Homeschooling requires commitment and hard work! It will require you to spend time planning, preparing, and teaching. We need these 5 keys to a happy homeschool year or we risk becoming stressed or overwhelmed.

When this happens our homes and our home school often are no longer enjoyable. Mom isn’t very happy, and neither are the kids. Instead, let’s look at some simple ways to keep things happy in our home school!

5 Essential Keys for a Happy Homeschool Year

1. Spend more time in God’s Word

Spending time in God’s Word give us wisdom and strength for the daily teaching and training of our kids. In order for us to point our kids to Christ, we have to know Him. We have to spend time in His Word, listening as He speaks.

When we love God’s Word and know it, we will naturally talk about it to our kids throughout the day. This, in turn, will give them a hunger and thirst for His Word.

We don’t need more resources, more field trips, more activities; we need more of Jesus and His Word in our homeschool. He will guide us through His Word, and keep us focused on what really matters.

That will lead to a feeling of peace and joy in our home school. One of our greatest goals in our parenting and homeschooling should be teaching God’s Word to our children.

2. Bathe your home school in prayer

God knows what each of our children needs, and what He wants for them. We need to ask Him! Seek God’s wisdom and direction, and pray regularly and consistently for those precious kids.

Ask God to lead you as you homeschool. Commit your works and your kids to Him. This will take the pressure off of you, and put your focus on what God can and will do.

God invites us to come to Him in prayer and offers His help. Take advantage of that offer, and quit trying to do it on your own. In your own strength, you will grow weary and disheartened. Pray, because prayer makes a difference!

3. Choose a curriculum that works for you

There are so many curriculum choices available, and making choices may at times seem overwhelming.

Keep it simple by asking these two questions about any curriculum choice:

• Will it help our children learn to love God?
• Will it help our children learn to love learning?

4. Include character training

One of the most important fruits we can develop in our children is Godly character. Working on character is much more important than the academics, and should receive first place in our day, after Bible.

When the kids have a strong character, they will work hard to do their work to the best of their ability. They will have the self-discipline to persevere even when it gets hard. They will do what they ought to because it is the right thing to do.

It’s important to focus on obedience first. You can’t teach a child who hasn’t first learned to obey. If a child won’t stay in bed when he is told to, it’s not likely that he will sit down and do school work.

Teach them to obey in small areas, and require it. When they learn to obey consistently and cheerfully, they are then ready for academics.

If on the other hand, you let disobedience go until you are frustrated and angry, it will disrupt your home school and your family life. The post  Ten Tips for First Time Obedience will help you if you are struggling in this area or download our Big Bundle of Fun and Simple Character Training Resources Here!

If you’re not sure where to start with character training, check out Little Lads & Ladies of Virtue and Lads & Ladies of Wisdom. These are preschool and elementary character curriculum that only take 10-15 minutes a day to teach, and are fun for kids!

5. Stay home more for a happy homeschool year

It is hard to home school when you are hardly ever home! If you really want to keep things happy and have less stress, limit your outside activities. When every hour of every day is booked, it stresses Mom and the kids.

Usually, too many outside activities cause you to neglect your priorities, and then you feel guilty. The kids feel stressed because they are behind in their work, or don’t get enough free time to just play and be kids.

I’m not saying to not have any outside activities. I am saying to choose wisely. Ask yourself if the activity is worth the time away from other things you might be doing and if it is beneficial in meeting your goals of homeschooling.

Time will always be at a premium for homeschooling moms, so we have to be careful in how we choose to spend that time.

If you’re not enjoying your home school, or your kids aren’t happy, try implementing some of these simple keys!

Are you wishing you had a veteran homeschooler to mentor you? Or maybe you are looking for someone who could give you lots of advice after homeschooling for three decades??

Grab our subscriber freebie:  60 Homeschooling Tips From 60 Years

Learn about the one thing you need in order to have the best homeschool high school schedule, and discover three different types of high school homeschool schedules that will keep your days running smoothly.

