The homeschool program that is best depends solely on you, your schedule and your children.

Which program could work for me?

We know families who do school with actual desks, paper, pencil and white board and it works fantastic for their kids.

Others we know do un-schooling where literally everything in life is the lesson and standard textbooks don’t exist.

For our family, we focus a lot more on independent work, checklists and a flexible schedule of schoolwork on the couch, kitchen table or floor in the morning, noon, or evening.

There are many options on the homeschool spectrum. Anything from un-schooling to full desk and chair classroom. We do a blend of both. But ultimately, it is up to you.

The two most important things for how you do your homeschool is:

• What are your state homeschool laws? The state laws on homeschooling and their expectations and standards are important to know before you plan your schedules. For any homeschooling outside of America you have to find your country’s standards because each place varies dramatically between areas. Make sure you familiarize yourself with those and there are places to help you.

AND

• What are your family needs? This can be your personal family goals. If you think your children need structure or you are a type A type personality- then going for a structured school day i.e. doing school 8am to 3pm with structured, segmented slots for each subject by time and content is best.

What if my life is chaos?

If you are always on the run and have a busy chaotic life that many of us have, then come up with a more flexible hourly schedule with your day to day school content.

Some states do have time requirements as well as the subject requirements, so make sure that if you are going to be “on the run” to document how much time they are doing their reading or their math in the car or at their siblings game practice etc.

What is the right way to homeschool is finding out about what matters.

Our suggestion is:

1. Write down all the subjects you want to teach in a day; and
2. Make a checklist for yourself to get through in a day/week/month and work from there.

You may find yourself scrapping it for something else or finding out that its great.