My mom is pulling me out of school this week, so I need help from parents or kids that are homeschooling! :) My mom is signing up to MIA academy and I need help if I should tell her to change it or keep it like that :)

I'm working on finding something for my 9 year old. We can spend a little but can't get any of those programs that are like the better part of a grand. I'd love to hear everyone's favorite resources. Especially ones that are hidden gems of sorts. I'll also add that I'm not huge on messy and time consuming experiments. Looking forward to hearing what you all use.

My son is nearly 4 and at preschool 4 days a week. When he starts primary school next year he'll be 4.5 years and I'd like to keep on the same 4 day schedule.

However after 5 years old I have to prove I'm providing homeschooling on that day. In school he'll be learning phonics, history, maths.

What would you recommend teaching a 5-6 year old for one day per week of home schooling?

We live in a city so I'd like to get outside in nature if possible. Can you combine this with academic learning?

I'm uk based

Hi everyone! Not sure if I can ask this here as I’m brand new to Reddit! I am currently creating a bullet journal 2025, and for many reasons I decided to incorporate a spread for each one of my children! I plan to have a section for each child with an about me, and I want to use this also as a homeschool dashboard. I need to track attendance, so I know I want to incorporate that. For some reason I’m just coming up short on what other things I need to track for them? I was thinking maybe a curriculum tracker? I’m just not very creative so I guess I’m asking for suggestions and ideas! Thanks ahead of time everyone:)

Looking for input and suggestions as my current routine just isn't working! My second grader goes to hybrid school from 8-330 two days a week and is homeschooled the other three.

My two year old is into everything, and my 3.5 year sped through their preschool books and would love to be doing more challenging work now if I could give them the attention they deserve but between the two year terrorizing and trying to do school with the second grader my 3.5 year old has been whiney often lately, kinda getting lost in the mix.

For the past year l've worked 4-5 nights a week, impacting 430-midnight. It's a physically demanding job so l come home hungry and tried, usually to dishes in the sink and mess on the floor and needing to warm up something decent to eat when I have no energy left. I start out every morning late, already feeling behind. I can't keep up with the basics of housework.

My husband works full time and some overtime from home. He usually makes breakfast. Plus finishes making dinner that I’ve started and does all the care for the children in the evenings. Sometimes he sweeps the floor and every few days he’ll help with dishes. He takes care of the kids weekend mornings so I can sleep in.

The only thing I do for "chill" is 1/2 hour on Reddit/ reading various articles every night to wind down. Not much time on my phone besides that and no tv... I usually move quickly and efficiently in my daily tasks. I can't seem to find areas I am wasting time but welcome input if there's something I'm missing.

Essentially my whole life feels behind. I am constantly overwhelmed and I can't seem to get ahead. I want to enjoy these little years and I am incredibly fortunate with all the modern conveniences to make life easier. I genuinely enjoy homemaking and teaching my kids but I feel my life is so exhausting I struggle resenting everything.

Is there a way to enjoy and homeschool three children (bc essentially the two year is a student so they count ;)), do homemaking decently, and work part time? Or I am just in over my head? I did just change to three work days per week so l'm hoping that helps but I still wonder if there's more I need to change.

Do I just need to work harder or am I trying to do too much?

Anyway, thanks for reading... all thoughts are welcome.

My daughter is in kindergarten and last year she went to preschool and thrived there. She was more shy and I saw her come out of her shell after going to preschool. We’re homeschooling and she has a few friends but not many just like two she regularly plays with. At preschool she had a bigger group of friends. She doesn’t regularly ask to go to school or anything, but when I ask her what she prefers she says she wants to go to school. We are pretty social with taking her to different groups and sports. However, since starting homeschooling she’s not as academic as she once was. Idk if it’s her brother’s attitude influencing her, but I can’t help but think that if she was in school she would be farther ahead academically and she would have more friends.

