Large Families
Homeschooling in a large family is both a joy and a challenge. Learn how to manage those challenges, while meeting the needs of everyone in the family. Here you'll find information on keeping your home running smoothly, tending to toddlers while homeschooling, teaching many different grade levels at once, and avoid burnout.
Homeschooling a Large Family
10 Truths About Homeschooling a Large Family
These truths will make you smile.
Affording the Large Family Homeschool
For any family seeking a private Christian education in the home, money quickly becomes an issue. While programs like K12 and other public-school umbrellas exist, they do not offer the freedom of choice so many homeschoolers are looking for. Nor do they offer a Christian education.
Most homeschooling families opt to buy their own curriculum so they can truly be in charge of their child’s education. When a homeschooling family has many children, curriculum buying becomes an exercise in creative frugality.
Here are a few ways you can save and stretch money in your homeschool.
Multilevel Homeschooling
Most moms of several children become experts at multitasking with experience. We often are asked how we manage homeschooling multiple learning levels and I find it difficult to explain. It's like preparing a seven course dinner--how do you tell someone exactly how to prepare everything in such a way that it's all ready at the proper time and stays the proper temperature? I suppose you could lead them step-by-step through all the directions and it would be easier, but still experience is the best teacher.
Tips for Homeschool Planning for Multiple Ages
For the most part, the more well ordered days are the more smoothly the day will go. Not only does it require planning on our part as homeschooling moms, it requires diligence and perseverance – daily.
An Organized Large, Homeschooling Family
Having a house of order is not the easiest goal to attain when raising a large family and homeschooling on top of it. Here are some ideas and tips for doing it all successfully.
Secrets of successful moms: Homeschooling and raising a large family
An artist, blogger, painter, and mother of six (that's right, six) kids from ages 5 to 13, Denise is the queen of multitasking. In addition to managing a household of eight, the Southern California mom homeschools her three oldest boys – Noah, 13, Diego, 12, and Solomon, 10 – teaches art, and does duty as a baseball mom. There's no such thing as a set-in-stone schedule in the Cortes family. But within the swirl of noise, chaos, laundry, and huge grocery bills, this 38-year-old mom is obviously doing something very right.
5 Tips for Homeschooling a Large Family
Great ideas and strategies for managing a large homeschooling family.
How I Teach a Large Family in a Relaxed, Classical Way: Language Arts
Tips for teaching language arts (writing, grammar, handwriting) in a large family.
Large family finds a way to homeschool
This youtube video gives a look into a large successful homeschooling family. This African-American family of seven children has had all children go to college, starting while still in high school.
How I Home-School my 3 Children in 3 Different Grades
These tips and tricks will help you get individual time with each of your kids while everyone is engaged in learning.
Tips for Homeschooling Multiple Ages in a Large Family
Heather Bowen shares some tips, tricks, and shortcuts for homeschooling multiple ages within a large family.
Organizing the Large Family Homeschool
This article offers a smattering of simple ideas to help keep homeschooling materials organized.
Homeschooling with Larger Families: How to Make It Work
Some ideas to encourage those who are homeschooling many children. Discusses how to develop daily plans, integrate your teaching to different age levels, maintain your presence to give your children a sense of stability, and keep your perspective.
Homeschooling and the Large Family
What do you do when you have older children who need your help, while the younger ones need your attention too. How do you get it all done and keep your sanity? The key is finding what works for your family and doing it.
Planning for the Large Family Homeschool
There is nothing like the summer break to step back from the madness and take a good, long {and honest} look at your previous year of homeschooling. It can be difficult in a large family to accommodate everyone’s individual desires, but you can at least listen to them and try!
Ten Tips from Homeschooling Moms of Four or More
Parents of several children engage in some seriously creative thinking to accomplish ordinary day to day tasks. This article is a collection of tips, gathered from ‘Moms of Many’, and is intended to supply helpful suggestions for homeschooling, maintaining your home, and generally keeping it all in balance.
Field Trips in a Large Family
There are lots of things to love about a large family, but being agile and moving about quickly isn’t really one of them. Learning in action and experiencing something first hand is one of the best things about homeschooling. It’s often what really sets apart our education from that of a traditional brick and mortar school. It is worth it to make the effort for field trips, though it doesn’t necessarily make them any easier!
Homeschool Planning for a Large Family
Homeschool planning for a large family can seem daunting. From choosing curriculum to setting up a daily schedule, there are seemingly endless decisions to be made.
The good news is that you can simplify the homeschool planning process. The key is to prioritize your goals before you begin planning.
Multi-age Homeschool: Older Teaches Younger
In a large family, it is inevitable that the older children will help guide the younger ones. Here are ideas on how to capitalize on that system.
Avoiding Chaos in a Large Family Homeschool
Every child is unique and homeschooling a large group of children with varying interests and aptitudes can be just as chaotic as it is rewarding. This article shares some tips and tricks for avoiding the chaos.
