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How to Start the Homeschool Day Right

September 6, 2018 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

It’s the start of a new homeschooling year and, for many of us, that brings a ton of excitement about our new books, our new curriculum, and the kids’ new grade levels.

But we’ve been at this homeschooling thing for nearly ten years now and I’m here to tell you that the excitement… is going to fade. In fact, it seems like the longer you homeschool, the quicker it fades. And a lot of that comes down to having a rough homeschool day – or two or ten.

It’s so easy to think that you’re going to start the homeschool day right, only to have it dissolve into two shouting matches, a sibling fight, and a crying fit over a math problem by 11:00.

For years, I fell into the trap of planning weeks of lessons and then falling off the homeschool wagon just a few days in. I thought I needed to change my curriculum, revamp my schedule, or even try public school for a while.

I didn’t realize that I was planning my homeschool years right, but starting my homeschool days completely wrong. Here’s what I’ve learned about how to start the homeschool day right.

Take a look to see what didn’t work for me and what finally is working – after all this time.

Disclosure: I am a BookShark brand ambassador and am receiving free curriculum as part of my role.

How to Start the Homeschool Day Right

Images c/o: lanakhvorostova and SIphotography / depositphotos

Plan your day’s lessons and activities in advance.

Please, please, please do not set yourself up for failure by thinking you can do this on the morning you plan to teach a lesson. You won’t get up early and plan for it. Trust me. You just won’t. (I cannot tell you how many school days I’ve given up on because I fell for this idea.)

Take some time to set up a flexible plan for your school week. Shoot for having the lessons for the week done by the previous Friday. Then try to schedule only a few full days and leave yourself some space for lessons that take a little…longer than expected.

Have a family meeting first thing in the morning.

This one took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out. And, really, this tip came from my husband. Whenever he’s home during the day, he gets up and goes into the kids’ rooms to talk with them about how they’re feeling that morning.

As he told me, “That’s the best way to find out what’s on their minds before we get started. Otherwise, they won’t be able to focus on what we’re teaching, because their minds are somewhere else.”

So I started doing this on our homeschooling days too. When everyone gets up, I talk to them all individually to see how they’re feeling, what they’re thinking, and what they want to do that day.

I tell them we’ll try to get at least some of what they’d like done – after we finish our school lessons. It really does help them put those thoughts aside (at least for a while) to begin the school day.

Eat a really good breakfast.

Remember those old cereal commercials we used to see on Saturday morning? The ones that show the bowl of cereal, along with toast, eggs, and a glass of orange juice as part of a “balanced breakfast”?

They weren’t kidding. Kids really need to eat a filling breakfast to start the day, especially once they hit puberty.

I was allowing my kids to make their own breakfast for a while. That led to eating less than they needed, because they often didn’t “feel” like cooking as much as they should have.

Now that I’m back to making breakfast (and they make their own lunches and snacks), they actually get full and their moods are ten times better, which makes our entire homeschool day run smoother.

How BookShark Helps Me Start the Homeschool Day Right

One of the biggest changes that’s helping me start our homeschool days off right is using BookShark with my youngest.

BookShark is a year-long, book-based curriculum that includes ELA, history, and science for grades K-8. I’m using it for our first grader this year and it has done wonders for my homeschooling routine.

Because BookShark plans the weekly lessons for you, I have her daily plans done in no time. I just look over the prepared plan, review the books we’ll need, and we’re off and running the next week.

Take a peek at my BookShark homeschool binder to see how it works!

Start the homeschool day (and year) right with these tips!

See more ways to plan your homeschool year on my Homeschool Planning Pinterest board!

How to Afford Homeschooling eBook Download

How We Structure Our Three Day Homeschool Week

August 16, 2018 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

We’ve always been rather creative in the ways we homeschool. While the idea of schooling at home might conjure up images of hitting the books from 8 to 2 Monday through Friday, we’ve never done it that way. Frankly, that doesn’t work for most homeschoolers.

Instead, we structure our lessons to get done in a three day homeschool week, even though the program we use is designed to be covered in four days a week.

Shocker, right?

But it actually works for us and has worked well for a few years now.

Read on to see how we use a three day homeschool week in our family!