So I am part of a small but very tight knit homeschool community with mixed ages. My kids are 3 and 5. I saw someone post that they celebrated winter solstice by going on a hike in the forest with their friends and having a bonfire , roasting marshmallows on the fire etc. It sounded super lovely. So I decided to make it a thing, like start the tradition... and today, several families and I headed into the woods at a conservation area where they have a waterfall and a fire pit nearby. The kids gathered kindling in the forest as we walked to the fire pit (about a 30- 45 minute walk through the forest). Because it was a Thursday during the day during the school year, we had the place to ourselves. We got there and the kids worked together with the adults to get the fire going, and when it was blazing we all roasted hotdogs and marshmallows and chatted and the kids explored the surrounding forest. Some kids even made ornaments for the birds with bird seed and hung them up in the trees. It was honestly so warm and cozy and lovely and magical. I just kept thinking about how incredibly lucky we were to get to do this, instead of being stuck inside the 4 walls of a public school. Our kids are just so happy and thriving. And yes, we did our academic work in the morning before the hike! Lol. Just saying, I was filled with so many doubts about this path but days like this make it just feel so worthwhile and really makes me grateful and happy that I chose this, even if it's not always easy or straightforward. Even if down the road, for whatever reason, we decide to do public schooling, I know my kids will remember these days with such fondness and have such happy memories of childhood, wild and free and filled with nature.

I’ll try to keep this short (Edit: I failed). My nonprofit is developing a free curriculum for functionally illiterate folks and struggling readers. We’d love the perspective of homeschool parents of 9+ year olds. I made this account just to reach out to this community. :)

I’ve always been a fan of providing value before asking for it, so here are some of the least intimidating literacy resources we’ve encountered through this process. These aren’t curriculums so much as tools to better understand (and thus teach) reading:

• Help Your Kids with language Arts by Gambrell, Rowan, and Savard: This book is in my local (Louisville) library system and is pretty comprehensive grammar-wise. It’s definitely not something I’d hand to a new reader, just because of the density. Still, even as someone with a literacy background now wanting to teach it, it was nice to check out the book and kind of double check our work. It’s chock full of examples of different grammar concepts AND it starts delving into writing as well.

• The Inforgraphic Guide to Grammar by Jara Kern: Another library book. Very short. I can’t say I was as thorough in my flipping through of this one, but it’s a small book that’s visually appealing. It’s like a much friendlier version of the first book. I initially picked it up to cross reference what topics we covered vs the book, and Im honestly in love with how straightforward they managed to make grammar. Absolutely recommend.

• Uncovering the Logic of English: Checked this one out because it put an emphasis on spelling, which I’ve found many early reading resources don’t do. It’s not creatively formatted like the other two; it’s just a standard book. It truly is a guide to spelling (not reading). It’s absolutely worth skimming if you or your child struggle with spelling. But it’s not going to move the needle on grammar or comprehension.

• Not a book, but just a note. There has been a decline in reading full books (versus excerpts), and it’s been shown that reading full books does wonders for reading comprehension specifically. Graphic novels count (to a lesser extent). Following a complex story with multiple character arcs, conflicts, etc genuinely improves literacy.

With that said here’s some context to this post:

I am part of a newer adult education nonprofit and we are building a self-paced, basic literacy curriculum. It will be entirely free (like public-YouTube-course-plus-a-multi-hundred-page-textbook-as-an-online-printable-PDF free). Our goal is to take English-speaking adults from fully or functionally illiterate to proficient in reading and reading comprehension. Comprehension is our end goal; a lot of resources stop at reading the words without understanding them.

The primary objective is filling the gap in teaching adults to read. Once you’re grown, there are next to no resources for learning to read, especially on your own schedule, especially especially for free. Since starting this project the public school literacy crisis has been mentioned to us time and time again, and we’ve decided to expand our target audience to children who are in remedial reading/ELA or are far below grade level. This is not our area of expertise.

In terms of our progress, we will be finalizing a textbook then filming a video series that walks through the curriculum using the textbook. The final release date of the entire everything is set for late April/early May (in time for public Summer break). We’re in the final stages of finalizing the textbook draft (minus illustrations), so now is the time to add content or move stuff around.

We haven’t landed on just how young of an audience we want to cater to yet, but it wouldn’t be younger than 9. In 4th grade public schools tend to move past teaching reading. That’s where you really start to fall behind if you aren’t at grade level. So our target audience will not include anyone below a 9-year-old listening comprehension level.

• THE “ASK” -

We want this course to be as accessible and easy to follow as possible for EVERYONE. Unfortunately, there is a lot more research on how adults learn than children. Plus, children have shorter attention spans, less expansive vocabularies, and may not understand the importance of reading (and are thus less motivated to learn it).

