Large Family Homeschooling: How I Do It

Having a large family gets attention. We don’t even have to be doing anything unique or spectacular to receive more looks and comments than smaller families. I guess we just stick out. For example, as we packed up our things to leave at the end of a recent camping trip, an elderly couple walked past our site and quietly (AKA: loudly) said, “Wow, that’s a lot of stuff” while shaking their heads in shock or disapproval…I can’t be sure. My family is often on the receiving end of smiles, congratulations, disgusted looks, and disapproving comments. Homeschooling, however, creates almost uniformly the same reaction from everyone, even homeschoolers. “How?” I’ll admit that large family homeschooling is a bit tricky, but it can be done. Let’s discuss how my family manages to pull it off.

Large Family Homeschooling: Laws And Requirements

In order to homeschool, you need to know the laws and requirements in your state. First, homeschooling is a state issue. Federal laws don’t mess with the homeschool world. Each state has its own set of laws and requirements. I have homeschooled in Illinois and now Wisconsin. Both states are easy to educate in, but they do have slightly different requirements.

You need to know your state’s laws because some states require no contact with the state at all while others require testing and forms all due by specific dates. So, I suggest you check out the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). You can check on your state’s laws at the HSLDA website, and if you become a member, HSLDA will be able to assist you in any legal issues that you may face regarding homeschooling in the future.

I also recommend joining Heritage Defense. This organization is also for homeschoolers, but its legal focus is not on homeschool. Sometimes, a family may be accused of behaviors that ultimately require police and/or child services involvement (e.g., medical neglect, abuse, etc.). Homeschoolers are uniquely positioned as targets for such accusations due to prejudice and a lack of understanding by those outside the homeschool community. Heritage Defense will step in to assist their members in those situations.

I’ve often heard an argument that goes something like this. “I don’t need to join those organizations because my state is really easy to work with.” Well, I hope that will always be true for those people, but I would really be upset with myself if I didn’t insure my family with some protection just in case. Not to mention, membership dues help those families who unfortunately end up needing those services. As for my husband and me, we are more than happy to financially assist those homeschoolers with our annual dues.

Here’s a link to Israel Wayne, author and conference speaker, explaining why he is a member of both HSLDA and Heritage Defense.

A Few Warnings

1. Your school district is not the best source for homeschool information.

Time and again school districts share inaccurate information with homeschoolers seeking information on how to homeschool. I’m not accusing them of malintent, though some certainly fit the bill, but I am saying that they don’t know about homeschooling. It is not uncommon for districts to request (i.e., demand) information they are not legally privy to or to make parents jump through hoops to leave a district when it was absolutely not necessary by law.

Occasionally, some bad players will target homeschool families simply because they don’t like the family or homeschooling. Don’t be paranoid, but be cautious.

2. Don’t take the money.

Some states offer a tax break for homeschool expenses. I know how great that sounds. We have to pay for everything ourselves, so the extra money helps, right? Not really. Taking tax breaks or other financial assistance for homeschooling (including school choice money) is allowing the government a place in your child’s education. As more parents take that money, then the more the government is inclined to add strings.

If you want the government out of your child’s education, then why would you accept their money to fund it?

You can read more about government funding for education HERE.

3. Don’t give the state more than it asks for.

If your state requires a record of how many children you homeschool, then give that number to the proper entity. But don’t send them test scores, ages, and work samples. Your cooperative gesture can lead to stricter requirements down the road for everyone and more government control. So, give what they ask for when they ask for it. Nothing more. Nothing sooner.

Large Family Homeschooling: Know Your Individual Children’s Needs

After I get all my legal requirement information verified for the year, I jump into planning. (My favorite part!) This will eventually look like me choosing curricula and scheduling the day, but it starts with me assessing who these kids are.

In a typical school setting, students have the same requirements across the board. Yes, some students have an IEP or 504 Plan, but most kids are expected to move at the teacher’s pace and cover the class work at the same level as everyone else. It’s a recipe for disaster for students who are advanced, falling behind, or have difficulty sitting for long periods of time. Thankfully, homeschool isn’t school, so to speak.

I think through my children’s needs and accommodate for those in ways that schools can’t because of the nature of the setting. It isn’t the teachers’ fault. They can only work with what they have. I have a son who would likely be in a lot of trouble in a school setting. He’s sweet, caring, funny, energetic, bright, and so wiggly. I’m not convinced he could stop himself from talking and moving around. At home, though, it really doesn’t cause much disturbance. I simply plan his day to have breaks and some lessons to include movement and discussion.

