We are approaching the time frame when most homeschooling families are wrapping up their current school year. That would be our ’24-’25 school year if you are reading this at a later date. April and May begin the testing and evaluation periods for a lot of families. In my family we utilize an evaluator for our early elementary kids, and we do approved testing for our older children. Time seems to really pick up pace as we start planning for our next year and wrap up our current year. There is so much that happens and so much I want to squeeze in. I want to talk about what homeschooling may look like and give a glimpse into our style.
Right now, it feels very hectic. We wrapped up our school day a little while ago. I started typing this as my oldest was finishing up a test and complaining about it. I guess the one thing they get to do at home that they don’t in school is openly complain (insert eyeroll). I joke, but in all seriousness, he hates testing. Even when he was in public school. We’ve only been homeschooling since the school year ’20-’21. “Covid homeschoolers” as I’ve heard those of us called. In all reality I wanted to homeschool my children a lot longer than that, but my husband and I simply were not on the same page. Once the schools shut down and we had to finish the school year at home with little to no instruction I decided I’d approach it again and he agreed to giving it a go! It has allowed so much into our life, but I will admit there are a few aspects to public schooling I miss, and I know my children would enjoy. So, I do what I can with what we have to bring so much fun into our homeschool journey. Our daily is mundane and uneventful, but we’ve had a few grand adventures that I hope will be lasting memories. Before I continue, I would like to back way up to our first year or so homeschooling, because I learned a lot since then and I hope the transparency will help with a little solidarity with any new families stepping into their own journey in home education.
In the ’20-’21 school year my oldest was in fourth grade and my younger child was not yet ready for school and my youngest was only a year old. We were stepping out of the public school system and starting our own homeschool journey. I was CLUELESS. Thankfully, I have a sweet friend who was previously a school teacher who was homeschooling her own children who offered what guidance she could. I think I’d be stuck in my mindset if it weren’t for her. Coming from public school I certainly thought homeschool had to be done the same way has public school does it. Let me tell you now, IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THAT WAY. Our first year wasn’t too bad. In our fourth-grade year we tied up loose ends from third grade essentially being a flop, started fourth grade and went on our merry way. We did a lot of reading and writing, I hit up some curriculum sales and got us language arts books and a math curriculum. The public schools were mostly virtual in my area, kids didn’t get the same recess, and were maintaining social distancing, so things looked so different from pre-covid.] I took the approach of “unschooling” which is basically not focusing on book work and learning to love learning. It was exciting and challenging, but with only one kid and only focusing on elementary years I felt it was manageable. That was until I had to school more than one kid.
The next year (’21-’22) I struggled with the mindset of squeezing in 9 subjects a day, recess at a set time, lunch, lessons for two kids, and extracurricular. Trying to stretch in into an 8-hour day. It was not working. I failed to realize that you can’t really do public school at home. We do not have the same curriculums, even if we do the teaching criteria is really decided for the teachers and they are doing one maybe two subjects a day for a classroom. I’m not going to downplay the significance of a teacher-because a good teacher is worth their weight in gold. I have not ever been a public school teacher and I absolutely will not speak down on them, but I will say teaching your own child has a large difference from teaching in a public school. Unfortunately, a lot of teachers are not granted the time to work one on one with students, those that are able to make such a difference in a child. They are pushed to meet certain testing or classroom criteria. They also may have a very unrealistic children to teacher ratio. These are just my own personal thoughts. Knowing all this I still struggled. I wanted to get my kindergartener reading and pushed him, I wanted my older child to be one of those brilliant homeschooling students that has like a 4.0 GPA all through his school career and can outshine anyone. I put a lot of unrealistic expectations on my children and myself and had these ridiculous requirements for our school days. There were so many tears. It wasn’t until my friend and others I communicated my frustrations with shared some studies with me about learning types and techniques, and how they did their schooling and encouraged me to seek out a cooperative to join. This is where the shift started to happen.
Things I’ve learned thus far in our short years homeschooling:
*Homeschooling does not need to look like public school at home
*Make sure you clearly understand your state laws and recording requirements
*Hands-on learning is more fun and will help the child retain more than a textbook
*Recess can happen anytime
*Movement IS necessary
*Feild trips can be so fun as a family
*Used curriculum can be a money saver
*Find a co-op that meets your family needs, and don’t be afraid to look farther than your town
*Big kids benefit from one on one instruction just as much as little kids
*The eight grade year is a great time to be sure your budding highschooler has a solid foundation and start talking about the transcript and classes in highschool
*Let your kids have a part of choosing what they want to learn
*School does not need to be eight hours at home! This was so hard for me. You can finish formal insruction in under two hours for grades K-2, in three to four hours for grades 3-5. In middle school you may be done in about three to four hours and highs school you may finish in four hours. Every family and student is different and this is formal instruction. If you are in a state that you have to track hours or have a highschooler and you are needing to track hours for credits keep in mind that informal learning is still learning! Field trips, reading, documentaries, discussions, classes in a co-op can all count towards hours.
*You can cover topics in shorter time frames at home because you are able to lead one or two children in instruction on a topic vs trying to get 25-30 to understand.
*Public school may be eight hours or so, but they have breaks for recess, bathrooms, transitions between classes, and lunch. All this adds up and takes away from “formal instruction time.”
*You can school all year, take a summer break, take Fridays or Mondays off, school on the weekends, take frequent short breaks, or a few long breaks. You get to decide!
*If you are schooling more than one child, I personally find it easier to break the school day into blocks. What I mean is to do formal instruction for your kids in certain time periods while others are doing independent work. If it’s a unit that can be done all together, do that, and give older children follow-up questionnaires or activities that they can complete in addition to the unit. Breaking up the school day between kids may make for a long day for you but it’ll help the kids each get the one on one that they may need in their education. This may be able to be tweaked as kids get older of course.
*Utilize free or affordable resources in your schooling! Look into the reading app “EPIC”, easy peasy homeschooling, the good and beautiful, and others. Maybe I’ll try to generate a list of the resources I have found. I can’t refer you to anything specific, just information for you to search out what suits for yourself. Search for local co-ops and ask to come in for an observation. Find used curriculum for even free stuff online.
*If a curriculum seems overwhelming and burdensome, ditch it. Give it or sell it to someone else. If you are having these feelings, you are not learning
Ok, I think that covers all my thoughts, for now. Today, in this school year I am schooling an eighth grader, a kindergartener, and a second grader. I have been schooling since the fall of 2020. A few years were a big struggle, and while we lived in between houses with family we squeaked by. We are now in our own home and have caught up and even moved ahead in some topics. I feel we are thriving again. We do a lot of activities, we have a monthly co-op that’s phenomenal, I have a list of studies we need to approach for the grade levels my children are in, and a list of places to visit. We can do lots of different activities, read books, and watch videos often. We are preparing for the end of our school year and ready to have a short break before jumping right back into it! My oldest and I have sat down to decide what he wants to learn in ninth grade and how many credits he wants to have on his transcript. OH! Also, check out your states department of education website, or your local public school page to see if you can find any links on what they teach and that can give you a guideline to go by for planning the education, but remember its ok to not line-up with it exact. Just use it as a guideline for the kids, especially in those upper grades.
Remember, also, that elementary school is supposed to be fun. Don’t get so wound tight trying to make the perfect student that you forget your kid is already amazing. You got this!
For further information and an excellent resource check out hslda.org
Happy Shenanigans!