Examples of Minimalistic Homeschooling

What are some specific examples of what minimalist homeschooling might look like? Most points in the following lists are things I’ve tended to do in the 17+ years of homeschooling, so I know they work well to result in a comprehensive, practical, AND fun home education!

Many of these points are ALSO supported in the curriculum resources I design and the ones we preview and recommend! We purposely do NOT offer just a variety of homeschool resources of any style but rather carefully choose only ones we feel can truly help in having a simple, sweet, sufficient and successful homeschool!

Please remember, these are only examples! Other people who have a minimalist approach to homeschooling might not agree with everything mentioned here and they would have other examples of what this style looks like in their family.

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Let’s begin!

Each heading reflects an area of our homeschool lives which shows a measure of simplicity and minimalism of time, resources, space, or stress/frustration, in comparison to what other families might choose to do. Hopefully these lists will help encourage someone who wants to get some starting ideas!

Of course, if you haven’t read my blog post entitled, “Minimalist Homeschooling and How to “Prune“, be sure to do that for some general tips!

Pre-School

(Kindergarten, Pre-Primary, JK/SK)

Early learning:

Minimalists might just plan for “free-play-no-formal-subjects” or encourage early learning or do both.

Our family likes both in order to minimize time and stress over the early elementary years. So I prefer to spread out the foundational skills/topics over JK to grade 3 (i.e. 5 years instead of 3).

(“Kindergarten” hasn’t always happened as much in our family for each child but it is my preference. Two of the kids did not get as much kindergarten due to more pressing priorities of health needs or house construction, in which case, not doing much JK/SK was the better choice at the time. I do prefer though, to give some direction, even in the early years, towards enjoying schooling, rather than displaying an attitude of “wait until you’re older when you have-to”.)

Having at least some “homeschool” for the littles while homeschooling their older siblings can really help with managing weekdays and, if they can learn some basic things in the preschool years, they will feel more confident to soar in working with the skills and topics of early elementary as they see the ideas again but in more detail then. (The work will look somewhat easy to them then instead of as strange/new. Early learning can give quite a gentle introduction to subjects.)

If children know how to read in the early years, it makes it easier for learning since the child can read simple instructions in lessons as well as enjoy reading more stories sooner.

Multi-sensory learning

Multi-sensory learning can be simple to do and kids can recall both the skills and the fun!

By providing hands-on activities using household items, good story and music audios, as well as pictures and written words, this stage of life can have a welcomed guidance into what the family values for learning.

Aim for a well-chosen variety of purposeful activities, not just cluttered messes.

One of our favourite activities was a flat and wide box of dried rice, along with measuring spoons, etc. – this is easier to clean up compared to sand or water indoors so it’s nice even in the Canadian winters to play with! More ideas can be found in my “Designing a Home Preschool” resource!

Reusability

I like to aim more for reusability for worksheets since little children don’t write much yet for keepable projects.

I still might purchase a few consumable preschool readiness workbooks and photocopy/print some cute worksheets since I do want my kids to enjoy using crayons, a pencil, etc. BUT, I try instead to have most worksheets as a “reusable” page, so that it lessens the amount of paper stored overall.

My mom taught without having a printer or photocopier and encouraged me in designing the reusable book, “Does It Belong? Getting Ready for Math and Reading”.

Other ideas for making something reusable are: taping strings onto one side of a “match these items” page so that the child moves the string to the correct match instead of drawing lines; using a finger (or an eraser tip – just flip the pencil) to trace dotted lines (e.g. pre-handwriting pages); discussing and pointing on a page rather than circling hidden things in a picture or other distinguishing skills.

Some moms laminate sheets or put them into plastic pockets for wipe on-off crayons/markers.

Rainbow printing is also fun – it encourages using several colours to trace the letter to allow the same amount of practice per letter while using fewer pieces of paper; the same alphabet book can be brought back out again a few months later to put even more colours in it too, if needed.

Relevance to a child’s world

I like to begin with what is familiar to a child’s world and expand from that point.

A preschool book on alligators isn’t relevant to Canadian preschoolers. Nor are many folktales.

Why not choose books and curriculum with characters such as families, local animals, etc. instead of strange ones?

I don’t need to provide a huge feast of all kinds of stories. I can limit the menu to something that is good taste in reasonable quantities.

Read-alouds

While I DO personally read something to my children most days, I do not do as much “read-aloud” time compared to say a Charlotte Mason or literature-based style for sure – not in preschool and not in elementary levels either.

I actually see the benefit of “reading less” to help my children grow more.

I prefer instead to encourage siblings to read to siblings and young children to pick out and read stories which interest them from our shelves, even if they are at the stage of reading pictures or telling the story from memory. They are the ones who need to learn how to read and while it might go quicker if I just “do it myself” at a more fluent speed, I don’t always want to read FOR them.

As they grow, I want to lessen spoon-feeding or directly directing when children can, at times, enjoy guided independence.

Obviously, there needs to be a balance; I’m not advocating that all learning be child-led or self-discovery; I do strongly encourage parental guidance and some direction in studies.

But encouraging the children to read for themselves can foster good sibling relationships, motivate eager readers to grow in their oral expression through practice, and build literacy sooner, reaching ahead to become silent readers, then independent learners.

Morning Routines

If I incorporate a “morning basket” time as an introduction to a school-day, I’d be more likely to have an object lesson or puppet (to tell a story), piece of music, seasonal craft idea, ball, nature scavenger hunt, and/or Bible memory verse instead of a read-aloud book.

It’s also true that most of the time, I’ve just began the homeschool subjects after our family Bible time and breakfast chores, especially when there was a baby/toddler to care for along with multiple school-aged children.

When we just had 3-4 kids, I did use a crate-box-style coffee table in our living room to hold an organized variety of “neat stuff” in it for a “sort of morning basket” time to begin some homeschool days. (Being Canadian, we called it our “tickle trunk” instead.) I put things in it for longer than just a week or a month though; I wasn’t constantly changing what was in there.

But most days, we still skip over the “morning basket/crate” idea and simply begin our normal studies. I will do a puppet routine or nature hunt or similar as a “special surprise”, here and there, but I generally de-emphasize the expectation of a “morning basket”.

Our schooling already has fun and interest built into the subjects themselves!

