Top 5: Reasons We Keep Our Homeschool Relaxed

Affiliate links can be found within this post. If you need additional information, please see the disclaimer.

The Homeschool Journey

I’ll always remember the anxiety the first year we started homeschooling. We had been talking about it for a long time, but the time had finally arrived and we felt overwhelmed. We started out with a pretty simple plan and the next few years were really an opportunity to observe and absorb what worked and what didn’t.

We tried the approach of cramming a lot into their days, but all we had at the end of the day were tired and grumpy kids. We’re blessed to live in a state that allows the flexibility to set our own curriculum. I know many places do not have this luxury.

Because of this, we are able to structure their subjects and time spent on each one in anyway we please. We made the decision to create their school day with a very “relaxed” approach for five important reasons.

Top 5 Reasons We “Relaxed” The Schedule

Focused Education
Retain More Information
Reduces Stress
Expanded Opportunities
Hands-On Learning

Let’s take a deeper dive into why each one of these reasons was important to us in developing a more “relaxed” homeschool environment

Focused Education

My husband and I are big supporters of a relaxed homeschool schedule, as well as environment, that really fosters the creative landscape and opportunity to learn at their own own pace. After the first year, we quickly introduced the “one subject per day” method and that’s what we’ve stuck with ever since. For some, this just doesn’t work and that’s ok. For those of you out there looking for a more relaxed pace to set your homeschool, this method works really well for us, and can for you, too!

Our kids do all major subjects each week but we only do the following:

Science
Language Arts
Geography/Social Studies
Math

Retain More Information

We quickly realized after instituting the one subject per day schedule, the kids starting retaining more information. This was a direct result of devoting their focus to each subject and essentially giving them the entire day to explore additional studies on that subject if they chose to do so. We could incorporate projects and activities associated with the subject, and the learning all around was more engaging for them.

Reduce Stress

As they settled into their daily actiivties, they felt less stress regarding getting their work done for the day. Our kids were already pretty relaxed and don’t have too much stress in their lives. But knowing exactly what they had to work on for the day and devoting their attention to it fully, allowed them to continuously reduce their stress.

School became fun and that’s really the goal here. We want our children educated on the things they need to know, but we also want them having fun and enjoying the things they’re learning about.

Expanded Opportunities

“All good things are wild and free.”
Henry David Thoreau

We use our morning time to read together and incorporate additional supportive learning like studying different historical artists, exploring history more deeply, or learning about different animals. This equates to about 2 hours per day of school, which really opens the day up to letting them have time for their own self exploration. Every so often we get together with our community group (Wild+Free) so we can explore local attractions where the kids can learn alongside other kids on field trip style events. We’ve been to the Arizona Worm Farm, The Desert Botanical Garden and toured a local Fire Station so fr this year.

Limiting time in their book studies opens them up to be able to retain more of what they learned, reduces their stress and removes the need for homework or hours spent on classwork. The shorter schedule provides us all extra time to do more field trips around town to incorporate learning into their everyday life. The education they receive is incredibly focused on what they are studying for that day.

Hands On Learning

This was something we were lacking in our schedule a lot until last year. I asked my oldest (now in 6th grade), what would he change if he had the opportunity to change something we were doing. He very poignantly called out the fact that he would like to do more hands on activities.

I took his feedback to heart and made sure that a few days a week encourage hem to work together on science experiments, art projects or other activities where they are doing something with their hands

Sometimes we just take a trip into the back yard and explore the plants and animals around us.

From our experience, hands-on learning is one of the best approaches for not only assisting in the retention of what they’re learning, but provides more excitement and practical knowledge that they can carry forward with them.