Note: We’re adapting BookShark with our youngest child to be a three-day-a-week program, but you could really make this work with any curriculum – as long as you’re willing to adjust a few things along the way.

Need to get more ideas for organizing your lesson plans? See how we use a homeschool binder to keep our objectives front and center during the year!

Disclosure: I am a brand ambassador for BookShark and am receiving free curriculum as part of my role. For details, see my Disclosure Policy.

Why You Might Need A Three Day Homeschool Week

Images c/o: Wavebreakmedia / depositphotos

How can using a three day homeschool week help you? If you think that you can’t homeschool because you’re too busy, compressing your school week can give you some much needed time in your schedule.

Personally, I’m a homeschooling parent who also works secularly. So I need to get our school lessons done for the week in about half of a normal workweek.

Generally, we complete our school lessons during those three days and then I use a couple of evenings and the other two full days of the week to work. That way, I can relax with the family on the weekends, instead of being chained to my computer trying to catch up.

Even if you don’t work, though, using a three day homeschool week can be a good thing. It will leave you with two extra days a week for chores, errands, appointments, or field trips.

How We Structure Our Three Day Homeschool Week with BookShark

If you take a look at our BookShark homeschool binder, you can see that each day’s lesson is completely planned in advance. This is a HUGE timesaver when it’s time to cover the material. Since we do a three day homeschool week, though, I have to make a few tweaks.

First, I put all of the week’s activities for ELA, history, and science together to see exactly what we should be covering. Then I count how many pages we need to read, experiments we need to complete, and worksheets we are expected to finish.

Finally, I just divide all of those activities by three to see how much we should do each day. Pretty simple!

BookShark is designed as a 36-week curriculum, so if you complete four days a week of the program, you should finish your child’s coursework within 36 weeks.

In our family, though, we homeschool year round. So I have a lot of wiggle room on the schedule. This means I can take out a day and make it up during our longer year without falling behind.

It’s working like a dream so far!

Need more homeschool planning ideas? Don’t miss these posts!

See even more ways to organize your homeschool year on my Homeschool Planning Pinterest board!

Should You Homeschool Year Round or Not?

August 13, 2018 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

If you’ve been around the homeschooling world for any length of time, I’m sure you’ve heard of families who homeschool year round. In fact, we’re one of those families, so if you haven’t met someone before, you have now!

Choosing whether to homeschool year round can be a tough decision to make. Which is why it’s normal to seek the guidance of experienced homeschooling parents when you’re considering this topic.

But the beauty of homeschooling is that you can do works best for you and your child. So whether you homeschool year round or not is totally up to you and yours.

If you’re considering homeschooling, then it’s clear that you want to understand your children and provide them with a good education. Homeschooling not only allows more family and bonding time, but it also creates an environment that supports the learning habits and needs of your child.

If you find that you are racking your brain with trying to decide if you should homeschool year round or not, here are a few things to consider before choosing one way or another.

Are you thinking of homeschooling but unsure you can do it? See how you can homeschool your own children, even if you’re not a teacher!

Image c/o: belchonock / depositphotos

Should You Homeschool Year Round or Not?

Homeschooling Year Round Does NOT Mean Schooling All the Time

While learning and education are important, it is also just as important to make certain that your little one doesn’t get burnt out from not being able to take a break.

If you choose to homeschool year round, a good alternative to a full summer break could be to take a couple of weeks off intermittently throughout the school year. This way, your child gets a little rest time (as do you!) and time for them to recoup and have a little fun in the sun as well.

Homeschooling Year Round Can Help You Avoid the Summer Slide

One of the biggest concerns that many public school teachers have is that it takes kids a few weeks after returning from summer break to get back into the swing of things at school. If you choose to homeschool year round, you’ll never have to worry about getting out of sync and schedule.

Being able to teach your child in an atmosphere and classroom setting that works perfectly for them and their learning needs is what homeschooling is all about. When you’re able to provide that education year round, you’re setting your child up for a great learning environment!

Homeschooling Year Round Doesn’t Have to Interrupt Family Vacations

Do you and your family have any traveling plans during the summer months or do people come to visit you and your family during the year? If so, consider that before deciding to keep up with the curriculum full-time.

