My wife and I homeschool our kids. A couple of weeks ago I posted about my son scoring very well on his year-end standardized tests, and a few people replied asking about my approach to homeschool and what I use for curriculum. Instead of creating a bunch of disjointed threads trying to reply to everyone, I thought I’d write it up in one place this way. Sorry it took this long to finish it, but last week was crazy busy and I wanted to be sure I could give the topic ample attention.
I am by no means an expert on homeschool or early childhood education, but homeschool has worked well for us so far, and I am happy to share what we’ve done, what has worked and what hasn’t, and just my thoughts in general on it all. I hope you find this helpful and informative.
WHY HOMESCHOOL?
Neither my wife nor I are teachers by profession or training, so at first we were intimidated by the idea of homeschool. We didn’t know if we were cut out for it, didn’t know what to expect, what materials to use, what was required by our local jurisdiction, etc. Would we be able to teach our kids what they need to know so they keep up with their peers? Would they be able to socialize with other kids their age? Would they become the stereotypical “weird homeschool kids?” We both went to traditional schools all the way through college, and never had any experience with homeschool ourselves, so we felt a bit like fish out of water.
However, we knew several families that homeschooled, and the more we talked to them and did our own research, the more we found ourselves seriously considering it as an option for our family, for several reasons which I’ll talk about more in the following paragraphs. Spoiler alert, now that we’ve been doing it for a couple of years, I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Public School Not an Option
Public school was never going to be an option for our kids. Although there are some really fantastic teachers out there (we know several), school systems themselves are riddled with problems, and their policies (and thus their teachers) are beholden to politics that are increasingly are misaligned with our family’s values and beliefs. A person would have to be living under a rock to NOT see how mainstream culture/society is at war with the very idea of “the family” and it feels like children are specifically targeted.
Time is truly our scarcest resource, and there is no task more urgent for parents than that of raising our children. Instead of wasting the limited time we have with them navigating the hellscape of institutionalized public education, we wanted to utilize our time by pouring ourselves into our children’s lives in every way possible, especially while they’re so young and impressionable.
What About Private School?
Although we strongly considered private school, it is much more expensive, and offers less flexibility and control over our children’s schedules and curriculum. It also still introduces some of the above issues dealing with policies, politics, etc. It would still likely be our next best option, but since we were able to make homeschool work, we preferred it over private school.
Home Field Advantage
We wanted to be very intentional and hands-on with what our kids are learning and the choice of their curriculum. Teaching them at home seemed like the obvious best way to do that. There’s truly no place like home.
Homeschooling allows us a lot of flexibility, not only with our kids’ curriculum and extracurricular activities, but also in our family schedule. We find that this approach works much better for our family than the more rigid schedule of traditional schools. Doctor appointments are easier, errands are easier, vacations are easier, even the school day itself is easier and more efficient. It’s just all around a better schedule this way.
As I mentioned earlier, we know several families who also homeschool their kids, and they have become a crucial part of our journey. More than just providing us with a support system or knowledge base, we have found true friendship and community among these families.
Local Jurisdiction
We are fortunate to live in a jurisdiction where homeschool is strongly supported by law, giving us a lot of flexibility in how we approach our children’s education. I’ve come to learn that that is not the case for everyone, and there are some places where homeschool isn’t even legal at all. I don’t have a solution for those situations, but I think it says plenty about the importance of a child’s education, and about the government’s intentions, when they want to force you to let their schools educate your children. As for us, we had the option and felt it was a good one for our situation, and we also knew that we weren’t locked into it forever. Even if we started with homeschool, we could always move our kids into a traditional school if we ever decided to.
WHAT IS OUR APPROACH?
We started with homeschool from day 1. Our son is “officially” entering 3rd grade now, although he is learning at a higher level than that in most subjects. Our daughter is learning to read and do some other kindergarten-level stuff now, but she won’t formally start her curriculum until 2026. Although my wife and I are both involved in their education, I am the primary one handling the day to day teaching, curriculum planning, paperwork, etc.
I like to take a somewhat relaxed and flexible approach, although having some structure built into our schedule is very helpful for both them and me. When I say structure, I mean that we do school at basically the same time each day, and we have certain days that we do certain activities outside of the book work. Oh, and no homework. What would the point be of that? 😂
Book Work
When it comes to book work, we spend approximately 2-3 hours per day on written/online lessons, at my son’s current grade level. I don’t follow a strict schedule for each subject. Because I am right there with them as they are learning each day, I already know which subjects they are learning well, and where they are struggling. No parent-teacher conferences required. If they need extra time on a lesson, then we take extra time. If they understand something easily, then I don’t bore them with busy work and we move on to more advanced topics. Sometimes they just want to do math, or don’t feel like reading that day, and so I let them focus on other subjects. As long as we are progressing at a good pace through the curriculum as a whole, I don’t hold them to a rigid routine. This has worked well so far.
Extracurricular Activities & Play Time
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” or something like that. One of the strangest things I noticed growing up was how more and more schools reduced or eliminated recess time, or how losing recess time was used a punishment for kids’ behavior. It seems completely counterintuitive, considering how important physical activity is. I make sure my kids have ample play time outside through the week.
Beyond recess and physical activity, we also incorporate other types of extracurricular education. My kids take music lessons and have opportunities to perform what they’re learning from time to time. We visit museums and historical sites. We go camping. We do crafts. My son loves robots, so we go to local robotics events when we find them. Our kids are also part of a local youth club through our church that gives them opportunities to interact and learn from other trusted adults together with their friends, many of which are also homeschoolers.