I also don’t get bogged down by what other kids their ages are learning. Generally, most third graders cover the same topics. So, the inclination for most homeschool parents is to copy that. It was mine at first, too. I have found, though, that this approach doesn’t work for a large family homeschool set-up.

For instance, I can’t thoroughly teach history to five children who are studying five different history lessons. So, I don’t. I have chosen a curriculum that allows me to teach multiple students at the same time. This means my fifth grader might not be learning exactly what other fifth graders are learning, but he will have learned all the same things by the time he finishes school.

Large Family Homeschooling: Styles

Each homeschool teacher has her own unique approach and style to education, but generally, these styles can be divided into five categories. Before beginning to homeschool, it is beneficial to get a bead on which style works best for you and your children. Below is a very quick overview of the five main styles of homeschooling.

Remember, most homeschool teachers do not fall perfectly into any of these categories. It is more common to be eclectic, taking characteristics of two or more of these approaches as they fit into any given home.

1. Traditional

The traditional style is the one with which parents are usually most familiar. Traditional style homeschooling uses textbooks, worksheets, and multiple choice. It is most reminiscent with a modern-day classroom.

Some homeschoolers balk at this style, but I find it works well with many subjects. Personally, I am not opposed to a traditional style, and I utilize it in my home. On the other hand, I also find this style is more difficult for large family homeschooling than some of the others, therefore, I often tweak it to work better in our home and employ other styles when the traditional style doesn’t makes much sense for us.

2. Classical

When you hear “classical” education, you might think of Classical Conversations (CC). CC is a homeschool program which provides a classical Christian education. Many people love it because it is academically rigorous, social (there are weekly meetings with classes), and offers a great deal of support. Conversely, some people don’t like it because it is pricey, requires significant parental involvement, and does not allow for as much personal freedom as the educator. But did you know you can provide a classical education without CC?

A classical education is based on the Trivium. It consists of three stages. The first stage is called the Grammar Stage (6–10-year-old students). The main focus in memorization of facts about various subjects. The students are like little sponges that take in all the information they can.

The second stage is the Dialect Stage (10–12-year-old students). Instruction shifts from memorization to logical discussion and debate. Students dive into the “why” in their studies.

The third stage is the Rhetoric Stage (13–18-year-old students). This final stage of classical education includes robust study, analysis, and synthesis of information so that students may begin coming to their own conclusions.

For more information on the Trivium, check out Veritas Press.

3. Unschooling

This style is highly misunderstood. When someone says she “unschools,” it does not mean that her children are not learning. Although it can look different from family to family, a couple things stay constant between them.

First, an unschooling family emphasizes the children’s interests. If a child wants to dive deep into geology, then school will focus heavily on it. Second, there won’t be a set curriculum. Sure, there might be a loose plan, but learning will happen in any setting and at any time the family chooses. Sleep until 10:00 A.M. and spend the morning studying insects in the yard? Yes!

I am less comfortable with this style because I am Type A, all the way. I like my lists and year long plan. Flexibility is key for an unschooling family which is great for large family homeschooling, but it’s difficult for us stick-in-the-mud mamas.

I should also note that my generalized description of unschooling is just that…generalized. I have found that unschooling families vary the most compared to all the other homeschooling styles.

4. Unit Studies

Unit studies are amazing for large family homeschooling. Everyone can work on the same topic or theme, but the work can be adjusted for each child’s level. So, you start by choosing a theme or topic. Maybe you have children who are very interested in pilgrims. You would just take the pilgrim topic and use it across all your subjects.

Some themes work better for this than others, and creative parents have an easier time with this than us unimaginative types. Staying with the pilgrim idea, though, you could use this theme for music, art, history, geography, and reading with relative ease. Science could focus on the weather they faced, gardening, and their ocean travel. Math could be cooking (i.e., measurements for ingredients), figuring rations for survival in the harsh winter, and daily math they would need to survive in their environment. The sky is the limit.

After covering the topic to your satisfaction, you just pick a new topic!

5. Charlotte Mason

The Charlotte Mason style is very popular among large family homeschoolers. It is based on a British educator named….wait for it…Charlotte Mason. She focused on educating the whole child. She believed education is a lifestyle and children can understand much more than adults give them credit for.

Charlotte Mason style learning involves homes that are filled with enrichment opportunities and “living books.” She despised “twaddle” which is essentially writing and speech aimed at children that is nonsense, low-quality, trivial, and dumbed-down. I imagine Sponge Bob would not grace her bookshelves today.

This style also deemphasizes worksheets and replaces them with narration and retelling. In addition, there is a much larger focus on nature studies, art, music, and handicrafts than the other styles.

