Cracking up….. I have been homeschooling for over 13 years. (7 kids and this is our 14th year.). And I have tried everything on your list and also hated it! 😂😂😂😂 The longer I homeschool, the more I just want to have a peaceful, relaxed school day and stop trying to do all “the extras”. Just do your schoolwork and tell me when you are done. You figured it out quickly! 😊
This is one of the reasons why I am subscribed to you 👍 This being our second year of homeschooling, trying to get advice from moms who've done it for a longer period of time, It looks like it's becoming a cult 😳 Of the things you have mentioned, I do not have time for and honestly I do not wish to participate in. Everyday and every hour that we spend together is a gift from God 🙏 and I thank God everyday for the opportunity and ability to homeschool 🙏💙 God bless you and your family 🙏
I love this video! I always thought I would be the creative, themed, Pinterest homeschool mom, which there is nothing wrong with, but I’m facing the reality that I’m just not 😅 Like you, I love the charlotte mason philosophy and we love going outside but we don’t do structured nature studies or a morning basket (at least not right now). My friend and I started a very chill, almost free co-op that meets once a month with our church homeschool crowd and we play games and do an art lesson, history or science, eat lunch together and sometimes a field trip - it has been just enough for us! I’m sure classical conversations is wonderful and our friends love it but I’m one of those people that it sounds like my worst nightmare 🤣
I don't like the "race" of being constantly on the go, either. I like being at home. I also feel no need to spend a very small amount of time on school...
So glad we aren't the only ones! I have felt "less than" not doing the things you've mentioned. Not this year! I have 5 kids and my 3 youngest aren't school age. It is far more stressful on us as a family to try and crame in all the other things. Plus, my 2 oldest boys could care less. It's a win-win 😊
that mom guilt is so real at the beginning of homeschooling! I am barely finding my groove after 3 years and that guilt gets less and less as the days go on.
We just did our first homeschool hangout after homeschooling now for 3 years 😂. My kiddos definitely love home and our routine too. They are very sensitive to schedule changes too !!! And with two toddlers we are constantly interrupted and we take several breaks throughout the day. The time we spend on school work daily is about 4-5 hours 🙈.
Love this video. When I first heard about poetry tea time, I said never in a million years! I hate poetry! Well... we sit down with mugs full of southern sweet tea or hot chocolate every week and we eat the delicious homemade treats we made together that morning and we read the heck outta some Shel Silverstein. I never thought my kids nor I would look forward to poetry, but that goes to show, do what works for you.
I too do my own thing…it takes us 4-6 hours a day for my 4th grade son to complete all his work. We do unit studies cause he enjoys them but we also still incorporate all his main curriculum on top of it…I know they say unit studies are good for all subjects except math but for me it’s not going deep enough to progress to the standards I feel he should be at
I thought we were about the only homeschoolers on the planet who did not do nature walks/study/notebooking! Glad to know we have company. Yes we spend time outside but nothing formal. We also do not do coop or lots of extras. And school takes us much longer then 2 hours. I’ve heard a seasoned homeschool mom say if your kids are in elementary you should not be doing school for more then a couple hours. But we certainly can not get done in that time frame. I’m homeschooling 3 this year and it just takes time!!
@Dakk Family we spend a decent amount of time outside (well tbh I’m a fair weather outsider) . We just don’t do notebooking or specific nature walks etc. Its just organic, old fashioned playing outside.
Yes, 3 kids does take time! Especially in that kindergarten/1st grade stage because they’re just not really able to do anything independently yet so it’s very hands on still.