I come to you all to ask what you have found works in terms of keeping children engaged in learning to read. Or better yet, what do they hate about it? What activities spark the most interest? How long of a video can they usually sit through? What topics do they find interesting? What’s been the hardest reading/writing concept for you (as their teacher) to get across? What’s 1000% essential in your opinion to learning to read? Literally any opinions/rants would be lovely.

Feel free to ask me anything at all. There’s very little I can’t answer about this all. I just didn’t want to make this post any longer. I won’t say the name we’ve given the curriculum, though, since nothing has been published yet and blah blah blah copyright.

For those of you that have used Singapore/Dimensions Math, how do you like it?

And how ready-to-go is the curriculum?

i see that there are lots of manipulatives available for purchase, but it isnt clear which items will be needed for each level. Did you find yourself constantly having to come up with your own items last minute?

i want a strong math curriculum that i can pull out of the cubby, turn to the next lesson and do with my kids right away without having to prep supplies. Is that realistic with this curriculum?

Hi everyone! I'm hoping this amazing community can help me out. About a year ago, I came across a blog/website that was made by a homeschooling mom. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the blog or the blogger, but I do remember that she had cultivated an amazing list of books that could be used to teach any and all subject for elementary kids. For example, stories to teach math concepts, science concepts, etc. It was an exhaustive list! I remember being so impressed and I actually got a bunch of the books from the library and it was very helpful. Here's the thing, I'm an idiot and I didn't save the link or write down the name.

Things I remember; the mom was a retired homeschooler, she put the list together out of the goodness of her heart, it had hundreds of titles on it, it was broken down by subject AND topic. It was amazing.

Can anyone help me find it? I did google and search and I even asked ChatGPT.

Hi! Pretty straightforward question. We just started TYCTR earlier this week and I was wondering if it would be beneficial or detrimental to add in the Teach Your Monster to Read app to supplement.

The reason I ask is because TYCTR has the different looking alphabet for the first 70ish lessons so idk if adding the app to utilize during screen time would confuse my son. But his preschool does phonics already so idk if there would be any confusion.

My son is almost 4 and eager to try to learn to read currently. We are taking it day by day.

Were not homeschooling yet because my daughter is only 2 but I wanted to just look and see what the curriculums are like. Any free curriculums I could look through?

My moody 9 year old constantly has a bad attitude during lessons. Both him and his brother were not vibing with TGATB curriculum I was using for some time now so I agreed to try something else. We're doing Easy Peasy now and little one likes it fine, but my 9 year old is still being such a turd. It's not the curriculum, it seems, it's his mindset about lessons. Our lessons are NOT overly vigorous at all so it's not like it's too much for him, he's not struggling with any subjects. His health is fine. It's like he's just adopted this grouchy, complainy personality and I'm fed up. Any advice appreciated- have tried talking to him about it many times, offering "points" for good attitude, stop for snacks as he does get hangry, and as I said before his health is good- no physical or neurological issues.

In the early 2000s, I came across a brick-and-mortar school that taught parents to teach their children multiple languages, instruments, math, etc. It was a school where parents would pay tuition for a 7-14-day, in-person, course. I saved the information for the school so that it would be available when I had children. I have kids now, but I lost information about the school. Does anyone have any idea of the school I am talking about and how to contact it? All suggestions will truly be appreciated.

I'm looking for tv shows that are educational but do not involve cartoons, for school hours. The plan is to compromise with my kids and give them tv access after their responsibilities are taken care of but still encourage them to lean into play over tv during the school hours. I notice even educational tv shows suck children in and only provide minimal education and a lot of dopamine. I'm needing low dopamine informational videos like documentaries. My kids are still young so tv shows that do not talk about war/sex/drugs are preferred. TIA!

Edited: thank you for the recommendations!! We will be using a lot of these!

Hi! This is my first time posting on reddit, but I'm in a really tough spot. I'm sorry if any of this seems confusing. I'm 15 and I use time4learning, but I've been using it as a stand alone program for over a year. I started homeschooling in 9th, and I'm STILL doing 9th grade work. I don't have any motivation to do the work, and I don't know what to do. My mother refuses to put me back in a public school, and if she did, she said she'd choose the one 30 minutes away and not the one near us. I'm debating on going back now, because I feel SO behind. There's some things I barely understand on here, but then there's things that are way too easy. I've been trying to tell my mom it's just a curriculum, but she doesn't understand. Anytime I ask for help, she says she doesn't know how to do anything. I feel stuck. I'm in 10th grade yet I'm still doing 9th grade work. Should I just move on to 10th grade work? The laws in my state are also confusing to me regarding homeschooling. I'm just really lost, and I feel like my education is doomed.

