Recently I have been researching a more biblical approach to homeschooling. I have bought many homeschooling books, many whole curriculums, and lots of how to books. Overall I have been dissatisfied. I always feel like something is missing and I'm always wondering how to teach my children in a "better" way. I've used traditional textbooks, classical (except for reading old greek texts), some charlotte mason, and literature based curriculums. I've enjoyed parts of many of these but somehow I have felt it wasn't exactly what I should be doing. After lots of money spent on all these things I began to pray about what my homeschool should look like. I'm still praying...
Here are a few things I'm learning (meaning in the process, not giving advice ;). With a large family, it can be quite daunting to have separate textbooks for every child for every subject. Ofcourse math and language arts have to be separate, but science, history, art, and even handwriting (to a certain degree) doesn't. 
While trying to figure out how to teach all my children and hoping that they could all work independently while I did the housework, I realized, this is not very fulfilling. Imagine sitting on the couch, the children all around, hovering over a great book. Together, learning about science, history, creationism, and whatever else you love. Doing chores together, but most importantly exploring the scriptures together as you sit down, rise up, take a walk...at every opportunity. This is real living, and I'm starting to see that trying to do school the way government schools run is not real. And it starts to put out the spark of learning in my children. Up to now, I'm realizing that I need to teach my children directly, and therefore I have to learn some history, how to teach reading effectively, grammar rules. It's not what I thought I was signing up for, but it's what I have come to see is the way of the most successful homeschool families. I have found that advice from families that have graduated many chidren is the best - because then I can judge their methods by their fruits and pick the best fruits :) Some resources I have really enjoyed lately: A Charlotte Mason Companion, Educating the Whole Hearted Child, Curriculum advice from Victoria Botkin (2 CD set) http://www.ignitethefire.com/, http://www.heartofwisdom.com/, http://www.ladyofvirtue.blogspot.com/%20(posts (specifically posts about 19th century education). Since I have 5 children...I better run...more on this later :)
While trying to figure out how to teach all my children and hoping that they could all work independently while I did the housework, I realized, this is not very fulfilling. Imagine sitting on the couch, the children all around, hovering over a great book. Together, learning about science, history, creationism, and whatever else you love. Doing chores together, but most importantly exploring the scriptures together as you sit down, rise up, take a walk...at every opportunity. This is real living, and I'm starting to see that trying to do school the way government schools run is not real. And it starts to put out the spark of learning in my children. Up to now, I'm realizing that I need to teach my children directly, and therefore I have to learn some history, how to teach reading effectively, grammar rules. It's not what I thought I was signing up for, but it's what I have come to see is the way of the most successful homeschool families. I have found that advice from families that have graduated many chidren is the best - because then I can judge their methods by their fruits and pick the best fruits :) Some resources I have really enjoyed lately: A Charlotte Mason Companion, Educating the Whole Hearted Child, Curriculum advice from Victoria Botkin (2 CD set) http://www.ignitethefire.com/, http://www.heartofwisdom.com/, http://www.ladyofvirtue.blogspot.com/%20(posts (specifically posts about 19th century education). Since I have 5 children...I better run...more on this later :)
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