Readiness and Availability

My mom used to say about preschool/kindergarten something like this: “Joy, include lots of sorting between likenesses and differences, matching, exploring with things like paints, dough, crayons, textures, etc.! Without enough of these, children don’t get ahead as easily and might have to go back to get those preschool skills or else struggle more. Make things easier for yourself – for your task of educating, by including lots of readiness skills! Let the little kids learn! Put the cookies on the lower shelf so they can reach them themselves!”

Because I often homeschooled with a baby or toddler, I loved having a number of items arranged so that children could get things out and put them away if my hands were full. They learned to ask verbally and gain responsibility plus this laid a foundation for later project-based learning.

Household

Our family purposely minimalizes the amount of chemicals and manmade emfs in our home and learning environments. (Field trips tend to be to natural environments as well.) You can see more about this here and here.

I like to divide family chores to include all appropriate ages, including spouse, pairing or teaming people sometimes together too. Everyone helping minimizes the overwhelm of work to do plus clutter lying around. (e.g. I try teach where things go and keep the place more consistent and reachable. But my family will also say, and I admit, I like rearranging too!)

I like to post chores in large print, simple words, to minimize the time spent standing there trying to read it. Colour-code perhaps. Change the important chore routines only rarely – consistency gets ‘er done sooner without trying to remember “who” was to help with “what”. (Littler chores can handle more frequent changes better.)

I’ve learned to skip complicated chore/reward systems – tallying successes, recalling lots of if/thens, and frequent checking by parent to see if it meets expectations – that was exhausting fast and I feel it is unnecessary. I prefer a simpler flexibility to a parent/child relationship instead of memorizing or drilling extra rules and consequences. Yes, I do teach character education; but I don’t drill it. And I like the freedom to be unpredictable and creative if somebody needs a reminder of what he/she was supposed to do.)

Rewards: Remember to say “thank-you” to your helpers often. If you offer a reward, keep it simple and something the child can get himself/herself with your permission. Sometimes, we’ve had a “helper of the week” sign posted and the child can print his/her name on a special card to post under it (and then have a collection of the cards with their name on it). Nice stickers can be simple rewards too but I usually use those on the cover of a book that is full or project or occasional worksheets. (Perhaps swap half-packages of stickers with another mom to keep more variety since sticker packs tend to be designed for a classroom number of kids.)

Parenting books and conferences: There is a vast amount of these in the homeschool world! In my minimalist view, when a parent gets sufficient knowledge/wisdom to be a godly parent and spouse, then it is more important to spend time putting into action the good we know how to do instead of reading more books or listening to more sessions which say essentially the same thing about how to be a good mom. I have a small collection of helpful books I occasionally refer back to but otherwise, I tend not to buy these or if I get one, I might just pass it along elsewhere. I listen occasionally to a good speaker on these topics but it’s occasional, as a refresher, reminder, encouragement, not regularly or often. I think that in our culture, we should seek a balance for our “mom resources” – not too few and not too many. What I want to rely on frequently are reminders from God’s Word for how to be a better person, more than just insightful ideas from other humans. Growing in a personal relationship with God is really what makes human relations better. Simply put, if both the husband and wife are filled with the Holy Spirit (i.e. submitted to Christ today), then their marriage will automatically grow well as an overflow of this (Ephesians 5:15-21 and following verses) and so will their parental wisdom. This is the journey I aim to walk.

Conversations: Some homeschool approaches (e.g. some which focus on habits/character education) lead parents to so carefully watch how they speak to their children to the point that the parent feels so restricted. I avoid parenting/teaching advice that tells me that I must speak proper grammar and full sentences always or have a strict order of sentences or enforce parroted speech (or silence) from children. It isn’t natural and I personally don’t think God wants parents to act like drill sergeants or perfect formal language experts. The Bible tells us about parenting and none of those restrictions are mentioned there. Your child won’t be “ruined” due to a lack of formality. You don’t need to feel guilty about being informal in your conversations. It’s freeing to feel OK to speak with incomplete sentences and use appropriate cultural words in family life and homeschooling assignments. Relax. (Note: I’m not saying to never teach manners or character education but I am saying that I believe it does not need to be emphasized to the extent that it is in some styles. For my character education curriculum, see this link.)

Meals: Like many moms, I sometimes use a crockpot or “dump recipes” or use freezer meals on busy days. I cook in large batches when I can do so. To cook squashes, we poke the skin (after washing) and toss it in the oven; removing the skin and seeds is easier after it’s baked.

Prep-Work: When peeling, I sometimes peel for 2-3 meals than just the next one; same with salads (but keep dressings off until serving). We prefer to process proteins/meats in batches for a number of meals and store them in freezer to add to recipes as needed – raw burgers/meatballs, cooked ground meats, cubed ham, and meat broths. We can do similar for these vegetables/fruits: chopped green pepper (in baggies), chopped pineapple (e.g. for pizza), cubed/blanched turnip, home-fries, apple slices (e.g. for crisp), berries, cooked pumpkin, peeled tomatoes, broccoli/brussell sprouts, chopped mushrooms, plus grated cheese in the freezer. I don’t often have time to make full-freezer meals in casserole dishes but I can often get single ingredients ready to quickly pull-out-and-use.

I like what Amy Roberts recommends in a podcast of hers – to aim for the 3 S’s for school lunches in a large family to keep the middle of the day simpler…soups, sandwiches, salads, and I add a fourth “s” called “sloppy” (e.g. chili, scrambled eggs, flatbread fillings).

I like to menu plan with nutrient-dense foods my family will actually eat, saving special, unusual meals for a weekend or a birthday. If we cook a recipe related to a geography lesson (and often we skip that option), that activity doesn’t need to be done on a school-day. It can wait. Our menu plan is general and flexible enough so it only changes slightly periodically. I don’t take the time to look at grocery flyers. Most of what we use are basic ingredients and/or in bulk.)

Gifts – We like to give something a child likes and could be great to use now, something of encouraging spiritual impact, and/or something helpful or nice to have in their future home (e.g. collecting items for a hope-chest and/or a toolbox). Thinking of purposeful gifts helps to minimize overwhelming clutter. We also try to shop in advance (e.g. months), gathering items for a few occasions at the same time/place/trip. It’s helpful to have a “gifts for others” box too – for B-day gifts for friends’ parties or other reasons that suddenly “pop-up”.