While it doesn’t mean that you still can’t homeschool year round, it’s just important to understand that there may be times when you’ll be traveling or have guests over and you and your child will still need to get through your lessons and your work planned.

Talk It Over With the Kids

Instead of making this decision entirely on your own, talk to your child about their thoughts. You may be surprised by their answer in regards to what they prefer!

Some children like the scheduling and every day being the same, while others prefer a bit of time to recharge. Whatever the choice, rest assured that it will be the best one for you and your child.

How We Homeschool Year Round

We’ve been homeschooling year round for several years and here’s what we do:

We follow a typical school year for our start. We generally get started with our next grade in August, but we only school for three days per week. Every few months, we take a break for a week or two.

Over the summer, we take a very relaxed approach. We’re still homeschooling, but the majority of our learning comes from summer camps, field trips, and online courses. So far, this approach has worked well for our kids.

What about you? Do any of you homeschool year round? I’d love to hear how you make it work in the comments!

Still planning your homeschool year? Take a look at these posts!

Get more ideas for structuring your homeschool year on my Homeschool Planning Pinterest board!

25 Fun Ways to Celebrate the First Day of Homeschool

July 23, 2018 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Back-to-school is an exciting time of year, especially when you homeschool! With new ideas and a fresh start, there is a lot to celebrate. Homeschool parents usually ooze excitement and you want your kids to get excited about the beginning of the homeschool year also.

Here are 25 fun first day of homeschool ideas to celebrate NOT back-to-school with your kids this homeschool year!

If you decide to try one of these first day of homeschool ideas, let me know which one your kids loved the most! I think we’re going to try numbers 2, 3, 11, and 19. 🙂

Need some ideas for planning your new homeschool year? Don’t miss our list of 10 new school year resolutions for homeschoolers!

Image c/o: andrekaphoto / depositphotos

25 Fun First Day of Homeschool of Ideas

1. Decorate your homeschool room with your kids.

This is a great activity for right before your homeschool starts or for the very first day. Grab some fun decorations and get started! Not only will decorating be exciting, but it is also a great way for your kids to have a vested interest in their homeschool.

2. Create a vision board for the year.

Setting goals for your homeschool is so important! Start your homeschool year off right by creating a large vision board with your kids. Discuss everyone’s goals for the homeschool year and write them on the vision board. Decorate it and hang it somewhere you can look at it throughout year. It will be fun to see all of the progress that your kids have made.

3. Go out to eat a special breakfast on the first day of homeschool.

This is such a fabulous way to celebrate back-to-school! Skip the formal school morning and head to a cafe or restaurant to ring in the new school year.

4. Eat dinner at a fancy restaurant on the first day of homeschool.

Shake things up a little bit and take your kids to a fancy dinner. You can talk about your day and what they look forward to for the rest of the year.

5. Have a dress-up dinner at home for your kids.

Have your kids wear their fanciest clothes and treat them to a fancy dinner at home. Use a table cloth, fancy dishes, candles and music to imitate a nice restaurant. You play the part of the chef and waiter and go all out!

6. Have a picnic lunch at a local park.

Pack your food and drinks and head out! If you don’t have a park nearby, the backyard can be just as fun. Bring a picnic blanket and enjoy your time together discussing the new year!

7. Have a family movie night to celebrate the first week.

After a great week of homeschooling, why not sit back and relax with your family? You’ve earned it! Let the kids pick the movie and spend some time together on the couch. Watch one of our favorites “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” and then try this Charlie and the Chocolate Factory unit study!

8. Gameschool for the first day (or week!).

Who says games don’t count for schooling? They absolutely do! Get back into the swing of things with a game schooling day or week. From board games to card games, your kids will build bonds and have fun!

9. Take funny first day pictures.

You can set up a “photo booth” with an awesome backdrop, or just make silly faces! The key is to get some great pictures that capture your child’s personality! Hang them up in your homeschool room to set the vibe for your homeschool year.

10. Surprise your kids with a photo book with pictures from the past year.

Kids love to see how much they’ve grown! This one takes some advance planning, but your kids will love this sentimental celebration! There are several online options for printable photo books.

11. Enjoy a day (or several!) at a local attraction (children’s museum, water park, etc.) when public school has started back.

