When you start homeschooling a lot of questions come up. “What counts as a homeschool day?”. “How can I count my homeschool days?”. I will do my best to straighten a few of these out for you here. Let’s start with how to know what counts as a homeschool day.
*This post may contain affiliate links. This means I may make a commission if you purchase from one of these links, at no extra cost to you.*
It can feel frustrating when you ask various homeschoolers how they count their homeschooling days. Everyone may give you a different answer. Some would even argue (and rightly so) that children are learning every day. Variations within state laws, regulations, and opinions also are considered. My first piece of advice for anyone looking to homeschool is to look into your state laws. I broke it down here by state in this post. Some states are more strict than others. I live in a low regulation state so my laws are quite lax. That being said, I do believe that most states allow the parent to decide what counts as a homeschool day. But, again, I stress that you look into your state laws.
Find your states laws here as well.
How Do You Know What To Count As a Homeschool Day?
Generally in our homeschool I do not count every day as a homeschool day. However, I do count many extras as homeschool days. For example we are involved in a lot of volunteer activities throughout the week. This involves public speaking, talking to people we may not know, and learning how to converse with others. Do I consider this a great learning and educational experience? Absolutely! Do I count it as part of our required 180 days? Absolutely! When we attend any sort of religious ceremony or event whether it is a weekly occurrence or once a year, I also count these. I feel my sons are gathering a deep appreciation for the God they worship, and the ability to explain their beliefs from the Scriptures. In my opinion this is the highest form of learning they will ever gain.
In our homeschooling we do use a course curriculum. Right now the bookwork accounts for three out of our seven days. We are doing curriculum bookwork on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. The rest of our time is volunteer work or included in our worship. Throw into the mixture that sometimes I will count “accumulative days”. These would be times when I didn’t count bookwork, but maybe my son learned to make a chocolate chip recipe, or my other son did piano on a day that we didn’t get anything else done, or they read more than normal…the list can go on, but I will combine all these learning experiences into one day on my 180 day chart. (I promise, I wasn’t always this relaxed, but it has been a learning process.) Find out more about my journey to a more relaxed homeschool here.
Are They Really Learning All They Need To Learn?
When thinking how to know what counts as a homeschool day you may worry about fitting it all in. This can be a bit daunting when you are considering all the things that are covered in public school. Do I need to teach my child every subject, every day? Again, the answers can vary. Some may try to do just a small bit of everything in one day, or cover it in a week. Schedules vary as well, and should be considered when thinking of what to teach and how much of it is necessary.
Curriculum can also be a huge help as well. Using a comprehensive, open and go curriculum can take a load off your plate and mind. For instance we use a language arts curriculum that includes spelling, reading, writing, art, geography, grammar and punctuation, all in one level. This has been so nice for me! We do not need any other books for these subjects, but if I wanted to add anything for additional practice I could…however, I haven’t felt the need to do so. Experiencing history and science is much more enjoyable than reading it from a textbook that gives dull facts. Read more about my distain for science experiments here.
The Extras
We enjoy taking a more relaxed approach to history by reading living books. Currently we are taking our time getting through the Little House series. These books give very detailed descriptions of what life was like many years ago and we enjoy discussing them as we go. However, this is by no means a daily or weekly effort. We deep dive into the scriptures through our worship and gain many valuable lessons this way. We study why the history in the Bible matters to us now, and how we can learn from it. To me, this is the best history lesson they will ever gain. Plus they are still young, there are many years left for them to learn as it becomes more interesting to them. Find out more here about how I have created my own history curriculum, and how you can too!
Get Out of The House!
Recently a few friends and I took our kids to a Colonial Village. They were having a special for homeschoolers that day, which meant it was far cheaper to get in than any other time! We had so much fun! The Village was full of Villagers going about their day. We were able to find out how they lived, worked and played, even getting some town gossip that we were able to stir the pot with as we went from home to home. This was a rich historical experience for us all. We have been doing it for the last two years, and dare I say we will continue this fun tradition!
“How Do You Know What Counts As A Homeschool Day?”
Don’t Sweat It
How do you know what counts as a homeschool day? You will find your answer varies from others as you gain experience as a homeschool parent. Ask yourself if your child is growing in their knowledge, skills, abilities and thinking in any way. Life skills are a huge thing that can and should be taught in homeschool. For instance my two boys, six and nine, know how to pay for their own snacks when we go to the gas station. My six year old knows how to pay for and pump gas, with my supervision of course. My nine year old finally baked a batch of perfect chocolate chip cookies the other day, after a few failed attempts…or “experiments” of his own. (Note to your new bakers out there, 5 TBS of sea salt does not go well in a batch of cookies…) ‘
The bottom line is you are the parent, you know your child. Follow any guidelines your state may lay out for you and over time you will come to understand what works best for you and your family! Before you know it, you will be answering others when they ask you “How do you know what counts as a homeschool day?”
Leave a Reply