General Homeschooling Examples

“Scheduling”

Some minimalist homeschoolers aim for 4 blocks a day for 4 subject areas. I generally think of 4 blocks of time as well, with 1-3 in the morning about 1-2 in the afternoon (depending on if they are shorter subjects or longer ones).

We like project-based learning for some subjects because I think it’s more effective overall. That style initially takes longer compared to quick drills and fill-in-blanks. But in the long-term, I think there is less review needed later and the student can move ahead to learn a greater variety of topics/skills.

Because we have a more-relaxed homeschool life, we wrap schooling around our daily lives. IF we just had school without rabbit trails, interruptions, or maybe more kitchen work needed for something on a day, it might amount to 4 hours on average per weekday. However, I put my plan for 9:30 or 10:00 am to 3:30 or 4:00 pm, M-F, and doing that can look scary to some people. To me, this just reflects a large family which fits studies in at the same time as household matters and isn’t held to a strict time frame because it is a relaxed atmosphere. We simply enjoy learning a variety of things during the day, including aspects which others might not exactly call “school”. But if you want to work towards a simple relaxed structure, you might aim for 4 blocks of time per day with 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon (unless you’re beginning earlier in the morning) or 4 subjects/day.

Electronics

We personally lessen use of electronics during the school-day. For many years, we had “dial-up” and no cell signal where we lived so we did not get into the wireless trends as much as our peers. I also had grown up without TV in the home and we carefully monitored ours, often having nothing other than the couple of free stations with rabbit ears.

Now our “TV” is essentially a larger screen so that we can see items we choose to view from the internet or DVDs. But the TV doesn’t blindly go on as background noise.

Growing up, my family used a radio for news, weather, or documentaries but rarely for entertainment either – then, the entertainment was playing board games, looking at photos, handicrafts while chatting together, working in the garden, hiking, listening to cassettes/records, playing with favourite toys, and learning opportunities (e.g. milking a cow by hand, operating puppets). (We’d see a TV for some special times at grandparents’ or friends’ homes so I did watch one but not often.)

So, as parents, we didn’t struggle very much with limiting electronics to using them as just “a tool” to learn how to use wisely rather than mainly an entertainment/comfort device. I realize that most people in our generation would not find this idea easy to change though.

If you desire to limit the electronics, ask God to give you strength and work at weaning off the addictions or temptations, step by step, replacing them with better, more balanced choices. Electronics likely won’t be minimalized overnight but patiently work towards your goals. (For more reasons to lessen electronics, see this blog post.)

Also, Heidi St. John is another homeschooling mom who talks about being online less and in real life more. Here are two links to her website if you’re interested in listening to what she says about this topic. 1. Online Less, In Life More (general insights) and 2. Online and Overexposed (which deals with social media management).

High School and electronics: Our teens type their essays and reports (via computer) by this level. Research for assignments is at least partly done on the internet. Books to read for any subject are almost always in paper format instead of a device. Upper math and some of the sciences often have at least some online format, such as watching a lecture. History and geography occasionally have online video as supplemental but we would also use books (e.g. textbooks or other books as reference tools). Most of health is studied with books or projects or in-person such as a first-aid course. Students can share a computer and sometimes watch lessons together, for example, a grade 10 and grade 12 can take the same biology course at the same time to save on total internet usage. One year, both teens (of different grades) worked together on projects and lectures for the same U.S. History course. While they can study individually, sometimes it can be nice to work as a team (and I think this prepares them for real life, including the group work often found in post-secondary studies).

Tests

Fewer tests – We minimize the number of tests taken to show the progression of learning.

(Other minimalist homeschoolers however, might keep the same amount of tests either for regulation reasons or as a preference of their family.)

You can see what I’ve written about how we can mark homeschool work here: Tips on How to Evaluate Your Child’s Schoolwork

Curriculum Style(s)…

Teacher’s Manuals

I personally avoid programs which require teacher’s manuals. I saw a set of 7 books recently for sale – yes, the completion of just one homeschool science course required 7 books! Wow! (I very rarely use a program that has 1 teacher’s + 1-2 student resources.)

I don’t want to imagine storing or taking out 2 or more books per subject for every kid in my family – not for a kitchen island and certainly not carrying out to the yurt.

If a parent is needed to teach every lesson and the child can’t move ahead unless instructions in some manual or answer key are kept up-to-date, I think there will be frustrations in a home setting.

Even in a traditional classroom setting, my family who were teachers in the 1950’s/60’s were fine with 1-2 books for some subjects/grade or a booklet detailing what they were to teach over the year or one book for a multi-level subject.

When I began designing curriculum, I put teaching notes within the student pages so that it was just ONE resource, no separate manuals. That way, it’s less to physically handle plus the student (or a sibling) can read the teacher notes, if needed, to help in self-study if a mom is busy with another child or task at the moment.

Unit Studies

Depending on the specific content and the amount of useful learning in a particular unit study curriculum resource, I might like it or not.

Examples of what I would not buy or if given, I get rid of it: a unit study about clowns, a unit study where the assignments are repeating the same sorts of skills I already cover in other curriculum resources (such as language arts or math or writing prompts). While these resources might be “ok” in that they are teaching “something”, they seem to take up more space compared to what’s they’re worth to me.

Examples of what I might keep: a resource which presents a skill or compiled amount of info with very engaging assignments on a single topic and that would be harder-to-find within a more general resource, for example, a unit study on orienteering or mosses and lichens.

I think that curriculum types which are scripted or conversational can waste time (and paper/ink/storage space) by being too wordy. Was it really worthwhile to my kids to hear me read, within a lesson, how the author described that she didn’t like to pull out dandelions on her lawn, etc. or repetitious truths mentioned in every lesson in a textbook?

Novels and storybooks have stories of people beyond our family which we might read about of course, but I often try to skip over irrelevant comments within lessons or repetitious things which are well-understood already or simply avoid that sort of curriculum all together.

I am less-likely to repeat a curriculum resource that has had very little substance of new or needed information on most pages. If something stands out, I might keep a page or two of that, stored with the sub-topic’s binder or folder or box and eliminate the rest.

Example: Years ago, I purchased a nature study curriculum which had a few beautiful drawings of botanical or insect collections alongside wordy scripted lessons with boring Q & A. I tore the few pages of drawings I would like to show again to my kids in the future and recycled the rest of the book.

