When I tell people that I homeschool our 3 boys (whether we’re in a restaurant or I run into an old public-school-friend mom), I generally get one of two responses: either they say something like “Wow! That’s awesome… I could never.” OR they tell me they were homeschooled, their aunt Suzy homeschools, or they’re considering homeschooling their own children when the time comes. As a photographer of moms with small children, I often have clients who are genuinely curious about our experience because they are weighing educational decisions in their own family. Sooo this blog post will hopefully be a resource I can share with people who are curious what it’s like to take on the task of teaching their kids.

This post is going to be a long one. Feel free to skip to the parts that you’re interested in 😉

WHY we choose homeschool:

We’ve always tossed around this decision. In fact, by the time my oldest son was finishing 2nd grade, he had attended one public school, two different Christian private schools, and a hybrid homeschool co-op (2 days per week). Deciding how our children should be educated is a decision I didn’t see coming because my husband and I both attended public school all the way through and I always assumed our children would too. However when our oldest was turning 5, I had a very hard time sending him to our zoned public school. I know many moms feel the same way (maybe even more so) today.

After attempting basically every option, we have landed on homeschool for a few different reasons:

 

Freedom + Togetherness

We actually loved our most recent private school experience (CAK if you’re curious). We loved the teachers, our kid’s friend groups and the way their education was being delivered through the filter of loving Jesus. In October of 2022, a sudden job change for my husband left us with a lot more freedom in how we spend our time. We realized we didn’t want the boy’s school schedule to dictate when we could take trips, or just generally how we scheduled our days. Homeschooling allows you to do school whenever you want – literally. On the weekend, in the evening, over the summer – it’s entirely up to you and you don’t have to follow what the public school system is doing. You can start early in the morning and be done by lunch, or you can sleep in and let school go into the afternoon. You also get to take trips when everyone else is in school. We love going to places like the zoo or Dollywood on a random Thursday because no one is there.

Homeschooling has also given us so much family time together. My boys (ages 11, 8 and almost 4) are best friends. They play together every day and have sweet relationships. Of course, they also argue and need to spend time in their own rooms occasionally. Sometimes being together constantly causes friction and we’ve learned ways to allow everyone to have alone time when they need it. But for the most part, it’s a huge win that we have so so many more hours together than if they were at school 7 hours a day.

Here are a few photos from our month long RV trip that we took our first semester of homeschooling. We brought school with us and learned as we travelled.

Education Quality + Pace

(Small disclaimer: I know that homeschool isn’t an option for everyone, or even an interest to everyone. I have friends who LOVE their public school and friends who are still at CAK and love it. I don’t think there is one right school option for every single family and I think it’s wonderful that we get to choose. This section is just my feelings about what makes a good education for my family.)

This one wasn’t necessarily an aspect at first. Like I mentioned, we loved our experience at CAK and felt that they boys were receiving a good education (albeit for a large cost). It wasn’t until I began reading books about the history of education (think one room schoolhouses), the theories around separating children into age groups to learn, and different ideas around how the public school system was created that I began questioning just how effective public (and private) schools actually are. I won’t dive too deep into this. Rather, I’ll list some books that I suggest reading if you want to learn more.

Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto
Call of the Wild and Free by Ainsley Arment
The Brave Learner by Julie Bogart

Mostly, homeschooling has allowed me to tailor the education of my children to the way they learn and the things that interest them. For example, one of my children is currently 2 grades ahead in our chosen math curriculum and one is still finishing up the previous year’s book. Both of these situations are completely normal. Children don’t universally learn at a set pace and I am able to teach my children where they are in each given subject. If they end up racing ahead of their “grade-level” because the new information feels easy, then great! If we’re 2 grades behind “grade-level” because they need more time to master the information, also great! We have the time! And it has taken me some time to be able to say that. It’s hard to rewire the way your brain thinks about school and learning, so if you’re thinking this all sounds crazy, it did to me at first too. 😉

 

A Day in our Life

Big big caveat to say – this is always shifting. We’re always tweaking things – it’s the beauty of homeschool. But this is roughly how a day in our life looks on a non co-op school day:

My kiddos wake up around 7:00 and head downstairs for breakfast. Sometimes I’m already up (this is my preference but depends on my bedtime the night before) and sometimes they wake me up. We all eat breakfast and usually read the bible and pray while at the table.

Then we head to our playroom table and begin our school time. We start with something we call a morning basket (more on those here). This time is filled with subjects that everyone can do together – things like watching World Watch (kid-friendly news segments), reading books aloud (I’m currently reading through The Chronicles of Narnia with them), map tracing, studying history, etc.