To find out more about the Charlotte Mason approach, I suggest visiting Simply Charlotte Mason.

Large Family Homeschooling: Choose Curriculum

So, you know your state laws and requirements, have assessed your children’s individual needs, and have chosen the styles with which you are most likely to succeed. Now, you need to pick some curriculum.

Choosing curriculum used to be a different animal. It wasn’t until 1993 that homeschooling was legal in all 50 states. Until then, most homeschool families had few resources and put together their children’s curricula on their own. Today, however, we are spoiled with choice. Go to a homeschool conference vendor hall without a plan, and the shock will be real.

The overabundance of choices is one of the reasons it is so vital to know what kind of curriculum will suit you best by figuring out what style you will teach with and what needs your children have. This information helps eliminate choices before you begin.

All of it is available online, as well, so getting curricula has never been easier. Of course, buying curricula you’ll never use has also never been easier. Don’t ask how I know that…

Free Curriculum

Yes. You can homeschool your children for free, and large family homeschooling budgets rejoice! There are two ways to do this.

First, you can create your own curriculum. If you aren’t sure what to cover, then find another curriculum’s scope and sequence online as a guide. From there, you can find all you need online and at the library. This option is great for a budget, but keep in mind how much work it will be for you.

Second, you might be able to find free, completed curricula online. I often see free printables for certain subjects on blogs. However, my suggestion would be to use Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool. It has everything you need from preschool through high school. All you need to pay for is an internet connection in your home and the ink to print occasional worksheets. Plus, it’s on Cathy Duffy’s 103 Top Picks.

If you don’t know who Cathy Duffy is, then check out her curriculum reviews website. You can also find her books at the library or just buy one to keep as a reference. She has reviewed every major homeschool curriculum and gives honest, unbiased reviews to guide you as you make your choice.

Discounted Curriculum

Maybe you aren’t looking for free curriculum, but you wouldn’t mind a discount. Vendors at homeschool conferences often offer a discount if you buy from them at the conference. I just bought my seventh grader’s math that way at the Homeschool Experience at the Ark Enounter. It saved me more than any other discount I have seen on that curriculum.

Facebook is also filled with groups meant for buying and selling used curriculum. Not everyone is selling at a fair price, though, so watch out. Check locally for used curriculum sales and homeschool groups who have people looking to unload some old resources.

Finally, some curricula always goes on sale at certain times of the year. My favorite curriculum, My Father’s World, usually has its best sale in November/December. So, if you are planning ahead, you can buy for the next school year at a steep discount. Also, I see Christianbook put out sales every year on various curricula in the spring and summer. You just need to keep an eye out for the curriculum you want.

Spendy Curriculum

Plenty of homeschool curricula can set you back. Essentially, the more convenient and complete it is, then the pricier it will be. Sonlight and BJU Press come to mind. A entire curriculum for a ninth grade student from BJU Press (with video streaming or DVD) will cost about $1,000. That’s just one child. Prices like that are not always ideal for large family homeschooling. On the other hand, the ease of the boxed set and an instructor for the classes is exactly what some families need.

If you have your heart set on a more expensive curriculum, don’t lose hope. They, too, will be discounted at some point or another. Also, after such an expensive purchase, plenty of parents are looking to recoup some of the cost by selling it used.

Large Family Homeschooling: The Schedule

After you know what you’re doing for the school year, you’ll need to figure out when you’re doing it. Here’s the good news. You can do it whenever you want to. The bad news? Well, you still need to plan it, or it won’t happen.

In the past, my husband was a public school teacher, so we just followed his schedule. That way, we could be off when he was off and enjoy time together as a family. Now that he is a full-time pastor, we have more flexibility.

Big Scale Then Small Scale

I suggest starting with the yearly calendar. How many weeks will your school year have? (Most are around 32-36 weeks.) Do you have planned vacations or trips? When will you schedule breaks?

After you get the big picture figured out, you can look more closely at each month and week. How many days a week will you have school? (Some do only 4 days.) Will you take birthdays off? Will you have special activities for holidays such as Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day?

My Large Family Homeschooling Schedule

We hold on loosely to our schedule. Life happens, and I try to schedule in enough margin for life to happen without destroying our school year. We get sick and take days off. If our family visits from out of state, we find a way to accommodate. Hey, sometimes it’s rainy and I just want to have a movie day with my kids and drink cocoa. So we do.

We are not a slave to the schedule; The schedule works around our lifestyle.

