Is Robinson Curriculum a good choice for home schooling a large family?

Are you considering Robinson Curriculum but wonder if it would be a good choice for a large family? As someone who has used Robinson Curriculum with two of our four children, I would say it is an excellent choice for a large family if you want place a high value on helping your children learn how to learn, and for whatever reason aren't able (or prefer not to) spend a major portion of your time with them interacting on academic issues. There are some things that you might not like, and you can read on to find out more about what we liked and didn't like about it.

When we started to use Robinson Curriculum, I appreciated having time to spend reading or playing with the younger kids, interacting with older children on their writing or reading, knowing that the older two were working on their schoolwork.

Since we "only" have four children, I'm not sure we qualify for being experts on home schooling a large family. So, I wanted to share with you some testimonies from people who definitely are home schooling with a large family to let you see how Robinson Curriculum works for them.

Some of the testimonies are long, but they speak so well to the frustrations that many of us face who have several children that I wanted to let them share fully. I think they'll speak to your heart, too, if you have a lot of children and are home schooling.

I have 11 children (ages 4-15) and help my husband with our business...[and] I can honestly say that Robinson Curriculum saved our homeschool. I was getting totally burned out trying to do all the different levels, different subjects, keeping infants and toddlers from interrupting, etc., etc.. I don't do anything fancy when printing books (don't even have a duplexer - I just print one side, flip them over & print the other, then put them in report covers), I check their work, and that's it. The stress level has GREATLY diminished, as well as the guilt, from wondering if everyone is getting what they need. Missy :)

We love Robinson Curriculum! =) We have five children under the age of nine, so I can relate to [the] struggle to teach the olders one-on-one with babies and toddlers underfoot and laundry and cooking and cleaning to keep up with. Whew! Robinson Curriculum has been such a blessing to our family. I have always believed that focusing on the basics was the key to a great education. This curriculum gives us the freedom to do that with confidence. It's also so very simple to implement and frees Mom up to be Mom. We use a very simple checklist for each child so that they know what to do each day. There is very little planning or preparation needed. We haven't found a down side. =) I have found that letting go of all the possible individual subjects has been hugely freeing. When you grasp the idea that teaching a child to read well and do math well prepares them to teach themselves anything they will want or need to know later, it's not so scary to dump all the extras. And what a relief to know that our children are not wasting time when there is so much to learn. I truly believe that you will find RC to be a huge blessing to your family and you will be delighted to discover all the things you are able to enjoy when you simplify your homeschool and focus on the foundation. Brenda in OR

I have 7 children from 14 down to 7 months. We've always home schooled. We started with a unit studies program and moved gradually to a more Classical approach We really enjoyed the way we were doing things but over the years thejob just got bigger and bigger. In the end, I was doing a *huge*amount of lesson preparation. And teach? I seemed to be talking all day! And every single word that came out of my mouth seemed to be 'school'. As the age range in our family grew broader, I felt I was holding back the older children and neglecting the younger ones. I longed for the sweet days before things got out of hand when I was just a mummy and we had time for fun and play and work as well as school. When our latest addition was on the way, I gave dh my 'This is not sustainable' speech...again. It was becoming a familiar song. I had heard Robinson Curriculum mentioned...he gave me permission to check it out. We bought it in January this year. (He agreed the price wasn't high compared to a room for me in a nice private mental institution (-:) For the first few weeks, I felt as if someone had given me wings!While the children were quietly working at their desks, I would slip out to water the veggie patch with my little ones and get quite giggly. The sense of freedom and relief was almost overwhelming. The children all coped well with the change - with a few minor 'settlings in' (some of them adjusted more quickly to [my not spoon feeding them the answers] than others) - and they often actually thanked me for fixing it so they could work at their own pace. I've really seen them blossom! Arranging it so that they are taking more responsibility for their own education has been a very healthy move. My reluctant readers have become bookworms, all have improved their spelling and grammar and they are loving maths. *I* get to do fun stuff and learn-to-read with my little ones, cuddle my dear little baby and bring delicious meals to my busy students. They think I'm the best mummy in the world! Sorry if that sounds a bit much. It really is true. If I had known that I could give the children an excellent education without making myself a martyr to it, I would have done it years ago. Lisa in Australia

For me, personally, I appreciated Robinson Curriculum because it helped me see that my children really can learn to be more responsible for their schoolwork, can learn how to find out answers, and that sometimes "less is more." What I mean by this is that sometimes I tend to want to add so many subjects into my children's day that they feel overwhelmed and don't really learn any of them well. With a back to basics home school curriculum such as Robinson, I think there can end up being more depth and real understanding for the subjects that are covered.

When we first started Robinson, I found it such a relief not to have to plan, correct, and supervise all sorts of lessons. I felt I actually had more time to spend interacting with them, which was wonderful.

We didn't, however, stay with Robinson Curriculum. I found, honestly, that I missed having a guiding sense of what they were learning and having a chance to interact with them on the materials. Helping our children develop a worldview that centers around our faith is a big priority for us, and although many people may be able to do this with Robinson, I found it lacking a structure through which I could address different religions, worldviews or other moral dilemmas.

Home schooling with a large family is a challenge. Robinson Curriculum is a good option if you want to help your children learn how to teach themselves, thereby freeing up your time.

There are, however, other good options for home schooling a large family besides Robinson Curriculum. Tapestry of Grace is a unit study specifically designed for a large family. You can check out Tapestry of Grace's approach to Classical homeschooling, look over our review of Tapestry of Grace, or check out Sonlight Curriculum. You may also want to check into online home schooling, especially for an older child. There are various types of online home schooling which you may find give you many of the benefits of home schooling while still freeing up some of your time and allowing your child to interact with others on what she is learning.

I hope the information here has been helpful to you in your journey in home schooling a large family. Robinson Curriculum is certainly one option, but there are others that are helpful, also.

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