Watching ice skating, gymnastics, and ballet through the years leaves me in a bit of awe. The athletes are so incredibly flexible! This flexibility allows them to perform with both power and grace. 

The same is true for you when you embrace flexibility in how you schedule your homeschool high school. Your schedules will be both powerful and full of grace.

What is the Best Homeschool High School Schedule?

The best homeschool high school schedule is the one that works for your family. And flexibility is the key!

Flexibility means “the quality of bending easily without breaking; the ability to be easily modified; willingness to change or compromise.”

Planning a Flexible High School Homeschool Schedule

Schedules will only work if you actually keep them! However, there are times when life happens and you simply cannot follow your regular schedule. 

If you have to get off track for a few days or even weeks, jump back in where you left off as soon as you can. Your flexible homeschool schedule will work for you. Especially when life is chaotic. This isn’t the time to give up. 

It’s kind of like dieting—when we mess up it often leads to a cycle of continuing to think, “Well, one more day won’t make a difference.” But that logic is flawed because it will never help you reach your real goal of getting healthy. 

So if you get off your schedule, why not say, “We couldn’t keep the schedule the last few days, but we are flexible and can jump right back in today!”

An Easily Modified Homeschool Schedule

Often we don’t know how well a specific schedule will work for us until we try it for a while. It’s like working with a budget. You set one, try it out, and make adjustments after the first few weeks or months. And you continue to make adjustments as needed.

Creating a high school schedule that can be modified is essential. This way you don’t have to start over completely when subjects don’t take the amount of time you planned for them to take. It’s also a benefit if you need to do something different for a few weeks because of something unexpected. 

Be Willing to Change or Compromise

But what if you come up with the perfect homeschool schedule only to find your teen isn’t thriving with it? Remember why you have a schedule in the first place. Did you create a schedule to: 

• Provide accountability for both you and your teens
• Keep your students progressing through their studies in a timely manner
• Help to track hours and days to meet state requirements
• Give your days routine and structure

If one or more of these reasons was your motivation, then don’t be afraid to change or compromise. The type of homeschool schedule you choose needs to work for both you and your high school students. So if the schedule doesn’t move your teen toward their educational goals, find one that will. 

Thankfully you can choose from several different types of schedules—traditional, block, or loop—to meet your family and children’s needs!

High School Schedule Ideas

Before you choose the type of schedule you will use, please check state laws and guidelines for what constitutes a high school credit. Generally, credits can be awarded either on the basis of work completed or the number of hours spent on the subject. You can learn more about awarding credit in HSLDA’s article 3 Ways to Determine My Teen’s High School Course Credit.

Traditional Homeschool Schedule

With a traditional schedule, each subject is studied on a regular basis, usually daily. This is the type of schedule many of us grew up within the public schools. For example, your students might do math from 8:00–8:50 AM; language arts from 9:00–9:50 AM; science from 10:00–10:50 AM, etc. 

You can also extend one of those 10-minute breaks to be a bit longer mid-way through the morning to allow your teen to refresh a bit. There are some great ways to take a break that don’t include hopping on the phone to check Instagram or Tik Tok. A quick walk around the neighborhood or some exercise in the backyard are great alternatives.

A traditional schedule does not mean your schedule has to look exactly the same every day. Based on outside activities and appointments, you can adjust the times for each subject as needed. But generally speaking, your student will do the same classes for approximately the same amount of time every day.

Sample Homeschool Block Schedule

Block schedules allow students to spend more time on a subject each day so there isn’t as much transition time between studies. Though the amount varies depending on the study, research tells us that it takes valuable time to refocus with each interruption or change of task.

Proponents of block schedules believe that students are more productive when they aren’t constantly switching gears. 

