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Hey, friend. Okay, before we dive in, I want to say something that might immediately lower your shoulders a little bit. Today I am not going to be breaking down specific reading skills. I am not listing math benchmarks. I am not telling you what your 8 year old should be doing.
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Because the truth is that varies so much. It can vary by age, by development, by neurotype, by confidence, by past school experiences, and by your family's unique goals. And if you want to help figuring out what language arts or math should or could look like for your child individually, I want you to bring that into Voxer this month.
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Drop your questions in the community space and say, like, here's where we are, where should we focus? And if you want a little bit of more structure, then let's figure out how to get on a one on one and really break this down for you and figure out where the holes and gaps are that your child should be filling in and can be filling in for their, like, foundational level and to really help them grow and learn in a successful way.
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Anyway, this is what the hub is for, right? To get your hard hitting questions answered all month long. And the podcast training is really just a kind of kickoff topic of what we can be learning and growing and discussing together.
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That's not to say you can't bring other experiences and topics into the community space. Please do. That's what it's here for. But I do want to encourage you if after this month's podcast you're feeling a little bit like, okay, that's great, Malia, but like, where do I start? Or what should we be working on in these areas?
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I just want to encourage you, come to the hub and ask questions because that is what this is all about. All right, so today we are zooming out a little bit and looking at our homeschools, through the lens of what our minimum viable homeschool actually means and how we can utilize the technique of loop skating scheduling to add in more subjects without carrying more on our shoulders.
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So let's just breathe this in together. Minimum viable does not mean I am doing the least. It means I know what matters daily. I know what my priorities are for my homeschool. So for us inside this framework, minimum viable means every homeschool day we are touching language arts, reading and writing in some way, and we are also touching math. That's it.
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We don't need to define how long that happens. We don't need to define what level we're doing. We don't even need to define what Curriculum. Because some of you have an older child who is perhaps still strengthening foundations. I know I do.
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Some of us have younger children who are working at a higher level. Some of us are working with kids who need short bursts of learning and then an immediate relief from that and a break. And some of us are working with kids who are thriving on discussion, but freeze when they're presented with things like worksheets.
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So minimum viable is about consistency, not about workload, curriculum, and level. If we read, if we write, if we engage in math, thinking that day counts towards our homeschooling.
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And I need you guys to hear that the day counts, right? Say it with me. That day counts. Everything else is just expansion. So I think the reason that this feels uncomfortable sometimes is because we've been so absorbed in this idea that a real homeschool day has to include every everything, every single day.
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It has to have science, history, geography, art, health, social, emotional learning projects, nature studies, all of it, right? And I think some of that pressure comes from the regulations and rules that states sometimes have, right?
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There are some states that are telling families that homeschool that you need to do all of these subjects, right, for a certain number of days a year, for a certain number of hours a day. And then there are other states who have more flexible rules and they like, as long as you're doing something, you're good.
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And then there are still states that have no rules at all. So I, I know this is a challenge for so many homeschool families because we are often struggling with that like, comparison of seeing what other families and other states are requiring and doing.
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And I want to challenge you that you can still do all of this without it all feeling like it has to be done every day. Because when everything is urgent, nothing is feeling peaceful, right? Especially for some of our high energy, hands on kids.
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And what I've seen in myself and in a lot of families that I've been talking with is that burnout doesn't come from doing too little. It comes from trying to treat every subject like an emergency, right? So it's not about doing too little or doing too much, but it's about putting the same weight on all of the subjects that we are trying to learn and, and teach.
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And so I want to encourage you that this minimum viable approach of prioritizing a couple of subjects that you are going to do every single day is going to help protect your nervous system when it comes to planning activities and diving into your homeschool planning sessions.
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Because even on a hard day you will know what matters and you can adapt and modify those minimum viable things, your math, your reading, your writing assignments, to meet the level that you're on on that day.