You always have, and I’m convinced, you always will, speak to my soul!!!! Your views are so similar to mine!!! Organic, not forced! Growing up before the internet, everything was a unit study!! Just being outside was a unit study! We all learned just fine without all the added fluff. You are an amazing person! Thank you for your content
We homeschooled for 6 years. My 15 year old enrolled at our local highschool earlier this year. My 11 year old will be attending school after the summer holidays (we're in New Zealand and the summer holidays are from mid December until the end of January). We did poetry teatime weekly for over a year. It was one of the highlights of our week. Fancy cups and saucers, a hot drink, sweet treats and taking turns reading poetry. We also did unit studies. It was a good approach for my autistic kids who liked to learn about topics in depth. I'm not sure about incorporating the topic into meals or maths though 🤔 Cicadas and WW2 were two of the topics 😂 We never did morning baskets or nature journaling. We didn't do a lot of activities outside the home either. I think children (and adults) benefit from ample time at home to relax and rest. Ultimately everyone has to fldo what works best for their family, not tie themselves in knots trying to copy the highlight reels of social media homeschooling families.
Yeah no nature study here either. It's scorching hot and humid here in the summer. We spend lots of time outside in the fall and winter months but that's only a brief period of time. We just play or go for walks. No "studying".
I CAN RELATE SOOO MUCH! this is my 3rd year and I am just BARELY starting to realize that its okay not to do it like everyone else is! It is so refreshing to here this. The key to a successful homeschool is to figure out the parents best way of teaching, and the child's best way of learning and meshing is together in a balanced way! We all have different skills and abilities and certain likes and dislikes. Not only does a child learn better when they enjoy what they are doing, but a teacher will teach better when she enjoys it also!! I love how God made us all unique and different. I am a black and white person and homeschooling is teaching me there is not necessarily a right or wrong way, it truly is what works best for your family. One of the big ones you mentioned that i can relate to is we do school all day long and take lots of breaks. No way can we get it all done in 2 hours. I have a first grader and a 2 year old and trying to keep that 2 year old entertained while teaching lessons to the first grader has been the biggest struggle! Thanks for your wonderful vids!! I am so happy for you on your journey to stay home with your babies. No doubt will your homeschool start to look different than previous years, and for the better!
I enjoyed listening to this, makes me feel less guilty about what we don’t do. A few other things we aren’t on top of: 1. Collaborative mega bundles. They are nice and packed with fun stuff, but just don’t ever use them. I’ve made this mistake a few times. There are a few I’ll buy here and there for specific stuff. 2. Beautiful themed displays or layouts. This just stresses me out. It wouldn’t last in my home- my kids would have it disassembled in no time. 3. Buying curriculum just bc it’s trendy and popular. I see a lot of RU-vid/instagram homeschoolers always talking about the same thing and it makes me wonder if they only talk about it because it’s sponsored or something they got for free for a review. We don’t actually know how well it works, they could be incorporating other things. Idk- just too suspicious for me😆.
I’m not even finished with this video yet but YES! 🙌🏻 Poetry Tea Time… we have poetry books on the bookshelf and the kids grab them as they desire. If I want to slow down and relax, I grab a book and we read it together on the couch. The kids know where the snacks are and get them at snack time. I don’t have the time or desire for poetry tea time either. Nature studies…. I have never understood the point. My kids literally spend hours outside every day. They explore nature naturally. Why do I need to throw a journal at them and complicate their free play?! That’s how I feel 😅 So many of these trendy practices just feel like they are complicating things. Bottom line is we have a buffet of opportunities to bring in to our homeschool and as mom we need to be wise to bring in what works and leave the rest, guilt free!!
@@thepracticalhomeschooler I homeschooled for 11 yrs up until this year, and I was the same way! Graduated two successful children so I guess it worked out, LOL.
I'm with you on a lot of these. We don't do poetry teatime, coordinated morning baskets, unit studies or co-ops either. We also don't school in 2 hours. We usually do school for around 4 hours. We don't do a ton of extras either. We do the daily extracurricular activities though (M-Th) bc my daughter requested them and sees it as an opportunity to see all her friends. However, they are a lot for me energy-wise and I honestly look forward to the 1 month break she gets during the last two weeks of December and first two weeks of January.