After morning basket, which lasts around 1-1.5 hours, I let the kids take a quick move-your-body break. They can grab a snack and we head back to the table. At this point, we talk about what everyone needs to do independently that day (core subjects like math and language, piano lessons, reading, typing lessons, etc.). We loop through subjects each day. More on loop scheduling here. They have the option of staying at the table with me (this is the only option if they need assistance) or taking their books to another part of the house or outside to complete their tasks. My upcoming 2nd and 5th graders are pretty capable of completing work independently at this point.

This usually wraps up around 12:30 and that’s it. We have lunch together and as long as the independent lists have been checked, the boys are free to play/build/create or whatever the rest of the day. The afternoons are generally when I do housework, we run errands, or meet friends at the park, etc.

 

What about homeschool co-ops?

There are many different types of homeschool co-ops available in Knoxville. Let’s talk about each of them:

Hybrid Homeschool Co-ops

I mentioned earlier that my oldest son attended a hybrid homeschool co-op (3 days at school, 2 days at home). These hybrid models are great for parents who want participation in their child’s education, but don’t want 100% of the responsibility. It is split between the parent and a teacher. There are pros and cons to this model.

The pros, in my opinion, are social interaction with peers and more free time as the parent. These co-ops are broken down by grade-level, so your children would get the typical classroom experience 3 days per week and be home with you the other 2 days. My very social son loved this aspect of getting to hang out with c0-op friends. You, as the parent, also have 2 free days off while your children are at school.

The biggest con of this model is that the co-op chooses everything. They choose the curriculum you will study, the pace of the curriculum, assignments, etc. Some people like this aspect as it removes the responsibility of choosing yourself, but I hated it. Like I mentioned earlier, pace and quality of education are very important to me, so I want to choose curriculum based on my kid’s individual needs, rather than being told what to do. Another con is the cost of these programs. They have tuition costs that can be burdensome.

If you want to look into the hybrid options in Knoxville. Here are a few of them:
Oak Grove Co-op
Rivers Edge Academy
Paideia Academy (they offer this for K-3rd grades)

 

Drop Off One-Day Co-ops

I know of at least one co-op in Knoxville (I’m sure there are more) that allows parents to drop children off. It’s called Thursday Connections and I only know about it because we heavily considered it over our current co-op. It is a full-day co-op that offers a large variety of block-scheduled classes for students K-12. Parents build their child’s schedule from the available classes and drop them off each Thursday for a day of classroom-style learning. They have core subject classes like math and english, as well as elective type classes like robotics and ballroom dancing. There is a tuition cost to this type of co-op as well.

Learn more about Thursday Connections here.

 

Parent-Involved One-Day Co-ops

The co-op we chose to join is called Classical Conversations (referred to as CC). It’s a classical model of co-op (more on classical education here) that meets once a week and parents are required to stay on campus and participate. Many people join CC because they value the classical model. I wouldn’t say we fall into that camp. I like the classical model just fine, but we have loved this co-op because of the wonderful community we’ve built. My children have best friends at co-op that we hang out with frequently and I have made friendships with other homeschooling mamas.

The community aspect is going to be the richest in this format of homeschool co-op, because the parents are so involved and naturally build community. And CC is not the only option. There are soooo many homeschool co-ops in Knoxville. Here is a pretty good list on the Knoxville Moms Blog.

These co-ops also have a tuition cost, but are generally the most affordable of the 3 types. CC also offers the opportunity to be paid as a tutor and offset the cost of tuition.

 

Questions to consider when choosing a co-op:

What are looking for in a co-op?

Do you need the co-op to serve as childcare and give you free time each week?

Do you care about the particular kind of educational model the co-op offers? (I.e. classical, traditional, elective-only, etc.)

Are you willing/do you desire to give up a day of schooling at home to participate?

 

Conclusion

Phew! I think I answered most of the questions I get about homeschooling my kiddos. We are going into our 3rd year this upcoming school year, so I am by no means an expert. I love reading about homeschooling and teaching and growing in this area. Below are a few of my favorite resources for learning more, and please shoot me an email (kayla@knoxfamilyphoto.com) if you want to chat further! Clearly I love talking about home education!

Resources:

Sara McKenzie’s podcast and books: The Read Aloud Revival Podcast and Teaching From Rest (I read this every summer)
Podcsat: Wild and Free
Podcast: Homeschool Better Together with Pam Barnhill