After six years of homeschooling, I can honestly say each year looks a little different—and that’s a good thing. I’m starting to realize homeschooling is as much about us parents learning and growing as it is about the kids! Looking back, I can see how much I used to stress over checklists, curriculum, and comparison. This year, I’m leaning into something different: more flexibility, lots more JOY, and more focus on relationships with my kids. It’s Back to Homeschool: Things I’m Doing Differently This Year!
If you’re a new homeschool mom (or even in your 10th year!), I hope sharing these changes I’m personally making will encourage you. Maybe you’ll find a few new ideas to carry into your own homeschool rhythm this year. I’ll also be sharing some of our favorite schoolroom essentials and curriculum!
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Things I’m Letting Go Of (a.k.a. Not Stressing About Anymore)
- Finishing every single curriculum by the end of the year. Guess what? It’s not necessary. As long as my kids are learning and growing, that’s what matters. When you were back in school do you remember ever fully finishing your textbooks? I don’t!
- Rigid schedules that leave no room for LIFE. If an opportunity for a playdate, family outing, or even just an afternoon outdoors pops up—we’re saying yes.
- Overcommitting. Even to good things. Because if I say “yes” to too many extras, I can’t give my best to the most important things!
- Guilt over skipping lessons. An intentional shift in perspective: Choosing relationships over checklists is not failure—it’s success.
It’s time for Back to Homeschool: Things I’m Doing Differently This Year:
- Treat homeschooling like it’s my actual job, because it is! That means putting away my phone during school hours to stay focused and present. Absolute game changer. Last year I did this sometimes, but I feel like by the end of the year I was right back with having it on me all the time. You know, you gotta get back to people and coordinate things- you’re a mom! However, I’ve noticed when I put it literally out of reach like on top of the fridge I pretty much completely forget about it. It is SO freeing!
- Waking up around 5 a.m. (most days!) I’m not perfect at this, but when I can do it I get a little quiet time before my toddler wakes usually around 6. Sometimes I use this time to get myself ready for the day, reading and praying, and if I’m really lucky I’ll knock out a little computer work. Either way—it helps me start the day filled, not running on empty.
- Protecting mealtimes. With sports and nightly activities, this isn’t always easy, but shared meals are an anchor for our family. The numerous benefits of regular family mealtimes are proven and are super important!
- Batch cooking, prepping lunches on weekends and becoming best friends with my crockpot. This makes our school days go A LOT smoother. Spending the extra time over the weekend is so worth it if you can do it. Sunday afternoons I’ll cook up a big batch of quinoa, make some of our favorite go-to bean salads and muffins, and when we’re ready for lunch during our school day, it’s already done! On mornings when I can get something into the crockpot, that eliminates a whole hour or so in the afternoon of being over the stove – so instead I can continue with schooling or simply enjoying time with my family. Not to mention, it just makes you feel a real sense of accomplishment, am I right?!
- Building in more outdoor time. Fresh air resets everyone (including me)! I’ve never regretted getting the kids outside more often.
- Quiet reading after lunch. My kids haven’t been natural book-lovers, but I’m working on creating a rhythm where reading feels restful and enjoyable- something they can look forward to. I’ve pulled together a basket of new, exciting books they can choose from this year (thank you, Read Aloud Revival, for the inspiration!)
Our First Day of Back to Homeschool 2025
The day before our first day of schooling, we hosted our September Caddie Woodlawn book club. It was a very busy day, so I knew we really needed to start slow and gentle. Instead of charging ahead with a packed schedule, we eased into these things:
- Breakfast tradition: Cinnamon buns (with some eggs for protein of course!)—a tradition my kids look forward to every year on their first day!
- “All About Me” pages: The kids filled out fun questionnaires about their favorites and interests.
- First day photos: Each child had a printed poster—even my two-year-old who is “early, EARLY pre-k.”
- Toddler activities: I pulled out some tried-and-true activities to keep my little one busy while I worked through new curriculum with the older kids. You can read my full blog post about ideas for Homeschool Curriculum for Toddlers & Preschoolers and these activities I’m referring to HERE.
- Science outdoors in the afternoon: We kicked off our new Botany Unit by observing sights, sounds, and smells in nature.
- Art Hub-led drawing time: The girls picked a fun, creative husky drawing project to celebrate “back to school.” They love drawing and we have enjoyed using this online resource for years!
- Play + picnic: We spent much of the rest of our day outside, had a nice picnic, went for a run with baby in the stroller and my oldest around the property, and made a yummy lentil soup for dinner.
Our first day was calm, flexible, and filled with joy! And honestly? It was much better than the stressed, checklist-driven first days I used to push us through.
Back to Homeschool -Our Favorite School Room Essentials
I thought it would be fun to share a little homeschool room tour with links to some of our favorite school room essentials!
- We love our large chalkboard which is the focal point of our desk area! We’ll usually write a favorite quote, scripture or message depending on what is currently going on in our homeschool. These chalk markers are the best.
- This cozy chair next to a book basket is perfect for my little 2 year old to snuggle up in and look at books in the corner of our homeschool space. My older kids actually fight over it sometimes too! I guess they miss being “little”!
Back to Homeschool – Favorite Curriculum & Resources
- We love Not Consumed for Bible Studies, as well as these Louie Giglio Devotionals.
- For most subjects we use The Good & The Beautiful – an award-winning, Charlotte Mason-style curriculum that is Biblically-based. We also love Treehouse Schoolhouse for our Book Club that we host.
- Read Aloud Revival has an inspiring podcast and great booklists
- Sally Clarkson is an amazing resource and this is an awesome conversation with her
- K5learning.com offers lots of free printable worksheets, I like to print extra math practice sheets from here
- Simple toddler-friendly activities for encouraging independent play such as this working toy sink you see in the picture below. My toddler LOVES playing with water, and always wants to play with the real sink. This one has bought us a lot of time recently when we are trying to stay focused on a lesson. Another thing he has been loving is this construction-themed sensory bin! My plan is to keep rotating these activities so he doesn’t tire of them. Find lots more of my toddler activity ideas here!
- Favorite Supplies (pictured above): The Wonder of Creation Devotional; The Jesus Storybook Bible (perfect for pre-K age!) ; Crayola Air-Dry Clay (this is great for projects and for kids to play with while listening to read-alouds); Erasable Colored Pencils (my girls are LOVING these and they are new for us this year); My First Magic Painting Books (no-mess activity for toddlers and preschoolers!); Dual-Tip Watercolor Pens; plastic dry-erase color sleeves; personal timers for personal reading time; sketchbook; watercolors – these are a great value!
You’ve Got This!
Whether you’re just starting your first year of homeschooling or you’re well into the journey, give yourself grace. Every year will look different, and that’s okay. Some days will be picture-perfect. Other days might feel insane and chaotic and you’re second-guessing your decision to do this in the first place. But the heartbeat of homeschooling isn’t finishing curriculum—it’s growing together, one day at a time!
If you’d like some more encouragement I highly recommend listening to my new 20-min podcast …maybe while you are washing the dishes?! It’s called: Heart of Homeschool: Character Over Curriculum and you can listen to it HERE.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post about all the things I’m doing differently this year and that it has inspired you to maybe implement some of these changes I’ve talked about as well!
Here’s to a year filled with more peace, more margin, and more joy in the journey!
To see our Homeschool Room Renovation, my collection of Home Education articles I’ve written, past book clubs and more click HERE!
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