Large Homeschool Family Blogs
Get Along Home
This blog follows Cindy and her family as she talks about homeschooling, large families, and parenting.
Little Earthling Blog
This beautiful family has grown through adoption and birth. With fourteen children, they homeschool and share their adventures on their blog.
Raising Olives
This blog shares tips, ideas and some of the ups and downs of managing a home with lots of kids and raising children for the glory of God.
Our Full House
Carrie shares life with her 14 blessings, offering a glimpse into the daily life of their family.
There's No Place Like Home: Homeschooling my large, crazy family
Shelly is the mom of eleven children and is homeschooling. Share in her journey.
Large Family Mothering
Sherry writes her blog and shares her experiences as a mom of 15 homeschooled children.
Large Family Learning
Follow Amber and her children as they enjoy large family learning.
My Blessed Home
This blog shares homeschooling help and encouragement, parenting tips and insights, organizational tips, and more, all while chronicling the joys and challenges of raising a large family.
Gigi's Place
Gigi is a 30-something large family homeschooling mom to seven kids. Being a large family homeschooler has its challenges and joys, which Gigi shares here.
One Thankful Mom
This mom of 12 children shares her challenges and blessings at this blog. She shares about adoption, attachment, Sensory Processing Disorder, homeschooling, marriage, life with a large family, and more.
Support for Homeschooling Large Families
Large families are amazing, and I have one
This Facebook page is a big support group of large family supporters who talk on a regular basis.
CM for Moms of Many
An email group for homeschooling moms using Charlotte Mason's methods. Focuses on homeschooling larger families.
Large Family Logistics
The purpose of Large Family Logistics is to help Christian homeschooling mothers with the daily tasks of home management.
Tons of Kids
This mailing list is set up for parents of large families. Large for this list is defined as having five or more kids. They welcome everybody who has at least that many of any religion, or even no religion.
Pregnant Again
Are you pregnant? Do you have a large family? Do people look at you like you're crazy? This is a list for all of you out there who are pregnant again for the third or more time. This is a supportive list wehre people believe that large families are wonderful.
Large Families Forum at Just Mommies
This forum is for families with four or more kids.
Large Family Moms
This list is for moms only that are part of a large family consisting of four or more children. Large families are wonderful, exciting, and very challenging. Here you will find time and money saving tips, advice and support.
Large Families Home School
This list is to encourage and support those who homeschool many children. How many? To some 3 is a lot! If you have a large family (whether natural, adopted, foster or blended) and homeschool, you know that there are a lot of unique challenges ranging from orchestrating family harmony, dealing with multiple ages, trying to homeschool in a sometimes chaotic environment, keeping up with the never-ending laundry, transportation, cooking, chores, and more. This is a Christian list.
Lots of Kids
A place where families with four or more children can find friendship, fun, and support.
K12 Large Families
This group is for large families using the K-12 curriculum created by Dr. William Bennett. Both homeschooling families and Virtual School families are welcome. It is particularly intended for families with more than 3 children in K-12 as well as additional teens, toddlers and babies. Discussions include both the curriculum and the challenges of implementing it in a large family.
Featured Resources
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LeapPad Game - Mind Wars Jr. Interactive Game
Bring a friend and try this brand new way to play with your LeapPad! Race around the board in this fast-paced, wonderfully wacky game. Be the first to close all five windows and you will become the Mind Wars master and learn important 1st and 2nd grade skills in math, language arts, life science, physical science, and social studies!
Teach Me to Do It Myself: Montessori Activities for You and Your Child
Based on the key Montessori principle that children learn best through active experience, Teach Me to Do It Myself presents simple activities through which children explore and develop their skills. These skill areas include sensory perceptions, body coordination, language, understanding of numbers, and movement. This practical, color-illustrated parenting book is filled with activities and instructions for overseeing children as they carry out a variety of learning activities. Most activities w...
And What About College?: How Homeschooling Can Lead to Admissions to the Best Colleges & Universities
Get all your questions about helping your homeschooled student apply and get accepted to college answered with this resource. It discusses transcripts, diplomas, education choices, online colleges, and more. If you are worried about whether your homeschooled student can have a successful college search, then this book will help allay those fears and offers good support and information.
Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book Of Homeschooling
The classic work on teaching children at home, updated for today's new laws, new lifestyles, and a new generation of homeschooling parents. Today more than one and a half million children are being taught at home by their own parents. In this expanded edition of the book that helped launch the whole movement, Pat Farenga has distilled John Holt's timeless understanding of the ways children come to understand the world and added up-to-the-moment practical advice. Rather than proposing that pare...
Happy Phonics
Happy Phonics uses games to teach early reading skills. Simple yet entertaining and educational, these phonics games are printed on colorful, sturdy cardstock ready to cut out. Included is a mother-friendly guidebook which contains details on how to teach phonics and reading, how to pronounce and teach the phonics sounds, how to make your own simple beginning readers, and step-by-step teaching information for each phonics sound. Happy Phonics covers beginning to advanced phonics.