Thanks for watching! Did any of these surprise you, or do you homeschool similarly?

We don't set an alarm in the morning! 🙂🤷‍♀️ I love the fact that we can sleep in and still get school done at a reasonale time. I do not miss waking up cranky tired kids and rushing to get out the door- especially a cold winter morning!

I'm an older momma to 13. We started homeschooling in 1986. We quickly learned all you talked about(and more). It's an exciting learning journey for everyone, including you! We're down to our last cold in school as we had a graduation last week. I'm in withdrawal! The Lord has a sense of humor as my last daughter will graduate when I turn 65!

Lady, our homeschooling lives are very similar. I am a veteran homeschooler (20 years) and still going! Homeschooling is a lifestyle....not a traditional school!! Our children have thrived in this lifestyle. Praise God!

The goal is to learn they can teach themselves anything. When my homeschooled son (3rd-12th, using classical Christian curricula) got to chemistry in college, the professor left at the beginning of the term. The new professor used the previous professor's brand new and untested curriculum, but in class, he taught using his own course materials. No one had any idea what to expect or study because nothing lined up with labs, quizzes, or tests. It was a nightmare. So my son pulled together a small study group and they basically taught themselves everything they needed to learn -- lots of googling and outside reading. I have never been so proud nor so sure that we made the right decision to homeschool. My son never depended on a professor after that. College is behind him now, yet he is still busy figuring out how to do anything he wants. He is a field forester working with private land owners in conservation, but he is constantly acquiring new hobbies and skills in his free time. Homeschooling offers the blessings of independence, curiosity, and confidence.

I was a public school teacher before I homeschooled my own kids. The first year was mainly spent trying to unlearn many of the habits I had gotten into while teaching a herd of kids. I lot of the purpose of those habits was crowd control. I agree that students should learn how to learn. I am back in the classroom after a 20-year break. My sixth and seventh graders need their hands held. Many don't listen to the group instruction anyway and want to be retaught just to them. I am working on getting them to be more independent in their learning, but I still have to manage the herd :) Thanks for doing what is best for your own family. In the long run, it will be best for the rest us as well.

I can't tell you how relieved I am to hear this. 2nd year of homeschooling, and I was already not doing any of these things this year and was feeling guilty about it. Now it feels like a ton of weight lifted! This video just made me a new subscriber 👍🏽Thank you!

This is exactly how I homeschool, I don’t do any these 5 things either!!!! So refreshing to hear another homeschooling momma runs her homeschool the same way ❤

I love hearing about moms who have the confidence and are unapologetic about doing things THEIR WAY! I hope to get to a place where I can just “guide” vs having to hover over but mine are in 1st & 2nd grade so…baby steps

The benefit I see from using binders is teaching kids to be self-directed and manage their time, which is how high-school and beyond works. I'm looking forward to see if you make a video specifically for your binder system

I hear ya on the science experiments! Last year was the first time I didn't use a planner (6 years into homeschooling). What changed my mind was a conversation I had with a seasoned homeschool Mom of 12 who said she never used a planner. She only ever printed out a list of what they needed to accomplish for the year. I related with all of these points. Much of what you said is what happened organically in our house. Thanks for posting!!! I can't wait to explore more of your videos!!

I’m so glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t enjoy science experiments and rarely does them. Haha

Yes! Would love to see your binders for your kids and how you make them. Love your videos!!🥰

My kids are 50 and 43 years old. And both have a Masters Degree. Proud I am !!

This is similar to how I homeschool my son. I’ve been homeschooling since he was in 3rd grade and now he’s in 8th. I don’t follow a strict schedule, and have it just flow a bit more. We don’t do the same subjects every day. I also let my son decide which subjects he’d like to focus on. I don’t do a lot of science experiments. I take my son out on many “field trips” too, learning geography in nature rather than in a book is incomparable. In the beginning I also had a planner and had the same situation come about. Haha your so like me! Love it! Keep up the good work mom!