Beat the crowds at your local hotspots by spending a day playing when public schools are back in session. After the summer rush, this is a nice way to take advantage of a huge homeschool perk!

12. Create a time capsule.

Use a shoebox (or a similar sized container) and create a time capsule that you won’t look at until the end of the school year. Items could include: first day of school picture, an interview with your child and goals he or she has. Put the box away (in a place you’ll remember!) and make a note of where it is and when to open it.

13. Start a scrapbook and add to it weekly.

What a great way to capture memories! If you can’t keep up with a scrapbook page per week, consider doing it monthly. At the end of the year, you will have captured so many precious moments!

See more fun first day of homeschool ideas on page 2!

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25 Helpful Homeschool Planning Tips for the New School Year

July 16, 2018 by Selena Robinson 6 Comments

I just love homeschool planning season. Many homeschoolers start planning for the new school year during late spring and early summer.

In our family, though, homeschool planning season is practically a year-round event. Even after almost ten years of homeschooling, I’m always looking for new homeschool planning tips that will help us along our journey. After all, each child is different and each grade level is different, so what worked in the past may not work as you go along.

Get your new homeschool year started on the right foot with these tried-and-tested homeschool planning tips that work! There are 25 here – all from veteran homeschooling moms (including me!) – and they’re great for any age and stage you’re teaching.

Feeling a little overwhelmed by your homeschooling journey? Take a breather with this article about the things you don’t need to homeschool!

*Don’t miss the fabulous Rainbow Resource curriculum giveaway at the bottom of the post!*

Image c/o: habovka / depositphotos

25 Helpful Homeschool Planning Tips for the New School Year

1. Simple Lesson Planning for Minimalist Homeschoolers – Look! We’re Learning!

2. My Super Simple Homeschool Planning Method – Homeschool Your Boys

3. Make a Homeschool Schedule – Homeschooling Ideas

4. Printable 2018-19 Homeschool Planning Form – Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus

5. How to Use Mind Maps for Homeschool Planning – Triumphant Learning

6. Free Printable Homeschool Planner Pages for Relaxed Homeschoolers – This Simple Balance

7. Printable Homeschool Quarterly Planning Form – Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus

8. Step-by-Step Instructions to Plan A Homeschool Year – Preschoolers and Peace

9. Planning for the Non-Planning Homeschool Mom – Homeschooling Without Training Wheels

10. How to Hold a Weekly Homeschool Planning Meeting – Hodgepodge

11. Five Simple Tips to Help You Schedule Your Homeschool Day – Finding Joy In the Journey

12. How to Plan Homeschool One Quarter At A Time – Lara Molettiere

13. 15 Homeschool Schedule Ideas for Kids with ADHD – Look! We’re Learning!

14. How to Pre-Plan A Homeschool Year – Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus

15. How to Frugally Plan Your Homeschool with Folders – Rock Your Homeschool

16. 2018 Weekly Homeschool Planning Worksheets – Table Life Blog

17. How to Plan A Homeschool Week – Blossom and Root

18. 7 Steps to Simplify Homeschool Planning – Triumphant Learning

19. The Ultimate Guide to Low-Stress Homeschool Planning and Scheduling – Hide the Chocolate

20. 7 Step Homeschool Curriculum Planner – Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus

21. How to Create a Flexible Homeschool Schedule – Look! We’re Learning!

22. The Tools You Need to Plan Your Homeschool Year – Finding Joy In the Journey

23. How to Make Your Homeschool Planner Work for You – Rock Your Homeschool

24. Homeschool Planning with a Spiral Notebook – Blog, She Wrote

25. Free Printable Homeschool Planning Pages – Classically Homeschooling

These homeschool planning tips are awesome for jump starting your new school year! But if you need a little more help to plan your homeschooling lessons, check out these other suggestions!

Follow my Homeschool Planning Pinterest board for even more suggestions!

And now for the Rainbow Resource Back to Homeschool Giveaway!

Whether you’re an early bird who already started your new school year or you homeschool year-round (like we do), I’m pretty sure you could use a little extra money for homeschool curriculum. Right???

I’m thrilled to share an awesome giveaway that I’m offering with a group of education bloggers. We’re giving away $250 to help parents buy curriculum, educational supplies, and more to stock up their learning library!

