Category: Homeschool (Page 3 of 3)

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Why You Shouldn’t “School at Home”

May 8, 2023 / Sara Guenther

“School at Home” wasn’t really a term that was used before the world came to an awkward halt in 2020. Up until then it was known as just regular old homeschool, home education, or other names that more closely reflect the various styles of homeschool. (If you are unfamiliar with homeschool styles, you can read more about them here.)

When the schools closed and eventually switched over to Zoom, suddenly everyone was a “homeschooler”. People were home all day with their children, setting them up with a computer so they could log on with their classmates. Parents were printing out the daily worksheets and helping their children through what needed further explanation (if they had the time and understood what was being taught). These families finally understood what their home education friends were experiencing… they were homeschooling now, too.

Except that really, they weren’t. Like, at all. What they were doing was “school at home”, and that is not the same. And “school at home”, if I may be so bold, is the death of homeschool.

The Death of Homeschool

School at home is just what its name implies: it’s taking what the school system says should be done, how it should be done, and in what order, then checking all those boxes at home. Sound thrilling? Sure, there’s some flexibility. Math can be taught in the morning OR the afternoon. Recess can be a full hour. Lunch can include food that’s actually healthy AND appetizing… sound freeing yet?

There is a reason most home educators choose to structure their homeschool much, much differently than the traditional school model. It’s that schools are not run in the best interest of the child. They do not help raise up children who truly know and care about the natural world around them. Instead they are designed to pump children with information they won’t remember, repeatedly test them for the sake of statistics, and make good law abiding citizens ripe for the workforce. In addition, schools today are accepting children as young as 4, then expecting them to read and write and sit still and quiet for circle time. So much for the joys of childhood. And if this is how you choose to homeschool, I would have to ask you why you chose to home educate in the first place. Reproducing the school environment at home is far, far from the point.

The Beauty of an Education Well Done

While “school at home” isn’t necessarily as bad as all that, it is not a recipe for homeschool success. And if it’s being overseen and directed by an actual school, it likely will not produce the fruit and beauty of a true home education.

As parents and home educators, homeschool can be whatever we want it to be, and there are as many different ways to do it as there are families doing it. I’ll have you consider this: what type of person do you want your child to grow up to be (values, etc.), and what type of childhood do you want them to have right now? Forget about which facts you want them to memorize, which wars you want them to be able to write a 5 paragraph essay on, and how many aspects of science you want them to be able to recall. First, just focus on the personhood of your child. Enjoy lots and lots of free time together. Heck, even try doing NO school work at all for a while.

So what should you do? That’s not something I can answer for you. Only you know what’s best for your family. And if you’re not sure what that is yet, it’s okay. Take some time to test the homeschool waters. Read up on different homeschool styles and find out which one resonates with you and your family. And just remember, you don’t have to do it all. Even if you feel like you’re doing nothing at all, you’re probably doing more than you realize. Just love on your children. Give them time to enjoy what they’re passionate about. Go exploring. Adventuring. Find reasons to smile together. I promise you won’t regret giving them the time to just be kids.

Related Posts

Confessions of a Homeschool Adventure Mom

A Look: Typical Homeschool Week

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Confessions of a Homeschool Adventure Mom

May 1, 2023 / Sara Guenther

Forgive Me, Lord

Ever had a week where you just want to run away and hide for a while? We’ve had a really challenging year, but the stress levels last week were just extra. The small amount of “official” homeschool we typically do was mostly put on hold, but there was just so much going on that I found myself even wanting to walk away from momming for a few days. Definitely not my best week, or a good representation of my role here.

Extra hard weeks, months, and years aside, nobody is perfect. The internet so easily paints a picture perfect life in our heads, then we feel crappy for falling short of what was never a reality. Nor is it achievable, anyway. Or if it is, it’s probably not healthy. So to help you feel a little better about your own mess ups and dirty secrets as a homeschool mom, here’s a few confessions from my own real-life adventure homeschool lifestyle. Buckle up; I’m about shed some light on what goes on when the camera isn’t out.

