I am guessing you aren't happy with the schooling your kids are getting, for whatever reason. You've suggested homeschooling to yourself. But you can't imagine yourself doing it because you aren't superwoman, able to juggle lessons and other mom duties.
Take it from a homeschooling veteran, you can do it IF you love your kids. That's the only qualification. As you move through the homeschooling journey, you will develop the skills you need, as you need them. That's how jugglers start--juggling just one thing. Then they add another, and after a while another.
Homeschooling may even be easier than not homeschooling. Instead of driving your several children to several same-age activities after school, you'll be able to concentrate on activities you can all do together.
In addition, kids in school often have plenty of homework and need help from you in the evening. If you homeschool, you get all that out of the way in the morning, and your evenings are free.
Large families often enjoy doing unit studies. These are large topics, for instance ancient Egypt, which can be treated differently for various ages.Your read-aloud could be a book called Mara, Daughter of the Nile. A young child might write sentences about it; an older child might create a paper. They all might work on an art project, such as a scroll with hieroglyphics. Math can be worked in too--figuring the height of a pyramid using similar triangles. The unit could be capped with a visit to the art museum. Such unit studies might last a month, and are commonly available for purchase.
You can expect to use workbooks and curriculum made for homeschoolers, to make sure your child learns what he should for his age and grade. Typically these curriculums include an answer key--you don't need to be the expert. In fact, homeschoolers become adept at learning from the book, rather than from a teacher. Their reading skills are well prepared for college.
Correspondence schools will teach your child, too. These can take the form of videos, workbooks, or online.
Structuring your day is a question for you to ponder. Many homeschoolers get all their less-fun schoolwork done in the morning, leaving the afternoon for projects, goofing off, housework, or whatever. If you want to include your child in an organized activity, you can join regularly schooled children in their sports teams in the late afternoon. But there are daytime activities too. You can also ask around--some of these activities providers are creating daytime classes (in gymastics, for example) for homeschoolers. You do have to be careful to avoid burnout here, though.
How about socializing? Staying home all the time may be easier for you, but it may not make your kids happy. You may decide they need to get out and about for socialization. But here's the best part: you get to choose whom your child socializes with. You don't have to worry about bullies. You can make sure that socialization is well-supervised. You can choose adults, too. Homeschooled kids are usually very comfortable talking to adults, unlike schooled kids, I have observed.
Your kids will enjoy a homeschool co-op. These might meet once a week for classes, or go out for field trips periodically. Kids learn appropriate social interactions because they are well supervised. You can find a co-op by networking with other homeschoolers. Your local homeschooling convention might be a good place to start. Keep networking until you find the co-op that is right for you--or start one.
Something else you will need is support. You need someone to talk to who is going through the same challenges. The Internet has been quite a blessing to homeschool moms, who can support each other online. There are many discussion forums attached to homeschooling Web sites, for instance, www.welltrainedmind.com. There are email groups for homechoolers too--look through the groups at groups.yahoo.com.
Here's the answer to the homeschooling question: You can do it!
About the Author
Phyllis Wheeler creates fun computer science curriculums for self-study. Take a look at her free lesson on World Wide Web research, the World Wide Web Scavenger Hunt! And take a look at a sampling of articles on homeschooling.
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