Non-Fundie Megafamilies?

[calimojo]

So, are there any Non-fundie, or Non-religious, well known, Large Families out there? Or is this phenom, always associated with hyper religious types?

Also the same for Homeschoolers? Are they all very religious, or are there many homeschoolers who are not religious who opt to home school for other reasons, and if so, where do they get a more secular lesson plan?

[Secular4Me]

I can answer one of these. I am a non religious homeschooler. I pulled my son out of school because the district was unable to serve his special needs and I didn't think suing them would really help. There are many places to get secular curriculum. I mainly use Rainbow Resource (which sells both fundie and completely secular stuff-they have it all and their catalog is as thick as the yellow pages) and Evan Moor (all secular). There are many, many good secular curriculum publishers and if you want, you can even buy the same materials used in the local public schools.

[lexiloumarie]

The only 'mommy blogger' I read is an atheist with 7 kids. She had one post apparently go viral? (lisamorguess.com/2013/02/26/motherhood-the-big-fat-fuck-you/ ) I've read her though for years before that post. A very good writer who has been very honest will all the stuff that those perfect fundie moms don't like to admit.

[calimojo]

I just checked out her blog and I could totally relate to a lot of what she has written.

[SoybeanQueen]

We're not a mega family, though I wouldn't mind more kids. We have 5 kids now. So far I have not swayed my husband to my side of the mega-family fence. :)

As for homeschooling, I teach one of my sons. We follow a Christian faith, but our homeschool is totally secular. It's a little more work to find completely secular resources, but it's getting easier by the day. Probably the biggest problem is finding science curricula. Some people think that simply removing evolution from the book makes it secular. As you might know, there's more to it than that!

History is another area that can be tricky. I find history pretty easy to weed through, though. I want my son to learn about people and places because people and places are worth learning about, and not just so he can pray for everyone there to be saved.

I think homeschoolers are pretty lucky these days, though. There's so much available. I'm finishing my masters degree in instructional technology, and am currently working on some secular curriculum for homeschoolers. I've written most of a state history course for K-5 now.

[lilwriter85]

The Casons are large California family and they have appeared on TLC Discovery. They are mainstream Christians and not fundie.

MTV's True Life did an episode titled, "I Have Too Many Siblings". It followed two young women dealing with their large famiies and they weren't fundie.

There are also non fundie families that have adopted a lot of kids too.

On the topic of homeschooling, I have known some secular homeschoolers. There reasons for homeschooling varied from not liking public schools or private schools near them or not being able to afford private school.I had a college classmate who was homeschooled by her mother up until the 7th grade. Part of the reason was that the mother was also a travel nurse during the years my classmate and her sister were homeschooled. When the girls were middle school age, the mom settled down in her hometown and she sent the girls to public school.

[RosyDaisy]

My great aunt had 13 kids. All of them lived to adulthood, and they aren't fundie.

[Lissa1481]

I home school one of my children. She has sensory processing disorder and she has some eating issues and allergies. We didn't feel that it would be safe to be in public school right now. While we are christian, it's not part of my curriculum. I got most of our supplies and curriculum online or o bought it. My other kids are public school kids.

[sorchah]

My mother-in-law is one of 13 or 14 (not sure as many have died). But she is of the generation born under Mao, who promoted having as many children as possible to make China powerful. So perhaps for political reasons, but they are definitely not religious.

[Jana814]

I was going to mentain the Carson's from tlc. I don't think they homeschool.

[Pretzel]

The only 'mommy blogger' I read is an atheist with 7 kids. She had one post apparently go viral? (lisamorguess.com/2013/02/26/motherhood-the-big-fat-fuck-you/ ) I've read her though for years before that post. A very good writer who has been very honest will all the stuff that those perfect fundie moms don't like to admit.

Did you stop after that post came out and if so, why? Or was it just coincidental?

[ILoveJellybeans]

The largest family in the UK, the Radfords aren't fundie, and they have 16, so nearly as many as the Duggars. They are Catholic, but not fundie Catholics.

Id like to hear from more non fundie mega families, I am interested in big families, but reading a lot of fundie blogs gets me mad because theres always awful opinions hidden in there, and I know I could never like these people because they would hate me if they knew me.

[JBsHairspray]

To chime in on the homeschool. A friend of mine has 4 children who are homeschooled. They are not at all fundie but she and her husband both do shift work and were finding it impossible to get childcare, the school run and kids to activities around their schedules. Now the kids and parents, together with family members who help with childcare outside of "social hours" can set their own timetables and it works for everyone.

[Sobeknofret]

We're Christian, but secular homeschoolers. We had only intended to homeschool for a semester between pulling Darth Kid out of his private $$chool and finding a good public school, but it ended up working so well for us we kept on going. He might end up going to a charter school in 6th grade, but that's yet to be determined for sure.

