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4 moms, 35 Kids: How Moms of Many Manage

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From cleaning to laundry, homeschooling to cooking for a crowd, how dospacer moms of many get it all done? Every Thursday 4 different moms of many will each share their perspective on managing the large family. From practical ideas and helpful tips to what not to do, you’ll get a glimpse into our homes, families and lives as we share our triumphs and struggles as well as the humorous side of life with lots of little ones.

On this page you’ll meet the moms of many, find an archive of our past posts organized by topic as well as a listing of our most recent posts. Click here to access the entire 4 Moms archive.

The fourth  Thursday of each month the 4 Moms answer reader questions. Feel free to submit your questions with “4 moms question” in the subject line here.

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Recent Posts

Upside-Down Cranberry Crunch Recipe & Favorite Desserts

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This week the 4 Moms are sharing some favorite dessert recipes. Be sure to visit the other 4 Moms: KimC at Life in a Shoe Connie at Smockity Frocks Headmistress at The Common Room Here are some of the fun desserts that have been featured on Raising Olives. Best Peanut Butter Pie (Our favorite make-ahead…

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Encouraging Verses for Homeschooling: 4 Moms of Many

This week the 4 Moms of Many are sharing some verses or stories that have encouraged us in our homeschooling journey. The passage that explains both why we chose to home educate and dictates how we home educate is Deuteronomy 6:4-9 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall…

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4 Moms Q & A: Only Littles, Bible Reading Attitudes and Read Aloud Interuptions

Today the 4 Moms of Many are answering your questions. Brianah asked this question on FB. It’s one that gets asked  frequently so probably deserves some more publicity,  “What did your day look like when you had all littles?“ Our first 8 children are all between 14 and 18 months apart, so by the time…

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Managing Clothes for a Large Family: 4 Moms

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This week the 4 Moms of Many  are talking about organizing, shopping for and managing all those clothes. Managing clothing is one of my least favorite tasks. It seems that no sooner do all the children have a sufficient number of nice outfits that 7 of them will put holes in the knees of their ‘going-out’…

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Homemade Hot Wings and Other Snacks for a Crowd: 4 Moms Link Up

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This week the 4 Moms are sharing some of our ideas for appetizers and snacks for a crowd and asking you to join in by linking up some of your favorite recipes. We often have last minute company or company that stays beyond one meal, so most often our snacks for a crowd are super…

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4 Moms Teach Writing Part 1: Grammar

This week the  4 Mom of Many  are talking about teaching writing specifically teaching grammar. In our family we’ve taken a laid back, whole language approach to teaching grammar. Our plan goes like something like this. Read aloud to child Have the child narrate Teach the child to read Teach the child proper letter formation…

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Large Family Gift Shopping: 4 Moms

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The average American family, comprised of 3.14 people, spends $800-$900 on Christmas gifts each year. We don’t. We avoid much of the annual gift giving frenzy by keeping things a bit more simple. Here are some of our reasons: We don’t need all that stuff. We wish for the focus of Christmas to be on…

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Peppermint Meringues: Holiday Recipe Link-Up

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It’s time for the 4 Moms  to share some favorite holiday recipes and we’re inviting you to link-up and share yours too. Our family has a variety of recipes that we traditionally make this time of year, most of them involve chocolate. The recipe that I’m sharing with you today is not chocolate, but they…

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topics

Large Family Issues

  • The Schedule – This includes a schedule from when we had four children under 4 years.
  • The Reality: A Live Blogging Adventure
  • Spending Time Alone with Your Husband
  • Managing toys
  • Germ Warfare -Keeping a large family healthy
  • Spending Individual Time with Your Kids
  • Traveling on a Budget: Food
  • Moms of Many Lose the Baby Weight (or at least try to)
  • Church and the Large Family: Fitting In and Being Part
  • Church and the Large Family: Getting there on Time
  • Church and the Large Family: Little Ones in the Service
  • Coping while exhuasted
  • Interview with LFL author Kim Brenneman - Struggling for order and a house full of littles.
  • Laying the foundation through goal setting
  • Tips for managing your week
  • Tips for managing your day
  • Coping while exhausted 