True Confessions

I’m usually still in my PJs at noon. Sometimes until closer to dinner time. Pretty much I have little motivation to put clothes on unless I absolutely have to leave the house. So if you drop by before noon, don’t judge me. Also, maybe please keep all drones away from my backyard. In summer time I don’t wear pants.

We don’t have an area for digging and it’s not going well. Nope. No mud kitchens here. We had a “digging spot” for a while, but one kid decided to make mud balls with rocks inside and throw them over the fence at cars. So since that obviously wasn’t going well either naturally we had to ban all fun from the backyard. The children now find other ways to destroy the house. Three cheers for creativity.

Some days we don’t do schoolwork for no other reason than I don’t feel like it. Honestly, I’m leaning more and more into Unschooling these days, anyway. Give the kids some chores, tell them to make their own fun and call it a day of natural learning. A+.

Some days I don’t go outside. GASP! I know, and this from someone who is always saying to get outside. Well sometimes a girl just wants to chill at home in her PJs all day. Besides, down time for mindless Instagram scrolling is probably how I’ve found the majority of exciting places we’ve ended up exploring.

We’re not well equipped adventurers. We don’t own much gear. My 12 year old only owns one pair of shoes (they’re sneakers). We have no rain jackets or hiking boots. No emergency water filter straws or rain boots. No extreme cold weather gear or hiking poles. The first aid kit I carry in my water backpack amounts to chapstick and approximately 3 bandaids. Also tissues in allergy season. I’m also directionally challenged and awful at reading maps.

Contrary to the previous confession, at one point I think I owned 11 different baby carriers. How many kids did I wear at that point? Two for sure, sometimes the middle kiddo would ask to get carried. But baby carriers are like shoes and accessories. You obviously would never wear tennis shoes to a fancy dinner date (unless you’re my 12 year old), nor would you wear snow boots to the beach. You also wouldn’t use your purse in place of a backpack in most cases. Well baby carriers are basically like that. Basically… Plus I like to colour match my moods when possible.

My kids play video games and watch mind numbing television. It’s really not my preference. If I had it my way, we would throw away all the screens, except for one that we would only pull out sometimes for educational purposes. But my boys really like video games and watching Pokemon. And I like when they’re all sitting happily in one place for a blissful hour of time when I can actually complete a thought or two without a slew of interruptions.

If my little kids bathe once a week it’s pretty much a miracle. My older kiddos at this point are realizing that they smell bad and their hair gets greasy if they don’t shower quite frequently. But the little ones… uhg. It’s still like wrestling with a wet cat. Being clean is not something they care for, and I don’t generally have the will to fight them. So if you see my kids with marker all over their arms and legs and dirt streaks on their faces and feet, just know that yes, they’ve probably looked like that for at least a day or two. Or five.

One of my kids doesn’t like hiking. Yeah, I know. Ouch. He’s never been my great outdoor explorer, and has always gravitated toward screens and other hobbies. That’s okay – I know that hiking isn’t for everyone. But he’s a good sport and I don’t give him the option to stay home. I figure in the end, he’ll either learn to appreciate it or for the rest of my life he’ll remind me how I constantly dragged him out into the woods or the desert to torture him with sunshine and fresh air.

We don’t have a homeschool room, desks, or even a lot of books. Now, a couple desks in quiet places would actually be great. And I wouldn’t mind having more books. But 7 people living in 1400 square feet, or sometimes 150 square feet, really leaves not much room for anything extraneous. Also, I prioritized having a guest room. #sorrynotsorry

Keepin’ It Real

I’m sure if you followed me around for a week you’d have a long list of other things I should add to this confessional. But hey, I’m sure you’ve got a list, too, and hopefully mine makes you feel a little better about yours. I really do love scrolling through the beautiful Instagram photos, but let’s also remember to keep it real and encourage our fellow homeschool moms to rest assured that the rest of us have a mess behind the pretty pictures, too.

A Look: Typical Homeschool Week

Adventure Homeschool on a Budget

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Do You Need A Homeschool Style?

April 18, 2023 / Sara Guenther

What is a homeschool style?