“Blank” Paper for Students

“Fancy writing paper” – another kind of curriculum I avoid provides either no/little direction to the student and/or repeats the identical format for every concept learned.

(Some moms would say it is a cheap way to get an education and use it because it is easy for them to print and hand-out and sometimes can even be free. I think it more so shows that often, we get what we pay. Little cost means little help and more effort needed by us.)

In my opinion, printing off 36 word-finds or crosswords to learn science each week is honestly boring, lacks application, and I’m guessing the topic is not effectively recalled.

Same thing for copying or tracing a literary quote each day for a year to learn history or just colouring a related picture.

Ditto for asking the mom to print out blank lines (along with a nice graphic perhaps) to give her kids open-ended assignments of “you figure out what you want to write on those lines but find the info online or in a library book”.

If curriculum requires that I (speaking as “the mom the customer” instead of an author/designer here) need to gather basic information in order to teach a lesson, I generally don’t want to buy it because I feel that curriculum should save me time, not just organize it.

(I realize that some moms find it hard to come up with direction in studies and so would like blank lines with keyword direction without much info, especially if they want their kids to regularly research on a computer or at a library. But in our family, I want to minimize trips to a library or a computer.)

This year, I bought a curriculum resource of an interesting topic for my son in senior elementary. I thought it would be great for a month of handwriting practice and reinforced reading comprehension. Scanning over it briefly, it appeared like he would read a short passage on something, then do a few multiple-choice questions about what he had read, then answer a couple of questions based on what he had learned in that reading in written sentences.

On the surface, it looked simple. We printed it, bound it, and he began. It was then we realized that each passage gave only really basic info to introduce the topic and ALL of the questions were based on aspects which were to be learned by researching the topic further at a computer or at a library. None could really be answered otherwise. So, we will recycle that one and hit delete on the file.)

Thinking about “fancy writing paper”, people might wonder how my kids write in a notebook if I generally try to not print pages which aren’t useful worksheets for them. The answer is that we tend to use blank, lined exercise books for copywork of summary notes or writing stories, etc.. These are inexpensive, take less space, supplies, and effort to make nice notebooks to keep as a record of knowledge compared with printer paper or cardstock lapbooks or typical consumables. (We do a pioneer scrapbook study but otherwise these exercise books work very well to simplify notebooks in homeschooling.) Our favourite kind is the “assignment book” which contains both blank and lined pages. (It’s in our shop while quantities last.)

Guided Learning

I like really using (and designing) curriculum that GUIDES learning to an appropriate depth to save overall time and effort, plus it’s very effective in having lessons that stick! This kind of curriculum gives at least some starting information in it (but tries not to be so directive and wordy to stifle flexibility if students/parents want to add to it or personalize it).

THIS is the kind of curriculum I look for most often!

It isn’t “blank” for me to have to prep for or change my day’s plan to “find info at the library”, it doesn’t require kids to always come up with their own notes (until they’re in upper levels perhaps), but it nicely allows for me to skim and scan to guide further readily or students can read it themselves easily without the need for an elongated explanation.

You can see a variety of the resources I’ve designed or that we’ve previewed which are of this kind in our online shop! If I find other curriculum that is like this but that we don’t sell, I try to blog about it (click here for the blog post “What Resources…?”.)

Obviously, I don’t know of every resource “out there”. But I have flipped through various ones in-person at conferences or online over the years or tried some personally and keep trying to find the ones which seem to have a good grasp on the notion of guidance without being too sparse/time-consuming to prepare, too wordy, or overwhelming for keeping simplicity in rural homeschool life.

I add to my recommendations on this website when I find time to do so. (I do appreciate suggestions too, especially ones which are not well-known and are designed by homeschool moms!)

Variety can be effective!

I like to use a variety of methods (hands-on, oral, written) to help make a lesson stick well!

For us, that means variety within a unit, not always within every lesson itself. For example, we don’t take out many hands-on items to the yurt over the winter but the kids still have some learning with glue, construction paper, etc. during the week in one or more subjects.

I do sometimes postpone hands-on projects to do in batches at a time. Summer can be a good time for art projects using paint because we can take these outdoors. Summer might also be a time to show a larger variety of science experiments/demonstrations. (Example: One resource which might be of interest to those of you who’d like to use around the home supplies to do something like this for ages 8-12 is “Showy Science” by Hy Kim, Good Year Books, 1994. We no longer offer it.)

Expectations –

It’s OK to not complete the textbook by the end of the year. As homeschoolers, we have the freedom to pick it up again later or skip lessons like a classroom teacher sometimes does.

(The only exception to this for our family is if a high school student is completing a text-based course through NARHS.org. Then, the book has to be completed as intended by the author/publisher. But one daughter also changed to a different text course when one wasn’t working well and another one dropped a text-course and just finished the portion of the text to get the prerequisite knowledge without credit, still enabling her to move ahead to the next grade of that subject the following year. We generally though, avoid text-based courses and enjoy self-designed ones instead because portions of curricula can be chosen according to what we feel is worthwhile, rather than doing the whole book.)

Ink, Graphics, etc.

Colour versus black-and-white: We don’t tend to use full-colour curriculum – partly because of avoiding smelly (and expensive) inks and partly because our family doesn’t need it. Our world, storybooks, and videos are in full-colour and that is sufficient for us. This makes what we use (and design), less expensive to print too.

We favour reusable over consumable lessons, and real over virtual experiences (when that is doable).

I see value in simple, representative drawings for lesson graphics. Sure, it’s great to include the beauty of detailed art but I personally think it’s good to use both kinds.

One of the characteristics of minimalist homeschooling is to pick what YOUR family really values to spend the most time and effort on.

For one of my friends, she chooses grammar and math as their priorities, while still covering the other subjects too. For our family, we chose science, math, literacy/reading, communication (including music), geography, and homesteading skills as more prioritized compared to grammar, history, second languages, or phys. ed, even though we’d generally include each general subject to some extent, each year. Within each subject area there are also sub-topics which we minimize or skip if we don’t feel they are useful or relevant. For example, the only Shakespeare piece that is read in our family (for a book report assignment in high school) is “Twelfth Night”. Students get a general idea about who the author was too but the amount of time spent on him and his writings probably amounts to less than 10 hours in total.