Right now we are using a boxed curriculum and I want to continue to probably because I like how things weave themselves together and grow on each other. I do consider if we need to do something more rigorous without aging up. In your experience or opinion what’s the most rigorous all in one. I am not interested in abeka, TGATB, BJU or Masterbooks.

I have a Kindergartner who really likes school and is doing quite well. They are learning tons!

There are a lot of positives and negatives, obviously, to public school , haha. We are considering homeschooling, but with an 18 month old and plans to have another baby next year, I am worried that the learning will be the first thing to go.

We happen go to one of the best elementary schools in the state. I do not have an educational background and feel totally inadequate to give them an equal education.

What does your daily and weekly schedule look like to give your kids the best education you can?

TIA!!

My daughter is and only child, so we have always tended to just do school together because she gets my full attention. Now I am feeling like there is stuff she should be doing by herself, but I think she uses me a bit as a crutch. Like she would rather do schoolwork with somebody versus by herself.

What is your favorite audiobook/audio device for a preschooler? I read aloud a TON, as often as I can. We have borrowed a Tonie box from the library and my daughter loves it, though I don't want to purchase one with all the figurines. We enjoy audiobook podcasts, but realistically I don't really want my phone or devices involved.

Anyways what's your best go to for audiobooks/stories for little ones? Some sort of mp3 player? Thoughts on Yoto box? Also please share your favorite story sources. Thanks!

I think this could be a helpful poll for prospective homeschoolers to see. Newcomers often don't know just how much freedom they have (all done within local regulations, of course)

What's your homeschool's yearly schedule?

View Poll

Does anyone have the implementation guide received in the full package for Level 1 - The Island Level?

I have purchased his books, but not in a compete package so I did not receive the 28 week implementation guide.

I would greatly appreciate a copy!

Hi all, I'm curious to know if there's an actual curriculum book that goes through basic art principles for younger ages, like 5-7 ish. Things like colors, shading, perspective etc. But obviously in a very introductory, fun way with little exercises to do.

Thanks

**ETA: thanks so much for all the helpful recommendations. You guys are awesome. This is such a helpful community. Much love to all! **

I’ve googled for the best and downloaded a few apps for quizzing multiplication. They have all been terrible. I just want one that blasts out the questions so he can answer.

Anyone know a good app?

Thanks!!!

I am looking for a rigorous or more fast paced math curriculum for my 1st grader. He is currently doing 3rd grade math using Math With Confidence and while I love the curriculum for my struggling student, it’s not going too well for my math minded kiddo. He usually understands concepts the first time it’s explained (sometimes he doesn’t even need an explanation, he just gets it). MWC will sometimes spend 2 weeks on a single concept. I have done a lot of work condensing lessons, skipping lessons, etc. I don’t mind continuing to do so but I’m wondering if there’s a better program that moves along faster?

We have tried Beast Academy and while he did fine with that I did not enjoy teaching it myself 😅 The story explanations were long and he didn’t care for an entire 2-3 page story for a single concept.

I’m looking at Saxon (I would not require every question to be worked through) or Singapore dimensions. Possibly Rod and Staff. But asking here for input or other suggestions.

Hi! My daughter is six years old and has a moderate speech delay. We have done speech therapy in the past (2 years) but it was not working out. I began working with her at home and she has progressed by leaps and bounds! She is now speaking in full sentences and has gained confidence with articulation. The thing I am struggling with is teaching her the ABCs. We can go over something and just a few minutes later, she can't name the alphabet or sound it makes. Has anyone else experienced a moderate delay such as this? It's so hard to not beat myself up over this. I think about it constantly and feel like a failure. I try my best to be patient with her and go at her pace. The hard thing she works at such a glacial pace. It took me two months just to get her to count from 1-10. I appreciate any feedback you all have. Thank you so much!

Hello! We are moving in the direction of pulling our 7 year old autistic son out of his SPED class and homeschooling full time.

Unfortunately 7 has not been taught many grade 1 or 2 concepts because the rest of his class aren’t at that level yet and school went back on their promise of teaching him where he’s at. As a result it’s caused behaviour problems and school is unwilling to move towards a solution because they won’t take ownership of the problem. The stress he’s been carrying is causing a lot of problems outside of school as well.

