[arielhud]

Wow... what a hard situation!

My suggestion is that you break up the younger and older kids. A 1 year old and 7 year old's cognitive abilities are vastly different, and for bilingual kids, the most important thing is exposure to keep their language abilities, so breaking them from the group into a place where you can't pay attention to them is simply a waste.

If you have the ability to literally split the class into two groups (at different times) then definitely do that. If you are constrained to only splitting up the class from within the time period, then have the mothers help you by playing with toys/coloring with their infants and toddlers while you offer a 10-20 minute challenge to the older children. If you want to offer the 20 minute version of the challenge, I suggest breaking it into two units, so the other kids don't feel like you're ignoring them (or the mothers, for that matter). Something I do during writing/coloring time with my kids is offer them different skill set worksheets, and the older kids usually finish sooner, so I give them extra phonics drilling while the others finish.

For your youngest learners, besides for simple activities, you can expect them to learn through osmosis. If you read a book, for instance, you can choose one that will engage the older kids and give the babies blocks to play with- they'll still be listening, which is the most important thing.

Hope this helps!