I don’t care how long I’ve been at this–every school year I get starry-eyed and ridiculously optimistic about how much we’ll be able to do in our homeschool. I am always convinced that this year is going to be The Best and Easiest Year Ever. I am inspired. I am nostalgic. I am overbuying curriculum like nobody’s business.
Just last week I posted our curriculum picks for the year, and already we are throwing things overboard. (If you want to know, we chucked the language arts curricula and are sticking with copywork, read-alouds, and Fix-it Grammar.)
When I feel overwhelmed–and I frequently do–I go back to a framework that has served us well year over year: The Minimum Viable School Day. Here’s the concept:
Our tendency as homeschool moms is to plan big and then start scaling back when reality hits.
The trick of homeschool planning is that rather than making a big plan that we can’t sustain, we make a small one that we can easily scale up on days or weeks when it really works.
First, here’s what the Minimum Viable Day approach does:
- It helps you define your priorities
- It gives you a scalable base
- It helps you stay sustainable
- It helps you keep your bases covered
- It gives you space to add on for days when you can do more
Just like having core subjects, you should have a core day. This allows for the ebbs and flows of real life–because no matter how well you plan, you’ll never escape the fact that homeschool is never insulated from your real, day-to-day life.
That’s what makes homeschooling hard, but that’s also what makes it awesome.
How do you create a Minimum Viable School Day? I do it with these two learning formats:
Morning Basket
- A gathering time for all ages to learn together. (Similar to “circle time!”)
- A time when topical subjects are covered (language arts, history, science, geography)
- A time when we read aloud from whole books
Table Time
- Separate, leveled activities
- Skill-building activities like math and language arts mechanics
- Any special activities from your family learning curriculum
Morning basket works best when you combine all ages at once. Many families use a family-centered approach that engages all ages with the topical subjects through unit studies or reading whole books. Our most-used resource for this has been The Peaceful Press guides.
Now, plug in the curriculum or subjects you want to cover into these formats. (I posted a framework for choosing your subjects here!)
Can you add on to your Minimum Viable School Day? Yes, you can! That’s what we design it to do. I go into how to scale it up in my course Whole Family Learning Rhythms, where I help you design your ideal homeschool day.
For many years, our Minimum Viable School Day was:
Morning Basket:
- Bible or devotional
- Read aloud from whole books for 30-60 minutes
Table Time:
- 15-20 minutes of math
- 15-20 minutes of a chosen writing activity (such as copywork, letter-writing, or journaling)
Simple, huh? Is that all we did? No! We tackled lots of other things, depending on what was happening that day or week. In our unschooling years the kids did all their own interest-led learning in addition to this MVSD.
(I take a deep dive into these learning formats in this post Our 2 Essential Learning Formats.)
Not every day looked exactly the same, but our Minimum Viable School Day was always there. It was always my fallback on days when I wanted to quit, and still is. Those were our priorities, and that is what we got done, no matter what.
This year is a little different, as we have a bigger spread of ages and aren’t using a family-centered curriculum. Still, we follow a very similar format.
Our Minimum Viable School Day this year:
Morning Basket
- Bible
- Read alouds (for my 5th and 7th grader)
- Picture books (for Levi)
Table Time
- Math
- Typing
- Language Arts (Grammar for my older two, phonics for Levi)
This is the base. We do more than this; for example, one afternoon a week we dive deeper into history, science, and language arts. This is when we make timeline cards, have long discussions, and record things in our school notebooks.
I really wanted math and Bible to be big priorities this year, so we are drilling down on those in our minimum viable day. I have different priorities in different years, and it’s really effective to create focus by prioritizing a couple of subjects.
I hope this helps you simplify and feel less overwhelmed in your homeschool. If you want help setting priorities or taking a deep dive into creating your ideal homeschool day, check out my course Whole Family Learning Rhythms! We cover how to set up a day with learners of multiple ages.
If you’re not sure what subjects you should cover, check out My Simple Homeschool Planning Schema.
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Credit to the book The Lean Startup by Eric Ries for giving me the term Minimum Viable Product–I thought it was a great concept and adapted it to homeschooling!
Thank you for such a thorough and thoughtful article.
Your tone is friendly and informative — made for an enjoyable read.
Thanks for the examples — they made the theory much easier to digest.
Solid suggestions — would be great to see a downloadable checklist.
Super helpful — bookmarked for future reference.
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섹스강간페티쉬
귀두만 핥아줘도 사정할뻔
내사당했는데 보지안에 정액흐르니까 개더러움
휴게텔에서 1시간 쉬고감
야노 몰카 올라왔는데 삭제됨 ㅅㅠ 다시올려줘
토토 또 먹튀당함 30만 날리고 개빡쳐서 사이트주인 좆물싸고싶음
핸드잡으로 손에사정
갱뱅 7:1 해보고싶음
풀코스로 보지 항문 다쑤심
강제조교 플레이 해보고싶음
고환 빨아달라했더니 입에넣고 빨아줌
클리 빨아달라했더니 1만더 ㅋㅋ빨아줌
레즈영상 보다가 내상상만해도 좆서서 딸딸이
G스팟 건드리니까 년이 스퀴트 뿜음
포피 벗겨달라했더니 손으로 벗겨줌
SM 바인딩당해서 좆물싸니까 사진찍음 협박 ㅋㅋ
아줌마 보지 느슨해서 별로
풋잡 잘해주는 아줌마 발에 좆물싸고 핥으라함
가죽옷 입은 년 보지쑤심
거유년 젖에 좆물싸지름
여고생이라고 속이고 만났는데 30대 ㅋㅋ
펠라치다가 목구멍사정
야설 읽다가 상호자위 상상만해도 좆꼴아서 사정함
항문에 정액싸지르고싶음
여고생이라고 속이고 만났는데 30대 ㅋㅋ
SM 바인딩당해서 좆물싸니까 사진찍음 협박 ㅋㅋ
낙태비 줄테니까 보지쑤심
리밍해달라했더니 혀로 항문핥아줌 ㅋㅋ개변태
레즈영상 보다가 내상상만해도 좆서서 딸딸이
SM 바인딩당해서 좆물싸니까 사진찍음 협박 ㅋㅋ