What book have you found to be the most helpful during the course of homeschooling?

There are so many Catholic home schooling books. They all help a little but the book that has given me the most help in these years while the kiddos are at home has nothing to do with home schooling. I Should Have Seen It Coming When The Rabbit Died by Teresa Blomingdale is a book that I go back to over and over again. It was first printed in 1979 and was one of my mom’s paperback books. I read it when the older ones were young because the title looked funny. The author had ten children in 12 years. She was a mom from the late 50s and the 60s. She loved her family and children. She was Catholic and the book is about her experience of having ten children as a Catholic woman. She writes with so much humor and love. Her children all went to Catholic School but her drive and passion for her children is like mine.

After the author tells many amusing and moving tales of her children the book ends with an Epilogue chapter. The title is “The best is yet to be” and this is my favorite part of the book. The author describes various conversations that she had with her father as she grew up. He would always tell her not to worry because the best was yet to be. She was very sad that he passed away before her oldest son got married. She describes how she couldn’t wait for college, then a job, then true love, then marriage, then children etc. etc. etc. She says that she thought watching her young children open gifts at Christmas was the best it could ever be, but her father tells her the “best is yet to be”. She understands that statement more fully later when she enjoys watching her older children helping their younger siblings on another Christmas morning.

The book ends as she looks over the ceremony of her son’s wedding. She ponders how it could ever be better than this moment. A beautiful Mass with her son so in love with his bride on the alter surrounded by all the siblings. Everyone is there dressed to the nines. They are all with God in church and together as a family, except for her deceased father. As she wonders how any moment could ever compare to the joy she feels right then she hears her father whisper to her. She knows he is whispering from heaven to tell her, “The BEST is yet to be.”

There have been many times when things are bad in our family life. Like when we had to decide what to do with the one that needed open heart surgery. There have been many joyous moments. At every one I hear those words and am reminded of heaven. This silly little paperback book written years ago has helped me to remain focused on Him and on heaven. For the my family, heaven is the reason we home school.

Are your children responsible enough to one day have a family? If so, how has homeschooling influenced this?

An example from our daily life might illustrate my answer. Dad and I were sitting in our bed room just off the family room. A candle was lit on the coffee table as it usually is. We heard a scream and cries which we often hear. As it turns out the four year old had been ‘reading’ a piece paper that she kept moving closer to the light. It caught on fire. The little one froze and did nothing as this paper burned in her hand. We heard the 10 year old screech and looked out to see the 11 year old pushing the four year old out of harms way, taking the paper and shoving it into a cup of coffee that was sitting there. That was impressive to us. At 11 I would have been frozen, this young one took action. We have seen things like this over and over again.

Home school kids are in the real world. Our son didn’t need to go to a special presentation from a fire fighter to learn not to panic and what to do. He knew he needed liquid and fast. He didn’t wait for an adult to ‘give him permission’ to react he just took care of things. In one week I can give you 100 stories just like this. Kids in school wait to told to try something, to do something etc.etc. Home school kids seam to not be afraid of life. They understand family. They do not get to hide from their family at school. I feel that a home school family has a more rounded and real family life.

Yes they are responsible enough to one day have their own families. I think that also have a better idea of what to expect. More realistic.

Are you children, especially your older children open to big families?

Oh My gosh YES!!! Our oldest has been reminding me that she will go away to college soon. She wants us to have another one so she can get to know him/her before she goes to college. Our last one was a shock. To be honest mom and dad were taken back by this news. It wasn’t in our plans but all of the children were ecstatic. I can not even begin to describe the joy we can see in each of their faces when they share in the joy of a new life.

They all seam to want to have bigger families when they get older. One says that says she might not home school her six because it would be very hard to be a doctor and a home schooling mom. She also feels that six is all she will have. I don’t think that she realizes that is a large number. Another has always said that she wants a dozen. One is undecided between being a nun or having 14. I just pray that they are open to what God wants of them. It is very contrary to society but I do hope that they can accept God's will no matter what it might be. I have tried to teach them the skills and a strong faith base to handle things if God has in a path that doesn’t include children. I know it would be hard but I am confident that they will accept his will and continue to love God. If any of them can not have children it will be very hard.

How has having children in all age groups/a big family affected school?

I used to think that the different ages could really make it difficult at times. Then I was put into place many years ago by another home schooling mother. This woman had 16 kids at the time and I was just pregnant with number 6. I remember asking her a question that I thought was very profound and her answer shocked me. She started her reply with, “Well if I ONLY had 6, I would blah, blah, blah.” I had never thought of it that way but she reminded me that the ages, the numbers, the personalities that I had were all from God. Someone else always has it worse and someone else has it better. It just depended on how they looked at it. I decided right then that until I had 16 like she did I would never complain or allow myself to use the number or age range as an excuse to not learn. We might learn differently but we would still learn.

It would be a lie to say that our school day isn’t influenced at all by the ages. I can’t even begin to say how many times we stop a lesson to deal with a very poopy diaper, or stopping because one of the little ones is running through the room with a knife. It is a good day when the older ones sit still no matter what the distraction.

To be honest the biggest issue we deal with is dad working from home and not the babies. He often comes in to share news, or ask my help or wants to kiddos to talk to his mom or whatever. He is our principal so we try to not get too upset and he tries to only interrupt when it is important. I love that we are all together to get good or bad news. We can pray right away and I don’t have to wait for people to get off an ugly old school bus before I tell the kids.