A Q&A About Homeschooling This Year

A few weeks ago, I mentioned on IG stories that we were homeschooling this year and my DMs absolutely exploded.

I opened a question box this week and the questions came flooooooooding in.

One thing to know first, though, is that homeschooling is in my blood – I was homeschooled from kindergarten until 8th grade and then I went to high school part-time. I also part-time homeschooled Ella in kindergarten and then full-time in first grade, plus did homeschool for preschool for most of my kids.

So homeschooling doesn’t feel super overwhelming or absolutely wild to me.

If you’re curious about this change for our family, here are some of the most asked questions!

What made you decide to homeschool?
This was FULLY led by our kids. We were sitting at lunch earlier this summer and Bart mentioned that we were about halfway through the summer and one of the girls said, “Could we homeschool this fall?” Bart and I pushed them on it a little and everyone was enthusiastically adamant that they did, in fact, want to homeschool. Over the next month or so, we periodically checked in with them to see if this was something they were serious about or if it was just a flight of fancy. We talked about different things we could do in homeschool and what it might look like to switch from public school to homeschool, and they’ve all been committed to their choice.

Your girls came to you and asked if they could homeschool? Why?
They all said the #1 reason they wanted to homeschool was because we could get through the same amount of material or more in probably half the time it takes at school. Attending school is VERY time-consuming and especially if you’re ahead, tends to involve a lot of sitting around waiting. We also have quite a few families in our neighborhood that homeschool, plus Ella has been doing hybrid homeschool for the past 3 years, so they were definitely familiar with it as an alternative option.

Are all four girls homeschooling this year?
Ella will continue to do the hybrid homeschooling that she’s done for the past 3 years (I have a whole post about it here, if you’re curious) and the other three girls will do full-time homeschooling.

What grades will you be homeschooling?
2nd, 4th, 6th, and 9th.

How do you give each child time when they are at different grades?
I’m not concerned about this – there is one of me and four kids versus one teacher and 25-35 kids in a classroom, so I have way more bandwidth for each child than a teacher has in a classroom. Plus, those kids in a classroom are not all on the same level anyway, so any teacher is trying to adjust to manage a wide range of skills, abilities, and levels. Also, one of the things I love about homeschool is a chance for my kids to take more ownership of their education and do a lot of self-directed work. In homeschool, you can also have a topic like history where you have things everyone does together and then books, assignments, etc that they do on their own level.

Are you planning on more than 1 year?
I really have no long term agenda – if they want to go back to school next year, that’s fine with me (or even if they decide at Christmas that they want to go back!) or if they want to keep homeschooling, I assume I’ll be fine with that as well.

How will you manage homeschool and a full time job at the same time?
This is definitely the biggest hurdle for homeschooling, since I work a fair amount! But I was just reading my last year’s “What I’ll Remember about Summer 2023” post where I mentioned Tally was going to full-day school for the first time and I’m feeling really grateful that I had a whole year of (basically) everyone in school (Ella was here some of the time with her hybrid homeschool but it was VERY self-directed) so that I could realize that my work will literally take up as much time as I have. Even with about 7 hours a day of work time last year, I still constantly felt behind and with a million things to do. Recognizing that helped realize that I can use my time better, lean more on my team (I just hired someone new for my team!) and also be more flexible about working at different times. We’ll see how it goes!

Do you think it is beneficial for kids to do a year or two of traditional schooling first?
Not particularly. I was homeschooled through 8th grade without ever going to public or private school and I didn’t feel like it was any disadvantage to never have gone. I think it is really just works for your family and your situation.

How are you going to balance not having all that time alone?
That’s for sure one of the things I worry about, but my kids are very self-sufficient and good at entertaining themselves and also I’m so aware at this point of how soon I won’t have ANYONE at home and how fast their childhood is going, so I’m willing to have less balance now.

Do you get overstimulated being a mom and teacher?
For sure. Sometimes I get overstimulated just being a mom! But the longer I’m a parent and the better I know myself, the more I’m able to manage that.