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So maybe some days that means your math is pulling out your curriculum, your actual lesson, getting all the way through it, no hiccups, right? But maybe on another day that is feeling hard and overwhelming. And so you're choosing to work on foundational skills through a board game rather than pulling out your curriculum.
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And that still counts. You are still hitting your minimum viable and you just pick up where you left off in your curriculum the next day when you're ready. Okay, so here's where it gets fun. We're not going to totally eliminate science or history or art.
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We are going to rotate them. So instead of trying to fit it all in every week, we are going to create a loop day. So let's say every Friday is loop day. And each day of the month, sorry, each week of the month that is going to rotate.
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So for example, on week one, you might, be doing art on a Friday. On week two, history on week three, science. On week four, geography week five, if it exists, you could throw in a field trip or a project or a flex day.
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You don't even have to have four or five flex loop subjects. So please don't hear that. I'm saying you need to add in all of these extra subjects. I'm just saying if you wanted to have these extra subjects as part of an easier fit and flow in your planning and scheduling, then think about how you could utilize this loop planning process where you are not cramming all five subjects into one Friday, but rather you're spotlighting one subject and you're going in the same order to create a pattern.
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So it's something about knowing like, okay, we're gonna do art on week one of the month or this like whatever, loop one right of of our schedule. And so we've done loop one and we'll come back to it after we get through the, the rest of our loop.
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So sequence. So in this example that I've given you where we have five subjects, right? Art, history, science, geography, and field trip, you're going to just cycle through those. So you're going to do the first week, you'll do an art activity.
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The second week you'll do a history lesson or activity. The third week you'll do something for science. The fourth week, something for geography. The fifth week you'll do that field trip. And then week six, right, you'll come back in with art and you'll start that same flow over again. Right.
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So there's no falling behind in a loop. There's just consistency and continuing. Now, I would 100% recommend not having all five of these weeks. Right. I would start small, add in one at a time. Right. So for us in our family, we started with Tuesdays being like afternoon science.
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And then, you know, we started to get more flexible. So it was Tuesdays could be for science or history. So we would alternate every other week. Right. Think about it in that sense. Because there's no falling behind in a loop. There's just consistency and continuation.
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Now let's talk about something very real. Some of us are homeschooling one child, some of us are homeschooling more. And if you have two or more children at different levels, this is where moms can often start to think, I need to have completely separate plans for all of these extra subjects beyond teaching reading and teaching writing and teaching math. Right.
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You don't. You need shared content and an ability to adapt and modify for output. And so I want to encourage you to anchor your language arts with a shared read aloud or a novel study.
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Then you can have your individual reading practice with each child and writing at each child's level. But you're going to have this commonality through the book, the novel that you're reading. You can read the same book and still have different expectations.
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So think about how after a chapter, a child who's earlier in writing development might draw a scene or dictate a summary or write a few simple sentences where a child who's more advanced might write a paragraph or analyze a character's motivation or compare themes.
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The discussion that your family will have can be shared and the connection is shared and scaled. So again, if you're unsure of what scaling should look like for your child, bring it to Voxer. We'll talk through it together. We'll, well figure it out.
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You're not supposed to guess your way through that. That is what this community and this space and my coaching is here to help you walk through. And if you're like totally overwhelmed with this idea of creating a novel study, there are so many that are pre put together, by amazing curriculum creators.
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Some, of my favorites are, Chelsea Lanise from let's Play School. She has a bunch of great novel studies and I think she's actually in the process of rolling out some things for younger kids as well with picture books. So I'm really excited for that.
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And then brave Writer is another great resource. Julie Bogart has amazing leveled, novel studies. And I will say that we've personally used both of these in our family and I kind of bounce back and forth between them, honestly, because they're all great for their own reasons.
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But what I love about both of these is that they're teaching a lot of things that need to be covered for grammar and literature skills and deep dives in those areas. And so I would totally encourage you to check them out when you're ready for a, a novel study, for your family.
