Our family loves books, and I love reading to our kids. Books are a great way of exploring different perspectives and experiences and learning about the world. But it is also fun and reassuring to read about people who have similarities to you. So I have made a point the last few years to try to find books about large families, especially since we don't have many big families in our real life. Books featuring larger-than-normal families can be few and far between, but we have found a number that have become family favorites, so I thought I'd share the ones we have enjoyed.
Picture books:
The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman (the illustrations are great!)
Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson
The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Dubose Heyward
Bears in the Night by Stan and Jan Berenstain
Chapter Books:
The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (of course!)
The Vanderbeekers series by Karina Yan Glaser
The Penderwicks Series by Jeanne Birdsall
All of a Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
I'll add more as we discover them! :)
10 comments:
We LOVE the 7 silly Eaters and All of a Kind Family! Other big family faves are: McBroom’s Wonderful One Acre Farm, The Saturday’s (not a huge family, but above average), and I know I’m forgetting one! I’ll ask the girls. 😄 ~ Jana
Oh, thanks for the recommendations! I will definitely look those up! :)
I never thought to look for books specifically about large families! What a fun idea! You may enjoy the Fairchild Family series by Rebecca Caudill. There are 4 books and the first is titled "Happy Little Family".
I was wondering, what grade is your oldest in? Have you started planning out what you are going to do for high school? That's been on our minds a lot now that our oldest is finishing up 7th grade!
Oh, thanks for the recommendation! I will definitely look those up!
My oldest is in 6th grade, so a year behind yours. We've definitely started thinking about high school, but haven't really started looking into options too much. Plan A would be to do a hybrid home program like the one my husband and I did, but since we'll have 3 kids in high school at the same time that may not be viable financially! I really need to start looking into that! Thanks for the reminder! :)
What are you thinking for high school?
It's so hard to discern. We are in the same boat as you with the number of high schoolers. Once our first goes in we will have anywhere from 1-3 high schoolers every year for the next 15 years. That is quite a marathon! And, let's be real, there may be more children in the future. Homeschooling with such a wide range of developmental needs and so many individual needs is no small task. This year has been incredibly challenging.
There is a K-12 charter school down the street from us that some big families we know attend. We've decided to enroll a couple of the kids this upcoming year. We will continue to homeschool the younger grades. If the kids in school are thriving we will stick with it. If not we can withdraw them at any time and homeschool again. This school is our last option. We can't afford the hybrid/private school options. If it doesn't work out we will definitely be homeschooling through high school! I know I CAN do it if I have to, but I need help and have none. I could really use that village that is supposed to help raise my children!
A charter school sounds like a great option! I hope that works out! I don't know if we have any charter schools around us, but we do have hybrid homeschool options that are through the public schools that are an option for us as well. I know we could homeschool if we had to, but I really think my kids would do well in some kind of situation with other kids. My husband really wants them to get a diploma, so that is a priority for us if we can make it work.
This year has been hard for us, too. We need that village, too! I have been searching for a co-op or something for years, and have just had the hardest time finding anything that works for our family. We did start a very informal group several years ago, and that was great while we had it, but now it's been a couple of years since that stopped, and even before the pandemic we have been pretty isolated in our homeschooling journey. As my kids get older, I feel the pressure increasing to get them involved in something where they can be around other homeschoolers. It's so frustrating to feel so alone!
I agree about how frustrating it is to feel so alone. I feel alone even when I talk to some of the other homeschool families about it. I think it is important for the kids to have community but, if I mention that, the other moms scoff at it like I'm too focused on "socialization". While it isn't THE most important thing, it is still very important. Why do we have to pretend like we don't care if our kids have friends just because non-homeschoolers always poke at that issue? To me, it is very important!
I also want our kids to get a degree and be able to thrive in college if they choose to go. I don't feel like I'm sufficiently setting them up for success in that department and I'm truly giving my best effort. It would be fantastic to have someone do their science labs with them and teach them how to write report.
I'm sorry you are feeling so isolated. I feel that way too!! We have signed our kids up for that charter school, but I'm aware that if Covid-19 picks up again the schools may shut down. We will be alone again for yet another year. These are our children's childhoods!! I want to give them so much to experience in life but there isn't a lot I can do! I'm seriously trying to convince my husband that if things get shut down again we should sell our house while the market is so great, move to a cheap house in a rural area that we can buy in full from the profits, and start growing our own food! If we're going to be alone anyway we may as well have fun doing something we've always dreamed about!
We rented the Vanderbeekers book and the kids are really enjoying it! I've been reading to them in the evening!
That's interesting that other homeschooling parents would act like that about socialization. I can only imagine they must not be having trouble finding it! That is definitely an issue with homeschooling parents I talk to. In fact, many of the parents I know end up putting their kids in school because of that issue, which, while I understand, means we have even less homeschoolers around us! 😩 I am certainly thankful right now that my kids have so many siblings to play with, but they really do need more, especially my older kids. I feel like they are at the age where friends are really important, and, yes, I hate that I feel like they are missing out. I just keep praying that something will present itself as things open up.
I love your idea of moving somewhere else for a while! Seth and I keep talking about that very thing, too! He just recently started a remote job, so we actually have the ability to go somewhere else if we want, and we would love to try something new! We just get paralyzed because we don't know where we would want to go. Where would you go? We'll meet you there! 😉 Haha!
I'm glad you guys are enjoying that book! We used to read every night, and our schedule has been disrupted, and I'm having such a hard time finding a way to make it work again! I usually read to them at lunch, but I miss our evening time too!
You are so blessed to have a remote job! That is what is really holding us back. My husband is planning on asking his managers about working remotely soon because several people in his department got permission and have moved to other states. I don't know where we would go... My husband and I both like seeing mountains, lots of green, and my husband really wants snow! We would ideally choose a place that had summers with a high in the low 80's and we would want low property taxes if possible. Lots of places sound lovely but unless he gets permission it is a pie dream because we have to have a job to provide for our family! Where would you choose? Meeting up would be great!! Haha!
I meant to write back, and life got in the way! Ha! I just had a minute to say Happy Mother's day! :)
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