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Minimalist Homeschooling: Stick to the Basics

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Homeschoolers, let’s have a little chat, shall we?

One of the huge draws to homeschooling is that we have the freedom to teach lessons and subjects the way that we see fit. But, to quote Uncle Ben from Spiderman, “with great freedom comes great responsibility”. Okay, I’ve totally just told you my age. 🙂

We have a LOT of options and a LOT of flexibility, but we also have the sole responsibility of educating our kids. And sometimes the endless options and choices can shift our focus from providing a good education to providing the bestest, most complete education ever – which is probably impossible.

It’s easy to start with a few school subjects at first. Then you add more and more. Next thing you know, your lesson plan has 15 or 20 slots to accommodate extra subjects such as Latin, crafting, foreign language, engineering, and technology. That may work for some, but it has become overwhelming for me.

So – this year, I’m sticking with the basics only when it comes to teaching school subjects. Here’s how.

Minimalist Homeschooling - Stick to the Basics

Minimalist Homeschooling: Focus on the Basics

  1. Look at your state requirements. What subjects are you required to teach? Start with those! In our state, we are required to teach math, ELA, science, social studies, and reading. When I started to really look at those subjects, I realized that covering them each day is plenty enough for us.
  2. Add in other subjects and interests, but sparingly. Say you want your child to study Latin. That’s fine. But do they really need to learn it every single day? Do you even have time to teach it every day? If not, do it once a week and let that be enough. Or: If you finish your required subjects for the year by summer, use the summer for those elective subjects.
  3. Leave room for your kids’ interests! Homeschooling isn’t homeschooling if the kids don’t have a little say in the planning, right? Leave a slot or two open for them to explore something they want to learn about. Your day will go much, much better that way.

Want to simplify your lesson planning? Take a look at how we’re doing that this year!

Simple Homeschool Lesson Planning

Get more ideas for organizing your homeschool on my Homeschool Organization Tips Pinterest board!

How to Homeschool as a Minimalist

This post is part of the How to Homeschool as a Minimalist series! Stop by tomorrow for Day 8: Teaching Several Kids at Once!


Minimalist Homeschooling: Simple Homeschool Lesson Planning

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We’ve been talking about minimalist homeschooling for the past few days and, so far, we’ve covered making changes in the way we store books, use paper, make crafts, and manage digital resources.

Today, though, we’re on to the granddaddy of them all: LESSON PLANNING.

Lesson planning is both my favorite and my most-hated part of homeschooling. I love the idea of doing it and I generally love doing it…for the first few weeks of the school year. Then I start to do it a little less and less. By week eight or so, I’m hiding the lesson planning book somewhere in the room so I don’t have to look at it…lol.

So I know it’s time to make a change in the way I plan our homeschool. And that’s why I’m giving simple homeschool lesson planning a shot this year!

Simple Homeschool Lesson Planning

How to Simplify Homeschool Lesson Planning

As I’ve mentioned many, many times before, I’m living with ADD. Which means that I tend to hoard and overcommit myself frequently. Nowhere does this tendency show up more in homeschooling for me than in how I plan our lessons.

I tend to overschedule our days, include too many activities, and then do almost none of them. So that’s pretty obviously not the ideal way to homeschool.

This year, I’m keeping it simple with the following format:

  • Our basic school subjects
  • One craft per week
  • One video per week
  • A field trip every month

As for choosing our craft each week, I’m going to use up the craft resources I already have (see: Cutting Down on Craft Supplies) and once those are gone, I’m sticking with resources from the library from here on.

When it comes to choosing a video, I’m going to use the videos I already have listed in some of our homeschool unit studies. I think there are enough there to keep us going for some time. 🙂

I’m also going to make use of a digital planning program, such as Evernote. I just don’t have the time to write things down by hand anymore. If I can’t see it on my phone during the day, it’s probably not going to get done. (I still love the paper planners! In fact, I use one for my overall day, but I’ve got to let them go for homeschooling. Sad, but true.)

How will we tackle our basic school subjects this year? We’ll be talking about that tomorrow!

How to Homeschool as a Minimalist

This post is part of the How to Homeschool as a Minimalist series! Stop by tomorrow for Day 7: Stick to the Basics!

Get more ideas for planning your homeschooling year on my Homeschool Planning Pinterest board!