There are multiple types of block schedules, but there are a few I’d like to highlight for you. The first is called a 4×4 block. Using this kind of schedule, each day students will study four different subjects for 90-minute blocks of time. This allows them to finish a course in one semester, much like a college class.

The second option is the A/B block. Like the 4×4 block, students spend 90-minutes per day per subject, but instead of four courses, they do eight every other day for the full school year. This will mean you make a schedule for two weeks. Each class will be Monday/Wednesday/Friday for one week and Tuesday/Thursday for the other one.

Another option is to do a core class block. Like the A/B method, the mornings are filled with 90-minute blocks on alternating days, but in this case, the afternoon is filled with 50 to 60-minute classes that are studied daily.

Homeschool Loop Schedule Examples

With a loop schedule, students cycle through their subjects spending as much, or little, time as needed. When they complete a subject for the day, they can record the time they spent on it and move on to the next subject on their list. The same is true when the day is done; the following morning students simply go to the next subject on their list. 

The disadvantage of this method is that it’s harder to keep track of how much time is spent on each subject. However, if you award credit based on work completed instead of the hours spent, this can be a great option that’s flexible enough to meet students’ unique needs.

Flexible Homeschool Schedule Benefits

Like those athletes and artists, flexibility will allow your schedule to be both powerful and full of grace. Homeschool high school schedules are powerful because they can keep your teens on track to complete their studies and move toward their goals. 

But another important aspect of a schedule is the underlying grace. By making schedules that can be adapted and changed, you will be able to set up a gracious and doable routine that respects your unique high school student. 

I hope these three different types of high school homeschool schedule ideas have helped your family today!

As you begin to process through what the best homeschooling schedule will be for you, why not grab these three FREE Homeschool High School Schedule Templates below!

These templates provide a shell for all three different types of schedules. With notes included to guide you in your schedule planning and homeschooling quotes to inspire you along the way, you will be set up for a successful year of homeschooling high school!

Download these FREE Homeschool High School Schedule Templates now and get started! ⇓

Homeschooling high school can seem a little daunting, and many homeschooling moms fear they don’t have what it takes to help their children succeed. Although we may confidently homeschool elementary and even middle school, the stakes seem to get higher and suddenly the doubts creep in. We can be left asking is it too hard to homeschool a high schooler?

Why is this?

Because we start to buy into lies such as…

• There’s no way we are qualified to teach every subject.
• Our kids need opportunities that are only available if they attend public school.
• Homeschool students have a difficult time getting into the best universities.

Let’s replace the lies with TRUTH!

3 Truths About Homeschooling High School

Homeschooling High School Truth #1

The Lie: There’s no way we are qualified to teach every subject. 

The Truth: Being qualified by the world’s standards isn’t a prerequisite for homeschooling high school.

Let’s start with what you don’t need: expertise in each subject. Homeschooling isn’t about how much knowledge you have, but in your ability to learn alongside your children, help facilitate their educational opportunities, and know where to find help when you need it. 

Perhaps the most powerful lesson you can teach your children is how to become a life-long learner. Show your students that discovering how to learn enables them to take charge of their own education, even beyond the years of living in your home. And because you aren’t an “expert” in every subject, you will be able to model just that.

You learn alongside one another as you research topics, find great resources, watch videos, read books, do experiments, and create things. 

You become a facilitator of learning as you and your high school students choose different resources, look for classes that are available in your community and online, and reach out to others who know more about a subject than you do.

What’s available in your community? 

• A community college or university
• Local theater
• Library
• Tutoring
• Courses offered through your city
• Co-ops or homeschool groups

Take advantage of these things as a part of an intentional high school plan to give your students a well-rounded education.

Homeschooling High School Truth #2

The Lie: Our kids need opportunities that are only available if they attend public school.

The Truth: Homeschooling high school offers unique opportunities that exceed anything that others think our teens are missing by not attending public school.

Sure there are opportunities that public schools offer, but that doesn’t mean that equal  (and even better) opportunities don’t exist for homeschool students. 