We buy lots of materials through Rainbow Resource Center, the local teaching supply stores, and through used curriculum sales. I do use one Christian textbook, Rod and Staff Spelling, but it's because their approach seems to work better than other texts we've tried. Secular science is the real issue, but he takes a science lab class at a local children's science museum and we found a science book that works for us. Otherwise his subjects look just like every other kid's, except for the fact that he's taking Latin, and will soon be picking up a Spanish class for homeschoolers as well: math, language arts/grammar, science, social studies/history, reading, foreign language, and logic/critical thinking.

[lexiloumarie]

Did you stop after that post came out and if so, why? Or was it just coincidental?

Oh, I should have been clearer, sorry. I didn't mean to make it sound like I gave up on it after that post. I still read her when I remember. After that post and another one (I think?) that got some attention, she got quite a bit of troll activity and has slowed down with how much and what she posts which I completely understand. I disagree with her stance on a view things but I've learned to just skip those posts (vaccines, etc).

[O Latin]

They weren't completely non-religious, but I went to high school with a girl who was the oldest of 10, and I think that by now there are two or three more. They were Catholic, but other than the giant family they were just normal Catholics, not fundie ones. They all went to public school, wore pants, dated, did extracurricular activities, went away to college, all the things that everyone else did. I also got the impression that she honestly loved being part of a big family and wanted to have one herself. She recently got married and is now pregnant with her first child.

[dairyfreelife]

My neighborhood best friends growing up were two of seven children. They were Catholic, but not fundie. Children were mostly public-schooled, though youngest went to Catholic school. They did a little bit of homeschooling as well. One son for one year and one daughter for a couple years on high school who got her GED and went to college. They dressed "normal", drank, dad smoked cigars, oldest daughter got pregnant at 19 and no qualms about helping her out. Their dad is a very large man, over 6'5'' tall and about 300lbs, but is super mellow (gentle giant type) and plays Santa Claus each year at Christmas. He also has a natural white beard, so he rocks the Santa look.

[Jana814]

Very interesting to read. Where I live the number of kids most people have is 2. Some have 3. Their was 1 kid in my class who was 1 of 5 & 1 that was the youngest of 6. ( her oldest sibling was 15 years older then her).

[2xx1xy1JD]

My FIL was one of 11 kids. His oldest sister had 9 kids. They weren't fundie, although they were living in a more patriarchal culture and probably didn't have a lot of access to birth control.

My mom knows a woman with 8 kids, not particularly religious.

[Alexandra]

We're Christian, but secular homeschoolers.

Same here. I started HSing my daughter in middle school. She is now a senior in high school. We've used some religious materials (Sonlight), but the vast majority have been secular. We use Teaching Textbooks for math, we've used Keystone courses (weren't fans), Oak Meadow's science is our favorite, we've used some Laurel Springs School courses and some K12 International Academy courses as well. We also used Powerspeak for her foreign language in the beginning. She is now learning foreign language through a hodgepodge of materials and a private tutor.

[klynn]

One of my friends has 6 girls and she's not religious at all. We also know a family who had 3 or 4 bio kids, then adopted 8 girls from China. They're not fundie. I also grew up with 2 families who each had 7- 8 kids. Both Catholic, but not fundie. So sure, non fundies have large families! One of the Catholic families decided they would have as many kids as God gave them, which is a tad QF but they're very normal, secular people. The kids (most of whom are adults now) drink, have smoked, one had a baby before she married. You know, normal stuff :D

[brokenminded]

The Radcliffs! And they are back on tv next month with 17 kids and counting. Although they got their kids mass christined last time they were on tv they don't go to church.

[Vivi_music]

Very interesting to read. Where I live the number of kids most people have is 2. Some have 3. Their was 1 kid in my class who was 1 of 5 & 1 that was the youngest of 6. ( her oldest sibling was 15 years older then her).

I agree, the definition of mega-family really depends where you live or in what culture I think.

Before knowing about the Duggars, I used to think I came from a big family. I am the last of 5 children and it was very uncommon to find other people with so many siblings when I was in high school. Considering most families in my area consisted of two children and two adults, my schoolmates were often surprised by the size of my family. I had one friend in high school that was also one of five. Her family was sunni muslim but certainly not fundie. All the kids went to public school, they didn't have restriction regarding clothes, listened to mainstream music and tv, her and her siblings all went to college afterwards ($$$ I know!), you know, very secular stuff.

Now that I know about the Duggars, Bates and other fundies, my little family of five seems rather small though. :P

[brokenminded]

I was an only child, but where I grew up almost everyone was one of 3,4 or 5. Mega would be at least 10 to me.

[artdecades]

I have a colleague who is 1 of 17. I never got the impression that she was particularly religious, and even if she is religious she certainly is not fundie. She and many of her siblings have advanced degrees and rather high powered careers.