Parenting

  • Teaching Children about the Facts of Life
  • Teaching children to work 
  • Naps and Rest Time
  • Going Out with Lots of Littles
  • Noise, Talking and Fidgeting 
  • Teaching Diligence
  • Keeping your patience in the midst of chaos
  • Parenting style

Kitchen

  • Feeding Your Family on a Budget
  • Menu Planning
  • Cooking from Scratch
  • Kids in the Kitchen
  • Tips for Feeding Company
  • Bread Baking 101: A Photo Tutorial
  • Hospitality Tips and Recipes
  • Lunch Menu for Homeschooling Moms **LINKY**
  • Feeding the family on a budget **LINKY**

Recipes

  • Cooking for a Crowd – Recipes
  • Breakfast Recipes
  • Thanksgiving recipes
  • Cookie recipes **LINKY**
  • Hot lunch recipes **LINKY**
  • Picnic recipes **LINKY**

Home Education

  • Husbands and Homeschooling
  • The big picture
  • 6 Distinctives of our Homeschool
  • Selecting Curriculum: Our Methods
  • Selecting Curriculum:  Our choices for 2010
  • Teaching Little Kids
  • Teaching Big Kids
  • Putting it all together
  • Educating Children with Learning Differences
  • Teaching Bible
  • Teaching Reading
  • Teaching History
  • Teaching Bible Memorization
  • Favorite Books for Preschoolers
  • Favorite Books for Beginning Readers
  • Keeping up with housework while homeschooling

Home Tour

  • Yard and entryway **LINKY**
  • Kitchen and dining area **LINKY**
  • Living and school area **LINKY**
  • Boy’s bedroom and little girl’s bedroom **LINKY**
  • Master bedroom and big girl’s bedroom **LINKY**
  • Laundry area and tips **LINKY**
  • Storage Solutions **LINKY**
  • Spring bouquets, not cleaning

Q & A:

  • Keeping children quiet during worship and camping with a large family
  • Book suggestions for Moms
  • Gifts to make **LINKY**
  • Breastfeeding, Books we DON’T read & holding kids back
  • Baby equipment, baby names and Bibles for kids
  • Bible Storybooks for Kids and Fellowship with Others
  • Doubts about being a Mom of Many
  • Scheduling Answers
  • Managing with all little ones
  • Homeschooling science
Meet the 4 moms

KimC is a Christian, a wife, big sister to 13 sibs, and the slightly-crunchy homeschooling mom of 10 children: 9 on the outside and 1 on the inside. She lives with her very large family in a very small house in south Texas and finds peace in chocolate and blogging at Life in a Shoe: the methods and madness of one family of 12. Her family shares their little house on the hill with dogs, gerbils, snakes, and tarantulas, and a 10 year old cat named Tim. The chickens stay outside. Usually.

spacer Connie is a Christian homeschooling mom of 8 rowdy children, wife for 25 years of one hunky golf pro, wiper of noses, writer of stories. She blogs regularly at Smockity Frocks.

The Deputy Headmistress is shy and blogs behind a pseudonym which she intended to be amusing and somewhat self-deprecatory. She and the Headmaster locked eyes in a high school Sunday School class in 1979 when she was 17, and they have been merrily married since 1982, in spite of the fact that at 17 the DHM nearly got the HM beaten up by her other boyfriend, and at 20 she nearly got him arrested by a cop from church. Happily God helped her grow up, and He is gracious and forgiving, and so is the Headmaster. They have seven wonderful Progeny both by birth and adoption, two handsome sons-in-law, one adorable grandson, and two precious unofficial foster sons, ages 5 and 3, who live with them about half the time. They have been homeschooling since 1988. The DHM, and occasionally some of the Progeny, blog regularly about politics, family life, living in the country, books, music, cabbages, kings, and living the countercultural Christian life at The Common Room.

Kimberly blogs at Raising Olives (that’d be here) and is a second generation homespacer schooling mom to 10 children. She is married to an amazingly patient husband, who also happens to be a magnificent father. Their family’s primary goal is to glorify God and to raise children who will do the same. For that reason they attempt to examine every decision that they make in the light of God’s word. Many of their decisions may seem strange to the world and they’re good with that.

 

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