Someone has defined failure as “succeeding at something that doesn’t really matter.” (Anon.) Be passionate about things that God has called you to learn and do!

Reading

I like the idea of teaching reading by mainly reading (instead of mainly writing or just listening to someone else read). It lessens the amount of reading worksheets/workbooks, allows the flexibility to choose our own literature to personalize this subject, and simply seems to be sensible!

I also (because I value literacy/how to read as a priority) like to teach reading using a variety of methods – something I describe as a “blended-blended” approach on the free download found on this page: “Our Twist for Reading…”. What this means in terms of “minimalism” is that I might put more effort to early reading lessons in a sense because I want my child to be literate sooner than a traditional or classical or CM (which are usually purposely slower approaches for their own reasons) because I see the real benefit in the bigger picture of how it helps a child in some aspects of education sooner if he/she can read more. But also what this means personally, as I use my “Let Me Read” curriculum with our children, is that I don’t always finish everything in all the lessons I designed because partway through, my child(ren) has really grasped the idea of reading and simply doesn’t need much other than reading practice now and some reinforcement here and there until the next skill level. So in that sense, because my child(ren) is not held back in sequences of written work to complete first, it saves me time in the end for how much time overall is needed to teach a child how to read well. Originally when I made the first edition of our “Let Me Read” program, it was a package of 2 legal-sized consumable books plus audio CD to use self-paced within the years of JK to the end of grade 1. I printed 20 copies of that program and heard only appreciative comments from moms who used it. Then the market became more focused on printable e-books and since legal-sized paper isn’t as readily at a home printer, I knew I needed to revise it by at least re-sizing (and improving a few of the graphics). Also, people had begun asking more educational philosophy questions as to “why” something worked and “if” our literacy program included this or that in it (which I had no problem adding since I had already done that sort of thing with my own children on the side occasionally anyways). Also, about that time, I had been contacted by several people who wanted to help older struggling readers with literacy and others who wanted things more split into a per year/grade type of format. So, with the market essentially wanting more direction and more ideas for reinforcement, I expanded the “Let Me Read” curriculum into three e-books, with the largest expansion happening for “Step 2”. For my family, we don’t need all that is in “Step 2”, although about 2/3 to 3/4 has been a good amount for us; so I choose parts of it and can leave the rest. I’m saying this to illustrate that even for resources that I might put effort into designing, there is freedom to use it as a tool – to use it to help us but when that “tool” is no longer as needed, not to worry about it. Move on without the guilt because that part of the mission has been accomplished.

I prefer to teach phonics (which are sounds) by mainly listening to or thinking of sounds to read (instead of mainly writing). Of course, some colouring and writing is fine, but I try not to over-use the skills of writing if the subject area is not about writing. The amount of written phonics is less than what I experienced as a child in a traditional school. Phonics is a skill I especially appreciate that I designed it in a multi-level resource series. If a worksheet needs to be repeated in a future year as a reminder, then it’s easy to print off and CAN be the same page for a grade 2 as a grade 4, if that is what they specifically need to work on.

Our family has spelling lists from grades 1-6 most years. After that, vocabulary is expanded within other subject areas and used in written work but formal spelling lessons are usually discontinued. Instead, during the time when the younger children are doing their spelling work, I might assign the grade 7/8 teen to work on a keyboarding program or make helpful lists of interesting words such as vivid antonyms or synonyms (e.g. vocabulary expansion for more scholarly expression to be used in their writing for grade 9-12+).

With such a “mountain of books” possible, how do I choose my books so that I limit the sheer number of them AND have the ones which our family can truly benefit from reading?

• How many novels/year (in general) need to be dissected/analyzed and written about (versus “just to read on a reading list”)? Some minimalist homeschoolers might tone it down to just one book per 4-6 weeks to discuss. I remember 1-4 books per grade in school when we began studying novels grades 3-13 and that is what I feel is sufficient. Now, I also like to focus on either writing lengthy pieces OR analyzing literature – just one of those language arts skills every other year so for a year that is emphasizing literary comprehension, we might aim for 4-6 novels every other year (because we’re essentially covering 2 years’ worth in one year). (You can see a planning guide here that shows this idea.) The one exception is one high school English course in which the student reads 12 novels (of own choice) and gives a written response for each.
• If a book is to be chosen for the purpose of giving information or generalizing about someone or something, I tend to look for “adapted”, “condensed”, or versions with pictures. These are quicker to read and more applicable to the wide-range of children we still homeschool, including myself and one child who prefer large-print materials for our eyes. Plus, these kinds of books are more likely to be re-read, even if we become senior citizens, because they are shorter. Our imaginations can fill in the details or if it is something of greater interest, we can additionally look for a thicker version to know more details. (I’m not saying I like boring twaddle. I don’t. I do get rid of boring no-plot easy-read books too. But I do see less print on a page as being sometimes of more value that books which take longer to digest. There are some situations, I think, where “less is more”.)
• If a book is to be chosen for the purpose of studying literary techniques, plot and vocabulary complexities, or is a topic for older ages, then yes, of course, my choice would lean towards the primary source information, full-version (uncondensed), no or few pictures, or otherwise in-depth kind of book.
• Choose pieces of literature according to standards you value (my general standards linked here in our philosophy of education statement) instead of basing what your family reads on a title’s popularity, availability, bargain price, website book list, etc.. Remember your standards so you can avoid books which do not meet them. Then generally keep to your list for future children, adding or deleting only occasionally. Resist the urge to frequently change your direction, unless it is for improvement; find satisfaction in what you know to be good or good-enough. This minimizes time spent searching each year (or more frequent) for books you think are worthwhile reads. (Think of this like a cereal aisle full of choices and purposely limit the selection.) Purchasing good books (compared to driving to and digging through greater selections at a library) makes sense, especially for rural-based living. I want to provide good reading materials that actually are desired to be read again in the future, instead of just for “school assignments”. Just a few examples of literature we choose: Janette Oke’s novels, Farley Mowat’s Owls in the Family, Eric Knight’s Lassie Come Home, Eleanor Porter’s Pollyanna, and the Atwater’s Mr. Popper’s Penguins. (Also see our shop for “literature bundles“ which provide some more titles.)
• How many books on the same topic are needed? (This includes picture storybooks too.) And is the topic one that a book is good for explaining or can the topic be better explained through another type of media (e.g. audio or video)? Example: How many missionary biographies do you need on the same person? I personally aim for just one for most characters; sometimes I’d choose a video/audio format over a book or a picture book over a novel or vice versa. I don’t need one bio per reading level of the same character; just one works fine. Plus, I don’t worry if my kids grow up without knowing hundreds of Christian biographies; we just pick a portion of these to balance with other pieces of good literature.