If anything, homeschoolers have even more opportunities than their public school counterparts because of the time, freedom, and flexibility that homeschooling offers. 

You’ll notice that several of the following opportunities allow our kids to develop community with peers and adults alike. The lack of socialization argument seems pretty silly when you look around and see all of the things homeschoolers are involved in today. 

High School Field Trips

Field trips can play a crucial role in your high school student’s education. Consider visiting traditional places like zoos and museums, as well as places specific to what your high school student may be interested in when it comes to a career. News agencies, marketing companies, florists, and other local businesses are other ideas. They are often willing to talk to an interested teen and show them around. 

Educational Family Vacations

Visit historical sites, explore museums in both large and smaller cities, and go to the places you are learning about in your studies as much as possible when traveling. Think of vacation time as a “field trip on steroids”! Whether it’s a trip to Washington DC after studying the federal government or the Grand Canyon after studying geology, travel gives students the opportunity to see learning come to life.

Teen Socials

Teen socials and dances, that parents are actually welcomed to attend and supervise, provide a great opportunity for teens to get together in a responsible and appropriate way. If your city or a community college offers dance classes—such as swing or ballroom dancing—have a group of teens sign up together. Then plan a social for them to show off their skills.

Other socials that are easy to plan include:

• Game nights
• Holiday parties
• Movie nights
• Going out to eat together
• Bingo night

So consider working together with other homeschooling parents to share the load of planning socials for your community’s high school teens. Your student will love it!

4-H Competitions

4-H is a non-profit organization. Through 4-H programs, students will learn a variety of skills with hands-on learning opportunities in the areas of STEM, agriculture, healthy living, and civic engagement. 

 Many homeschoolers are a part of 4-H clubs. If your area doesn’t have one, you may want to consider starting one yourself. 4-H offers scholarships to teens, leadership opportunities, conferences, and a variety of competitions and activities students can be involved in.

Sports 

Homeschool teens are involved in sports including swim teams, basketball, volleyball, tennis, golf, and more. Some participate with private schools while many have started their own teams and leagues. A few states even allow homeschoolers to participate with their local schools’ sports teams. 

Homeschooling High School Truth #3

The Lie: Homeschool students have a difficult time getting into the best universities.

The Truth: Homeschool students are not only getting into universities, those universities actively pursue them.

At times there may be different requirements from some universities. But that doesn’t mean homeschool students are not accepted into universities all over the United States. Universities often actively recruit homeschool students. They know that they tend to be self-starters, responsible, creative, and socially active students who serve their communities.

If a university education is one of your family’s goals, know that you will need to keep some records, create a transcript, and have your student take a test such as the SAT or ACT. However, this isn’t difficult to do and there are many resources designed to help such as the following ones. 

Resources for Homeschooling High School

Lee Bintz has spent over 10 years helping parents homeschool their high school students at The HomeScholar. 

She has multiple books and resources to help parents navigate the high school years including Setting the Records Straight: How to Craft Homeschool Transcripts and Course Descriptions for College Admission and Scholarships.

Cheryl Bastian of Celebrate Simple has created a couple of resources for homeschooling high school. 

• Celebrate High School: Finish with Excellence

“High school is not a one-size-fits all experience. The journey is unique for every student. Celebrate High School equips parents and students of any educational philosophy with easy-to-follow explanations, ready-to-use examples, and parent testimonials.”

• More Than Credits: Skill High Schoolers Need for Life

This is a “ready-to-use guide parents can reference as they walk alongside their teens and young adults through five personal development credits

• Nutrition and Wellness,
• Personal Fitness,
• Personal Awareness and Career Exploration,
• Philosophy, and
• Personal Finance

Each course intentionally prepares learners to be future-ready while gaining a better understanding of who they are and what they believe.”

You Can Homeschool High School!