This was a great video. I'm in my 13th year of homeschooling and have been all over the map with three kids and trying to figure out what works for our family, for myself, and for each child. My son went to a private Christian school starting in 5th grade and it was the best thing that happened to him and our family of 5. I have homeschooled my two girls now and they are in 6th and 7th and have no desire to go to school. In fact they're both super creative types who are obsessed with dance. One is an artist, and one is a musician. They both already know what careers they'd like. It's a blessing because it's much easier to guide them, but at the same time it's a bit of a loss for this Mom who had homeschooling dreams of what things could be and what type of life I wanted homeschooling to be. So I'm working on acceptance and moving forward trusting God and his plan for these children. Certainly doesn't include read alouds, morning baskets, lap booking or nature walks. Instead we're doing what the state requires, and then attending theater practices, dance classes, voice lessons, studying ballet terms. Instead of reading literature we are reading and learning about how to run a small business. There is definitely no one size fits all for homeschooling families, instead, to each their own.
Yes I get that…Homeschool not looking exactly how you pictured in your mind. But I think you did the right thing for your son and that is most important!
This was such a refreshing video! Thank you for sharing. Social media can be a tricky thing and seeing all these families doing all the things can leave me second guessing if I'm giving my kids enough if we aren't reading "enough" chapter books or doing all the fun themed units. The two hour school day one really gets me hung up. We just cannot get our day cut down anywhere near that and I was starting to think I must be doing something wrong. I am so grateful for your perspective 💓
No co op for us either takes to much time, energy and money. We don't do formal nature study. Also just because we homeschool doesn't mean we stay home all day and do nothing. Just because we homeschool mom the educator doesn't mean im going to teach everything to my kids I get tutors/professional or someone that knows their stuff well to learn from them no need to do this alone.
I'm totally with you on these. We are very simplistic in our homeschool. My two oldest daughters were very involved in activities, and it was exhausting for them and us. I had completely changed my perspective on whether kids need to be involved in activities, by the time I got to my third child. Lol.
Homeschooling mama for 13 years here-we have never done poetry tea-time or nature study. My kids have tons of outdoor time as we live on a farm but also, we have 4 boys....no patience for writing down what we're doing when we're skinning a squirrel😂. Our "morning basket" is very short compared to most-a daily devotion that includes Bible reading and then I read aloud from a chapter book but I love to read out loud, especially to my kids.
@@thepracticalhomeschooler everyday is an adventure with this crew😂. Our oldest (and only girl) helps me keep them all in line-and alive-not sure what I'll do when she's not here, this is her senior year😩. But so happy we chose to homeschool, I love getting to do life with them everyday all day😁
It’s so liberating! We are moms not teachers, we care for meals, laundry bathrooms, spouse, play with our kids, kids colds, buy cloths, groceries, holidays deco, activities, our precious time with our children is to get them to connect with God their creator, and respect us, and helped them to create healthy habits and life skills
I homeschool my first grader, we don’t have long lessons I kind am what you’d call “un-schooler”. We do have formal lessons 4 days a week but focus on core subjects such as math, phonics, reading and writing. I use RU-vid for other subjects such as geography, science and history. We study scripture too!
I call our read alouds time our morning basket though it's not in a basket. I don't do themes for our read alouds. I just pick books I think my son would like and all the books are different topics (not just one topic). We don't do tea time. It is not my thing nor do I think my son would enjoy that. I want to do nature studies but at five years old he's still young. We go outside a lot. We do a co-op and I'm ready for a break. We love it but I am tired.
I’m new to homeschool and I began semi-homeschooling back in September. I can say this video is very realistic… I’ve gotten so overwhelmed looking all the unit studies, themes and other extras. I plan to focus only on handwriting, language&arts, and math. I mean she’s only 4 and I have a 9month old too😬
Yes! I really don't get how families finish quality school in 2 hours especially in the upper grades. I teach a 7th grader and we take 5-6 hours with a 30 minute break. We take slightly longer because we do reading during this time since he does not read during his free time. And he also is not at all independent yet with school and still needs guidance with every subject. (Im just the teacher not the mom) his past tutors would finish with him in 2-4 hours and sometimes I feel bad that I take longer with him. But I know he wasn't getting quality education before
This was great to hear. I don’t do morning basket at all. So far we have not done any group coop things either. Generally it take us 4-5 and sometimes 6 hours to get finished. I am teaching one grandson that was diagnosed with ADHD, so there have been many challenging moments.
