth grade.

Won’t my older child be bored in Sprouts?

The reading level is K-2. The plant work isn’t. Identifying a plant by the feel of the underside of its leaf is real observation at any age, and the Teacher’s Guide gives the older child harder questions to go with it. The third grade page walks through this in more detail.

What do I need for each child?

• One Teacher’s Guide and one storybook for the family. You teach the week once.
• A Student Notebook for each child. It’s the book they write in. The printed set comes with one, and you can add extra Notebooks at checkout: $39.99 each for the first five and $32 each from the sixth, up to 100 in one order. They ship in the same parcel, and your cart shows the shipping for the whole order before you pay.
• If you start with the download: the Starter Unit PDFs are yours to keep and reprint for your household, so you can print a Notebook for every child.
• One set of lab supplies. Each week uses a small amount of a common dried herb from your pantry, your garden, or the herb list I keep for families.

How do I try it with everyone at once?

Print Week 1 and teach it to all of them together this January. It’s free, five full lessons, for Sprouts (lavender) or Seedlings (elderberry). If it works for your table, the Starter Unit is weeks 1 to 9 as a $39 download for Sprouts or Seedlings, and the whole year in print is $249 plus $12 shipping.