"There is value & beauty in finding what works best for your family." Yes!

I liked the last point you made about being a facilitator for the learning of our children. That is perfect!

I don't do science experiments either. So messy, and I rarely feel like it adds anything more than just telling a kid the result. But I do love planning out the next day and keeping records (it satisfies me so much to check off completing tasks). We also keep to a schedule - as in, the order we do subjects each day. I find it keeps the whining down when they know they have to do math before they can have the fun of art. Maybe when they are older and more disciplined, but a kindergarten and 2nd grader just won't do the things they dislike in a timely manner without structure right now.

None of these are things seasoned homeschoolers do. Keep up the good work! I love videos like this that help show reality ☺️

You are so my people. I don’t do any of those things either, except you’ve embraced it and I am still struggling to feel successful because I don’t do all that stuff. Thanks for the encouragement! ❤️

Hey!!! What you said about not being your kids teacher surprised me, but then after hearing you explain I completely agree! That was one of the things we wanted to emphasize was teaching our children how to learn, rather than just teaching information. Especially in this day and age when the information on any subject can be endless, I think its good for them to be able to figure out what they are passionate about, and then know how to research that and come to a deeper knowledge and understanding on it. :D Great video!

I love all of this! Learning alongside (i.e. not “teaching”) my kids has been one of the greatest joys of motherhood! 🙌🏼

I felt so free when you talked about reverse planning it was a game changer. I have a child with special needs and some days we just don’t get to everything done. I have an idea what needs to be done but if it doesn’t all get done, we pick it up the next day. It totally keeps me from getting overwhelmed and frustrated that things aren’t getting done. Thank you!!

Last year, I would have agreed with EVERYTHING you have said. This is our 13th year of homeschooling, and for some reason, we were led to some changes this year. I still don't do regular science experiments, and I still don't use a planner, but we definitely have a homeschool room (with desks!), we stick to a fairly rigid schedule, and I started actually giving lectures (and doing read alouds and also watching educational videos and such still).

I'm with you on the science projects lol. All experiments are pretty much recorded on KZfaq so you can observe that way. Not saying we don't do any projects physically but for the most part it's a lot easier to watch 😉

Your homeschool looks and sounds a lot like ours, and it's such a great space in our lives! YES to learning to learn/love of learning!! And I love seeing your kids with their pets during school- what a cozy way to spend the day and take in new information. Best of luck in the future!

We used to do science experiments at home when I was a kid. When I mixed all the things you shouldn’t just to watch what happens…my dad changed that to watch science on tv.

Okay, one more comment! 😅I love that about the “not being a teacher”. It’s something I have had to adjust to coming from public school myself, and after reading quite a bit of Charlotte Mason, I realize that trying to decide what they “should” take away is kind of pointless and crazy-making for all of us! 😆

Yessssss, girl! I was a classroom teacher for a dozen years before kids and I used a planner pretty much obsessively. Now as a homeschool mom I do very rough sketch of what we might do each month for the year, and we use an open-and-go math and reading curriculum, but that’s it! 😱😂

Aww! Love seeing your Christmas decor! And we have matching dogs! 😉😆 Thanks for this video-I appreciate hearing that reminder that every homeschool family is going to look a little different!

Love this! As a new homeschooling mom, there is so much pressure. This is very helpful!

Same here!! ✋️ Basically exactly the same. 🤗 I have a 12yr old and a 7yr old been homeschooling or in our case unschooling since the summer before covid hit and I'm gad I did because when all hell broke loose and parents were forced to have their children at home we were already in and it was easy to carry on as usual.

I love seeing all kinds of styles and flows with home education. This video was super useful and insightful. And practical too- the daily supplies cart is a fantastic idea! Thank you for sharing openly and honestly what home education doesn't include for you and your family. Every family and child and parent is unique and different and not feeling pressured to be a mom that does it all in a home school setting is a breath of fresh air. I think my home education style will be similar to yours with lots of flow!