• (About “read-alouds” – please see my comments under the heading “Preschool”, above.)

Writing and Grammar

• Some minimalist homeschoolers might not pay much attention to grammar until junior high level. I lean towards this idea too, even though I do use a handful of worksheets or lessons for grammar for primary/junior. Our family has a good, in-depth grammar book that covers all the necessities in grade 9 or 10, so for one of those grades in our household, grammar has a greater focus compared to writing or literature.
• While I might underline or colour-code to show various parts of speech and similar in a sentence at bit, I don’t worry about the skill of “diagramming“. The topic of Greek and Latin roots (and other language roots) are covered only briefly as well. I now think that it is more effective to simply discuss these topics together than to have students write several pages of examples.
• Our family also does not do journal writing as much as many other families. Yes, we do some, such as to prompts from our writing curriculum, but not every school year.
• We personally write essays from grade 5/6 or so and upwards but I know I assign fewer essays to my teens in comparison to some homeschool families. I feel that the skills of story writing and research report writing are more useful compared to literary essays. I might assign 2-3 essays per upper-grade (in total, not per subject so that means that if history class has one essay, English class would have 1-2 in it). How many essays actually need to be written before the student understands how to craft one sufficiently for a post-secondary course?
• Notetaking, notebooking – Sure, students need to know how to write paragraphs for some notes. But some notes are just fine if written in point-form or with diagrams or charts. Writing in complete sentences all the time for every subject is unnecessary, in my opinion. So far, our grads continue to make excellent notes for their post-secondary learning.
• During spring homeschool conference season, it can be a busier time for myself (and for Rob who’s in tax/audit season with his career). There are 2 things I especially like to ask our kids to work on since our homeschool routine isn’t as routine for a bit. One is to write a children’s storybook, from draft to finished book. You can see examples on this blog here. This helps me manage a busier time with a great project our kids love!

Math

• If a child/teen understands the skill being practiced, for grades 3 to 7/8, I often assign every other question or just maybe 5 on a page. However, I still like them to do most or all of the word problems. (And if the skill is new or not well-understood, then they do more or all questions in those sections, of course.)
• For grades 1 and 2, I designed the lessons to have fewer practice questions already. Thus, I tend not to skip questions in our “Math Sticks” books. If a child needs more practice, this is an easy subject area to find supplemental worksheets for a specific skill.
• Drills – our family does not do as many drills in math compared to others. Flashcards are rarely used yet are if they appeal to the individual child. (Some like them more than others. One child liked to see them displayed on the wall, not “flashed”.) The paper drills I like are from the book “Mad Minute” which can be used as a beginning of the year review for a few weeks or so. I used to plan for other loose-paper drills but found I rarely got around to using them or needed them. One thing I have liked to do for review/reinforcement (if needed) is to ask the child to copy out the fact families (or equations) into a notebook/exercise book. So that I’m not using my blackboard space or time for printing these myself, I provide a copywork book for them to copy from. (But I don’t ask this often at all.)
• We do not incorporate a constant review method; that means we stay away from a spiral methodology.
• Because we view math as an important skill more than just for “real life” (e.g. applied in kitchen work or building), we wanted to expose our kids to all 5 strands/areas of math, not just the “basics” or just “operations” and we wanted to do that even in the primary levels instead of trying to “catch-up” in the pre-teen/teen years. Yet, I wanted the ability to self-pace through chunks (topics/skills) and spend as much or as little time for what the student needed on each. I am quite happy with the resources we use for elementary as the students prepare for secondary level with the option kept for a university goal.
• The high school math program I am OK but less satisfied with since I feel that lessons could be less theory and more straightforward. I’m still looking for something which better resembles the upper math (still “advanced” level) Rob and I learned in our high school, but where it isn’t just a textbook to read by oneself. Our teachers would assign us only a portion of the questions so that we could see the pattern and continue on. I recall being assigned some “A” questions (easiest), “B” questions (harder), and occasionally a question or two from the “C” questions in a math lesson (challenging). You can read more about high school math here.
• For upper elementary, we also now tend to skip over stem-and-leaf plots or similar minor lessons, because these skills are hardly used, even in high school. Computer coding is not emphasized (although Rob shows helpful things to the teens at times). If a resource has cumbersome math projects suggested (e.g. M & M candies analyzed), we skip over those too. We do however, like the idea of seeing mathematics in nature.
• Math manipulatives can be helpful, especially for grades K-3/4 but if you download my chart of tips for using these on the “Our Twist on Math” webpage, you can see how I use these without getting overwhelmed with too much unhelpful clutter.
• I’d rather give our kids a straightforward math program that isn’t trying to teach them by self-discovery or trying purposely to trick them or waste time with trivia or long stories. (Yes, vintage math readers can be good with their little stories. Our family has a few of these (gr. 3-6) and supplement lessons with them occasionally. But those stories are short in comparison to a couple of recent publishers’ math stories that I’ve seen.) I want students led, be focused on actual math skills (and not on culture/history), and gain confidence as they practice. I don’t want them to get bogged down muddling through a lack of clear direction. We want simpler questions first before adding complexity. Years ago, I went as far as using a selection of pages within some thin books by Remedia Publications for a student(s) who understood math well and was not remedial in knowledge level. RP didn’t have the distractions and kept things focused on practicing a skill and I could assign as much or as little of the questions. (But RP didn’t have the upper-level variety of skills and we didn’t want major gaps.) I have a note scrawled on paper here: “Don’t introduce too much of a challenge at once; start where the student is at rather than “wowing them.”) The “Key to….” series looks very good too. It goes up to “Keys for Algebra”, which is approximately the same as a Canadian grade 9 level.
• The least amount of math paper clutter for the highest amount of effective math lessons that I have found to date is the hand-crafted (not computer-generated) “Golden” version of Math Mammoth’s program for grades 5-8. See my comments about math further through this link.