Our morning basket is the reading part of different curriculums!!! We don’t do poetry teatime as it’s not us!!! We do coffee sessions for me to catch up on my older kids school!!! I grew up with the traditional nature study yet I don’t do it we do it on the beach often!!!recording happens naturally so not often!!! We love our homeschool group but we started it when we got to Sydney!!! I’m glad we left it as we started homeschooling a couple of years before COVID!!! I don’t always go to the homeschool group with my kids as it depends on my schedule!!! My older daughter loves her gran to take her!!! We don’t do many read alouds!!! The reading we do is mainly curriculum based!!! Our main activity is surfing!!! We don’t do handwriting after my kids can write well enough!!!
School takes us 3 hours. Mainly because my son wants science every day. We do geography two days a week. We do math, language arts, science, Bible, spelling, and science every day. We do geography and handwriting two to three days a week. We do health and Spanish one day a week.
Okay, THANK YOU for this video. This is our second year homeschooling, and I thought something was wrong with me. All of the extras are overwhelming to me! We're still trying to find our groove, and the comparison trap with homeschool channels can be too much. I appreciate all of your videos. ❤
We don’t school 5 days a week. My husband and I homeschool our three granddaughters, (ages 7, 8, 11). We school MWT, 12 -4, and afternoon social co-op on Fri. afternoons. They only live 5 min from us. We may have to adjust days & time in the future but it’s worked well for the girls so far.🎉 We don’t teach money or time/clock skills until the third grade. We do have a timed schedule we keep, much like a traditional school, but our teaching style is eclectic and each girl is taught in the manner that she learns best. We all have a good time in our “school”. 😁
Ugh yes on the nature study. It was one of the things that kept me from fully committing to CM. Now, her views on living books… 100%. But there’s no way I’m going outside and painting a watercolor of an earthworm.
This video just spoke to me so much. We are entering our 5th year of homeschooling and I’m just now getting to the “No, thank you, I don’t want to do that” kind of mentality. We’ve tried the nature studies and the unit studies, poetry tea time, etc etc because all the big influencers were doing it and I have zero homeschooling experience before this so I kind of took it as advice…but we always fall back into our textbooks. My kids are very “just the facts please” so I’ve finally just let go of all the social media influence and realized this is fine. My kids are learning plenty. I appreciate hearing from you that you don’t do all these things and it’s totally ok.
I’m the same with co op. I prefer to pick our curriculum! My kids are in a drop off class at the Y this year and it’s a nice quick break for me. But next year I don’t know if I’ll do it- I feel like after soccer, gymnastics and play dates we are busy enough!
"This may or may not have actually happened once or twice" 😂😂😂😂 You sound like me! We live in the country and there's no telling what my girls will find out there. Just the other day, there was an opossum in one of our trash bins. And my husband (who knows I hate any and EVERYTHING that's not human) didn't even bother to invite me outside to look at it. He bypassed me and went straight to our girls to report "his findings" 😂😂
Gosh, I didnt even know about themed morning basket...been homeschooling for...10 years. Tried lots of things, but simple is so much better. I have chronic illness which has recently gotten worse, and so lots of days I can hardly get through the devotional. Thanks for the video!
I would have a request that has nothing to do with this video :) With you being a nutritionist, I would be very interested in seeing a video about just that: How you handle nutrition in your family, how to teach kids about nutrition, what you yourself observe (which is obviously working), etc. But of course I‘d understand it if you feel that that is too personal / too controversial or if you are just all talked out 😀
Great question! My nutrition journey has evolved over the years and I feel like I’m in the midst of another transition (I’m not even sure that makes sense). I might share more in the future, but nutrition, I’ve found, is a close second to politics and religion. Most are VERY passionate about their views and there is no room for anyone else’s.
Omg I’m so glad I stumbled upon this video! I be feeling so bad for not doing most of these things so I feel better knowing others don’t do all those either!
