Why student planner pages will change the way you homeschool
Homeschooling three days a week – are they learning enough?
A lot of people are surprised that we use planner pages to only “do school” three days a week. And to be honest, when we first started homeschooling, I thought it was blasphemy to even consider anything other than five full days a week. To the point that for a short time, I made the kids do school on Saturdays to make up for a half day cohort at their charter program. What was I thinking?
I finally woke up and we switched to a four-day schedule so that they could go to cohort and not have a ton of work still left to do. This is worked wonderfully for us for a few years.
Switching it up
About three years ago when we upgraded to a much larger homestead. It quickly became apparent that in order to complete all the work that this size of a homestead required, we didn’t have time to do school on a “normal” schedule. I sat down and looked at what I could skip and where I could add things, I realized that three days a week was completely an option!
How in the world?
Well for starters, I had to remember that not every single curriculum has to be finished or that school has to be done on the same schedule as public-school kids. An example of this is, with an average school year being 36 weeks and us doing school 3 days a week, that equals 108 school days. If a math curriculum has 125 lessons, you simply double up a couple of times or just don’t finish. Next year will start with review anyways. Another option is when doing science. Complete the lessons on the “school days” and do that experiment on Saturday afternoon when everyone is wailing that they’re bored.
There is so much to learn that doesn’t always come in a book.
Journaling our unschool adventure!
So, we aren’t an unschool family by any means. Although sometimes that sounds amazing! However, on the days that we aren’t doing school, we are doing life!
An average day for us could include taking samples to send to a lab or working on a small engine. Sometimes we are using GPS, volunteering, processing meat, making cheese, canning, learning entrepreneurial skills, and so much more. I want the kids to be able to see what they are doing and lock these things in as viable skills. So, the way I have gone about doing this is having my kids journal about all of their activities. If they are too young for writing then I have them dictate to me or draw pictures.
Doing this also makes for a great reference when adding up volunteer hours or presenting at a 4-H function. This also helps then take some ownership in our homestead. They can use their own records for breeding dates, onsets of illness, when we planted seeds, or aging foods.
Does your state require a certain number of hours for homeschool records?
This is why the journaling your activities option is so brilliant! Many non-school activities can easily be lumped in sciences, social sciences, and language. For those of you who are interested in homesteading, pairing my homestead curriculums with planner pages for journaling can help you break free from restraints!
Memories and homeschool transcripts
The added bonus is so many memories will be documented for your student and can help you with transcript writing. Teaching your kids record keeping allow you more freedoms in how you want to teach your kids!
Homestead Homeschool Curriculum
Build Your Own Homestead – Little Learners Edition is an interactive homeschool curriculum that will introduce your child to small scale farming. This one of a kind homestead curriculum is designed for pre-school through to 3rd or 4th grade depending on your child and whether this will be used as a full curriculum or supplemental to another curriculum.
Build Your Own Homestead is designed to give your child a better understanding of where their food comes from. This allows them to take ownership in providing food for the family whether that’s understanding what they are choosing at the grocery store, helping you tend to the garden, or gathering eggs from your chickens.
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