Most of the time, the second I tell someone that we homeschool, the conversation takes a strange turn. They either have so many questions they don’t know where to begin, or they have formed an opinion of my family and they are scared to know more. I always feel like I have to comfort them, tell them that “yes, we have a great group of friends that we homeschool with” and that “no, we’re not home that much actually.” The truth is, people are scared of what they don’t understand, and I was once scared myself of homeschooling. Making this decision came with a huge learning curve; the methods, the curriculums, the laws, and what it takes to meet the needs of your family are all to be determined, and I’m still constantly learning about all of this.
I have an uncle who lives nearby, and he stops by every now and again to say hi to the kids. For the life of him, he can’t figure out how we’re “homeschooling” but we’re never home! Truth be told, we are home quite a bit, but my uncle’s visits always somehow fall on the days when we’re out and about with our various activities. Finding a balance for your family, and determining the weight you give to academics, social time, free time, and activities is really important to think about in developing a flow that works for everyone.
For us, I pick and choose activities, groups, and academic curricula/units that will give us the best chance for a well-rounded year. I try to make sure my weeks are full of experiences in all of these following categories:
- Free play at home
- Lots of time outside
- Academic work
- Social experiences
- Exploration (field trips, discovering new places, etc.)
- Organized activities (sports, dance classes, library programs)
Our weeks have a balance of academic time at home, Adventure Tuesdays with our co-op (more to come on this in a later post!), activities around town, our regular co-op meet-ups, and our Wild + Free group. Each season, as activities and sports come to an end, I’m always reevaluating our flow – are we too busy? Would it be nice to have more afternoons free? How are the kids doing keeping up with academics? Do they have enough community connections? These things all guide our decision making in determining how to make up a balanced week and an intentional flow to advise our family.
Keeping all this in mind, your daily routines and commitments are going to correlate to the season of life that you’re in currently. This flow will change year to year as your kids grow and are able to do more independently, engage in different activities and groups, and come into their own as homeschoolers. Figuring out what works for your kids and your family as a whole is one of the hardest parts of jumping into this lifestyle. It’s scary to move away from the norm, to let them sleep in, to not be rushing around every morning and to make decisions that are best for your family without worrying about what everyone else is going to say.
The best advice I have is to try it all – take chances with what routines you implement to see what works best. And most of all, give yourself grace to make mistakes with this. The work you put in to establish a flow and setting up a well rounded routine will aid your family in developing a successful homeschool experience.