I don’t use a planner and it is so freeing! We use a daily checklist and just notate or check off what we have done with a date and day of the school year.

Thank you for sharing! This makes me feel so muchbetter about my decision to be more hands off. My children are still young and need some instruction, but my goal is for them to be independent learners. ❤️ This was so helpful!

Thank you for sharing! I love your videos! You were actually the very first homeschooling mom I ever watched on KZfaq and I have learned a lot from your videos ❤ I have a 2 year old boy and plan on homeschooling him when he is at that age. It's nice to know that there is no one right way to homeschool and I love the idea of more charolette mason style you guys are going with. It seems to make the most sense and brings out the joy in learning. I know that there are going to be so many people in my circle that will disagree with me homeschooling and I think it's going to be hard for me becasue I tend to care alot about how people see me. I grew up going to Catholic school in Canada and I don't remember having the love of learning. I think it is so amazing that you guys focus on your relationships with each other as a family and also give them the tools they need to be learning on their own. Such a great skill! Love your content ❤ hope you and your beautiful family have a great Christmas and new year! From Ontario Canada 🇨🇦 ♥️

This has been our first year homeschooling and I LOVE and appreciate your insights. We've decided to go with the Simply Charlotte Mason Curriculum largely because of Sonya Schaffer's KZfaq Videos I feel we're super helpful walking us through the Charlotte Mason method. I have a 7, 4 and 1 year old so not having a strict schedule has definitely been on our side although I do love your loose approach to one and have been looking for something of that style! Definitely trying to find a way to balance the learning and help my 2nd grader become more independent with his studies so thank you so much for sharing!

Thank you for this, I will be starting homeschool with my son this fall. I'm starting this late in his education journey. He has been attending a parochial school, which only goes through 8th grade, starting 9th grade he would be switching schools, which doesn't really concern me. But I don't like the curriculum that is forced on our children in public schools, and all the private and other parochial schools in my area are just too expensive. I have been researching as much as possible so I can homeschool my son the best way possible. Knowing that there isn't one right method has taken a huge load off my mind. Thank you so much.

Thank so much for doing this video! I have littles, and I have already stressed myself out thinking that the way that we've been homeschooling isn't enough or correct. So it is a relief to know that I am not the only one who doesn't teach and have everything set up like a "normal" school setting.

Love all this. I just started this year with my kids! I can relate to all this so much! Thank you!

My dining room is our classroom. I also do not use a planner, but I buy one every year as well with the intention of using it, but I never do because we either need to spend more time on a subject than I planned for or a kid went through something faster than I planned for. So the planner becomes abandoned. I do science experiments because I actually love science, but it is not done daily or weekly. What is done weekly is they choose an animal they research it based on their age level and at the end of the week stand up and present their animal they chose. So they are getting biology in that way and experiments get sprinkled in where I can fit it in. Experiments do take so much more planning and supplies. It takes being way more intentional and isn't really always realistic to do on a daily basis. I love your binder idea. I may actually try that with my oldest child. She may actually like that. The idea she could get a weeks worth of work done when she wants is something she would be into. She would likely aim to get it done in the first day or two of the week so that she could do other things the rest of the week. It may open us up to more hands on things plus help her manage herself.

I love your posts, honest and helpful!

Thanks for making this video! I do things much the same in homeschooling 5 kids. Getting out of the regular school mindset can be so tricky when you are first starting out. I love that I am Mentoring and not teaching my kiddos. ❤

I don’t use a planner either! I am always feeling guilty that we’re not doing enough and yet I feel convicted to do even less and really focus in on their strengths . Bless you.

Thank you for posting this video! This is our second-year homeschooling. This video boosted my confidence! :) I do most of the things you mentioned.

This gives me hope as a prospective homeschooler. I’m still undecided, but this gives me hope. I’m organized chaos and love your eclectic style. So happy it works for your family!