This year we start on Monday, August 1. They’ve had two months of summer vacation, and they are bored and need some structure. They’ll be done by noon most days and still have plenty of opportunities for summer fun. In this first month, my husband and I are leaving them for a night for our anniversary, we’re going to a water resort with my dad and stepmom, and there’s a wedding and amusement park trip days before we begin school. They’re gonna be all right even though we are starting during many other kids’ summer break.

I blocked out our Christmas break, spring break, and week of vacation. In addition, I stuck to a (sort of) Sabbath schedule. That is six weeks on and one week off. We don’t do it perfectly that way, but we stick to that rhythm the best we can.

As for a daily schedule, we tend to start early in the day. After breakfast, I work with the youngest two and move my way up to the older three who have a lot of combined work. My Littles get attention first thing while my older children work independently. Once the Littles are finished, they are happy to play and occupy themselves.

My Family’s 2022-2023 School Year

I want to give you a brief look at what we have planned. It will probably change a little, but here’s the plan as it stands days before we begin.

PreK

My youngest is five years old. He is in PreK, but I will be doing the My Father’s World Kindergarten curriculum with him called God’s Creation from A to Z. I have used it will three of my other children for PreK because I feel it is too light for kindergarten. I simply leave out the elements that are too difficult to make it more of a PreK level. That’s another great thing about homeschooling. I get to customize the curricula as I see fit.

I also use a separate math curriculum, Singapore Math’s Essential Math.

He will also have time with the educational website, Starfall, and he will participate in P.E. *.

He will be my first student every day. His instructional time will not take very long, and his sister in 1st grade might join him for some of his activities.

1st Grade

My 1st grader’s main curriculum is also from My Father’s World. This level is called Learning God’s Story. It is very phonics and Bible focused.

Her math curriculum is Horizons Math*.

She will supplement phonics with Phonics Pathways and Explode the Code.

Other subjects will include Beginning Geography, Apologetics*, Handwriting*, Health*, Modern Art*, P.E. *, and Starfall with her little brother.

3rd, 5th, And 7th Grade

My oldest children will be in the family cycle in My Father’s World (in which students in 2nd/3rd grade through 8th grade participate). This year the curriculum is 1850 to Modern Times.

Math curriculum for 3rd and 5th grade is Horizons Math*. My 7th grader will be using Fundamentals of Math from BJU Press.

They will also have Apologetics*, Handwriting*, Spelling*, Health*, Modern Art*, Typing*, Computer Skills*, Grammar and Writing*, piano lessons, P.E. *, and Spanish*.

My 7th grader will have Literature through Essentials in Literature. Her science will also be different from her siblings in the family cycle. She will be studying Science in the Atomic Age from Berean Builders Publishing.

Informal Stuff

Throughout the year I plan to put more focus on teaching my kids home economics types of things. I’d like to be more deliberate about practicing using money, cooking, and completing other household tasks. This slows me down for awhile because I need to teach the skills, but the long-term benefits are more than worth it.

We also like to schedule experiences as opportunities arise. Some past examples have been visiting state parks, touring a cave, going to the zoo, visiting children’s museums, and traveling to the ocean.

Large family homeschooling doesn’t stop when we close our books. We learn, explore, and experience all day. Some days, though, are a bigger deal than others. I promise that my children enjoyed playing in the waves in the Gulf of Mexico more than our recent camping trip. But I know they were both worthwhile activities.

Final Thought

Large family homeschooling can look intimidating on paper, but it is completely manageable. In fact, it’s more than manageable. It’s fun! Oh, not every day is a great time, but homeschooling can be fulfilling and rewarding once you embrace homeschooling as a lifestyle rather than something to get out of the way each day.

I pray everyone who has a heart to educate her children at home takes the dive. Having a passenger van filled with kids doesn’t mean you can’t do this. You can. In fact, juggling so many children probably makes you uniquely qualified for the task. My opinion? Take a deep breath, trust God, and jump in.

Do you homeschool? If you do, how many students do you have at home?

Previous Homeschool Posts:

My Honest And Unfiltered Reasons For Homeschooling

Are Your Reasons To Not Homeschool Actually Excuses?

Homeschool Doubt: An Annual Tradition

10 Things I Wish I’d Known Before Homeschooling

* (links to curricula mentioned above)

Apologetics: Who Am I? by Apologia

Computer: Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool

Grammar and Writing: Essentials in Writing

Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting

Health: Horizons Health

Math: Horizons Math

Modern Art: Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool  

P.E.: Home School Family Fitness

Spanish: La Clase Divertida Level 3

Spelling: Spelling by Sound and Structure

Typing: Typing.com

Image courtesy of Stephen Andrews via Unsplash.