Is your older daughter diploma seeking?
At this point, no. She might change course later on (my sister did part-time homeschool her freshman year and then decided to graduate so she did the classes she was missing in summer school and (I think) online so she was able to graduate) and if she decides that, we’ll adjust as needed.

How to be sure your child will have the credentials to eventually graduate?
She likely won’t, but if you’re wanting to make sure you do, it’s usually pretty simple to get in touch with your school district, find out what the graduation requirements are and what needs to be done to meet those requirements.

What caused you not to finish high school?
I did four years of high school but I didn’t have enough credits to graduate because I didn’t go full-time (and the homeschool things I did – like math – weren’t accredited to give me official credit). I just applied to college as a homeschool student, submitted my ACT scores and the grades I DID have and got in no problem (including with a four year, full tuition academic scholarship). After I graduated from college, I went on to get a master’s degree in library and information studies at the University of Texas at Austin. I have never, not for one moment in the 21 years since I finished high school, felt like not having a high school diploma has held me back.

I want to homeschool but feel like my kids will miss out if they don’t go to public school. Thoughts?
I think this is a VERY common feeling! For me, it’s not something that concerns me at all – I missed out on ALL of elementary school and ALL of middle school and I don’t feel like I missed out on much. The other thing I think about constantly is that no matter what choices you make, you’ll miss out on something – there’s no life scenario where you get every experience and every opportunity. If you choose to live in this place, you miss out on the experiences you’d have if you lived somewhere else and vica versa. If you go on this trip, you miss out on things going on at home. That’s just life!

What social things do your kids engage in?
They play tons with each other, with cousins, and with friends in the neighborhood or from school. We attend library programs. We go to church each week and they have mid-week church activities. They take music lessons and are part of sports teams. We’ve done dance in the past. I don’t feel for ONE MOMENT like my kids’ social life is lacking.

I’m worried about the loss of meeting people, friends, and community. Do you have concerns?
Nope. The socialization question was huge even back when I was a kid homeschooling, but I think few homeschoolers actually worry about that – we attend church, live in a neighborhood with lots of families and kids, do sports, have families over for dinner or dessert or to go boating with us, go to library programs, take music lessons, and have siblings. There is PLENTY of community, friends, and people in their lives without attending public school. Also, I’m well aware of the stigma that homeschooled kids are “weird” to which I always think, “Were there no weird kids at your public school? Did public school make them all ‘normal’ and perfectly well-adjusted?”

Are you using a prepared curriculum or creating your own?
A mix. My mom used a ton of different curriculums and materials over the years and I don’t feel committed to a single curriculum – for me, part of the fun of homeschool is picking what works for our family and not having to do all of one thing. (By the way, this was THE most common question – I’ll share more details about what we’re using in the coming weeks once it’s all nailed down).

I’m afraid to start because it feels so expensive to get curriculum!
Totally get this! Homeschool curriculum can be SO pricey! I’d frankly just start without buying almost any curriculum – there are so many free resources online or from your library that you can use without spending a dime. Probably a math book would be the only thing I’d feel like I NEEDED to get.

Will you group some of the girls together?
We’ll definitely have things we do all together – history, geography, poetry, etc.

Are you in a cohort?
No. We did a few years of a cohort when I was growing up and it was super fun, but at the moment, I have no plans for one (although a group of homeschool families in our neighborhood usually do a weekly outing and we may join most weeks).

What are Utah requirements for homeschooling?
Basically non-existent. This was the case for most of my homeschooling growing up to. When we moved to Nevada, they had pretty rigid requirements about homeschooling including required end of year testing. Then they decided that was expensive and a hassle and after that there was basically no oversight. If your idea of homeschool was watching cartoons all day long, nobody was going to say anything.

Who has to approve the work/progress?
Nobody!

