Large families

[phathui5]

I've noticed from people's signatures that there are larger families here who do TWTM. What I'm wondering is, what does your homeschooling day look like?

 

My kids are going to be 8, 5, 3, and 1 in the fall and I'm trying to figure out how to work this. I had just been homeschooling my oldest and doing stuff casually with dd. But this year I'm going to have two "official" homeschoolers.

[Sue G in PA]

Well, I have 7. I'll be officially homeschooling dd11, ds10, ds8, ds7, ds5 and dd3 in the fall. We also have a newborn. I'm not the best one to answer your question b/c I'm already feeling overwhelmed and wondering how I'm going to do it. I can tell you that for me...I needed to simplify. Instead of using multiple curriculums...I'm using MFW next year so I can combine most of my dc in various subjects. I also switched our LA program to LLATL instead of using multiple different LA components. I'm embracing a more CM approach to schooling. I'm learning that schooling is not just books and test but rather a way of life. Having so many to educate is forcing me to become more organized. It's forcing me to "let go" of some of the left over notions I had about what education should be (all workbooks, tests, grades, etc.). I must constantly tell myself that I will not be able to "do it all" and that's okay. I'm still not sure how I'll teach all of them adequately and give attention to my dd3 and newborn...but I'm sure it will work out.

 

For me, it's helping to write our my goals for the year for each of my dc. For example, my ds10 is having difficulty reading, spelling and learning math facts. That's my goal for him for next year. Dd11 hates writing and so my goal for her is to help her like to write and to teach her "how" to write better. Ds7 didn't do much as far as academics last year (he has Aspergers and just wasn't ready) so my goal for this year is to start slow w/ him. Gradually add subjects until he has his "full" load. Ds5 is becoming more interested in learning his letters now that my dd2 runs around "correcting" him when he sings the ABC song! (It's comical to hear my dd2 say, "No Jakey, it's like this! I TOLD you it was like this!", but it's not comical to ds5 so it's motivating him to learn!). Anyway, you can do it. Take it slow and establish a routine. That helps. Don't try to do too much. That's my only words of wisdom

[Amy in Orlando]

I don't know that four kids qualifies as large, but TWTM works for us because my older kids are very close in age. I can group subjects (science, history, Latin and grammar) as a teacher and get through what we need to do much more effectively than if each child was following a "grade-level" program.

 

Your kids are young and you have time to tweak things and figure out what will work for you. It took me a couple of years to get it really working well and I'm still tweaking!

[Kendra]

I've noticed from people's signatures that there are larger families here who do TWTM. What I'm wondering is, what does your homeschooling day look like?

 

Very, very busy. Noisy, too. And tiring. :tongue_smilie:

 

Ours are 15, 13, 10, 9, 7, 4, 1, and 6 weeks. We have always classically educated, and this fall will be the first time I'll have six students. Phew. I do structure the day to set us up for some amount of success and peace, but we don't always meet that goal.

 

Sample:

 

Breakfast and clean up

Circle Time (a catch-all teaching and fellowship time where I try to do most everything together: prayer and Scripture, geography, history, grammar, vocab, manners, Calvin and Hobbes of the day :D)

Chores

Math

Short PE if there's time

Lunch and clean up

Read Aloud

Quiet Hour

Independent work (Latin, Greek, phonics, copywork, logic, etc.)

Afternoon projects (art, crafts, etc.)

Free time

Evening chores

Dinner and clean up

Family worship

Older kids stay up and hang out with us, little ones to bed

 

Is that helpful? Looking at it on paper, it just exhausts me!

[Quiver0f10]

My high schoolers usually work independently and I try to group my younger ones into some subjects such as latin, history, science, art, read alouds etc. This year we are switching to BJU homesat for math, eng and science and using TOG for history, LiCT for latin and Atelier for art.

[love2read]

When the children were all little, it was crazy. I tried WTM the way it was written in the original book and almost went crazy. If I had followed the notebook per subject idea we would have had upwards of 50 notebooks at one time :lol:

 

I work to have the kids independent in half of their studies by the end of 4th grade. Some are at that point in 3rd grade. Between grades 2-4 independent workbooks are used for English. History is taught in groups of two, sometimes using a program like My Father's World. Science changes from year to year. Sometimes the children use Harcourt or Apologia Elementary independently, sometimes it's included with history or geography. Sixth grade and on is fairly independent with just short afternoon discussions of material read and direction for the next day. Sometimes 6th and 7th graders are combined for history with younger children if it works out. High school is completely independent with discussions about literature and history 2 to 3 times a week.

 

The high school discussions take longer than anything else and are amazing. My favorite thing to do it group teach the little kids for history. It's still so much fun.