Large Family Homeschooling Week in Review is a glimpse into the day-to-day homeschooling of our larger-than-average family. It’s not fancy, but it will hopefully give you a taste of what it is like to be us. For more homeschooling tips and inspiration, visit the Homeschooling section of Raising Arrows. You can also see a list of our 2017 Homeschool Curriculum choices. And if you are needing real advice on how to homeschool a crowd, check out my book – Large Family Homeschooling!
~Amy
On Monday, we finished Acts in our PictureSmart Bible and then proceeded with our homeschool day as usual. The day before, my 7 year old and I had taken a walk around the neighborhood (the kids take turns walking with me whenever I have time for a pleasure walk rather than exercise) and ended up gathering a lot of pretty leaves, so he and I worked to make them into placemats for Thanksgiving by running them through the laminator.
That afternoon I didn’t get to any Tapestry of Grace, so when I had time in the evening I read to the kids about the Korean War from Story of the World while my 16 year old daughter worked on some crochet projects for an upcoming kids handicraft fair our homeschool group is hosting.
Tuesday we had to do a quick version of school so my 13 year old daughter and I could head to a hair appointment. She got at least 12″ cut off and styled into a super cute bob!
On Wednesday, the younger boys and I took a nature walk to gather leaves and nuts for activities from A Year of Playing Skillfully and other ideas I found on the internet. The girls stayed home to host a tea party for their little sisters. For our walk, I gave each of the boys a plastic sack and we walked about 3/4 of a mile through the neighborhood. They filled their bags with every leaf they thought was neat and any nuts they could find. Needless to say, the sacks were filled to the brim by the time we got home!
At home, we dumped our finds on the front porch, and I set the kids to sorting their leaves and nuts in either shape or color while I gathered a few supplies.
I gathered a muffin tin for the boys to sort their nuts from 1-12 in. The first tin they put 1 nut in, the next one had 2 and so on up to 12.
I also brought out a tub of water for the kids to do a sink or float with the nuts and leaves and some other fall-ish items. After that, I pulled out one of our laundry tubs and added popcorn and spoons and let them add in leaves and acorns and play to their little hearts’ content! They loved it! I usually don’t like to do sensory tubs because they are often full of expensive items that just aren’t worth my time and money, but this one was EASY AND CHEAP!
On Thursday, we had a normal homeschool day before I headed out to do the weekly grocery shopping. That evening, I decided to do some life lesson activities from AYOPS that included proper toothbrushing, how to wipe down the bathroom sink and mirror, and how to dial our phone number (something we’ve been going over for a few weeks now). I know I don’t need a curriculum to tell me how to do this, but having AYOPS has forced me to remember to do these things with my kids, and that makes it worth every penny.
If there’s anything specific you’d like to know about my large family homeschooling week, leave your questions below!
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Joanna says
I SO appreciate that you share your life and experiences with a large, homeschooling family!!!! I only have four, ages 1-5, with another little one on the way in three months, but my oldest is very academically minded, and I have been forced to start a pretty much daily school routine already, and have been looking ahead to how in the world I will manage full time education with so baby children close in age (assuming God will continue to bless us this way). I find very little information for a home schooling mama with closely spaced children, and from my current perspective, home schooling seems a little impossible, although I know that is not true. Your blog helps me realize that the big family, home schooling life is not crazy or impossible. Thank you!
I do have some questions, if you don’t mind taking the time to answer. I’m trying to 1. Not purchase curriculum I will not really use, 2. Find resources that I can use for multiple grades at the same time, at least for the subjects of History and Bible, 3. Purchase quality stuff that teaches thoroughly and biblically.
I’m leaning towards Rod and Staff, then Horizons for phonics and initial reading (it seems these really need to be taught one on one regardless of curriculum). Saxon math. Christian Liberty Nature readers, followed by Apologia science. For the “family” learning times, I am intrigued by Biblioplan as well as Tapestry of Grace for history/writing/social studies, etc as they seem to be compatible with every grade at the same time, thorough and biblically sound. Also, Apologia has a series of doctrine books (not sure if the names) that seem to be geared to a mixed age group.
I guess my question is: Is this a reasonable combination of materials for a thorough, biblical education? As a mom of many, are these curriculums doable together? I don’t want to purchase random history, science and bible stuff that is not going to work long term, which is why I’m already looking at things like Biblioplan & Tapestry of Grace, but if these curriculums are not as large-family-friendly as they seem, I would hate to invest the money.
Thanks for taking the time to read this! 🙂
Amy says
We use TOG, but I would wait until your children are a little older to start that. Have you looked at my 2017 Curriculum posts? https://raisingarrows.net/2017-curriculum-choices/ That might give you a better idea of how I’m making all of this work and what I’m using. At your children’s age, be sure not to overdo it – have fun, learn together, but keep it low key. Phonics and math are your 2 big ones, everything else is extra at this age.