I can’t believe we’re already a year into homeschooling… If you’ve been following along, then you know I had NO intention of homeschooling. It sorta just fell into place when we decided to move from Washington state to Arizona the year my son would also start Kindergarten.

For those that are new here, I’ll give you a little background on why we started homeschooling! You can view the long reason here.

I didn’t want there to be too much change on my son all at once with the move. Roman, my now 6-year-old son, originally wanted to go to a “regular school”. But, my husband and I didn’t feel it was in his best interest. So, him and I agreed I would homeschool him for Kindergarten. Then, if he still wanted to move to a “regular school” for first grade that we would start touring schools once it becomes time to start getting him on waitlists so he could do so.

Fast forward to the time to tour schools, and HE DIDN’T WANT TO. He wanted to keep homeschooling… And honestly, I don’t blame him. We’ve been able to do and explore so much more with the freedom of homeschooling.

Admittedly, from my SAHM and homeschool mom perspective- I had to take a step back and take some time to myself to process that he wants to keep homeschooling which undoubtedly puts more work and weight on me. I am okay with that, but at the time I was absolutely mentally preparing myself to have all of this free time open up for 2026.

I constantly remind myself that so much can happen in so little time- and I’ve proved that to myself time after time. This helps alleviate the thoughts of me feeling like I can’t do as much for myself business wise. I know these years will go by fast and it’s a short lived phase. When I have more time open back up (as they get older and become more independent) I’ll be able to go full throttle. But right now, my priority is setting a solid foundation for my babies and doing what is in their best interest.

So, let’s begin!

I believe the #1 thing I’ve learned this past year is to take the trips, break the schedule, call off school for the day and do the play date.

School CAN wait and that is a HUGE perk to homeschooling.

Take advantage of it!!!

School isn’t defining your schedule. YOU are making time for school as you see fits.

Of course as a mom, the last thing you want to do is fail your child. I read this quote once and it stuck with me, “The only way you’ll fail at homeschooling is if you give up on your child, and that’s not you. As long as you’re committed to showing up, learning and doing your best, you’re already on the plan to success”.

And to add to that- I wholeheartedly believe I am my child’s greatest advocate. I will do EVERYTHING in my power to ensure he reaches HIS full potential. While I believe and know of MANY GREAT, AMAZING, AWESOME teachers… I do NOT wholeheartedly believe that every teacher my child encounters in the system will also live up to that. Nor do I blame them. In my option, the weight put on teachers, ONE SINGLE PERSON, is insanity.

But, let me get back to what this post is about…

In the beginning few months, I stressed this a bit more than I should have. I was worried he’d get behind or that stuff wouldn’t “click” for him as easy if we skipped a day. I was so wrong.

Little did I know, 6 months in and we were already moving on to 1st grade material.

He was absorbing everything so quickly and so well. We spent approximately an hour a day focused on school about 4 times a week and he was thriving. That has also been the sweet spot for us personally to where we aren’t feeling burnt out by it.

Even if school got pushed into the evening where we tend to be a bit more tired- it would still successfully be completed.

As I saw the progress he made I became a bit looser in terms of a strict schedule/routine and let our life naturally flow into what or needs and wants were.

Here’s the schedule we unintentionally went with:

1. Started our day with breakfast.
2. Headed out for a bike ride to the park (or some sort of play).
3. Ate again.
4. Headed off to the gym for me to get a workout in and the kids would play some more in the daycare.
5. Came home and ate again!
6. We would all hang out for about an hour or so. Just watching TV and having some chill out time.
7. I will get my 3-year-old daughter ready for a nap.
8. Once I put her down I will take time to myself if needed- anywhere from 20 min to an hour depending on what activities we have in the evening.
9. Then, I’ll start school with Roman. 1 hour to 1.5 hours max.
10. After school we’d take individual chill out time until my daughter wakes up from a nap or until I need to wake her up to leave to their jiu jitsu practice. I’ll also usually prep what’s needed for dinner during this time and get some house chores completed.
11. Jiu jitsu time!
12. Come home and its dinner time
13. Family time or whatever we’re feeling up to.

This is a super typical day for us! And again, it’s not time based or anything like that. Of course we have time ranges it all typically happens. But, I don’t time block myself because honestly that would stress me out! Haha

The second thing I learned is less is more.

When you’re exploring all different types of activities in hopes to provide variety, keep it fun, and to keep them engaged- you may find yourself accumulating a whole bunch of STUFF.

If you have the space to store it, then great!

But, we have very limited storage for our homeschool supplies.

I purchased two IKEA cabinets we designate to homeschool supplies and then I use two different kitchen cabinets by our dining table (since the dining table is where we do school).

If I find an activity I want to implement- I will try to see what we can sub some of the supplies with that we may already have on hand.

I also never ever purchase books, we will go to the library and check them out as needed. This can help reduce accumulating clutter that eventually you’ll have to spend more time dealing with in the future.

Another thing I try to do is when we need flashcards I will use a website like Teachers Pay Teachers to print out, cut and laminate them to create them myself. I like to do this because one, it can be cheaper. And two, I can select the choice of cards that are personalized to his needs. Sometimes flash card sets may include cards that are too easy for him to where it’s not even going to be used.

I also LOVE these BrainQuest workbooks. They cover several subjects and it’s all in one book. I really like having just a couple of workbooks rather dealing with several workbooks for different subjects. We go back and forth between California and Arizona a lot for family- so it really makes it nice to be able to fit everything for school into a small tub and be on our way!

Lastly, when focusing on subjects like music, science or even history. I’ll think “where can I bring him to that will cover that subject as a learning lesson?”. Those are usually subjects where you’ll typically find yourself buying MORE to cover the subject.

There are so many resources and options to explore and effectively cover those subjects without buying MORE. Example: kids museums, local history locations, bake something at home, appropriate youtube videos, musicals, etc.

The last thing I will leave ya with.

There’s going to be days YOU just don’t feel up to it.

And guess what? THAT’S OKAY!

Stay in your jammies.

Cuddle up and read a book together,

Build legos,

Do a puzzle,

Grab an iPad and play learning games,

Watch educational YouTube videos,

The list goes on!!!

Homeschooling doesn’t always mean you need to be sitting at a table pencil to paper.

It’s quite the complete opposite.

Adapt and adjust as many times as you need. That’s the beauty in it all.

Find your community and lean on resources as needed. There may be stuff you don’t know (I personally have learned so much along the way… sometimes I feel like I’m teaching both of us lol).

In these times, lean into support support from other children, adults, google, YouTube, etc.

You are your child’s greatest advocate. Explore the options out there and don’t always think you need to be the one to “teach”.

There’s going to be times you simply need to facilitate their learning in order to get them what they need for something to “click”.

THAT’S A WRAP

I hope you there was something in this post that helped alleviate a concern of yours if you’re thinking about homeschooling. I know it can be a tough decision for the entire household. But, now that we started- I can’t even picture it any other way.

I joke and say, “It’s funny because homeschool parents say I don’t know how parents do it with their kids in regular school. And then the “regular school” parents say I don’t know how homeschool parents do it.” Lol, always makes me laugh. We are all struggling??? Hahaha

If you have any questions or comments drop them below! I love hearing different perspectives and I am happy to answer your questions to my best ability!