Are you using any charter program for reimbursement?
We are not at least for this semester. We missed the deadline to apply for Fall 2024 so it’s on us to pay for anything we want to do.

How many hours a day do you imagine their school day will be?
My guess is 3-4 hours a day. We’ll start at 8:30 which is when they left for public school and then end around lunch time.

Were your girls in a language immersion program? Will they continue with languages?
Yes – they’ve been in a language immersion program (aside from Ani who switched to another school for an accelerated STEM program a few years ago) and Ella will continue to do that in high school (she did it in middle school too) and we’ve hired one of Ella’s favorite previous teachers as a tutor to work with them 4 mornings a week so they can keep it up and then re-enter in middle school if they want to. Ani actually seems pretty excited to get back into language too after a few years off!

Are you teaching them all by yourself or do you have help?
The great news is that Bart is home all day too, so he’ll be handling geography and Bart’s mom, who lives right around the corner and LOVES math, will be doing math with the two older girls. The little girls will do Savvy Math and Tally will also do Savvy Reading, they’re doing a local science class, and all four of them will be doing this online creative writing class (it’s on sale right and you can stack my affiliate code JANSSEN15 on top for an extra discount).

How do you get them to stay and practice the stuff that’s more challenging for them?
Isn’t that the lesson of life? I feel like I’m still working on it! We made it very clear to our kids that homeschooling was an absolute privilege and if they can’t handle it, then we’ll send them back to public school. I for sure anticipate moments or days that are a challenge, but if they’re consistently refusing to do what they need to do, then they’re proving that homeschool is not a good option for them.

How will your days be structured?
We’ll plan to do homeschool in the morning, starting about the time they would have gone to school, and going through lunch. I’ll probably work a bit in the morning while they’re doing self-directed things and then mostly work after lunch.

It feels like a dramatic choice to make and I don’t when my curiosity justifies a huge change/risk like that. I would love to know your thought process.
For me, I try never to make school decisions feel like all or nothing. We homeschooled Ella in 1st grade and then when a good option for 2nd grade opened up, she went there. If we homeschool this year and then they go back to public school next year, I don’t think it will be a very big deal. Kids move to new schools all the time and do fine. Kids change from private to public to homeschool to charter. For me, if it was something I wanted to try, I’d feel inclined to play it out for a year and then you’ll know better what the options are for the following year. Also, the risk feels very low to me – what is the worst thing that can happen if you homeschool for a year? Once you really write down or vocalize what the risks are, you can determine if they’re legit concerns or not and if so, how to mitigate the risks.

More details on how to use the graph paper for tracking assignments!
I just did a reel about these charts today – you can see it here! (And the charts this question refers to are here).

What do you do after all the school is done daily?
This was my FAVORITE thing about homeschool and the worst part of going to public school for me in high school – I love that free time to explore other interests, have free play, read, make money, or hang out with friends. They’ll also have sports and music lessons and other activities in the afternoon.

Are you going to travel more now that you don’t have to work around school schedules?
Likely not. For one, we already pretty much travel as much as we want and don’t worry much about missing school. Two, Ella will still be going to public school so it’s not like we’re completely untethered from a school calendar.

I’d love to see a day in the life once you get the ball rolling!
I’m definitely planning on doing this! Keep an eye out for it likely in September.

Are you excited?
I am! I’m definitely a little nervous, but homeschool has been in the back of my mind forever and it feels really fun to walk down this path at this moment in time. In fact, back in the spring, Bart and I were eating lunch together while everyone was at school and he asked me, “What would you do if you suddenly didn’t have your blog/Instagram/business anymore?” and I surprised myself by saying, “I’d probably strongly consider homeschooling.” So it was definitely something I was already thinking about, even if I hadn’t mentioned it to the girls.

If you liked this post about our why behind homeschooling, you might also like these other posts:

• 5 Tips for How to Homeschool with a Toddler in the House
• 15 Homeschool Ideas (or Ideas for Supplemental Learning!)
• 8 things that are working well for me this school year