Divide and conquer!

Wouldn't it be great if you could get everyone sitting together calmly, focusing on their own work and taking it in turns to ask for whatever help is needed? Of course it would, but in my house, that very rarely happens! Just as one child is asking a question, another will pipe up with something completely unrelated and a third will want a snack/cuddle/something else that just can't wait. Before you know it, everyone is frustrated and no-one is really getting anywhere.

This is where the divide and conquer strategy comes in. In my experience, it's better to spend 10 minutes one-to-one with each child while diverting the others with something they can do independently than to spend 30 minutes trying to split your attention between several children. You could even set a timer on your phone if you need to get through a set amount of work in a restricted period. If you have a little one who always naps for 90 minutes, perhaps you could aim to split that into shorter one-to-one sessions for your other children? Remember to factor in some time for yourself though!

Hot chocolate and picture books are always a winner for keeping other children distracted while focusing on one at a time

The pros to this approach is that you can be totally focused on one child at a time and their progress. Both you and they will be less stressed and more connected if they aren't fighting for your attention. And hopefully if they can recognise how your time with just them is of benefit, they will be happier to do their own thing when you need to focus on one of their siblings, especially if they can see how you are keeping things fair, for example by the time technique.

The main downside to this approach is that you may end up taking a lot longer to complete whatever tasks you were hoping to get through. Instead of doing three lots of maths concurrently, maybe you need to do three lots consecutively and therefore it takes three times as long. This could be a problem if you only have a finite amount of time to spend on home ed, while trying to juggle work, chores and life in general. Could one of the independent tasks you set your children possibly help out here? Could one child be preparing lunch while you help another with reading and a third sets the table? There may be a way to make divide and conquer work for you, even if you have very little time at your disposal.