Teaching Different Personalities and Learning Styles

     Whenever people find out that I homeschool triplets, they usually say, "Wow, you have your own mini classroom.  That would be so easy to teach.".  My answer to that is, "Yes" and "No".  Yes, I only have to buy one grade level for all three.  Yes, I teach all of our subjects to all three together.  But, within those subjects, their personalities can prove a little bit challenging.  
     Lego Man is an avid reader and is VERY inquisitive.  He gets bogged down with the details and would rather talk about something than do pencil and paper work.  He is EXTREMELY slow to complete his work so I have to save individual work for last.  Sometimes I have to set a timer to motivate him to complete his group work.
     Little Chef does not like to read for pleasure or write stories.  She is a great verbal story teller.  For writing assignments, I let her dictate the story to me and she then has to rewrite it.  She likes to do history and science experiments, and she loves anything that has to do with art.
     Maggie Moo is very quick to finish her work, but she does make careless errors.  She loves school and wants to finish as quickly as possible so she can go do gymnastics in the living room.  She loves to read but her oral reading is mumbled.  I'm working on having her slow down and focus on each word being read. 
     They are all 3 on different spelling levels.  Maggie Moo can remember how to spell most words after only seeing them once and she really gets phonics so spelling makes sense to her.  Lego Man is a good speller but he does need to study them several times before learning them.  Once he learns a word though, he hardly ever forgets how to spell it.  Little Chef, on the other hand, is not a good speller.  Phonics was difficult for her and she has a hard time hearing the individual sounds.  She tends to leave out a lot of vowels. I assign her more hands on spelling activities (like magnetic letters, chalk board, gel packs, hangman) to study her words.
     They are all on the same math level, learning multiplication.  Lego Man says that math is his favorite subject.  The girls enjoy it but not as much as him.  I always quiz them with math facts in the car or when we are waiting at the doctor's office or in line.
     They are all 3 on different reading levels.  Lego Man is on a 7th-8th grade reading level but can handle older stuff.  Maggie Moo is on a 6th-7th grade reading level and Little Chef is on a 5th grade reading level.  Like I said before, Lego Man and Maggie Moo will read for pleasure but Little Chef will not so this year, I am assigning a book report due every month.
     They all 3 despise language and looking up vocabulary words is even worse.  I can't, for the life of me, get them to remember to put punctuation at the end of their sentences.  It drives me crazy!!!!
     As for history, health, science, Bible, and handwriting, they are all on the same level and enjoy each subject.  Well, maybe not handwriting......but they think it is cool that they can write and read in cursive now.  
     So, with all of that said, just because they are triplets, it doesn't mean that they learn the same way, like the same subjects, or excel at the same things.  They are their own unique little shelves with their own unique little personalities.  I treat them as individuals and I know that as they get older, their interests and learning styles may change and I'm ready to adjust with them.

Our Crazy Schedule

Our schedule is CRAZY this year!!  We have a lot of extracurricular activities going on this year.  The only way I know to post is to post day by day b/c every day is different.

MONDAY:
7:30-8:00ish- Kids wake up
8:00-8:30ish- Kids eat breakfast while I shower
8:30-9:00ish- We get started with a read aloud and Bible/prayer
9:00ish-11:30- Our academic work begins.  We try and get math, language, and reading done during this time.
11:30-12:30- lunch break/laundry/kid's clean rooms
12:30-1:30- Lego Man has a private karate lesson in our basement while girls practice piano, put away laundry, and enjoy a little free time
1:45ish-3:15ish- Get back to work.  Complete science, history, handwriting, and IEW homework
3:30- feed chickens and gather eggs
3:45- kids are free to play

TUESDAY
7:30-8:00ish- Kids wake up

8:00-8:30ish- Kids eat breakfast while I shower
8:30-9:00- read aloud and Bible/prayer
9:00-10:00- math, language, and reading
10:00- leave house for IEW co-op class
10:30-11:20- IEW co-op class
11:45-1:00- lunch
1:00-3:00- health, history, handwriting,and any work uncompleted
3:15-leave house for gymnastics
3:45-4:45- gymnastics for Maggie Moo
5:15-start dinner
7:00-8:00- Boy Scouts for Lego Man

WEDNESDAY
7:30-8:00ish- Kids wake up
8:00-8:30ish- Kids eat breakfast while I shower
8:30-9:00ish- We get started with a read aloud and Bible/prayer
9:00ish-12:00- Math, Language, reading, handwriting, and IEW
12:00-1:00- lunch
1:00-2:30ish- science and history
2:30ish- free time/practice piano
6:30-8:00- Awanas

THURSDAY
7:30-8:00ish- Kids wake up
8:00-8:30ish- Kids eat breakfast while I shower
8:30-9:00ish- We get started with a read aloud and Bible/prayer
9:00ish-12:00- Math, language, reading, and handwriting
12:00-1:00- lunch
1:00-3:00- health, history, history and any work uncompleted
3:15- leave house for gymnastics
3:45-4:45- gymnastics for Maggie Moo
5:15- gather Lego Man's stuff for football practice
6:00-7:00- Upward flag football practice

FRIDAY
7:30-8:00ish- Kids wake up
8:00-8:30ish- kids eat breakfast while I shower
8:30-10:10- read aloud, Bible/prayer, tests
10:30-11:30- Little Chef has a homeschool gymnastics class
12:00-1:00- Lunch and free time
1:00-2:00- Finish up any tests and do an art DVD