homeschooling large families

penguincrazy

We have three biological daughters and are considering adopting a sibling set of three very close in age to our girls.  As I'll just be starting out our homeschool journey this August, I'm more than a little terrified of what homeschooling 2 school-agers with two preschoolers and two toddlers would look like.  I would LOVE any recommendations or tips from you homeschool divas out there!!  TIA

Jennifer Anne

I don't have any recommendations yet, but we do want a large family and to homeschool. I love this blog: 

https://bakersdozenandapolloxiv.com

 Renee has 14 kids and homeschools. She has lots of entries on how she does this practically. I believe her youngest is 2 and her oldest just started at a community college, so she definitely has the full age spectrum in her family! Not every entry is about homeschooling of course, but I believe there is a bunch of links to topics that you can filter the entries through. Hope you find it helpful!

 

 

wifeofadam

We're new to homeschooling - it's our first year.  I started out working one-on-one with my oldest last August.  It worked well, because the younger two entertained each other.  Once I had the new baby everything changed.  It got really hard to juggle everyone and at the same time, #2 was wanting to do more schoolwork. 

Now what we're doing is unit studies with the older two together.  Then afterwards I give them their work for phonics and math.  We sit at the table together and I go back and forth between the two boys answering questions and working with them.  Our third child seems to enjoy sitting at the table with us and coloring or listening to what we are doing.  The baby is usually asleep (I try to time lessons during naps) or sitting in the bouncy beside us.

My advice would be to combine the lessons that you can and just tailor activities for their levels.  Get some special toys for the younger kids that they only get to play with during school time.  We also watch very little TV in our house, but I will resort to putting in a special "learning" video (I love the Leapfrog ones) for #3 if she is distracting the boys.  It usually keeps her busy for a while.

At some point, I think #3 will naturally just start getting involved in the lessons and that will be my cue to start some formal school work with her.