That really is the question. Before you answer it for your family, make sure you know your current state regulations. Every state sets different demands on the Homeschool family and although relaxed scheduling looks good for some, it may not work in your state.

Our Homeschool, being a Military Home School traveled from one regulation to another. While underground and just beginning, we followed a strict school schedule in our home. Since I had no confidence in my ability (but tons in my God) we began with Christian Liberty Academy. After a year of structure and tears (mine more than theirs) I decided to hit the catalogues, save a few pennies and restructure our schedule.

At the beginning of the year I went through all our books and broke them into manageable segments. Most states ask for 180 days of school. I never divided the work by 180 because we always had one day a week that did not include book work. It was still a school day, but without books. For us that day was Wednesday and broke up our week nicely. I divided the text books pages by 125 because that also left room for field trips and the unexpected.

For Science and History we tried the MWF TTH thing, but what worked best for us was one semester Science and one semester Government, History or Geography. We also did Family History one year as well. After all if you don't know your history how can you understand where you fit.

In order to do all the things we needed to do for the state we lived in and because some days we didn't complete all I had scheduled and because I HATE erasing; I wrote in what we DID at the end of the day. This created neat filled in Log books that at times had to be submitting to authorities!

One more thing, it is easy to get overwhelmed and set aside some subjects in lieu of others. Do not set God aside. If all you accomplish that day is reading the Bible and praying you are setting the stage for success. If ten problems on a Math page normally take 10 minutes and you are going on two hours, change the subject or go for a walk; because even if it eventually gets done four hours later I will promise you they retained none of it! Art, recess and PE are important, Music matters. If book work is taking so long that you did not get to these, schedule a day just for those fu things. That is what our Wednesday was. Because after Christian Liberty's tight schedule, we needed a relaxed day.

It is okay to change methods, schedules and plans until you find what works. And guess what? What works for one may not work for the others!

Homeschool 2007 Open House is brought to you by Tiany! Won't you join us?