I love watching your channel...we are in sync...and I often watch your videos and find that you are working through many of the same homeschool challenges that we are (we have similar aged kids!). I literally have the exact same routine/daily schedule, put together binders for my kids this year and do lots of Charlotte mason but heavy on history because we love it! Looking forward to seeing your binder video - so many gems, I always learn something! Thank you for sharing your journey....it's a blessing!

This sounds exactly like our homeschool! I laughed about the science experiments-I’m glad I’m not the only one who rarely does them LOL. I also have four kids. Love your videos!

You described our homeschool exactly!

I just love planners! I’m kind of the same way where I don’t end up using them as much as I would like, but I adore beautiful planners too! 🎉

Yes!! We also definitely don’t follow a traditional school schedule!! I love homeschooling to have the freedom of planning however works for us!

This is so me!! Thank you for sharing!

This really my take on homeschooling too. I'm really happy that I came across your channel.

I needed this so much! I’ve been feeling the same overwhelming feeling about the planner. I’m ditching it, that’s it! 😅

The planner! Agreed!!! It never happens like it’s planned anyway and reverse planner seemed pointless! 🤷🏼‍♀️

The binder schedule blew mi kind and I Love it! Thanks for sharing your ideas. I”ll be homeschooling my kids next year so I think I’ll be implementing the binder.

Thanks for the tips and encouragement!

I loved hearing these! As we have gone along, I have implemented many of these, especially more books/reading!!! It's how mine love to learn best!

😂 That was me for the longest time! I suck at finishing planners I do good for a couple of months and just cannot get myself to continue, it’s time consuming and stresses me out. I would buy the stickers and pretty pens and nothing worked lol. It’s definitely not for everybody, it’s so liberating to realize you really don’t need it to homeschool. ❤ Thanks for video, Nice to hear I’m not the only one 🥰

Great video! I love the binder idea and the “not teaching” resonated so much with me. We are at the very beginning of our homeschool journey and me teaching isn’t working for me or them!

Omgosh I just watched this and had to subscribe because I loved everything you said! So encouraging and made me feel so much better about what we're doing (and not doing)! Thanks!

I am right there with you on all of these 😊

You are going outside of the box and making a fun environment for learning. I just loved it. I have two boys ( 5yrs old and a 2 yrs old), there is so many resources out there that im kind of lost. But your experience has helped me. Thank you

I love your openness to sharing your unique home school plan. I agree with you that the way you are teaching is best for the kids as well as for yourself. I started homeschooling two of my grandchildren this year and because I work two days a week we don’t do sit down homeschool on those days. I do give the girls some things that they should work on when they are with their aunt or my husband while I’m at work but if they don’t understand some thing we go over it When I’m home. Having a relaxed flexible schedule with the kids helps them to enjoy learning.

This is taking a huge stress off of my shoulders I too don’t do a lot of the things that you have mentioned. I have four kiddos form the ages of 11 years old through 10 months. I am overwhelmed, trying to keep up with each one’s curriculum. I’m trying to learn easier, better ways. Thank you for sharing how you teach your kids.❤

We don't use a planner, we don't regularly do projects that make a big mess (same as you-its not fun for me but if THEY are able to do it on their own and it doesn't make a massive mess then it's all good), we are very relaxed and another thing we don't school every day!! Some may see this as a negative but we school all year. We still school through the summer and all the traditional school breaks but we don't overload and we do traditional learning every couple days! It's works for us.

