Suggestions? Two really different kids

[sbgrace]

I don't know how to balance the needs of my two six year olds.

Guy 1--would be ideally served with a Charlotte Mason or perhaps Oak Meadow curriculum approach. He loves stories--listening to, reading, telling. He lives in his imagination as much as he possibly can making up stories all day, drawing what's in his imagination, etc. He hates all games of any sort. There are some learning issues I suspect and some special needs for sure. He's the opposite of a sequential thinker. His (by far) favorite parts of school are stories and books. He needs lots of down time to be alone and pretend.

Guy 2--would thrive with unit studies based approaches. He loves interaction with others based learning, hands on projects and activities, and games. He's enthusiastic about most areas and easy to teach though he's very "me time" demanding because of his high need for interaction. He loves to talk (as in discussing any and everything with others) and is an very strong auditory sequential learner I think though he says his favorite part of school are the projects.

Both would actually be fun to teach on their own but together they are so hard for me. Any thoughts?

[pigpokey]

Pare down lessons to a core -- let's say reading, writing, math and a foreign language; something that will take about 1.5 hours. You could also require an art and a sport, but they could pick. Then basically unschool them for the rest; make sure you get them what they love from the library or elsewhere.

[OTMomma]

I think it would be key to do seperate lessons, the same way you would for children of different ages. I let one child play while I work with another, usually for about an hour, then I try to plan a group activity like painting or playing outside.

Your children will benefit greatly from having experiences they are going to bring into each other's lives, even though it might not be what they would choose for themselves.

BTW- doing some kind of unit studies based on a story- like
5 in a row, might work out well for both boys.