Well, actually, we’re giving away $250 twice. Two people will win a $250 gift card to Rainbow Resource Center!!

To enter for your chance to win, simply use the Rafflecopter form below. The more entries you do, the better your odds are of winning!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway ends July 27th, 2018 at 11:59pm ET. Must be at least 18 years of age. Must be a resident of U.S. or Canada to enter. Selected winners will have 48 hours to respond to email notification to claim their prizes or another winner will be drawn. By entering this giveaway, you agree to be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers. Please be sure to read the Terms & Conditions upon entering the giveaway.

How to Use a Homeschool Binder to Organize Your School Year

June 14, 2018 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Have you ever seen those homeschool moms who just seem to have it together? I mean, they have their lessons for the year arranged in advance, their kids’ extra-curricular activities are all planned out, and they keep monthly attendance religiously.

Yeah, I’m not one of those moms.

But, after many false starts, I’ve finally started to get the hang of that kind of homeschool organization. The key? Learning how to use a homeschool binder.

A homeschool binder is a wonderful thing, my friends. In it, I can keep all of our family’s lessons, activities, and plans organized in one place.

If you’re ready to take your homeschool organization to the next level (or just start becoming organized), read on to see how to use a homeschool binder to organize your school year!

Need some tips on scaling back your lessons? Don’t miss our tips for simplified lesson planning!

Disclosure: I am a BookShark brand ambassador and am receiving free curriculum as part of my role.

How to Use a Homeschool Binder to Organize Your School Year

Images c/o: broker / depositphotos

Gather your lesson plans.

Here’s where it gets tricky for a lot of us. You have to actually have lesson plans in order to gather them. Personally, this is one of the reasons why I love BookShark. The lesson plans for the entire year are already written out. Talk about a timesaver!

We’re using BookShark for history, science, and language arts. And all of the instructor guides include 36 weeks of lessons for each of those subjects. I just opened them and collated them by week. Done.

If you don’t have lesson plans yet, don’t worry! You can write down your yearly objectives and divide them up into weeks. As you gather resources, you can add to those notes.

Create sections for each part of your school year.

Use tabbed dividers to section up your lesson plans. You can separate them by subject or by a timeframe (weekly, monthly, quarter, etc.) I find it easiest to keep all the lessons for each subject together by week. That way, I can just pull out the week’s lessons and get started.

On the other hand, if you complete monthly evaluations or quarterly progress reports, you might want to section your lessons by the month or the quarter.

BookShark makes it easy for parents to know what to do each week, because the lesson plans instruct you as to which resource to use and when. But you can always adjust each lesson as you see fit.

Add supplemental resources.

As homeschoolers, we tend to use supplemental resources during the year. A LOT of them. We might have book lists, curriculum guides, unit study ideas, and more that we want to keep up with as we go through the year. I like using a huge three-ring binder, so that I can keep all those things together in the back of my homeschool binder.

My BookShark binder is plenty big and comes with a handy carrying bag, so I can plan lessons on the go. Bonus!

You can always move your individual resources to the specific subject section or timeframe section in which they fit best. But I like to keep mine in the back in a reference section. Whatever works, right?

Do you use a homeschool binder to organize your school year? How do you make it work for your family? Share your experiences in the comments!

Check out these other tips for planning your homeschool!

See more ways to organize your homeschool year on my Homeschool Planning Pinterest board!

What to Do When You Have Too Much Homeschool Curriculum

April 10, 2018 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

The question of what to do when you have too much homeschool curriculum might seem like a strange one to ask. The more curriculum, the better, right? Well…

Remember when you first started homeschooling? Did you look at your bookshelves and imagine them filled one day with gorgeous picture books, beautifully-illustrated encyclopedias, and resources your kids would love?

I did. I wanted to make sure that my kids had the opportunity to learn from any book they wanted and that I had any resource I needed to create an engaging and happy homeschooling experience in our home.

Fast forward nine years later. Instead of staring lovingly at our academically-equipped bookshelves, I was fighting to keep the door of our homeschool closet closed. Actually, I was in the habit of hurriedly slamming it shut before an anchor chart fell on me. Something…went wrong somewhere.