Homeschool style refers to the approach a family takes to their home education. There are several common styles, and a whole bunch of new ones popping up as families continue to seek out new ways to learn and live.

Without going into an exhaustive list, you might recognize some of the more common styles, like Classical, Charlotte Mason, Unschool, Montessori, Eclectic, Unit Studies, etc. Then there are other coined terms for styles like Adventureschool, Wildschool, Lifeschool, Natureschool, Deschooling, Minimalist Homeschool, Roadschool, and so many more. Each one has its own unique take on how to raise up a child, just as each family’s approach to parenting will vary.

Why Choose a Style?

Many families like to choose a homeschool style because it gives them direction and community. They can connect with other like-minded homeschoolers, join co-ops that support their preferences, and find curriculum that aligns with their beliefs.

Choosing a homeschool style can be a great way to get started on your homeschool journey. For example, one question I am asked quite often is about what curriculum we use. But over the years our curriculum (or lack there of) has changed. And what is right for our family, might not be right for your family. Plus, with entire thick catalogs of curriculum to choose from, plus all of the beautiful curriculum created by homeschoolers that is for sale online, the thousands of choices can make us freeze in confusion. How is one to choose with so much available?

Finding Your Style

Identifying with a style can save you a lot of time, confusion and frustration when it comes to choosing curriculum. Knowing what style (or multiple styles) you feel most fits your desires for your home education can eliminate the majority of curriculum on the market and point you in a general starting direction. However, keep in mind that finding your style doesn’t have to be a forever commitment, and it most certainly does NOT have to define your homeschool – it is simply a tool. A starting point.

To find your style, head to your favourite search engine and type in “homeschool style quiz”. Take any quiz that pops up, and it should help you rank which of the most common styles fit within your preferences. Once you have that style, start researching curriculum, local meet ups, co-ops, etc. that follow that same method. BUT! And this is a huge but… remember, that you do not have to identify as that style. This is simply a place to start. Of course you might find that you’re a Classical purist, or you adore absolutely everything about the Charlotte Mason method and want to follow it to the letter… but the many families tend to grab pieces from many different styles of learning. Plus, what works for one child may not work for another child, and you might want to change it up from year to year, depending on what you end up liking or not liking. Don’t be afraid to change! That’s the beauty of homeschool – if something isn’t working, try something else.

Do You Need a Homeschool Style?

The short answer is, no, you do not need a homeschool style. In fact we started our homeschool journey having not heard of homeschool styles for probably the first three years of our journey.

When I finally learned about homeschool styles, however, it came as a relief to me. I was able to narrow it down to two styles (which funny enough are complete opposites). What we’ve since grown, and what continues to evolve, is our own completely unique approach to home education. I have no word for what style it is – it’s just ours. But identifying our top two styles put me on a path to discovering what would end up working best for our family. It allowed me to research within a certain mindset and find other people who are similar.

So do you need a homeschool style? No. Should you have one? Perhaps, but that’s a personal choice. Should you take the quiz? Yes. Especially if you’re new or trying to figure out where to go next. It just might illuminate the best direction for your homeschool.

Morning Time in Homeschool

A Look: Typical Homeschool Week

Adventure Homeschool on a Budget

April 2, 2023 / Sara Guenther

Ideas to Help You Find Adventure in Your Homeschool Without Breaking the Bank

So you want more adventure in your homeschool, but everything is so darn expensive, especially if you have a large family. (Hello Disney tickets x7! There’s a good reason we’ve never gone.) What if I told you that you could find TONS of adventure for little to no cost at all? This isn’t about using credit card points or entering giveaways – it’s about shifting your idea of adventure and finding new things that you can do as part of your home education in a budget friendly way.

