How many siblings do you have?

[burbuja0512]

I have two brothers and my husband and I have five kids. I do homeschool my DS who will be 16 this month, but don't homeschool the others.

We didn't start off as a homeschooling family until the public school system was unable to teach my ADHD (type 1-inattentive, not hyper) son. I work full time but thank God I work from home so am able to supervise his work. Homeschooling little kids would be out of the question because DS works very well independently. I help him maybe only 20-30 minutes total out of each day.

I think that homeschoolers might seem like they have bigger families because the reason that many people homeschool is due to religious preference. We're not religious, but many people think so when they see the mini-van full of kids lol

After seeing what homeschool can do... and like I said, I don't spend a lot of time on my DS, all I do is guide his learning and provide study guides such as books, computer programs, IC, passyourclass, ALEKS, Standard Deviants, and more. I keep him on track and explain concepts that he doesn't understand. He went from a straight D and F student to a 15 year old that has college credits and should hopefully have his associates degree before his peers graduate from high school. Public school was preparing him for a career in the fast food industry. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but now he will be able to go to pharmacy school one day like he really wants rather than being forced down a totally different path. I will be homeschooling each one of my kids once they hit 8th or 9th grade and can work well at least 80% of the time independently. I'd like to do it younger, but there's just no way with the job.

Lol... oops did I get off track? Sorry

[cookderosa]

I was curious how many siblings everyone has...at first I was gonna ask how many siblings people who are homeschooled have, cuz I had an hypothesis that maybe people who are homeschooled have more siblings since school is so expensive but then decided to change the poll.
I have 3 sisters...how about you?
Do you wish to have had more/less? Why?

EDIT: I realized the numbers are a bit off and I can't change them but it's okay.

I only have 1 sibling, but I have 4 homeschooled children, so I'll answer here instead of the poll.
My guess is that it's the social norm for homeschoolers, thus it's almost expected. If your social circle is made up of people with 3-7+ children, you're probabaly going to see that as normal.

[cdhill]

I have 8 siblings so far!
AND we are all homeschooled!

[burbuja0512]

One other thought to add is that it's more feasible for a mom with lots of kids to homeschool.

If you only have one or two kids, you can likely afford to put them in daycare if you have a halfway decent job. Even someone who is loaded with cash couldn't afford daycare for 8+ kids, so it would be more likely to find a mom who has postponed her career aspirations to stay at home. If you're already at home, it's a lot easier to consider homeschooling because you don't have to consider a lost income and quitting your job to stay at home with kids.

[cookderosa]

One other thought to add is that it's more feasible for a mom with lots of kids to homeschool.

If you only have one or two kids, you can likely afford to put them in daycare if you have a halfway decent job. Even someone who is loaded with cash couldn't afford daycare for 8+ kids, so it would be more likely to find a mom who has postponed her career aspirations to stay at home. If you're already at home, it's a lot easier to consider homeschooling because you don't have to consider a lost income and quitting your job to stay at home with kids.

I think you're right. And it's funny because I hear families with 1 or 2 children who have two parents who "have to" work but homeschool families are almost always living on 1 income and probably not in the upper income range. My husband is a chef, I'll let you look that one up lol, but we have never had 2 good incomes since having children. Funny thing about homeschool families that I have run into, is that they tend to be mega-resourceful, thus just make it happen using whatever they have, and willing to be creative or solution-minded. For us, I'm a budget fanatic- literally- obsessive, and so we have a nice home and lifestyle. I think it's part of my "job" to turn a profit with my husband's income in the same way a business person might do for their company. I think it's a mind-set of frugality that does it. And seriously, one more baby doesn't cost much more. We used cloth diapers and breastfed, so a new baby cost me almost nothing, literally. It's first babies that cost $$$.
And now that we all know how to save THOUSANDS of dollars on college (my previous biggest fear) that's a non-issue too! :hurray:

[STG]

I have one older sister and 2 younger sisters. I always wanted to have an older brother... I also wish I had a bigger family and will hopefully have one of my own in the future

[Christina]

I have 7 and we have all been home schooled. I am the oldest at 22. Then I have 4 sisters and 3 brothers, aged 20,15,13,8,6,5 and 2. It can be crazy sometimes, but always a lot of fun!

[methibosheth]

I'm the eldest of 11. An interesting observation I've made concerning very large families is that the eldest always becomes something of a third parent. I've changed somewhere in the ballpark of 10,000-12,000 diapers, taught several of my siblings to read, potty-trained at least one, cooked, cleaned (you get the idea ). I've spoken with several other E.O.L.F.s (eldest of large families) and found this to be the norm.
I've also found that when the eldest starts to take on out-of-home responsibilities (work, college, etc.) that the others start to fill the shoes of the eldest. Thus you end up with something like 3rd, 4th, and sometimes 5th parents. It seems that this phenomenon would make a good childhood developmental psychology study, but I've never heard of any. Hey, maybe some of you psych majors could get your PhD. like this :hilarious:

[MomOfMany]

Dh is an only.
I might as well be an only, I'm youngest of 4 by 10 years.
We didn't have 10 kids or home school for religious reasons.
We started with private school bc the public schools are crap here, then moved to home schooling when private schools were no longer an option. We can't imagine ever sending them to school now. It's become our way of life.
We weren't religious when we married. I joined the RCC after marriage and several children.
My children had never babysat or changed a diaper until this year and it certainly isn't just my oldest kids. And none of them have done any of that with new baby boy, just his 2 year old sister.
As for home schooling because it's easier - some aspects are easier. I get to tailor our curriculum needs, make our own scheduling/calendar priorities, and mostly avoid the migraines of dealing with school politics.
In exchange for that, I take on a 24/7 job without any benefits where the teacher parents are blamed for any possible perceived failures (be it social or academic) and are the sole financial backers for the entire education program. Gee. No pressure though.milelol: