Home education with a large family. is it possible?

[girrafey]

hi. not sure really want i want to know just yet as just thinking and planning for the future. my dd is only 20 months at the mo. ( dont laugh)
however i have always considered HE and have brushed over the subject with my dp who thinks it is strange!!! ( men)
anyway we are planning on more children at least another 2. we have been trying since my dd was 3 months as wanted small gaps, yet sadly apart from losing twin girls we have had no luck. so for those who home school with 3 or more, is it doable? does the smaller children suffer say under 2s?
at the moment we do go somewhere every day with dd and my mindees, play groups, parks etc and cant see how i will be able to do as much with future siblings if i am having to think about school hours etc with the older ones. ( does that make sense!!!)
Also when and where do you start? Dont want to become a pushy mother and have dd nailed to a desk at 2 years 9 months exactly!! she does seem quite quick and loves drawing and does some every day, cant see much changing over the next year or so just let her go at her own pace and learn through talking to us and play etc. but when should you think about making it more structured?
i know it is a long way off yet but met a lovely lady with 5 children, and after a hour or so in the soft play i went over to her to say what lovely polite children she had. they had made that much of an impression on me. we started chatting and it came out that she was home schooling all 5!!!
been thinking about it alot since and want to find out all the info and get prepered so that i can sit down and explain to dp and family etc.
sorry it ended up quite long, and no laughing too loud at me thinking about it so far in advance!

[Saturn74]

Hi amyjo, I think it's great that you're planning this.
I know lots of larger families that home educate, and it's lovely as they all help each other.
Have a look at education otherwise if you haven't already.
My children are aged 10 and 9, and they haven't been nailed to a desk yet!
You don't have to make things with your daughter more structured unless you want to.
Lots of play and lots of conversations and lots of fun sounds like a very good start to me!

[Mehetabel]

Hi Amyjo22

The largest family I know who home ed is one with 12 children under 13

I know lots of larger families who home ed, it seems to go together At least you wouldn't have to worry about one of the most asked questions - what do you do about socialisation?

I home educated and childminded for 9 years and it worked really well for us. We sometimes had up to 9 children plus my own 2 (my husband and I were both registered for 6 each) and it was fine, in fact it worked better than when I have had one on their own. I used to do loads of craft activities with an educational bent, such as making a volcano with baking soda and vinegar etc, which were more fun with more participants, and we used to do days with a theme, such as Chinese New Year when we would make dragon masks, lucky red envelopes and a chinese style meal, eat with chopsticks etc, St Davids day, when we would learn about Wales, Divali and Eid when we would learn about other cultures, or sometimes we would follow a theme such as growing things, when we grew potatoes etc, then eventually dug them up and made baked potatoes with them, grew cress in the shape of the child's initals, grew grass head people, watched beans sprout in a jar, and bulbs roots grow in a glass vase, etc, etc, when I probably wouldn't have felt like putting all that effort in for just one child to do, but it seems worthwhile for more.