1. A schedule...um...I have 4 kids, too and yeah no schedule. We have a general flow... Breakfast (& Breakfast Basket), morning chores, etc...but no time attached to any of it. 2. A dedicated Homeschool space...hahaha nope...not in our tiny apartment!!! 3. I don't do science experiments (but we do go to a Co-op that does them). I don't like to do it either for the same reasons you mentioned. 4. I don't use a planner either. What I do instead is a "Homeschool Journal" because I like to read about what we did do. Basically, think normal journal but Homeschool focused. I use a bullet journal and I do fun drawings that has inspired my Artsy daughter 🥰 Though next year...I have been thinking of not keeping a separate homeschool journal. It is not required for our state and I have a busy 1 year old...so it's been more stressful at times this year (vs. last year). 5. Yes, I agree. I don't stand up and lecture either. We use Easy Peasy all-in-one's Math which has video lessons and learning through games (so I don't have to teach math!). I do "teach" more on the learning to read...but I wait till they want to and I definitely don't force them.

Wow! I don’t think I’ve ever left a comment on KZfaq before, but I just have to leave one here. Thank you! I so relate to you. Especially not doing a planner. I am right there with you. This video is so very refreshing :)

Wow!!! This is amazing!!! I don't like to do many of the things you mentioned and listening to you gave me some relief!!!

Amazing! I don't do all of these things too 😩 I'm not alone but my kiddos are learning so much just on their own 🥲 Great video!

I’m actually so relieved to hear that other people don’t ‘teach’ and like stand up front and give a big lecture lol. I have always disliked that and always felt guilty that I wasn’t doing that…. So yay!! 🎉

great video! thank you, this helps me to take the pressure off of myself!!!

We do a student planner that we created, subjects on left and days on top…junior can decide to do it all or each day….almost done, bittersweet

Thank you for sharing. I am the same way with planners. Lately I have been ripping out my planner pages and putting them on the fridge. That way I can't miss them and my family can see what is happening too. We are doing an online school which is what works for us right now. But I love having my children at home.

This is why you're my favorite. Constantly reinforcing what I believe. Thanks Erin!

-We are doing more of an unschooling type approach this year since it's our first year and I can't get over the hump of picking and buying curricula and the fear picking something that doesn't work. I know we won't know til we try but ugh I can't seem to get over it. I have set goals for myself to get it taken care of before next school year starts but for now it's books, movies, docuseries, homemade worksheets, etc. -I LOVE organization so next year I will be using planners. Yes, I said planners with an S. One per kid and one for me. My kids crave structure as much or more than I do so I'm kind of excited for that haha. -Speaking of structure, we don't have a school room but I wish we did and so do my kids. It's too distracting and feels too casual doing things on the couch (besides reading and watching TV) or the folding table we use for when we do map work or I have them fill out worksheets I've made. Plus, having every square inch of the living room walls (and behind the couch) lined with shelves of school stuff makes me feel claustrophobic. It's quite discouraging and it's getting to the point where some days I don't even want to be in that room. -Going back to curricula, one of the things I'm going to be looking for is something very open and go. I don't mind having to work with them on things but we all need to be told what to do. Things like Social Studies (history and geography), Art, Science, and Theology can all be done together but Math and any English or other languages need to be done separately. My state has a requirement on how many hours we need and I'm already obligated to spend a huge chunk of my day homeschooling. The more I can have them do independently while working with another kid, the better. -We don't do Morning Basket or Poetry Tea Time. Next year we might try a Morning Basket or at least go over what the gist of the day will be but I'm not sure yet. -My kids LOVE science and beg me to do experiments but I'm 100% in the same boat as you. Gotta make sure you have all the stuff, then you have to actually do it, and then cleaning up afterwards. Ugh! I have enough to clean every day as it is! True, I could have them clean it up but it's still a hassle that I just...no thanks lol. We do things once in awhile but it's definitely not something I see us doing on a regular or even semi-regular basis. I make an exception for Art because it's more clutter than mess. -We do things quite loosely now but next year I have it set which subjects will be done daily and which ones will be done less often. I used your scheduling videos to do this so thank you!! We will have another kid to homeschool next year too so that will be interesting, especially since it'll be at the high school level. I'm also going to take the advice of you and many others and schedule days or weeks off next year because I don't want to bite off more than I can chew. Having the requirement for how many hours we need is going to make it tricky so we might wind up having to school year-round in order to take that time off but we'll see. Thanks for making these videos! They're so helpful and I look forward to more :-)

Thank you for this.I love what you said about being a facilitator not a teacher.I needed this video.

