How to Switch to Homeschool (Just Like We Are!)

On February 14, 2023, I shared an article about working outside the home after 10 years at home. As I had suggested in that article, my heart is really to be at home.

Well, after working for four-and-a-half months, I’m back home fulltime again!

I know – it didn’t last long! lol!

Starting Homeschooling in Jamaica

Now that I am back home fulltime, here is my plan.

First, I will continue blogging here. I’m also putting more focus on our family’s YouTube channel to get more growth there. (By the way, have you subscribed yet?)

The most important and newest change, however, is that our family will be switching to homeschool in the upcoming school year.

The curriculum we’ll be using is called the Genesis curriculum. It is a Bible-based curriculum with workbooks and several FREE online resources to supplement our lessons. We are also going to be incorporating some elements of the National Standard Curriculum, especially the parts about our Jamaican culture and history.

We have opted to do a four-day homeschool week, which leaves us with Fridays to do all the things, like:

• Visiting the library
• Going on field trips
• Music lessons
• Swimming lessons
• Hair grooming

The vision is that Saturdays will be a true day of rest (no, we’re not Sabbath keepers by denomination but I think it’s important to rest!). So, we’ll stay home on Saturdays, watch some Christian movies, maybe go for walks, visit friends or neighbours and, check up on our garden (hypothetically speaking, since we don’t have a garden yet!)

When it comes to shopping, it seems like Sunday is the day. That’s because we are already out for church on a Sunday, and it just always falls into place.

And by the way, that bullet list of activities for Fridays is not what we’ll be doing EVERY Friday. We’ll alternate and mix according to our needs and what’s available. Library trips, for instance, can be every other Friday, since we should be able to get books for two weeks at a time, right??? (Haven’t used a library in YEARS, so I’m not sure!)

What will Replace the Lost Income from my Job?

The income from my job may be gone, but without needing to travel to work, and with homeschool on the horizon, we have eliminated several expenses.

Here are some of them:

1. No more taxi fare for me ($700 daily)
2. No more school lunch money ($5000 weekly)
3. No more occasional ice-cream money for school ($300 extra weekly)
4. No more jeans day or “socks and crocs day” money ($300 extra each time)
5. No more buying water or drinks, along with snacks for the children ($1000 weekly)
6. No graduation fee to be paid (about $8000 for infant school)
7. No trip money to be paid (last count would have been about $30,000 for the whole family)
8. No school shoes, books, socks, erasers, sharpeners etc. to buy constantly.
9. No more extra contribution for printing exam papers ($450 extra)
10. No class party money to be paid ($6,500 total)

You get my point!

Plus, I have a little tutoring job proposal for the month of July…we’ll see how that works out.

The conclusion is that although my income has been cut, by cutting out those expenses we are not the worse off. Add to that the FREEDOM we are enjoying by not having to get up, hurry, and rush to school/work – the feeling is enjoyable and restful!

So, if you want to know how to start homeschooling, here’s what we are doing!

The Morning B’s

The most important method we are using to get ready for homeschool is the adoption of a schedule.

When the children wake up (most times around 7:30ish), they have to do what we call their Morning B’s:

• Bed (that is, making their bed)
• Breakfast (having breakfast)
• Bathe (have a shower in this case)
• Brush teeth
• Bible (basically have their devotions)

So far, I’m getting cooperation (more or less), and we try to be done by 9 so we can do some mini lessons during the summer. We do reading, and the other day everyone did Math from their sister’s grade 2 Math book. It was fun!

Instagram Homeschoolers

I have also been getting some knowledge and community motivation from some great homeschooling moms on Instagram. (Follow me on IG and see who I’m following to get some great homeschool inspiration).

Sometimes it’s a quote, or a thought, or resources, or just a snippet of what other homeschooling families are doing.

It’s super encouraging and I’m getting some awesome ideas of activities we can do as a homeschooling family.

So far, so good!

Now all that’s needed is to stock up on homeschool items. This will work out way cheaper than our bill for regular school, since the children will not have the occasion to lose so many of their things. Plus, they can easily share if they need to!

Homeschooling, here we come!