It may be that those with shorter school hours simply have things divided up differently. Example - I would say that we "do school" in about two hours. That's the concentrated time we sit down together and focus together on our chosen curriculum. However, not counted in that is the math facts practice game my kids are required to do on the computer at a different time of the day, or the Bible lesson my husband does with them at snack time in the evening, or the science video that gets sent to my inbox every week that my kids enjoy watching on Monday afternoons, or the random bunny trail dives that happen when a child asks a question and we dig for information together, or the math/grammar/spelling games, typing practice, or story writing they like to do on the computer during some of their free hours etc. I suppose all of those could be counted as "school" but it's just not part of that set aside block of time we call by that name. :)
I like that you shared this. I like to split things up too and it feels less forced and less stressful. We listen to audiobooks in the car (currently story of the world) and we enjoy doing a chapter book read aloud before bed. My kids pick educational things to do in their free time like typing letters to relatives or writing stories, but overall I want them to enjoy being a kid of have play time. I don't want them to be stressed that we have to get a certain amount done. I homeschool with a 4th, 2nd and kinder (and then have 2 younger ones). I tried to first year to cram it all in and it was hard on my youngest two, so I have taken a more relaxed approach this year, which has been good for our family.
So similar on almost all of these topics!! And I am COMPLETELY ok with it!👍 We have never attempted poetry tea time. I do not have a themed morning basket, because by the time I realize seasons/holidays have changed, it's normally like a week away from whichever "theme" I should be on🤣 We are not involved in any groups right now, outside of Royal Rangers and Missionettes at church (both WONDERFUL programs and free🙂), Zoe dances with the church group (only at Christmas and Easter usually), and Easton sings with the kid's worship team on select Sundays. We are about to start a children's choir at church for the Christmas season, which will require another evening of practice. I feel slightly overwhelmed thinking about it and I cannot imagine running around every single week night like some of my friends do! I love our evenings at home all together and for now, that's going to be a priority❤ We have had shorter school days lately, in the midst of packing/moving, but as soon as we are settled, we will have to adjust back into fitting more in. My kids will be thrilled🤭😬
Thank you for this! Aside from the last one, I don’t do any of these things either and I didn’t realize that I was low key feeling inadequate or pressure or like I am missing something. This reminds me my kids aren’t suffering or behind because we don’t do any of this stuff either
Yes to all of this! We are in year 3 and just dipping our toes in going out with our field trip co-op. I hate unit studies and all the extra morning stuff lol. Also, on days I let my 8yr old take her time and expand on her stuff, we can take almost 3 hours for just her.
We do Simply Charlotte Mason, emphasis on the SIMPLE. 😅 we also don’t do Nature Study. I also agree it’s so forced. Kids are naturally curious. We live on 19 acres of fields and forest, our daily life is a nature study.
My sons are in football and cheer a few months out of the year and you would be AMAZED at the amount of kids that they're on teams with that either play multiple sports at a time or never even have a break the entire year jumping from one sport to the next. It's so incredibly sad to see their childhood in the rat race already.
We don’t do poetry tea time per se but on the weekends we will usually have a big breakfast and my husband will read a poem to the family. I love that he does that. We also don’t do nature study but I do love to forage! My children will tag along and either forage with me or just play in nature. We wouldn’t know about earth worms either, but we are good at spotting wild berries, nuts and certain mushrooms.
I. Totally. Agree. Glad!! To have come across this very good overall, look at building your own family homeschooling culture. One thing I love listening to people talk about ( but just don't do it... ) Is the morning basket! I do love the read alouds though. Very relatable points you made here @the practical Homeschooler. (:
I just heard the words “Poetry Teatime”…. And my anxiety levels just rose. We tried it…. It was way more stressful than enjoyable. We ditched it quickly! 😂😂😂😂
Thanks for sharing! as a first year homeschool mom I needed this! now I don't feel so bad that we aren't doing a lot of these neither. Our work days normally takes us awhile as well so I'm so happy I'm not alone.
