Homeschooling Tips from A to Z for 2023: The Letter Y

Homeschool Tip #1: Year-long School

A good many homeschooling families homeschool year-round.

There are plenty of ways to schedule your lessons for this, and it is very flexible. 

Some like to do a four day week, some like to do five days a week for a few weeks and then take a whole week off. 

I’ve never homeschooled year-round. My summers are too busy with canning, dehydrating and freezing our garden bounty. I also use our summer break to plan ahead with the school lessons, as I like to be pretty detailed and know exactly what I need to keep on top of or to teach.

There’s no wrong way to plan a homeschooling schedule. As long as you’re getting your 180 school days done, you will be on the right track. 

What ever works for your family’s needs will be the best way to do school for you. 

Homeschool Tip #2: Yearbooks

As I was growing up, my mom always made sure she ordered us a yearbook. I’m glad she did. 

There’s been plenty of times that I’ve looked up fellow classmates’ pictures or names.

With only your family in your homeschool, is it still important to have a “yearbook”?

I say yes, but I don’t call it a yearbook. It could be called a portfolio or even a scrapbook, or even a combination of the two.

If you’re part of a co-op, gym class/sports team, dance class, art class, club or any other extracurricular activity, you may want to get a group picture or at least some pictures of your children with some other friends in the group. 

It’s more about memories than anything, but it also helps with keeping records of what you did and when.

It’s also fun to look back on these pictures and see how the kids have changed.

These “yearbooks” can be as basic or as detailed as you want them to be. 

For some examples of sections of scrapbook pages I did for our tadpole study just click on: Homeschooling Tips That start with the Letter T: T is for Tadpoles

Homeschool Tip #3: YouTube

There have been a few times with grammar and math concepts that I have had to search on YouTube for how to teach something.

There has also been times when I needed to learn a concept myself, before I could even begin to teach it to my kids.

One YouTube channel that we are using pretty heavily this year is from the Amoeba Sisters. They make high school Biology topics easy to understand and fun to learn. 

Chareen at Every Bed of Roses has put together a post with her favorite educational YouTube channels. I’d encourage you to take a look!

No matter what you need help with, you’re not alone. I’m so thankful that people have taken the time to put helpful information and tips on the internet for other people to learn from. 

If you missed any of last weeks’ Blogging Through the Alphabet posts about the letter X, just click on the title that you missed.

X is for Xylophone: Lego ABC’s by Desiree at Our Homeschool Notebook
X-Factor in Your Homeschool by Chareen at Every Bed of Roses
X if for FluXX: ABC Games by Desiree at Our Homeschool Notebook
Xenakis: Composer ABC’s by Lori at At Home: Where Life Happens

If you would like to read more Homeschooling Tips from A to Z, just click on the alphabet letter below.