When does school start for you?

This is probably one of the questions I’m asked most as a homeschooling mom. It used to bother me, especially when followed with a statement like, “Oh, well we’ve already started,” and it’s the middle of June. But now, I’m grateful for the freedom of homeschooling and how we adjust our schedules to fit our lifestyle. It’s different from others but I’m ok with that.

While you’re starting back homeschooling in June or back to school shopping in July, we are probably wrapping up our school year. Because we homeschool around harvest time on the farm, we won’t start until after Labor Day and finish the end of June. In between then, all eight of us work on the farm doing age appropriate jobs.

 

 
They might not be learning bookwork during those times but they’re learning great life skills working alongside us. When the weather app reads 90° and higher and feels like the Michelin man in a sauna, we learn to persevere through the hard stuff. We discover we are the only ones who can motivate us to get down and do the dirty work no one looks forward to. It’s a tough job but someone’s gotta do it! That’s what we tell each other when we’re sweeping the barn for the umpteenth time or shoveling corn that spilled out of the top of the grain bin. 

Lots of life lessons.

 

 

Homeschooling from the farm was a flop

We tried homeschooling year round at the farm office which sits right in front of the barn. It didn’t work well. With the constant stream of customers needing my attention and semi trucks waiting for me to load, the kids used every opportunity as a break time. At the end of the day, their schoolwork sat unfinished and my patience disappeared. We evaluated and readjusted and now we school around our busiest season –harvest.

   
Harvest is over–now what?

Around Labor Day, harvest is usually over and while we still might be selling locally from the farm, we have more time for schooling. We’ll usually end up splitting our time between home and the farm office which means we all still need backpacks and lunches and school supplies, not to mention meeting with our co-op once a week.

For the kids, it’s an adventure.

  
For me, it means careful planning and preparation to achieve our weekly school goals. Last year, I gleaned wisdom from another homeschooling mama and bought inexpensive composition notebooks and wrote a weekly planner with check boxes for my oldest three kids. They LOVED knowing what schoolwork was due for the week and worked independently the majority of the time rather than waiting for me to give them assignments from my own gigantic planner.

This year, all six of my kids asked for their own assignment books which I gladly agreed to before I realized how long it would take me to write out each one! 🤣

So do you have a school room?

Haha! Yes, everyone wants to know this! Thanks to Pinterest and Instagram, homeschooling mamas everywhere can show off their beautiful school rooms. Except you won’t see my pictures there! At the farm office, we have a designated school room with 5 desks for the kids. There’s not room for another one which is fine because it allows the sixth kid to work one-on-one with me in the front room. While it’s not glamorous and beautiful, it’s functional and meets our needs.

At home, we have more space to learn more comfortably. For the kids who need structure, they work from the dining room table with the understanding that it’s to be cleared for breakfast and dinner. For the less structured kids, they work from the living room couches or the porch.

I’m a bit of a Type A personality so finding ways to meet my child’s learning needs, especially when they differ from mine, is a challenge. I like structure, planning, and sitting at the table to work. So when my kid who works better hanging upside down with playdough in one hand and a pencil in the other, that’s hard for me to wrap my head (and my sanity) around. But together, we remind one another that it’s ok if we homeschool differently than others (including each other) and it’s a blessing we’re grateful for. 💙

What about you?

Are you a homeschooling mama? What does homeschooling from your home or work look like? Do you have a school room?