10 Things I’ve Learned from Homeschooling a Large Family

When we got married, I didn’t know what to expect. We did know we wanted kids, but how many was up in the air. We weren’t necessarily set on a number, just healthy kids. I did want a boy and a girl, but other than that, there were no expectations. And we never even talked about homeschooling until our oldest was finishing preschool. It wasn’t that we were against homeschooling, but we are both products of public schools and didn’t even think about other options.

So when our philosophy changed on pregnancy and we began homeschooling, I began reading all I could on the subject of large family homeschooling. Unfortunately, there’s very limited information on that specific subject. So, I began reading blogs and following those that had similar philosophies and picked up what I could about homeschooling more than one child with an infant in tow.

One of the blogs I am so glad to have found is Raising Arrows by Amy Roberts. She is an amazing mom to 9 children and has baby #10 on the way! Can you imagine homeschooling all of them? The most important piece of advice I learned from her was that she too homeschooled little ones and was overwhelmed with everything. And that there are seasons in homeschooling, just as there are in life. WOW did that ever set me free!

I realized that these veteran homeschool moms weren’t pros when they first started either. They started out overwhelmed and even a little lost just like me. They had to find their way through this homeschooling journey and even continue to do so as their children age and grow. Her book, Large Family Homeschooling, is available on her site.

1. Have a plan. How detailed or not-detailed your plans need to be is up to you. Speaking from experience…winging it is not advised. At least not when you’re beginning. You need to know where you’re going and what you’re studying, even if just for the day. I do have a rough outline for our year as far as goals and then I break those down to months and we go from there. So I’m not a detailed planner, but when we have no plan – we accomplish nothing.
2. Create a Learning Space. We have lived in three different houses since beginning our homeschool journey. In the first house, we simply used our dining area and table. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked – especially with only one child schooling at the time. In our second house, we had a playroom/schoolroom where I stored all of our books and supplies, but we still ended up doing school at the dining room table. In our current home, we again utilize the dining room for our school area and supplies. However, it is large enough that it doesn’t overpower the room and we are still able to have people over and be relatively comfortable. Even though we end up on the couch most days, it is nice to have a space where we can do arts/crafts, experiments and group activities when we need to.
3. Be Organized. Whether or not you have a large area or a several small bins to store your curriculum and supplies, the key is to be organized. I see school rooms on Pinterest that I would love to have in my home. They are neat, clean and super organized. But that’s not the home we live in right now, so I do what I can to keep things organized right now. We have bins for craft supplies and a shelf for current curriculum a space for puzzles and learning games as well as an area for larger supplies. Since we have a loose plan in place, being organized helps me know what we have and don’t have for our upcoming lessons.
4. Involve everyone as much as you can. One thing I had to learn once my younger kids got a little older, they wanted to be involved in “school” too. So, when we would do experiments or crafts, they were able join in and learn a little too. When we would do our astronomy reading, they were close by to hear the lessons, even if they didn’t really understand all that was being taught. We try to do Bible devotions together as well. So, we do as much as we can together and combine our learning efforts. Sometimes the little ones just listen to the lesson and draw a picture of what we talked about, while the oldest has an assignment with his reading. It just depends on the subject and what activities fit well with it.
5. Teach little ones separate. Now this may seem a little odd following the previous point, but there comes a time when little ones need to be separated from their older siblings. This is a great time to teach them how to sit and listen to a short story on their level, so that when you combine them with the older kids, they are used to sitting and behaving. It is also a great time to work on individual work with them, on their level.
6. Set aside time for older kids. Now that you separated the younger kids, its time to give some devoted attention to the older kids. Whether its with a subject they struggle in or just to spend some one-on-one time with them, it is important to give them some space and time away from the younger kids. Sometimes my oldest just needs 3o minutes to himself, to which I can totally relate, so I am happy to give that to him.
7. Make everything you can a learning opportunity. This is one of my favorite parts of homeschooling. No matter what we’re doing, I try to look for the learning opportunity. Whether it is talking about the Bible and theology or working on math at the grocery store, there is always something to learn. Seize the opportunity and make it fun!
8. A boxed curriculum doesn’t work for everyone. I learned this the hard way, early on in our homeschool journey. I was so overwhelmed with all the choices out there, that I bought some boxed curriculum I thought looked good. However, some of it just didn’t work for our oldest. In fact, there were days we both ended in tears. I tried to push through for several months, because we paid for it, but in the end we had to abandon the boxed curriculum. Part of the beauty of homeschooling is being able to customize curriculum for each learner.
9. No two children learn the same. After we tossed the boxed curriculum, we found some curriculum that worked really well for our oldest. So naturally, I wanted to use the same curriculum with our middle two. Since our daughter was a math whiz like the oldest, I thought we she would surely soar like her oldest brother. But, I didn’t take into account the fact that she wasn’t yet reading and that would be a struggle. I tried using the same “reading” curriculum with our second that we used with the oldest, but again…that failed. In fact, we went back to a curriculum that we tried (and failed) with our oldest, but is succeeding with our middle two. The lesson learned? No two children learn the same – even if they have the same strong suits/subjects. They have their own personalities and their own learning styles. Make sure you find what works for them.
10. RELAX and ENJOY! This is still a struggle for me. While I do my best to relax, there are times I find myself stressing out that we are a little behind or we took too many days off for sickness. However, I am going my best to remember these words when days get tough and the weeks seem to drag on forever. These days may be long and difficult, but soon they will be gone and so will my kids. I want to enjoy them as much as I can and provide them with a solid educational foundation – all while smiling and laughing with them, because that is what they will remember most.

Do you homeschool a large family? What are your tips?