Great example of a large family! Siobhan and Kit Healy + 13!

I loved watching this, because so much of the stuff I've seen has been more or less 'we have a huge family so we do things this way' and not 'our family has 13 kids but we live just like you do'. It's refreshing to see kids who live a normal life who just happen to have lots and lots of siblings. It's really nice to see parents who parent without including 500 million other people just because they have 13 kids. I can't quite figure out the homeschool concept. I know there are lots of people who are really keen on it, I prefer the idea of socialization in the real world with other people who are not your family, because eventually that's where everybody goes - out into the world. I do like some CONCEPTS of homeschooling, including an eventual option for kids of any age to take core concepts as online education and then electives and hands on type courses at school. I don't want to teach at home though, nothing above early elementary as I am not versed in college level english, writing, history, and calculus.... and I have no desire to be lol. As far as distractions and other things, I feel it is necessary to be exposed to things like that in order to learn how to deal with them. If you are never exposed, it will be a huge culture shock, the older you are when you experience it for the first time. It's almost better to expose kids when they are super little, and then expand it because by the time they are older, they will have learned to cope effectively. Just my take on it. I think my daughter is much more social and outgoing than I was when I was her age. I have always tried to give her lots of opportunities to make friends, be with friends, and have activities. She attends a public school with a wide range of other kids, so it's not like being in a private school bubble. I protect her from certain things (like political indoctrination and people who push religion) but I allow her to learn how to handle her own disagreements with friends and choose who she becomes friends with, and she learns from me which adults to trust and which ones to hold at arms length.

I think my take on the whole home schooling thing is similar to yours. We know a few people who have done it and we are located in the largest home schooling area in the country. It is not about the kids spending all day isolated at home as the home schooling community get their kids together to learn social skills and make friends. There are certainly some great aspects to this type of schooling, but I could not teach them myself as I would not have the patience and tutors cost money. We have friends in the USA who have home schooled their kids (who we are also friends with as they are adults now) using tutors with great success as they were able to work from home and pay tutors for particular subjects. We also work from home and have discussed doing this, but we like the peace and quiet during the day when our kids are at school! We also send our kids to a public school as it is free compared to thousands of dollars a term for private schooling. My wife and I both went to public schools and I see no problem with them. There are always difficulties with other kids, but that is life and they do need to learn how to deal with difficult people as they will no doubt have to do this as an adult.

That's what I like! They function for the most part just like you or I would. That makes them approachable, people to emulate, to take advice from, and enjoy seeing a peek into their lives. You think for the most part people want to set up their family and their children to succeed in the world the way it is - with perks whenever you can give them perks, right? I don't think this can happen if you go about things so completely different that if thrown into an ordinary situation, your kids would be shunned or ostracized because they dress a lot different, talk a lot different, hold extreme different beliefs and don't accept anything else, or more or less don't do the same general things.

They seem to be very nice people, but it's different for someone who isn't religious and prefers their kids are tolerant of what is out there, rather than shielding or sheltering their kids from what is out there. Have you seen what their oldest son went through as far as dating/engagement, and getting married? That's just one part of a whole where it seemed VERY overboard in terms of not normal. Who doesn't KISS their boyfriend or girlfriend? Who has a chaperone on dates AFTER they are engaged? WTF? I also don't want any of my kids trying to tell other kids that they have to or should believe a certain way, or separating themselves from other kids BECAUSE they have a different belief. I think they should accept other people and just figure out a way to interact and be friends without ever believing the same things. I look at the standards taught in school and you have to take some bad with the good. At this point in the year, most of the standards have been taught and approx one third of the class is passing them consistently. This means they COULD continue on with new things, BUT there are 2/3 of the class that are either NOT passing those consistently or not even understanding them to begin with. There is a lot of review going on right now and understandably some of the kids are frustrated because it is all repeat. I think this is where they could utilize parent support and allow those of us that have time to tutor small groups either on review to help them catch up or to tutor small groups in advanced standards to keep them learning. To address the behavior issue, do you believe then that all of US should hide in our houses and not be out in the world just because WE could be exposed to rotten people in our daily dealings? Or do you think we should just be out in the world and learn how to deal with rotten people since we'll be in contact with them anyway? I'm not sure what to do about them, we all have bad days too, but with repeat offenders, what do you do? Say something... ignore them? Everybody still has the right to go about their business, right? I just don't agree necessarily with hiding from it.