Oh man! I have been feeling so overwhelmed by CM and trying to fit the whole feast into our days. I really do not enjoy things like nature study or test time, but feel so guilty about not doing them. I really needed to hear this. Thank you for this video.
I feel so much better knowing that Im not the only homeschool mom who doesn’t do poetry teatime, unit studies, nature studies and putting my kids in a bunch of activities! Thank you so much for making this video. I tried a co-op our 1st year homeschooling and it was just too stressful for me and my kids.
Oh my goodness. I needed this video. I got lost down a Charlotte Mason rabbit hole a couple weeks ago and have been thinking I was the worst homeschool mom because I didn’t love to read poetry and drink tea or do a themed morning basket. This was exactly what I needed right now. Thank you for sharing!!
Love this video. I am about to start my second year homeschooling and work 2 days a week. It has definitely been a challenge especially feeling the pressure to get everything done and still take them to activities. I'm curious, what kind of social activiites you do? My girls are naturally shy, so I feel the need to take them to co-op but it definitely takes alot of time.
Depends on the year and time of year, but Awana, Bible study, play dates, homeschool book club at the library, and this fall will be our busiest yet…they’re gonna start softball, cheering and drama (they all won’t all be doing all of those activities though…That’s for everyone)
I agree with most of these. Not with reading out loud. There’s a tons of data that supports the incredible benefits of reading out loud children. The Read-Out Handbook by Jim Trelease is a great resource on this.
I mentioned in the video I read to my kids daily (mostly picture books, but others as well). In fact, our entire morning time is me reading aloud. I never said I don’t read at all…I just don’t prefer chapter books.
What do kids do with all the “ down time” if you finish in a couple hours? My kids gravitate to screen time but I wouldn’t want my kids sucked into so many hours of idle time. What do you let your kids do when you finish with school?
It’s different for everyone but my kids play, have some quiet time where they can read, or play quietly. They usually find something to do. They do get to watch a show when I make dinner but otherwise we keep ourselves busy
The themed stuff based on interest seems like a great way to kill an interest 😅 so we never do that either. Just because I enjoy coffee doesn’t mean I want my whole life to have activities packed with everything about coffee and coffee themes, right! Haha.
So many of these are 💯 ME!!! We HOME educate LOL ya’ll can find us AT.HOME! I feel like that go go go lifestyle is one of the residual effects of public school and keeping up with what other family’s are doing. I WANT to love nature study - I just don’t Co OPs: every one who loves them LOVES them and I am always like “I gonna 🛑✋ ya right there…I’m happy you found something you love but if you keep going I’m gonna make it awkward by telling you why I DONT love it… 🤷🏼♀️😂😂 Themed anything hahaha 🙅🏼♀️
Same! Except we read aloud a lot all year long K-12! And my little kids are finished with school in less than 2 hours. My middle/high schoolers put in a typical “school day,” but for my elementary school kids I approach school much the same way that I approach extracurriculars...less is more! I also don’t test my kids or give them grades.
Loved this whole video! It is so important to cull what doesn’t work for your unique family. There are only so many hours in the day, and homeschool can be much more effective and enjoyable when we’re honest with ourselves about what resonates and what feels forced. 💚
Thanks for this video! While I do love reading aloud chapter books to my kids, I don’t have the time or energy for themed things, nature walks/study weekly, a specific morning basket, and tons of extra curricular. My 2nd grader is in taekwondo through a homeschool co op but it’s only one day a week. When my 5 year old starts first grade I’ll have him join too because he’s not getting his own activity lol I don’t have time for that. Also my kids are constantly outside playing as much as possible anyways! I can’t get two boys to sit and draw pictures in a notebook. They’re out catching bugs and digging holes 😂 I love the concept of morning basket but we don’t quite do that exactly. We do a largely Charlotte mason curriculum (it’s evolving already lol) so included in our “family time” are read aloud and poetry and Spanish and whatnot. It seems like each year our homeschool changes to something a little different. A different flavor each year! 😊
Homeschool mom of 3 girls too here. I don't do morning baskets at all. But I'm very extra in other areas. I love customizing our school each year to my style of teaching and their individual style of learning. I've never done a co-op either because of the exact reasons you mentioned. I already have their curriculum. Can't we do an elective co-op?