Don’t believe the lies! You can homeschool high school successfully. Thousands of homeschool families have gone before you and found it to be a rewarding time for both parents and students. So focus on the truth and continue to give your students an education based at home.

So, Mom, I have to know, which of these three truths is the most important to you?

Despite contrary beliefs, homeschooling is not always easy… and yet, it is not always hard either. There are times when children are absolutely loving the journey, while other times they can be completely resistant. If you find yourself dealing with a child who isn’t too excited about learning at home, consider these homeschool resources for the resistant child.

Homeschool Resources For The Resistant Child

Read-Alouds for Homeschool

Read-alouds can often be overlooked, but perhaps it’s because they are misunderstood. The idea of read-alouds is to incorporate rich literature in your child’s education. Truth be told, you can use living books as textbooks and cover a wide variety of subjects without having a different book per subject.

Read-alouds are also an effective way to teach multiple children simultaneously. Not only are they learning together, but also at their own pace. Read-alouds also link perfectly with the next resource suggestion.

Looking for read-alouds that build character? Try these:

• Heidi by Joanna Spyri
• Missionary Stories with the Millers by Mildred A. Martin
• Calls to Courage by Tim Kennedy
• Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Lapbooking and Notebooking Ideas

Notebooking and lapbooking are seen as the same thing, but they are actually a tad bit different. Notebooking deals more with creating and compiling a personalized notebook of learning experiences, new knowledge, insights, illustrations, creative writing, and reflections.

Lapbooking, on the other hand, is simply a file folder that contains a variety of “mini-books,” foldables, and other materials that cover detailed information about a particular topic.

Both of these options give resistant children the ability to self-express what they are learning while retaining important information in the process. They also make for great keepsakes to look back on (or use to show proof of homeschooling).

Hands-On Homeschool Activities for the Resistant Child

Hands-on activities, especially for the kinesthetic learner, is an easy way to switch things up for the resistant child. With the number of homeschoolers on the rise, so are the resources you can get to help supplement your child’s learning.

Consider the following activities to help give your child a new way to learn:

• Craft Projects: These can be anything from building a castle to go with your study of the Middle Ages or building a cardboard aquarium to extend an aquatic study.

• Feasts: Feasts are a great way to add a cultural spin, especially with geography studies. If you’re learning about Mexico, consider a Cinco de Mayo inspired feast!

• Create from Scratch: Think playdough, slime, and other recipes that allow kiddos to get dirty but create and learn at the same time. For example, if you’re studying landforms, you can make some playdough then make 3-D visuals of mountains, hills, rivers, etc.

Virtual Homeschool Resources

For some homeschoolers, virtual resources are the way to go. Most children who like to learn virtually are typically the ones who can learn independently and would much rather learn in a secluded type of form (versus gathered around the kitchen table).

Often these types include the difficult or resistant child. There are many programs and resources that offer individual courses up to fully laid out plans for an entire year. 

If you’re unsure about incorporating virtual learning, start with a single course and take note of how your child responds.

Games

Although it may not feel like it, playing games is actually a great way for children to learn. It is also something that can be easily incorporated into your daily routine. Just to give you an idea of how games foster learning, they enhance: verbal communication, self-regulation, turn-taking, sharing, listening, social skills, focus, and more.

With play being at the heart of a child and the science of childhood, games may do wonders for the resistant child.

There are a variety of games to choose from:

• Games by subject
• One-player games
• Non-competitive games
• Games that promote reasoning and logic
• Games that teach specific skills

And so on! The possibilities are truly endless when it comes to using games to homeschool your resistant child.

In addition to the suggestions above, also keep in mind that sometimes simply choosing life-learning can do wonders. This allows you to use your child’s natural environment as a way to learn. If your child likes to cook, give them a few recipes to make. If your child likes to build, give them blocks or Legos. The point is to allow them to learn naturally.

What are some ways you’ve homeschooled a resistant child? What are some resources you’ve used?

Let me know in the comments below!