I haven’t spoken a lot about my homeschooling journey that is coming on to two years now. Mostly because I feel it’s a dynamic process in which we like to try different things and see what works / what doesn’t work. But in all this, I have found some invaluable resources that i can’t do my job without:

ORGANISING

I used to spend my nights checking out these amazing homeschool classroom setups on Pinterest, and see-sawed between feeling hopelessly inadequate  and… actually, there was no see-sawing. I looked at how organised everyone one, and how beautiful their homeschool classrooms were and I couldn’t help BUT feel terribly unprepared for this.

Then I realised that things will be easier the moment I stop comparing myself to others, and I started focusing on the stuff I actually CAN control.

  • Google Drive is great for managing schedules, projects and resources. I use it extensively (and almost exclusively) for my own work, so I use it to the max. This is where we update the work schedule and where work can be uploaded. Call it a virtual classroom if you will. Click here for a sample schedule to get you started.
    In addition, my daughter – who is still in mainstream – can sync her school G-drive with her personal one, and easily work on school projects at home.
  • Both my kids have email accounts, linked to their respective profiles on the shared family laptop. This way they can also start taking responsibility for Scouts schedules, outings and deadlines.

ONLINE CLASSROOMS

While I would love to be a 100% hands-on homeschool teacher-mom, the reality is that I do work full time. I am therefore quite reliant on course material that can be completed and submitted online. Some also offer online classroom functionality through which I get weekly updates on my son’s activities and progress.

My favourites are:

The beauty of homeschooling is the freedom you have to really make it work for YOU and your family’s needs. There is no right, and very few wrongs, and I love that.