How to create a flexible homeschool routine

Any good homeschool routine needs to be flexible routine, as I say, homeschooling fits into your life, not your life around your homeschooling.

That being said, you need to find a way to stay effective, and having a system or systems, that work to your advantage, are easy to do and keep you moving forward is key to a successful homeschool routine, especially if you have multiple children.

Don’t try to mirror someone else’s homeschool routine!

this is a point I want to make first and foremost.

comparison is the thief of joy, and while learning from others, and gleaning motivation from others like ourselves is a great way to feel like part of a community, don’t compare your bad days to their good ones.

As homeschoolers we all have the days when we CAN NOT BE BOTHERED, that’s normal and it’s on these days when you need systems most, THAT work FOR YOU.

Don’t set yourself up to suit an image of what you think you should be doing, and instead master what you can do, consistently.

Ask yourself these questions to set up your homeschool routine.

For a homeschool routine to be tailored to your family,

you need to know what you need to deliver

where you need to prioritise and spend your time,

and what you can realistically get done, day to day.

Question 1, What do my children need for the next 6-12 months?

obviously, we are talking about education. but homeschooling is so much more; you can factor that into your daily plan. Read these posts to get some context into how I do a whole lot more than bookwork to TEACH my kids.

you can be as specific as you need, in fact the more specific the better.

don’t overload yourself or your children, and remember that homeschooling is a tailored approach for your child, so assess their needs and how you can teach them things that they can use.

if you are homeschooling your children, the outcome should be in a few years that are either teaching or moving toward teaching themselves, so ditch the information for information’s sake learning and start teaching them life skills, goal setting, time management and strong self-learning skills, like strong reading skills and problem-solving.

on the daily, this looks like:

having them do as much as possible alone. (slowly introduce them problem-solving alone, especially with maths and puzzles)

focusing on things like maths, reading and spending time doing puzzles, games and learning life skills(chores). (young children)

setting timers for work

having rewards for work completed on time or simply praising the child when they show initiative

Answering this question can look like this.

  • child 1, needs more work on reading and language arts. Thrives with artwork, and conversation, and needs more one on one lessons.
  • child 2, struggles with maths at the moment, make time for 2 one one-on-one maths lessons per week, and reading going well.
  • child three needs more time to organise projects and thrives with oral essays rather than written ones. This year work on writing skills.

A good way to plan where you need to be for the months or weeks ahead is to write out these little assessments, and ways to really create a plan of your time and effort that will move your children forward.

homeschooling is child-based, not outcomes-based like the public school system.

Question 2, What are my current struggles?

these struggles hinder your homeschooling, from homeschooling itself as well as anything in your life that makes homeschooling consistently and effectively difficult.

Creating a homeschooling routine must include all aspects of your life, as this is homeschooling, again, homeschooling fits your lifestyle, so, take time to note down your struggles, from hard-to-keep home to misbehaved kids, to outside commitments, all of these things can make homeschooling hard.

you need to find a balance of being able to show up consistently, (at least three times a week, four is best)

you need to create a way to make it as workable for your brain as possible.

flexible homeschooling is moveable, changeable and mouldable, but it does need to fulfil your and your children’s needs.

that means..

  • Is it a set curriculum that keeps the planning to an absolute minimum?
  • Is it a minimalist approach like mine?
  • Is it loop scheduled?
  • Will you teach all the kids at once or break the week up and teach kids on different days?
  • Do you prefer to leave the house to homeschool?
  • Do you need to decrease the time you are homeschooling per day? Do you need to work on life skills and chore time to keep your home in check?
  • Do you need to childtrain little ones so you can have a more peaceful homeschool time?
  • do you need to work on your older homeschooler child’s ability to learn independently?
  • do you need to be more accountable to yourself?
  • do you need more time to yourself?

Question 3, what are MY goals?

last but not least, are your goals, every homeschooler, but really mother/parent in general, should have at lest a goal, but really you want more like 5-10.

A goal in your motherhood can and does co-exist with your homeschooling, since we parent and homeschool in the same space.

A flexible routine is made of life and homeschooling, and both need to have goals in mind, ones that are small and help you when you get to a rut and ones that are big picture, and help guide you and remind you of why you chose this.

One way you can figure out what your goals can be is to ask yourself where you want to be in a time period of a….

month

six months

1 year

five years

ten years.

these are smaller goals and big mindsets, but you should do your best to answer them, and it’s perfectly fine to change those big goals over time, as you develop your views and grow in knowledge.

here is a list of some of my goals, to help you understand what I mean, and you get set on creating your, own or realigning your homeschool routine to better reach your current goals.

  • to be spontaneous (every month, do something different, surprise my kids) this means scheduling it in my diary.
  • To raise thinkers, (this means building a home filled with conversation, challenges and life skills)
  • To have my children learn an instrument ( this teaches a skill, teaches time management, and teaches them to learn something that requires tenacity to finish and practice)
  • To raise children strong in the lord, (daily Bible reading, as well as many conversations, questions and a lifestyle around church and fellowship)
  • To be a consistent teacher that shows up every day. (even on hard days)
  • To change up my homeschooling every year! ( not by a whole lot, but to provide change and new opportunities to see how my children respond to a new style, a new goal of mine and one I recommend you only try once you get the hang of it)

some of these are long-term, some are lifestyle based and some are to be focused on today and tomorrow to get results as soon as possible.

Goals change as we move through time, but hopefully, you can actually reach the goals you set for your family and then make new ones, its challenging, but I hope to fulfil the goals I make, and that can require changes to your day to day life to help your self and your children reach them.

I hope this post got you thinking about how you can make swaps, goals and small daily routines that can help you homeschool and enjoy doing it!


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