What went wrong is that I went on a curriculum hoarding spree over the years. In my desire to make sure that my kids had every homeschooling resource they’d ever need, I’d managed to store materials for literally every grade level and their first two years of college. And, no, I’m not exaggerating.

Rather than feeling comfortable and secure in my homeschooling arsenal, I felt overwhelmed at the very thought of trying to plan the new year. So, I had to take some drastic steps to minimize our homeschool. And if you’re overloaded with homeschool curriculum, these steps might help you too.

What to Do When You Have Too Much Homeschool Curriculum

Images c/o: belchonock & ArturVerkhovetskiy / depositphotos

Revisit Your Educational Goals.

Before you dive head first into your curriculum hoard, take some time to revisit your homeschooling goals. After years of homeschooling, we can get so used to following a “routine” that we lose sight of exactly what we’re trying to accomplish with our kids. It’s understandable, but it’s also counterproductive.

Grab a notebook and write down a homeschooling mission statement. Imagine what you want your children to be able to do by the time they finish homeschooling and then write it down. Or imagine what you want to have accomplished for them by the time they graduate and then write it down. Be very, very specific with this.

Keep the Resources That Align with Your Goals.

Read what you just wrote. Then read it again. Think about what you’ll actually need to make your goals a reality.

Now, open the door of your homeschooling closet (watch our for falling charts!) or venture over to your overloaded bookshelves and start pulling everything down. And I mean everything. If it’s a LOT (like ours was), do one bookshelf at a time to avoid collapsing into a puddle of overspending regret.

As you sort through each resource, reread your homeschooling mission statement and ask yourself: Will this help me accomplish my goals? Trust me, you’ll know when it will. If it will, put it off to the side.

Get Rid of Everything Else. Really.

Okay. We’re at the hard part. You have to get rid of every other thing that will not help you accomplish your homeschooling mission statement.

Complete curriculum you personally love? Get rid of it.

Expensive reference book you saved up to buy? Get rid of it.

Program you’ve kept for years just waiting for the right time? Get rid of it.

Just so you know: If you’ve been homeschooling a long time, this might be excruciating. So, to ease the pain, do NOT flip through any of the materials you plan to discard. It will not help.

Now when I say “get rid of it”, I don’t necessarily mean throw it in the garbage. Find another family to donate or sell the program to. Donate it to your local library. Feel free to pass it on, but just get it out of your house. Once you do, your homeschooling space will look better and you will feel wonderful!

One last thing: Now that you know what to do when you have too much homeschool curriculum, resolve never to get into this predicament again.

The next time someone offers to “give” you a program, reread your homeschooling mission statement. If it won’t help you accomplish it, it’s okay to say no! When you find out about a curriculum that’s on sale, read the details and reviews carefully to see if it will harmonize with your learning goals. If not, don’t buy it! It’s that simple.

Don’t miss these other homeschooling tips!

Get more tips for managing your homeschool on my Help for Homeschoolers Pinterest board!

10 New School Year Resolutions for Homeschoolers

December 26, 2017 by Selena Robinson 5 Comments

It’s common to start a new homeschool year in August or September, which is the same time of year when public schoolers go back to class. But I still like to reset my homeschool every January.

By that point, I’m almost halfway through the school year and I can take a look at which resources are working and which are…not. I can also see how my kids are progressing and adjust our goals to suit their ability.

Every year, I make a list of things I’d like to change about my teaching method or our homeschool routine and I try to apply those throughout the year. This time, I thought I’d share of my new school year resolutions with you and hopefully get to read some of your plans as well!

Feeling overwhelmed in your homeschool journey? See what to do when homeschooling feels like too much!

10 New School Year Resolutions for Homeschoolers

Images c/o: CreateHERStock

This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.

1. Establish a daily routine.

As much as I like the idea of a “go with the flow” mentality, that simply does not work for our family, especially since some of us are living with ADHD. Instead of attempting to schedule every single minute, though, we’re going to stick with our minimalist homeschool schedule and strive for consistency.

2. Spend more time outdoors.

I’m really not an outdoors person. I’d rather be inside with a thick novel than outside any day. However, we have active kids who love the outdoors, so we’ll be working in more outside time this year. We’ve gotten a chance to share some great nature activities as a family and I’d like to make time for that on a regular basis. Even I feel more relaxed after we spend time outside together.

