Navigating Life as a Hybrid Homeschool Mom

I’m a hybrid homeschool mama. I never planned to be a Homeschool Mom but here we are and I’m loving it! Are you looking at homeschooling and debating on joining a Hybrid School? Then this article is for you.

Hybrid Homeschool Model

Our kids attend a hybrid homeschool. They go to school in person 2x a week for 3.5 hours each day and then have 3 days of homeschooling with me, at home. I like to think it’s the best of both worlds. While they still get the benefits of an in person school, they also get the benefits of homeschool. The school is small with classes set at 12 children or less. The current classes will grow into the next grade level for the following year. Ideally adding a higher grade level to the school every year.

Most hybrid schools will offer a 2 or 3 in person school day with the other days at home. Some schools will offer a block schedule of Monday & Wednesday or Tuesday or Thursday. We have friends who attend a different hybrid school on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Most hybrid homeschools will still have Fall, Spring and Summer Breaks.

In-Person School Days

In-person classes are set up just as you would expect. For our school, each class has a classroom with 12 or less students. Students have tables / desks and cover all of the normal curriculum for their grade. In addition, there is normal things like assemblies, snacks, recess, birthday celebrations and of course craft projects and science experiments! School is super fun and while the day is short, they cover a lot of ground within the timeframe.

With the smaller classes, they get more individual attention and form fast friendships. In addition to the Licensed Teachers, on our campus, they also have additional support personal including the Director of Education, Director of Administration, Paras, an Admin Assistant and even a Health Advisor. There are several volunteers who help out as well. Our children love going to school. The balance fo 2 times a week for a half day is just enough to get them engaged and loving in-person school without nagging them that they have to attend.

At-Home School Days

While we love the in-person days, the at home portion is our favorite part. We have a set curriculum by the school that we follow. We can easily expand, slow it down or modify what we are doing each day. Usually we expand and while the ideal time is about an hour a day, we usually can easily get wrapped up in the whole morning until lunch learning. Since our youngest still naps after lunch, it’s a good way to remember that a huge part of the homeschool concept is also free play so we don’t spend the whole day ‘working’ away. 

Our homeschool curriculum is selected by the Director of Education and we are expected to follow the lessons as well as keep up with the pace. The beauty of it is that we can work ahead or play catch up when needed. Being a planner, when we have company coming to visit or a lot going on in our social calendar, we often opt to work ahead so we don’t have to crunch after they leave. Our style is to work hard now and then relax later. 

What School Looks Like in Real Life

For our preschooler, she has 2 half days in person at school and doesn’t have a lot of extra preschool work to do at home. She does however have monthly family projects we do together as well as sometimes has extra crafts and activities they don’t finish in class. This is actually really beneficial because then she has extra work she can do with limited support when I am working 1:1 with our oldest. 

Our oldest is in Kindergarten and loves school. Being a little sponge, he is usually excited to do his work. I look ahead at the lessons and then modify to make it both more challenging for my Kindergartener and also more inclusive for our 2&4 year olds. At our house, everyone gets a job to help with during our lessons and it gives our whole family such joy watching our 6 year old ‘teach’ our 2&4 year olds about the most interesting things.

Bonuses to Homeschool

The at home school day doesn’t stop at the preselected curriculum lessons. We expand and explore so much more. For example, our children are very interested in space so we spend the extra time leaning about space and the greater universe. Currently right now we have a globe of Earth sitting on our side table.

In addition to extra learning in specialized areas, we also get to learn and focus on many basic life skills such as cooking, cleaning and taking care of our home. Our children regularly help with making our meals and love to help me make all of our own snacks. As a family, we don’t have a set chore chart but rather family expectations we are all responsible for. 

Additional Bonuses

In addition to the ‘work’ that we do, we also have the opportunity to get outside and play a lot. 1000 Hours Outside Challenge? Yep, we have done that. We often do our schoolwork outside on our deck and then once our formal work is done, continue playing outside with homemade sensory bins which get really messy for us and then of course use our backyard as an extension of our house.

We have set up a tiny little village in our backyard which gives our children countless hours of play. Even when it’s really cold, we bundle up and when it’s really hot, we turn on some water and try to stay in the shade. One of my favorite sayings is ‘Kid’s cannot bounce off of the walls if you remove the walls.”

In addition to having such a flexible schedule on our at home days, we also get the option to go do more things during the day on at home school days. When it’s really nice weather, we meet up with friends, trying out different parks and exploring local farms. When it becomes colder, we focus on exploring local museums and inside play places. With the hybrid model, we don’t have co-op days like traditional homeschool families and instead usually invite some of our hybrid-families to join in on our extra activities. Right now with our children being younger, we have chosen to only opt into one scheduled activity as a family per season.

Final Thoughts

We love our hybrid-homeschool and finding it was such a blessing for our family! What would you like to find in a hybrid homeschool? What would you find challenging about a hybrid-homeschool? 

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