I am with you on all of these, except one. I love reading chapter books to my kids, plus we use Sonlight, which is very much chapter book heavy. I get SO tired of everyone asking my son what sports he plays. He doesn’t like sports. We don’t watch them, we don’t participate in organized sports (except my daughter takes a gym class). My son tells everyone, “I prefer Lego and reading.” Then I get the crazy looks. 😅 And seriously, how do people get everything done in 2 hours? Maybe if they only do LA and math?
I hire out nature study. We do a co-op, but my oldest is 15 and it's only our 2nd year. We had years of therapies and I couldn't do one more day gone. We don't do unit studies either. I love reading out loud, but I'm slow, we don't do library chapter book read alouds because r never can finish before it's due back. I only do long read alouds from books I own or borrow from someone who knows how long we take and doesn't mind.
I totally agree with this video!!! Especially how many hours it takes to finish our day. I have a 10th, 8th and 6th grader and it takes us 6-7 hours. I always wonder if the families who finish in 2 hours are teaching anything? Thanks!!
We don't read lots of chapter books, we do t do co-ops or homeschool groups, we aren't in a lot of extra activities. My son plays basketball for a local Christian private school and my daughter is in 4H and it's because they LOVE it and not me trying to force it on them. We are at home a lot, but have a huge family and church family. I like to think it's more intentional and meaningful rather than trying to do it the way others do or try to keep up with others their age. We do what's best for us. Thanks again for your willingness to share.
Thanks for this video! We are currently stuck doing several different activities and it is so stressful. My daughters (K & 3rd grade) love the activities, but it stresses us out always trying to get to one place or the other on time and making the homeschool work try to go by fast so we aren't late anywhere. I am working on cutting things out, but it is hard to decide what needs to be cut out. I work from home, so we try to get school done in about 2-3 hours which we can do. But, we save Bible study for the evening which takes about an hour to do as well when we add in their Awana verse memorization. It's nice to know there are moms out there with the same mindset! :)
I love all of these. My kids thrive off of social interactions so I try and do as much as I can for them because they always want to go meet new friends. I try not to do to much but we stick to baseball when that’s going on and 4-h once a month. I’ve also been trying to incorporate the library story times.
Great video! So relatable. We don't do co-ops either. We don't even do morning baskets. Both my boys are in 1st grade and it takes us about 1-1.5 hours/day. I really enjoy Durenda Wilson's podcast on homeschooling and having an "unhurried" approach.
It was really nice to hear you mention how long it takes you to school, 3-5 hours. I don’t understand how some families school for 2 hours either if they are touching try topic and subtopic unless it’s review. Review takes substantially less time, but on average, our school days last 3.5-4.5 hrs five days a week for 1st and 2nd grade (our current grade). I feel very satisfied with this number bc I appreciate the quality of learning that occurs in this time and how thorough I think this time allotment allows. However, with 2 children, and one being a toddler now, that does pose it’s own (typical) challenges. I also started my daughter on a Core Knowledge schoolbook for TK3 bc she asked for it and was ready, but she is so young so that only takes about 10 mins plus story time a couple times a week. Thank you again for posting.
This is our family's first year homeschooling. I have a 17 year old 12th grader and a 13 year old 8th grader and both basically open and go on their own, so thats been a blessing since I have a not quite 2 year old that does NOT like when hes not paid attention to, and the only thing we do on your list is read aloud 😅 its hard to find books that interest both of them, but i try 😅 it will be interesting to see how homeschool goes for my toddler and the baby we have on the way 🫠 im sure it will look a lot different since they wont be independent teens!
Great video!! Simplify and enjoy!! Homeschooling a 6th grader, 4th grader and a preschooler ( and I have a 1 yr old), and we are like you in all of the ways you listed as well! But we enjoy our days and our life and our school time together so much! Loved hearing your take on things!