Science

• Because science is so practical for living in any culture, we place a high priority on science studies. I have a blog post called, “Science Is Important!“
• We want to include a wide selection of science topics and skills, not just nature studies, vocabulary definitions, or writing opportunities. This means we aim for a variety of topics from biology, chemistry, physics, health, environmental, earth and space science plus “practical arts/sciences” such as agriculture or homesteading skills.
• The parts of science which I tend to minimalize are detailed theory debates, historical biographies, trivia (curriculum that has a lot of “Did you know?” on the sidebars), very messy experiments (take too long to prepare and clean up), and fast-paced videos (distracting from the main thing). We focus on the practical applications of science and the understanding of “how” something does what it does (functions). We also are concerned less about memorizing lots of impressive vocab, especially in primary/junior levels since I feel most of that memory work is unnecessary and detracts from actually understanding the processes or design involved. Example: Memorizing all bones in the human skeleton is not useful for K-12 and even if they become a doctor someday, a diagram on the wall near them can provide such information. However, understanding what a bone is made of and how it functions are important aspects to learn.
• Additionally, I like to have my kids/teens know not only a practical skill of how to “do something” but also the science behind it, for example, bake bread but understand fermentation, garden with knowing “what” or “why” something might work, etc..
• You can see what I look for in a good science curriculum by clicking here.
• I have purchased home economics curriculum in the past at conferences or through mail order but I’ve only found a small number of pages very useful for our family. Instead I or other family members or friends pass along these sorts of skills more so by being an example and having our kids come alongside to watch or assist or practice by doing. A few teens have learned also from Melissa K. Norris’ homesteading website courses and appreciate her explanations and printables (to put in a binder).
• Supplies: I really want to use items found around the home for model-building, demos, and experiments. I think part of this comes from living most of my life in a rural environment near small communities where we could not just go to a store quickly and specialty stores were further away in cities. Extended close family members were teachers in one-room rural schoolhouses so their example of teaching well with basic around-the home supplies further cemented this idea. As an example, you can see how I think through this in a recent blog about senior chemistry supplies.
  • Kits or other supplies: Lego is stored away in the basement except for occasional special times. I can think of 5-6 science-based kits that we’ve really liked/used in our family over the years (bridge architecture, simple machines and gears, electromagnetic, magnets, and a basic “Snaptricity” set) but otherwise, I try to use what we have already or, if needed, purchase individual supplies thoughtfully. Special supplies or kits with small pieces need to be put away when not in use and I prefer that place to be in basement storage (instead of the toy zone). This helps to minimize general distraction or clutter. A friend of mine has her son’s Lego stored in a separate play space, not in sight while homeschooling.
  • Our family tends to purchase individual craft supplies, rather than kits of a mixture of items. Overall, I think it’s cheaper for the supplies and results in more useful items made. We look for supplies from places that aren’t just a department-type of store as well. Examples: We get beeswax from a honey business, basket-weaving supplies from someone who collects the reeds, fabric swatches from a fabric store.
  • A speaker on astronomy at a school science fair once gave us this tip: A telescope is not overly useful for teaching astronomy unless the student is seriously intrigued. Instead, for most students, simply provide them with a good set of binoculars and it will be easier to find and focus on things in outer space, such as the moon or constellations. (And it’s less expensive too!)
• How often? For grades K-8, I prefer to have science more than once a week (e.g. 2-5x) and aim for at least 4 units per year plus perhaps a couple extra short units. High schoolers tend to have daily science, 1-2 semesters. One semester might be a science such as biology while the other term might be more “practical” such as small engine repair. But sometimes our teens might have 2-4 “science” topics per year. (We prefer high school to be arranged into a “sort of semestered system”.) There can be a main text or set of notes that we work from for good notebooking, discussions, and projects, plus a handful of supplemental videos or worksheets perhaps.
• Here is the second thing I like to assign kids to work on during a spring conference season: I love to include a science fair project assignment most years! Then we can also have a day of science centers for our “fair at home”. (We parents look after putting together the centers for that day and also “judge” the projects with interviewing our kids. Or go on a field trip to see a larger one at a school. A science fair can be lots of fun!)

Geography

• Geography gets a greater emphasis in our homeschool compared history or socials/gov’t. We want our children to know mapping skills well (and not rely on GPS). We love to learn about people, places, and nature around the world as well as our own country! However, we also do not give geography as much attention as some other homeschooling families. We rarely eat “other foods” and keep project-based learning for this more summary-like, an overview of a handful of countries within each continent, a brief look at characteristics of a biome region. Multimedia and/or books and posters are enjoyed as well.
• In our studies of countries, how much would we typically do? One page of info that includes gluing on cloth, drawing foods, etc.. That takes parts of a day or two if we also watch a video showing life in that country or read a book or two about it. (In comparison, some families would spend a week or even a month studying one country and borrow a large stack of books from the library, plus try some cultural crafts and perhaps eat something unusual to them. This is totally fine of course, if that is what you’d like to do in your family.)
• Bible-land geography and culture remains a high interest in our family so we add that, learning as a family from primarily maps and DVDs (e.g. Day of Discovery and others).
• We enjoy being in contact with friends and family in other countries and learning more about their lives over the years. Although this isn’t “formal learning”, we feel it’s a great way to broaden our kids’ world and perspective! (Sometimes we even get to meet them in-person if they travel where we live!)
• I have friends who love travelling with their homeschool families – a lot! When they talk of their travels, sometimes we look up where they went on a map together or can search online for what “it looks like”. This is very informal learning but good too.
• I appreciate that the French program our family uses is focused on world missions too.
• For lesson work, our family generally would study either geography OR history OR socials each year but not all three in a year. That tends to give more time to study more within one of those subject areas and helps to not overwhelm the total number of subjects we do at once. (This year has been an exception as we’ve been studying parts of a few curriculum books rather than going through an entire one.)