So we are homeschooling officially starting January.

Here’s my problem: my two year old has not been cooperative with any of the homeschool style work I do with 7. He has extreme FOMO about everything is big brother does.

Other challenges:

• 7 is not as the level where he can do work independently
• I don’t have any family nearby
• I do not have a driver’s license
• budget is limited for in home care for 2
• 2 inconsistently naps
• if 7 thinks 2’s activity is more fun, he won’t do homeschool
• 2 (being 2) has a very short attention span

My husband is sometimes home but he works shift work and every week looks different

Any tips?

My kids are 3 and 1. Very young and right at the start of our homeschooling journey. It’s going well and we are enjoying it. I wouldn’t even call it a homeschooling journey just yet lol. But the plan is to homeschool until age 7, then assess at the time and see if we all want to continue, if not they can go to school if they like. (I have a feeling they won’t want to, and that’s fine by me. I would love to homeschool all the way).

Anyway, after I had my first child I became fascinated by midwifery. Since then I’ve dreamed of becoming a midwife.

So now I’m just so stuck. I have this really big part of me that wants to do something for myself. I never really did anything for myself when I was younger because I had strict parents. They didn’t really allow me to do much. So I always wanted to be present with my kids and really be there for them.

I still want this, I want to be present. But something inside of me can’t shut up about going to study and becoming a midwife!!

I’m going crazy. For the past few weeks all I’ve been thinking about is how can I homeschool and become a midwife. I’ve spoken to my husband, he gets two days off a week, he said he could homeschool on those days. But I don’t even know, I can’t imagine him doing it. He’s a great dad and I would have to be really strict and I know he would do it … in his own way, which is fine. If he doesn’t start prioritising his parents which is a whole other story.

Anyway I don’t know what to do. Do I wait and do it when they’re older? Or should I do it now and when I’m done my eldest will be 7 and then homeschool all the way?

I mean it’ll probably make me not be present with them at all. I’ll probably be so in my head about everything. I’m a full time mum right now and I have so much mum guilt so just imagine me then.

I guess I have my answer. I’m just sad. I want to homeschool more than anything. But now I want to have something for myself and I would like to save and spend on them with my own money.

It’s a hard situation.

Give me tips on how to shut up about midwifery for now please. I need to shut up and stop being selfish I have kids now. I should’ve done it when I was younger even though I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life then.

I just wish I had a more supportive husband who was present. He isn’t present with me at all. He’s always in his head. His parents are always calling him. Feels like he’s struggling trying to divide his time. He had a hard time prioritising us over his parents anyway. I know if he was ‘homeschooling’ our kids while I was at university or placement, his mother would probably be at our house or he would just take the kids there …..

I can’t trust him with this. He has shown me many times by putting his parents above me. So no. So when do I go back to study then? Im 26 at the moment. Do I go back when I’m 45? :(

update I really appreciate all the replies and the advice! I think maybe I am trying too hard in him to get him to memorize this stuff. I struggled with math and it was attributed to my lack of memorizing the times tables. I think I'm trying to over correct and over compensate my struggles and being way too heavy on him. I'll be giving all the suggestions a try! Thanks everyone!

My 4th grader is at a math standstill. He was falling behind in math when he was in public school last year and now he's just crumbling at math. We've been trying to get him to memorize his multiplication tables, because if you ask him to multiply he just counts on his fingers over and over until he gets there. We've given him all sorts of different tools and songs and games and he's still deer in headlights counting on his fingers. If we give him a sheet with multiplication on it, even if it's on one of the times tables, he'll spend upwards of an hour on it. 10 questions, 60 questions doesn't matter. Any advice on how to break through to him on this? He understands the concept. But he just can't...get it in his noggin to stick. He's amazing in all his other subjects, just bleh to math. Thanks!

My 5 year old is in a non English playbased preschool in a non Anglophone country. Our family language is English. Kid is very interested in letters and reading . I'd like to support his interest in reading English more intentionally. While, obviously keeping fun and silly.

He has high functioning autism, slow processing, and a speech delay. He is sharp as a tack, very engineering inclined, and creative.

I'm looking for advice on how to structure it. What has worked for you and your kids? What resources do you recommend?

Edited to add what language what language I want to teach him to read.