I want to tell you about the year I almost quit homeschooling.
Not because I didn’t believe in it. I believed in it completely. But I was drowning in curriculum, behind on every subject, and convinced that my kids were falling irreparably behind some imaginary standard I couldn’t even define.
The problem
I was doing too much. And none of it well.
That was the year I stripped everything back to almost nothing. And what I discovered changed how we homeschooled for the next 20 years.
Here’s what we kept:
Read aloud every single day. Not as a subject. Not scheduled. Just — we read together because it’s one of the most powerful things a family can do. Vocabulary, comprehension, imagination, connection. All of it happens in the reading chair.
Math — a little, every day. Consistency matters more than the curriculum. We picked something simple and did a little every single day. That’s it.
Copywork for English. Ten minutes. A beautiful passage. A notebook. Everything else — grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure — absorbed naturally from copying the sentences of people who wrote extraordinarily well. My daughter went to college and her English professor asked to use her first essay as a class example. Copywork and nothing else.
Conversation. The underrated curriculum. Car rides. Dinner table. Walks. The questions my kids asked and the ones I asked back. More learning happened here than in any lesson I ever planned.
That’s it.
What we didn’t keep:
No science textbook that year. No history curriculum. No formal writing program. Just those four things — and somehow my kids learned more that year than any year before it.
Here’s what I want you to take from this on a Monday morning when you’re staring at your lesson plans feeling overwhelmed:
You don’t need more. You need better.
The best homeschools I’ve seen aren’t the ones doing the most. They’re the ones doing a few things consistently and with real intention.
If you’re feeling behind today — you’re probably not. You’re probably just carrying too much of the wrong stuff.
What’s one thing you could drop this week that nobody would miss?
Drop it in the comments. I’d love to hear.
Without science, the world is so confusing. Where is the science in your homeschool?
Besides all the science we discover through living, we read “real” books (with the exception of several Science books by Apologia Science) and watch documentaries.
I am so feeling this today. My 10-year-old son was using every avoidance technique possible to get out of writing 7 lines of cursive. This was after ten hours of sleep and a full breakfast. If it’s not him doing it, it’s my 11-year-old daughter doing something to try to avoid the work. If they’re not trying to get out of the work, they are arguing with each other. It’s so exhausting. I had been considering just doing copywork instead of a language arts curriculum, and this – what you’ve said – is pushing me closer to just doing it. I don’t know if my son will enjoy it much more because it still involves pencil to paper, but it would still be less on them. Thank you for sharing this!
I would definitely try it. You can always go back! Just having what to write in front of them takes a lot of the burden off. My kids seem to enjoy it.
I love this! I’m just always worried if I have enough for grades, record keeping, and for transcripts/diplomas. How did you handle those?
I get creative and have AI help me.
I love this concept…my question is how do you record grades especially for the high school years when they may need a transcript should they choose to continue their education in a college or trade school?
I don’t record grades. If they need a transcript I just make them up. Grades are stupid and arbitrary.
A hearty Amen lol!
I have completed four HS transcripts for four sons at university right now. All are doing very well…one is about to graduate next spring and has been on the dean’s list almost every semester; another (married) one is also about to graduate next spring and just signed a contract with the company he’s been interning for the last three summers and will be making more money – fresh out of college – than my husband is currently; another is married with two sweet babies and is moving up in a great career while finishing an Associate’s Degree; and the last one is only in his second year and, although he is more athletically and artistically inclined than academically inclined, he’s rockin’ it, too!
And I made up almost all of their grades on their transcripts!!
I love this. I raise and homeschool my granddaughter. Going on 3 years niw, just entering 7th grade. She was so–so far behind when I pulled her. Shes doing good, but I can’t help feeling like I’m not doing enough like I’m failing her.
We all feel that. Are you on my email list and if so, did you get the email I just sent out? I think it will help. If you’re not, you should subscribe!