No magic pills yet, sorry. I've tried chocolate chips, but they only worked for a little while.
Things seem to be coming together a bit better in the last few days. When it came to homeschooling the older two, I had been envisioning myself as more of a tutor to semi-independent learners, but I've realized that that's unrealistic at this point. The children are looking for a lot more guidance and direction, and they also enjoy and benefit from doing things together with their siblings. As a result, I've eliminated most of the one-on-one work, and we're doing more of what I'd describe as "group preschool with extreme differentiation." It's a bit of a headache managing them all at once (especially when the toddler keeps interrupting), but they enjoy it a lot, and we can get a lot more done this way.
In other happy news, our mother's helper will be starting in a few days.
Rather than have her take charge of one or two children for specific chunks of time, I think I'm just going to ask her to be a general assistant with whatever we're doing. I think between the two of us, we should be able to put together a pretty good version of Asynchronous Romper Room. (Though I doubt it would ever be judged fit for broadcast, except maybe on the science fiction channel.)
