Whenever someone asks me about homeschooling my daughter I always struggle with providing an adequate answer. I can’t give them our daily routine or the curriculum we use—we dont use them. I can’t explain what “grade” she’s in. It is difficult to explain an entire lifestyle in but a few words. I find that  a lot of the people find it difficult to grasp the idea that a child can learn without a school schedule and setting. That in fact, a child can actually thrive without a schedule.

Our entire day is actually spent schooling. We wake up each morning and start learning. We learn time management and teamwork. Everyone needs to be washed up and rooms cleaned before we head downstairs, and with a newborn in the house, life definitely requires both skills. We continue our day and as we do, we learn to read, write, add, subtract and so much more. If I actually wrote down the lessons that  we covered each day, the list would go on and on. We don’t have a fixed daily schedule, we don’t have lesson plans. Some days we use workbooks to learn and some days the grocery store. I don’t even know how or what I will teach her next month. All we have is a list of goals for the year and life.  If I see her excelling in a specific “subject,” I add more content and share more information with her. If I see she needs more time with something or is really enjoying it, we will dedicate more time towards that subject. I don’t force her to follow a schedule and move onwards until she is ready. I create projects and activities related to a “subject” and work on them with her, be it one hour or one month. Even if we are making slow progress with one subject, we are continuing further on with others using the same project. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense for us to create a schedule.  A schedule would only create unnecessary restrictions and stress—it would create an environment of focusing on excelling or “falling behind,” when in fact the focus should be on learning. No part of life is one dimensional, and learning, as a major part of life, is no different.

I’m sure as my daughter gets older we will add more structure to our schooling. For the time being, this works for us. We get time to bond, work on our relationship, and focus on her growing intellectually, emotionally, & spiritually into the best person I can guide her to be.