CURRICULUM
Which curriculum to use was one of the biggest questions/uncertainties I had when starting out. When you go to traditional school, the curriculum and textbooks are all chosen and provided for you. The teacher plans the lessons and sends home the assignments, and the school administers the tests throughout the year to ensure your kids are on track, and notifies you of your child’s progress. It’s convenient. As a brand new homeschool parent, I had no clue where to even start doing any of this.
What is legally required?
There is no shortage of information available online about curricula and various teaching styles, which is both helpful and confusing at the same time. The best place to start is probably by checking what your local jurisdiction legally requires. I was able to find this information online via our local school district’s website, as well as directly reading through the applicable statutes.
In our case, there is no specific requirement on choice of curriculum. Your local laws may vary. What we ARE required to do is notify our local school district of our choice to homeschool by the time our child reaches the required school age set by law. We also have to keep a yearly portfolio of our curriculum and our children’s schoolwork, but that would honestly be helpful anyway whether we were required to do it or not. Then, we are required to submit a yearly evaluation to our local school district. This is all done electronically via email. The evaluation itself can be done in a few ways, including standardized norm-referenced tests, or by having a licensed teacher evaluate our curriculum and samples of our children’s work. Again, we have done these electronically from home by testing online, or meeting with a teacher via video call.
Which curriculum to use
There is no single best answer here, but I will mention what we’ve used so far below. Your child will learn at their own pace, and may pick up some subjects better than others. I’ve found it’s just best to pick something with good reviews, try it, and then switch things up as needed. For younger kids especially, reading literacy and math are crucial to focus on, as these are foundational for everything else your children will learn. If you aren’t sure about anything, at least be sure that your child needs to learn how to read and do basic math.
Starting out, it is easiest to use an all-in-one boxed or online curriculum. These come as a kit, and give you just about everything you need to do school for a particular grade level, although you may need to print some materials at home or buy supplies for crafts, etc. Some even provide suggested weekly lesson plans for the entire school year, which remove the guesswork and help keep you on track. These will range from free to $1000 or more, depending on what you choose.
What we have used
We used all-in-one kits for kindergarten and 1st grade. This at least gave me confidence that some teacher somewhere had evaluated these materials as being appropriate for our kids’ age level. It was important to us to use a curriculum aligned with our Christian faith. For kindergarten we used “The Good and the Beautiful” curriculum, and for 1st grade we used “My Father’s World.” Both of these use physical textbooks, workbooks, etc.
Both were excellent, but I preferred “My Father’s World” because I felt it provided a more complete set of materials, with faith lessons interwoven throughout every subject. It also included an easy to follow calendar with daily/weekly lesson plans mapped out. Even though I didn’t follow the calendar verbatim, it helped me make sure I was staying on track. I felt a little lost while using The Good and the Beautiful because it did not provide this.
For 2nd grade we used Time4Learning which is an online curriculum available by monthly/yearly subscription. Although it was not faith based, we simply supplemented that aspect with other relevant materials. To be clear, Time4Learning is not a “virtual school.” There was no teacher online teaching the lessons; we still did that ourselves at home. But instead of using physical books, all of the teaching materials, quizzes, and tests were online, with printable worksheets for practice as needed.
We liked Time4Learning because it utilizes more interactive media and games online. Quizzes and chapter tests are graded instantly, so our children get instant feedback. For parents, it provides suggested lesson plans, and instant reports to track your progress through the year, which makes maintaining our portfolio much easier. Time4Learning also allows you to adjust the lessons in each subject one grade level higher or lower, depending on how your child is doing. This gave us more flexibility to adjust the difficulty on the fly without having to purchase additional books. Also, since it was mostly online, it was easier to do school anywhere we were.
My biggest complaint about Time4Learning was that it regularly introduced concepts or vocabulary with little to no explanation. This left me to pause the lesson and provide some foundational information so my son could then proceed with the assignments. It also didn’t incorporate enough handwriting exercises, so we had to supplement that with a separate handwriting workbook.
As our son goes into 3rd grade, we are still evaluating which curriculum to use. I am leaning more toward piecing it together this year from multiple options. I may still use Time4Learning for certain things, but will likely utilize physical textbooks for math and handwriting specifically.
Testing
I already mentioned how our local jurisdiction requires a yearly evaluation, but I thought I’d mention what we used. For 1st grade, I simply met with a teacher and went over the curriculum we used, along with samples of my son’s schoolwork. She gave me some feedback and suggestions that helped me plan better going into 2nd grade, but overall we were doing fine.
For 2nd grade, I decided to have my son do a standardized norm-referenced test. These evaluate your child’s progress in comparison to other students at the same grade level. Our jurisdiction provides a list of approved tests that they accept, and we used the NWEA MAP Growth Testadministered online by Homeschool Boss. It was a very positive experience with flexible scheduling, and the best part was that we were able to do it from home.
CONCLUSION
Homeschool has been a great experience for our family. My wife and I are very pleased with how it’s going. Our children enjoy learning and are progressing above their grade level, and we are excited to continue with it for the foreseeable future. If you are considering homeschool for your children, I strongly encourage you give it a try if you have the option where you live. As long as you meet any basic legal requirements, it’s pretty hard to mess it up or do it wrong, and your kids are more likely to learn more than they ever will in a traditional school. If you are like me, it will be an eye-opening experience. Most importantly, you will develop a stronger bond with your children and will be personally engaged in every aspect of their upbringing during their most formative years.