3. Make good use of lapbooks.

We’ve used a few lapbooks with the kids in the past and we’ve enjoyed them quite a bit. But I’ve tended to shy away from using them much because they take so much time to prepare. After the initial preparation, though, they are wonderful homeschooling tools that kids can use on their own. We still have lapbooks from years ago and the kids can grab them and complete an activity any time. They’re certainly worth the initial time investment.

4. Encourage independence.

My husband was the first one to teach this in our home, so I have to give credit to him for this resolution. He believed strongly that our kids should learn to take care of themselves as early as possible. As a result, our three oldest kids (ages 13, 9, 8) can wash their own laundry, prepare their own breakfast and lunch meals, and clean their rooms. This year, I’ll start helping our youngest (age 5) to do the same.

5. Slow down.

When I first started homeschooling years ago, I felt pressure to do ALL THE THINGS AT ONCE. I planned every minute of our homeschooling day. I made a list of every single important children’s book with dates to read each one. I collected every piece of homeschooling curriculum I could find. Then I almost killed myself trying to do it all. Now that we’ve been at this for years, I’ve learned that it’s so much better to slow down, focus on what’s most important, and enjoy teaching the children.

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Our Minimalist Homeschool Schedule

September 18, 2017 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

We’ve been homeschooling for nine years now. And, since I’m a planning junkie, I have tried literally scores of different homeschool schedules. In a way that’s been a good thing. Since we’re teaching kids with ADHD at home, being flexible has been one of the keys to our homeschool success.

But all kids, and kids with ADHD especially, need consistency. And one thing I have not been consistent in is our daily homeschool schedule. Know why? I was trying to cram way too much in every day. No human on Earth can possibly maintain the type-A kind of schedule I was attempting to follow every day.

Now that we’re practicing a minimalist style of homeschooling, I’m using a far more streamlined schedule and it is working wonders. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by lesson planning, get a look at our minimalist homeschool schedule! It’s a really simple way to get started.

Image c/o: massonforstock / depositphotos

A Minimalist Homeschool Schedule

Note: Our two oldest kids are using K12 at home this year, so this homeschool schedule is largely based on their live class times. Because they have live classes each day, those windows are excellent for working with my two younger children.

My third-grade son is working at a fourth-grade level in most subjects and at a third-grade level in others and he has ADHD, so I tend to use short lesson times to keep his interest. My kindergartner has her lessons as the same times, though with different materials.

As you’ll see, we cover math and ELA every day. The rest of the subjects are done weekly. I schedule time in the afternoon for independent work so that they can practice what they learned in the morning. Friday is largely a review day, with time for elective subjects based on what they’re interested in that week.

Without further ado – here’s our minimalist homeschool schedule:

Monday:

9:00 – Math

9:30 – ELA

10:00 – Health

1:30 – Independent work

Tuesday:

9:00 – Math

9:30 – ELA

10:00 – Geography

1:30 – Independent work

Wednesday:

9:00 – Math

9:30 – ELA

10:00 – Science

1:30 – Independent work

Thursday:

9:00 – Math

9:30 – ELA

10:00 – Art

1:30 – Independent work

Friday:

9:00 – Math review

9:30 – ELA review

10:00 – Elective (Foreign language, music, coding)

And that’s it! It truly is a minimalist homeschool schedule, because we’re focusing on the most essential subjects right now. My number one goal is to help my hyper son get into the routine of having his school lessons daily. Then we can branch out into longer sessions or even more advanced subjects.

What homeschool schedule are you using this year? What have you learned from prior years that’s helped you develop a consistent routine? Share your experiences in the comments!

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This post is part of the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop hosted by iHomeschool Network! Click over to read more homeschool schedule ideas from our fellow bloggers!

Our K12 Daily Schedule for Two Grades

September 14, 2017 by Selena Robinson 4 Comments

Our two oldest children are trying a brand new method of home education this year: K12. And adjusting to it has been…an interesting experience.

After years of relaxed homeschooling, shifting into a full school day based around live classes, offline assignments, and readings was a complete course change. We’ve have seriously bumpy days, days that were awesome, and plenty in between.