How We Used to Pay for Homeschool Activities

What didn’t work

In the first three years of my oldest child’s formal education we tried three different schooling options. While we wanted to home educate, the first thing we tried was public school for TK (transitional kindergarten here in CA). It didn’t take long to realize we should have stuck with our guts and home schooled. So for actual Kindergarten we enrolled him into a local homeschool charter. It was part of the public school system with a full campus and teachers, and his class would meet once a week for three hours to learn alongside their teachers. There were other activities, clubs, classes and field trips throughout the week that were optional, and this was a nice stepping stone for us as we gave homeschool a solid try. It didn’t, however, give us the flexibility to diversify our education the way we wanted. Without using out of pocket money, we were restricted to only what this little school was able to provide.

What did work, for a while

After that year I knew that the public homeschool charter campus still wasn’t quite what we were looking for. I wanted more freedom, and really I wanted assistance to pay for all of the classes and activities we wanted to do. Thankfully in CA we have a lot of options, and so we signed up with another charter school that had no physical location but did offer funding for each student to put toward curriculum, classes, passes to local museums/zoo/educational theme parks, and more. While there were some requirements on our end that I wasn’t fond of, they were worth it for the money that we were able to use on unique classes and experiences that we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to afford. But as the years went on and the government cracked down on what the charter was and wasn’t allowed to pay for, and the testing and requirements on families became more stringent, we finally parted ways and opted to go it alone, sans funding.

The loss of funding worked with our travels (we’re no longer around all year to participate in many long-term commitment in-person classes), but it did also mean that we needed to focus on activities that would fit within our small budget. Many of these things we had already been doing, but since leaving the charter school we’ve made sure to implement more of these types of experiences to keep our weeks full and rich.

This is a list of many of the free or budget friendly things we’ve tried over the years and still find useful. I hope you find these helpful, or that they inspire you to come up with some creative ideas of your own. Happy budget homeschool adventuring!

Budget Adventure Homeschool Ideas:

Camping
- Don’t have gear? Try borrowing from a friend or your local Buy Nothing facebook group. Alternatively, some campsites offer cabins.
Hiking
- Try the AllTrails app to find hikes near you. Not sure whether you can hike with your kids? You can find lots of tips and inspiration here.
Nature play/local parks
Join homeschool group to find free activities and meetups
Entrepreneur fairs
- Your local homeschool group might host one of these
Church events
Save more expensive adventures for vacation/birthday
Take up inexpensive hobbies
- Hiking, mountain biking, bouldering, geocaching, whittling, etc. Even inexpensive at-home hobbies are a way to save the activity budget for bigger trips.
Buy year passes (national parks, state parks, zoo…)/look for coupons
Field trips
- Your local homeschool group may be able to get discounted passes to local events and places of interest. And ask around – some places offer free info sessions.
Travel in the off season
Boondocking
- This is camping outside of a campground. Know the area and whether you’re allowed to camp there. Try calling the local ranger station or using a camping app like Campendium. Alternatively, plan a camping trip in your backyard.
Pack your own food/meals/snacks
- This is a solid way to save a $50+ hangry family emergency fast food stop.
Geocaching
- This is a treasure hunting app. Best part, its completely free and there are hidden treasures everywhere!

Did you find this list helpful? There of tons of things to do for free or inexpensively – share your ideas in the comments!

A Look: Typical Homeschool Week

March 29, 2023 / Sara Guenther

A Week in the Life: Adventure Homeschool Family

What does the week of a homeschool family look like? Well that will all depend on the family. Actually you’d probably get almost as many different answers as families you ask. We tend to be a diverse bunch!

But you’re here because you’d like some adventure in your life, and maybe because you resonate with our sort of laid back style over here. So before I lay out what our week looks like, let’s take a minute to talk about our style of home education, because this plays a HUGE roll in how we’ve come to this current schedule.

How We Got Here: Our Homeschool Style

If you looked in on our week a few years ago, you probably wouldn’t even recognize us. Being parents who came out of public and private schools, we only knew the typical school model for education. I knew there was something else out there, but I didn’t quite know where to find it. Over time, with research and meeting other homeschool families I started to figure out what it was that really jived with what we wanted for our kiddos and family life. (Side note, this is an ever evolving process. A perk of homeschool is that you can always change, at any time to better suit your family.)

