Flexibility: One of Joys of Homeschooling!

Posted by Jamie | 0 comments

Every time I have to give a reason for why I choose to homeschool, flexibility comes to mind as one of my biggest reasons. There are plenty of other, more noble reasons, but flexibility ranks high on the list for me as one of the reasons I so love home education!

Right now our family is in a season of having one child (my almost-17-year-old daughter) in public school and one child (11-year-old daughter) homeschooling. This is the first year I’ve ever been a public school parent. I’ve explained the whys in greater depth on my blog, but the very condensed version is that we felt this was the right choice for our family at this time. However, as I’m living this out, I’m seeing and experiencing the inflexibility of traditional school even more! Truly, I’m appreciating home education more and more every day!

Flexibility in home-education plays out numerous ways:

1) Flexibility allows you to change teaching styles or curriculum. If something isn’t working, we can change it! Math became a stumbling block for us recently, so we stepped back to assess what was and wasn’t working. As a result, we decided to go with a new style of curriculum that is working beautifully so far. We changed it because we could, and we can do this any time throughout the year; there is no reason we must wait until the next school year.

2) Flexibility allows you to tweak existing curriculum. Perhaps a curriculum is working mostly well, but needs a few little changes to be just right. We did this recently with our vocabulary curriculum when I decided that one particular exercise each week was causing more trouble than it was worth, and really wasn’t essential to my daughter’s learning. So we stopped doing that exercise. I’m the mom and the teacher, so I can make those changes as needed. “Tweaking” is allowed.

3) Flexibility allows life to take precedence over school. In our lives recently, we’ve faced some health issues and hospitalization for my dad, the birth of my daughter’s little brother (her dad and step-mom’s new addition to the family), and several other big events that can’t be scheduled precisely ahead of time. Rather than having to make up schoolwork or miss out on exciting events, we can choose to let life take precedence over school. We learn through these big events, and we’ll have plenty of time to catch back up on things like math and history. Those things can wait; life does not wait.

4) Flexibility allows time for spontaneity in our day. Sometimes, when we’re having a really good homeschool day (or maybe when we’re having a really rotten homeschool day!) we can take a break. My daughter and I might decide to head to the local frozen yogurt place up the road to sit and chat and taste each other’s yogurt concoctions. We might go to the library and find a few new books that look interesting. Or we might just go on a walk around the block if it’s a beautiful day. Our day-to-day schedule is flexible, so we have time to be a little bit spontaneous.

5) Flexibility allows for field trips and days off. We try to do field trips about once a month. Sometimes these trips are planned well in advance, and sometimes not. Either way, it doesn’t throw our schedule out of whack because I allow wiggle-room when I make my school year plans. I do have weekly schedules, but we can add in a field trip here and there without getting off track. Occasionally, my husband takes a day off work, and we go have fun day just because we can.

6) Flexibility allows for a yearly schedule that suits each unique family. This is one way where our family is a bit limited right now, with one child in public school, but I love hearing about families who school all year round, or the mom in my homeschool group who starts her school year at the beginning of the calendar year. Some families choose to do school six days a week, but take more frequent weeks off, while some families do school only four days each week. There are limitless possibilities, all based on each family’s particular dynamics, dad’s work schedule, and so on.