Now, though, we’ve developed a K12 daily schedule for two grades that has simplified our daily routine quite a bit – something we really needed since we’re still homeschooling our two youngest kids. If you’re considering K12 for your kids, take a look at our daily schedule to see what it could look like in your family!

Image c/o: seregam / depositphotos

Our K12 Daily Schedule for Two Grades

As you look at this schedule, keep in mind that this is the routine for our kids, who are in seventh and fourth grade. Younger children who use K12 tend to spend very little time in online classes and the vast majority doing offline work with their learning coaches (usually parents).

In upper elementary grades, though, kids start to spend more time with their online teachers. In fourth grade, the ratio is about 2 hours of online education to 3.5 hours of offline education per day.

My seventh-grader, though, spends about 3.5 hours of class time online and about 2 hours in offline assignments. These totals vary by day, but it averages out to about this much.

Now – for a look at each child’s daily schedule.

Our K12 Seventh Grade Schedule

Each K12 student has live classes called “Class Connects”. These daily sessions feature live instruction from a professional teacher and interaction with other students. My seventh-grader has Class Connects in four subjects: Math, ELA, Social Studies, and Science.

Here’s her weekly Class Connect schedule:

Monday: 8:30 a.m. – Social Studies; 10:00 a.m. – ELA; 11:30 – Science

Tuesday: 8:30 a.m. – Math; 10:00 a.m. – ELA; 11:30 – Social Studies

Wednesday: 8:30 a.m. – Math; 10:00 a.m. – Social Studies; 11:30 a.m. – Science

Thursday: 8:30 a.m. – Math; 10:00 a.m. – ELA; 11:30 a.m. – Science

Friday: 8:30 a.m. – Math

Since she finishes her classes at the same time Monday through Thursday, she stops at 12:30 to have lunch and then gets started on homework. We encourage her to take a look at her assignments for the week on Sunday evening, so she can plan out how much work to do each day. Getting behind is NOT fun.

The remaining subjects (Art, Health, and Phys. Ed.) are self-paced, so we work on those day by day. By the time she completes all of her assignments, homework, and studying for the next day, she’s usually done at 3:00 p.m.

There’s only one live class on Friday, so we spend most of the day catching up on anything that’s unfinished or studying for quizzes. We generally wrap up by noon on that day and have a long weekend.

Our K12 Fourth Grade Schedule

My fourth-grader is a completely different story. Since so much of his work is completed offline, I am still the primary educator, which takes a significant amount of time each day.

Here is his Class Connect weekly schedule:

Monday: 9:00 a.m. – Science

Tuesday: 9:00 a.m. – ELA; 10:15 a.m. – Math; 12:45 – Social Studies

Wednesday: 9:00 a.m. – ELA; 10:15 a.m. – Math

Thursday: 9:00 a.m. – ELA; 10:15 a.m. – Math

I spend about an hour on Sunday evenings looking at his schedule and his upcoming assignments. The lesson plans are already written for the subjects I need to teach, but I still have to read over them and make sure we have the necessary supplies in advance.

We get a monthly instructional calendar from his school, which outlines how much to do for each subject per day. All of the assignments are related to the live classes, so I tend to wait until after he’s had a live class on the topic before I start an assignment.

So, I often hold off on teaching Social Studies for the week until after he’s had his Social Studies class on Tuesday. That way, he’s already been introduced to the topic. Fridays are his days “off” from Class Connects, so I save most of our science experiments for that day when we’ll have plenty of time to complete them.

As with my seventh-grader, my fourth-grader’s art, health, and phys. ed. classes are also self-paced, so we do some of those day by day to keep up with the hour requirement.

I’ll be sharing my homeschool schedule for my younger kids next week, but here’s a hint: It’s largely situated around our K12 daily schedule.

Are any of you using K12 with your kids this year? How do you schedule your routine? Share your ideas and experiences in the comments!

Need more school scheduling tips?

And see plenty of tips and ideas for structuring your homeschool year on my Homeschool Planning Pinterest board!

This post is part of the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop hosted by iHomeschool Network! Click over to read more homeschool schedules you can use from our fellow bloggers!

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