For one, our homeschool IS a part of our family life, and our family life is a part of our homeschool. We believe that education is what naturally happens as a result of experiences. And so we put our children in the way of experiences that will help them grow and learn (think unschooling/child-led learning). In addition, I really resonated with some aspects of the Charlotte Mason (CM) method of homeschool, and so we do the majority of our non-experiential learning through “living books” (think books that are regular stories that you can relate to… not text books).

CM is also where our practice of nature study came from, and the entire reason I realized that we could use adventuring as a whole aspect of our lives and education. One other practice popular in the CM world that we adopted and love, is “morning time” (also called circle time and morning basket. You can learn more about our morning time here). Lastly, we have followed a few formal curriculums over the years, but generally I prefer to make up our own (except for math… that is one subject I INSIST on outsourcing!).

So with those things in mind, here is a typical week for us when we are not roadschooling:

Monday

The first day of our “school” week, Monday is the day we set aside as our most important day. I am NOT a procrastinator, and for the sake of keeping anxiety at bay like to front-end load my work. And so Mondays are the day we most focus on accomplishing what I’d like for us to cover for the week. We spend about an hour, sometimes more, in morning time, and then we all split up to accomplish our own personal work. This includes individual study, study with mom, and chores. Usually the kids aren’t finished until after lunch-time, but once they are done they get a little bit of screen time and the rest of the day free to do as they like. (At the moment, the three older kids go to a class in the afternoon for an hour or two on M/W).

Tuesday

Free day. Sometimes we will use Tuesdays to get ahead on our work if we know we would like to adventure somewhere on one of our typical “school” days. This can also be a catch up day if anyone did not finish their work from the day before. If we’re feeling up to it, sometimes we’ll find a short hike, playground, or regular play date for the afternoon. Or grocery shopping. Because, you know, responsibilities.

Wednesday

The second of our three major school days, the flow is the same as on Monday. We hope to finish our work a little earlier than usual on Wednesdays because our public school friends have a half day, and we go to church at night, so we need to eat dinner earlier.

Thursday

Adventure day! This is the day I typically plan our bigger adventures, and so I make sure nothing else is on the schedule in case we want to linger for a while, or have a long drive (I’ve been known to drive 2 hours for a good time). However, if we plan a big adventure for Friday, then Thursday becomes a regular day like Monday and Wednesday. We like to keep our schedule flexible so we can more easily schedule adventures with friends, or work around the weather (HAH! Weather in San Diego? Well… yeah, sometimes. But that includes snow and tide charts).

Friday

Our final regular school day. Yes you’ve read that right, we only do our “formal” schooling three days a week. The fun thing about our Friday morning time is that we can incorporate any interesting things we found from the previous day’s aventure into our studies. Often this means researching our findings and questions using books, internet, or TV. For example, after noticing an orb weaver web, we spent a morning looking up spiders and learning about their lives and how they make their webs. The kids recorded their findings in their nature journals.

Saturday

If needed, we will do work on a Saturday, but that’s usually for the weeks that we did a LOT of adventuring and completely neglected our indoor studies. Saturday is typically a day for friends, fun, errands, and cubing competitions or any other sports or clubs the kids might be in at the time.

Sunday

God’s day!

Homeschool adventure hike, measuring wingspan

So there it is! Our week summed up. If you want a deeper look into what we study, or how I manage homeschool with 5 kids and a variety of ages, you can find that here. In the meantime, let me know in the comments what you think and what questions you have!

Morning Time in Homeschool

March 29, 2023 / Sara Guenther

Morning Time: An Adventure Homeschooler’s Best Friend

Morning Time: have you heard of it? And no, I don’t mean the time of day. “Morning time”, also called circle time or morning basket, is a part of your homeschool day when your family gathers together to learn and share. And technically, it doesn’t have to be done in the morning. But that’s just what works best for us.

There are plenty of ways to do morning time, and a TON of learning you can cover in it. In fact, for some families this is the bulk of their homeschool. So what is it exactly?

What is Morning Time?

