After 7 Years Of Homeschool, This Is What I’ve Learned

After 7 Years Of Homeschool, This Is What I’ve Learned about making it work for any family – of any size or with any special needs. Let me explain.

I am an organizer and planner by nature, but my life circumstances have changed me and caused me to become an “open & go” and “just do the next thing” kind of homeschool planner. It hasn’t been easy. I have had to force myself to not get stressed out and have adapted to a year-round homeschool schedule/routine over the last 7 years of homeschooling.

Here is why:

With a new pregnancy and baby almost every year in the last decade, I have had many months of morning (or all-day) sickness and then postpartum recovery. Add in many ER visits, hospital stays, and doctor appointments and you get chaos.

How our homeschool started:

Our very first year of homeschooling in 2008, when my son was a 3-year-old starting “preschool” and I had a special needs/colic baby daughter, I tried to plan and determine how our year would go and when we would complete a typical school year. Things did not go as planned!

Our medically fragile daughter spent many weeks inpatient that school year! Our oldest missed many days of school (granted, at age 3-4, it wasn’t a big deal at all!). We did not do all I had planned (lots of educational games, science projects, etc.), but I do have fond memories of what we did get done (and a lot of pictures documenting my first little student’s success)!

In July of 2009, when my oldest was about 4.5, we started K5 with textbooks and all. I thought we would be done by April or May of 2010. Wrong again. There was no way for us to try and complete a year of school while following the typical school year schedule. I was expecting our 4th child and our oldest daughter was so sick. That is when I knew that year-round homeschooling was for us.

Why year-round homeschooling worked for us:

We needed to steadily work through each day, week, and month – breaking for medical emergencies and doctor visits – and then pick up where we left off. We couldn’t plan for a 3-month summer break, knowing that we would be missing many days already due to our special needs life. So, we embraced year-round homeschooling and it has gone well.

We learned to think outside the box:

We use a mix of curricula now, unlike the first two years of strictly using A Beka Book in K5 and first grade. We didn’t use a curriculum for preschool, just the Junior Phonics Game, homemade worksheets, and science experiments. We just worked our way through each lesson, never taking planned breaks, except maybe 1 week in September (our favorite time of the year) and then for Major Holidays. But, we do take breaks!

Phonics Help!

Wheel of Phonics Board GamesJunior Learning Phonics Spinners Educational Action GamesJunior Learning Word Builders Activity CardsLeapFrog LeapReader Learn to Read, Volume 1 (works with Tag)Junior Learning Different Phonics Games (Set of 6)LeapFrog My Own Leaptop, Green

Unplanned breaks have often been frequent.

For example: in 2014, we took several weeks off, unexpectedly. We did not have school from April 25th to June because of a medical emergency with our oldest daughter and then the birth of our 8th child immediately following.

The point is, our breaks are usually stressful, not restful! I wanted that to change this year!

After 7 Years Of Homeschool, This Is What I’ve Learned

I’ve learned that being flexible and dedicated is important for the long haul that is homeschooling. Adapting, accepting, and persevering is how to make homeschooling work for any family!

I have been looking at a calendar and year-round homeschool plans. After a few different takes, I think I have found a year-round homeschool schedule that will work for us, Lord willing! I will be sharing the changes to our homeschool schedule in my next post. {Read About Our Year-Round Homeschool Schedule}

In addition to a change in our year-round schedule, I am trying a new organizing system for our weekly schedule and curriculum. I am taking this week to get everything ready for the entire year ahead for 3 children (plus planning preschool things, too)!

I have never planned or organized our homeschool so much since that very first year of homeschooling. Now that I am a little wiser and more experienced, I understand that things simply will not go as planned (and that’s okay!). However, I am praying that my planning is a blessing for the next year!

How long have you been homeschooling?