History

• I prefer to use curriculum that offers a choice for how much detail needs to be covered – an overview of main historical points with options for further in-depth studying if desired for that section.
• I often think homeschool history curriculum pressures too much in its content, to learn more than what is really of interest or of use in understanding today’s world. There are typically lots of tests or written assignments (e.g. essays) or additional novels to read. So in my example of being a minimalist homeschooler, I prefer to use textbooks like a reference tool (e.g. like an encyclopedia), rather than assigning Q and A or tests from them, unless the student is heading into post-secondary history and would need to know how to respond with history tests and essays. I’d prefer instead to ask for research reports, projects (e.g. poster, timeline, skit), simple notebooking, and focus primarily on teaching with visuals, discussing as a group topics or issues of interest, looking at primary source information, and listening or reading a handful of stories (including storytelling).
• In other words, we don’t copy lots of notes or fill-in lots of worksheets or do many “read-this-write-the-answer” formats of learning for history.
• Our family knows what a historical timeline is and make about 3-4 basic ones during elementary years. We don’t worry about labelling everything into a timeline though and we don’t spend time on making highly-detailed timelines.
• Our family studies the slowest through Canadian history, skims through world history (slowing down a bit for church history or British history), and skips over most details of American history. We also aim to learn some things about the geography and history related to the Bible as it pertains to the world in the future (prophecy) and in current events in helping us understanding our world.
• We also like to take extra time with family history (e.g. historical stories related to people in our “family tree”).
• I’m not sure where this would fit but I’ll put it here. Our family doesn’t have “Bible” as a “school subject” because we don’t want them to equate studying it with literature studies or ancient history studies. As parents we teach our kids from the Bible, its purpose, theology, discipleship, about a relationship with the Living God, the Creator. Of course we discuss various thoughts throughout our day with our children because we are in a relationship with them. But we don’t assign essays or administer tests to pressure knowing Bible facts. We don’t think those are necessary and sometimes these might even be detracting from what God has intended for our study of His precious Word. (Read Matthew 11:28-29) Bible learning should be a delight, like sitting down to grow in a good friendship. If you want more ideas for family Bible time or Christian parenting, please see this link.

Relationships Matter!

The ultimate success of education is not a particular style/approach. It instead rests on the quality of relationships.

This is why parents and students find that interacting together in home education becomes more satisfying compared to online learning all day in front of a virtual teacher or game app. “Canned” lectures or cartoon characters are devoid of a good relationship with the learner. Online school-at-home is not the same as real homeschooling. Successful homeschooling is more than just providing study material, even though yes, a loving relationship will show their care by encouraging and providing good things for students to learn.

I’ve read of an elderly pastor and wife who were asked what they thought about the idea of education at home in the context of when it was about correspondence lessons via cassette – where the child would listen to a teacher provide educational content and then mail-in written responses. While they could see the helpfulness of home teaching in some situations, they were rightfully concerned with the idea of a piece of technology as an influential substitute of a relationship with a real person.

“Wouldn’t it be great, five or ten years [after schooling] to say, “I would like to have you come over and meet my tape recorder. She was a great teacher.” Wouldn’t that be awful! Teaching is more than just saying things. It’s a personality…” (p.104, What Does the Bible Say About…? by Dr. Howard and Lucile Sugden, Kregel Publications, 1987)

In our current cultural trends, one attraction to the term “minimalist homeschooling” may come from overwhelmed parents who want to (or need to) have their children at home for school-days BUT do not want to put much or any effort into guiding their children’s education. In other words, they’re searching for “what can we do that’s easy so that our kids are successfully educated but where parents don’t have to do much.” They almost seem to view their role as parents as programming a computer, hitting a start button, and seeing the end result happen automatically while their life’s focus can be elsewhere. Yet God has designed people, including young people, to thrive in building relationships.

One of the roles of a parent is to nurture good relationships with their children (any age) so that they understand in real examples what a good relationship is.

I understand what it is like to try to balance a part-time business and my priority is to my family. As an example, I focus more on designing curriculum since my kids are helped by that; I’ve spent much less time on marketing products or business opportunities. I’m a mom and then an entrepreneur and blogger, not the other way around. I don’t expect to work full-time these homeschooling years in addition to being a good parent caring for children – God made me only one person. Some days my kids need me more and other days less, depending on a variety of factors as they go through life, so I work at “Peppermint Stick” when it makes sense. But I want to be there for them, treating them how I would like to be remembered, living without regrets. There is no point in having any homeschool style if it doesn’t benefit those being homeschooled. The reason it is an option is to serve the whole family, not just the parents.

Aiming for being a loving wife and mom means that I spend some moments of thinking time to set aside “the things that don’t really matter to us” instead of just following what the crowd does. It means a mom might need to say “no” to some good opportunities (e.g. studies, activities, or as much time in the adult world) in order to do well with the better or best opportunities. When we aren’t as concerned with doing or having “everything” the world offers, we learn to increase our contentment and relax from unnecessary expectations and stressors.

As moms, relationships matter to make us better people too. We need to grow in knowing God personally (see a post I wrote about this here in context of being a parent with children around), nurture our marriage, and enjoy mom-to-mom time with good friends (e.g. Proverbs 13:20a, Titus 2:3-5). When we are experiencing good relationships ourselves, this delight overflows so that we can pour out to others, such as our children, and refresh their days!

Here’s my definition again, from Minimalist Homeschooling (and How to “Prune”):

 “…it as a style of education where the wide array of choices for “what to include in a normal day” is purposely limited and prioritized for a simpler lifestyle and for a greater practicality of use. Families might aim for fewer physical supplies within a learning space, fewer subjects to focus on at a time, the choice of multi-use or reusable items, and/or the careful planning of how often and how much depth or detail per topic (or even if they think it is worthwhile to include at all). The idea is to provide a great educational experience which is not dependent on “all the bells and whistles” marketed in the education world.

The result is often a more relaxed way of homeschooling. It seeks to take steps to avoid overwhelm. It aims to use time and possessions better and not waste them on something that isn’t of personal interest if it is not helpful or needful, in order to free up greater time, space, or energy for things which benefit, encourage, and/or are important for the present or future life.“

There’s truly an abundance in sweet simplicity! We’re touching the palates of our kids with important things to know and do, explore and experience, design and make – all effectively taught through building good relationships.

I hope you’ve found some “encouragemint” reading this series of blogs and minimalist homeschooling! (As always, you’re welcome to send your questions, comments, or suggestions by contacting me through this page.

For more understanding about what I’ve called a “Peppermint Stick” style/approach (which to me is very similar to a minimalistic style), please go to this link – “Our Twist” and of course, our online shop!

Have a sweet and refreshing day!