Morning time is when we all sit and learn together. It’s an opportunity to cover some subjects with all of your children, and to connect with one another. It’s the more enriching part of your day, when you might cover subjects like famous artists, composers, folk songs, and poetry, but it can also be history, geography, vocabulary, grammar, math or even just reading a good book together. (And don’t under estimate picture books. Even with big kids, they’re a real winner!). For a fantastic list of activities to include in your tool box, head over to Read Aloud Revival to see the list that Sarah MacKenzie put together.

Morning time is also a great opportunity to incorporate games into your learning. Because yes, games can also be educational and there is even an entire method of homeschool built around it (it’s called gameschooling).

Why Morning Time?

So why is morning time such a great tool for those who look to adventure for their education? Because this is the time we get to FOLLOW UP on the amazing things we find! Were the trees changing colour? Research why. Did you find scat? Look it up and learn how to identify different types in your area. Found an animal den? Learn all you can about that animal. This is also a great time for talking about safety and stewardship in the outdoors. Morning time can include practicing setting up a tent (then you can spend the night in it). It can be a time to record findings in a nature journal and learn more about those things and add extra notes. It can be used to research new hikes and places to explore, schedule it onto the calendar, and plan for it, including a packing list, budget, and mapping out the journey.

In our home we’ve dabbled in a bit of all of these things, depending on what we’re most interested in at the time. But the thing we always begin our day with is the Bible. We always come prayerfully before God as we dive into the study of his word. Sometimes this is also accompanied by a hymn that we learn, or worship music to set the mood. We also like to share prayer requests and spend time in prayer for one another. Then we move into whatever subjects we’re into at the moment.

What Does Morning Time Look Like?

Now you might be trying to envision this, and seeing my children all sitting quietly and happily around the table listening to the words that poetically drip from my mouth. If thats what you’re picturing… erase it. Afterall, I do have five BOYS and two of them are rather wild and loud.

Figuring out how to make morning work for us has been a journey – one that we’re still on. But I have found a number ways to make it flow more smoothly and to encourage the younger children to hang in there with us for while, and to be reasonably (sometimes) quiet. For one, I’ve used a “morning time tool box”. This was literally an adorable giant wood tool box filled with all sorts of quiet activities. There were puzzle books, colouring, scissors and glue sticks, paint by sticker books, play dough, regular sticker books, water colour paints, calligraphy pens, lots of sketch pads, etc. The kids could also grab puzzles or any other quiet things they were currently working on. At other times we’ve taken our studies outside so they could move their bodies through the yard, bounce on a ball or trampoline, or just hang upside down on the furniture.

But my personal favourite (and theirs, too) is a tea party! This one is a total hit. Typically I will try and bake something special and serve up a couple different types of tea in cute teapots. Since downsizing, we rely more on tea bags, but it’s not really the tea or treat that matters so much. It’s also perfectly acceptable to serve up cups of juice and a plate of cookies. The point is that they get a special treat that keeps them happy while you read aloud to them. (Just be sure to have napkins ready to go for the inevitable spill so that interruptions are minimal.)

So, my fellow adventure loving home educator, if morning time isn’t already a part of your homeschool, I highly encourage you to give it a try. There are endless possibilities, and just the fact that your whole family is together makes it a complete gem.

For further ideas and inspiration for your morning time, I would highly encourage you to give a listen to Pam Barnhill’s “Your Morning Basket” podcast. She is a treasure trove of information and was my go-to mama for getting our morning time rolling.

Have you tried Morning Time in your homeschool?

Adventure IS Homeschool – No Curriculum Required

March 25, 2023 / Sara Guenther

Where Adventure Meets Education

What if I told you that there is freedom in homeschool when you drop all the expectations of society. That you can leave the walls of home in search of adventure, and that you don’t need a curriculum.

Could you imagine an education where text books aren’t used, tests aren’t given, and grades don’t exist? Where worksheets aren’t required and subjects aren’t formally studied? Can you imagine an education so far from what the “experts” have said it should be, and that instead places family, experiences, and imagination at its center? Can you completely let go of what we’ve been shown is normal and reimagine education steeped in the light of truth, beauty, and goodness?