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All right, so what could your week actually look like when you're implementing this loop schedule? I want to make this real for you. So your Monday through Thursday, your daily anchors of language arts, shared read alouds, novel studies, individual reading, writing responses, your math will be there.
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Your focus, math time, your curriculum, your hands on activities, your workbooks, your problem solving. And once that's done, that day counts and anything else is extra. So you can throw in an nature walk, an audiobook in the car, a board game, a rabbit trail conversation.
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Those are all beautiful, but they're not required for the day to count. And then on Fridays, you can ensure that you're still lightly touching those anchors. Right. Your, your math and reading might look a little more flexible. Maybe you have a journal entry that you're doing on Friday mornings or playing a quick math game to like start the day.
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We used to love what I, I used to call Fun Fridays. And we would do just a stack of board games every Friday morning. That's how we kick started our day. If we did more after that, great. If we didn't feel like doing more after that and we just wanted to play and explore or go for a field trip, we did that and it was excellent.
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And this, the day still counted. So I would encourage you to think about starting your front your loop day like that in a fun way and then spotlight a subject of the week. So is it an art week? Dig into that. Is it a history week?
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Read a biography, add to a timeline. If you're following a curriculum, you can also just pick up where you left off with history the week before. That is something I love to do in our homeschool as well, is to get things that are kind of what I like to call open and go style curriculums.
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So things that you can pick up and just run with, where you left off. And so, gosh, we have really enjoyed interest led things for history and following our passions through rabbit trails. But I also really love history.
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Unboxed which is a subscription box that you can get now. It comes with, like three or four activities in it. So. So you can do one activity right, on your loop day. You don't have. Or, you know, if you have kids who love that deep dive, you could do a whole box.
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So there's so many options for that. If you're using a unit study style approach to learning, then maybe your loop day is just your unit study activity. And maybe it's not specific to it being history or geography or science week to week.
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Maybe it is, and that's how you make sure you're covering all, all of the areas. But unit, studies are a great way to come into this approach as well. So I just wanted to thank you to think about it in that sense, as well.
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So you're going to have one focus on that day, right. Of these extra subjects with different output levels. And you can create a shared experience if you have more than one child that you're homeschooling. And it can be simple, intentional, sustainable. Right.
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Because you're just worrying about it one time a week and moving through your regular flow every other day. All right, I hope this is bringing you some clarity and peace and not more confusion. But bring your questions to Voxer if you have them.
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I would love to chat this out with you.
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Okay, so I've given you kind of a look and a snapshot at what it could look like to do loop days on Fridays, for an example. But I also want you to think about how you could utilize this on an everyday basis. So maybe you have language arts and you have math and reading every day, and you still feel like, okay, like, we still want to do more on those days.
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So think about how you could do a loop in kind of a daily format. So maybe Mondays are for history and Tuesdays are for science, and Thursdays are for art, and Fridays are your field trip days.
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So then you just have every Monday, you know you're gonna do the same extra subject, right? Your history. I can't remember if I said history or science on Mondays now, but you know what I'm saying, right? So every Monday you're going to do math, reading, writing, and history.
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Every Tuesday it would be math, reading, writing and science, and every Wednesday, math, reading, writing, and art. So if that type of loop schedule is feeling more appropriate for you and for where you're at, then I would encourage you to do that style over the once a week style.
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All right, let's chat it out in the hub. And I'm so excited to hear about your plans for March. And let me leave you with this question. Have I accidentally made every subject feel urgent?
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I want you to ask yourself that. Have I accidentally made every subject feel urgent? And what would shift if only language arts and math were my daily anchors and everything else rotated? Minimum viable. Protects your energy loops.
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Protect your curiosity. And if you want breaking down the skill leveling accommodations, bring it to the community space this month. Because that's what we're doing together. You're not doing less. You're building something you can actually sustain. And that matters more than squeezing in one more subject.