This is our first year and honestly, I have been stressing so bad about it all. I am so happy this popped up on my KZfaq.

You are my kind of homeschool mom, subscribed.

Thank you so much! Liberating!!

We have to keep records in our state so I use my planner to do that; I also have a section for me to reflect on each homeschool month and then look forward. I love doing that and it has been so good for my soul! Mine are “littler” than yours though quite full on - and the rest - we pretty much do the same as you!

I love what you said, "How to learn not necessarily what to learn."

Well, we’re Unschoolers, so I TOTALLY connect with what you’re saying…and I am a former Schoolteacher! Lol

We actually do most of these items too. Glad to know we aren't the only ones! We started unschooling 9 of our kids 1.5 years ago and have never done traditional homeschool, although we still do teach the basics for our littles. They have grown so much and it is definitely less pressure!

Amen on skipping science experiments. My husband's degree is in Chemistry and even he mostly can't be bothered! We use a microscope from time to time and made the quintessential volcano but the rest I leave to the science museum and streaming videos. I love your confidence. Thanks for sharing.

Oh Lordy.. I so hear you about the planner. I just have my kids date their work and books and stuff we do together then quarterly I pull some stuff and put it in a binder.

I’m so glad I found this video! You’ve confirmed a lot of what I’ve already been doing and given me ideas as well. I love the binders you made with the weekly assignment checklists. I know that would work for my 8 yr old but I’m sure my kindergartener will need a bit more hand holding. I’m also excited to check out teaching textbooks for math! I am NOT a Math person and my son is. I think he’d do well with it from your description. Can’t wait to check out more of your videos! Thank you!

I think if kids are learning and not to stressed out your doing a FANTASTIC JOB 🤩📚

I'm a second gen homeschooler and I don't do those things either. I do reverse plan record keeping. Being 2nd gen, I don't worry about it. I'm not as structured as people think they need to be. Sometimes our school days are 100% learner led and I'm recording things they are doing and they don't even know they are doing school. Often we are more structured than that, but my kids are still young enough for this to work for us.

Excellent, I am following the same method with my 5+ old homeschooled son, though I had always wanted to go in a structured manner. This method works best for him. As such he is too young for formal teaching. But I think I am going to continue in this mode later too. At this moment, I am primarily answering his questions and that itself enhances his knowledge base like anything. He doesn't enjoy any kind of routine work. At times I would go anxious, but this video is so helpful in letting me know that this method actually works.

This plus the one about homeschooling young children and toddlers made me subscribe to ya! Your approach keeps the blood pressure chill.

Yay! I found someone that doesn't use a planner! 🎉🎉 😆 I thought I was the only one. Same on everything else, too! ❤️

Interesting. To answer the question, yes, the whole video surprised me. I was home schooled pretty much like this (minus the binders).

We use tt for math too, makes it just so much easier on me. Happy homeschooling

This is my laid back style as well. They will always ask when they want/need more info.

This is our first year and I started with a planner. Now I just document what we did, so basically a diary.

This makes so much sense Erin. We've been homeschooling for 14 years now. We just have one in school now. The others are married, or in college. Our 12 year old has such a hard time with learning in a more traditional sense. I would love to know what you use for videos/books for science and history to get their little brains thinking and learning, and it not seem like a chore!

I love your organization!!!

Incredible. I couldn’t agree more! I’m so similar. I wanted a planner to work, it never did. I don’t like teaching and I think they do so much better when I’m not! I want to give them independence. Such a great video!

I likeee what I heard! 🤓👍 following and liking I’m a first year homeschooling parent.