There is something about saying “10th year of homeschooling” that feels a little surreal.
When we started homeschooling, I certainly didn’t have a ten-year plan.
I didn’t know exactly what our homeschool would look like when my kids were in high school. I didn’t know what curriculum we’d use, what subjects we’d combine, how independent they’d become, or what extracurriculars would eventually become central to our education.
I definitely didn’t know that one day I’d be sitting down to plan 9th grade and 5th grade at the same time.
But here we are.
The 2026–2027 homeschool year is officially underway.
This year my oldest is beginning 9th grade and high school, while my youngest is beginning 5th grade—her final year of elementary school.
And honestly, that combination makes this year feel like a pretty big milestone.
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The First Day Almost Didn’t Happen the Way I Planned
One of the things I love about documenting our homeschool is that I don’t want to pretend that our lives happen according to the schedule I created in a spreadsheet.
They don’t.
We actually started school about three weeks later than we normally would because my oldest had a busy summer, we had some big things happening, and then we took a vacation.
And I am very glad we did.
We went to Colorado and spent the week hiking around Rocky Mountain National Park. It was glorious.
Then our flight home was massively delayed.
So instead of getting home Saturday evening and having all of Sunday to reset the house, unpack, organize everything, and prepare for Monday, we didn’t get home until the wee hours of Sunday morning.
Which meant that on the morning of our first day of school, I did not spring out of bed at 4:45 a.m. ready to conquer the new school year.
I snoozed until 6:30.
And you know what?
We still started.
That may actually be one of my favorite things about this first day.
It wasn’t perfect.
It wasn’t particularly picturesque.
I was tired.
The house wasn’t magically transformed into a school.
But we started anyway.
Starting High School
The biggest milestone this year is obviously high school.
My oldest is officially a ninth grader.
That means I’m thinking about transcripts, credits, course rigor, extracurriculars, areas of interest, and what these next four years are actually going to look like.
But I’m also trying very hard not to turn high school into “regular school, but harder.”
I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and I’m finally able to articulate what I want to do.
I want to build our homeschool high school more like a performing arts magnet program.
Not literally recreate a public school magnet program at home, but take some of the things that make a specialized program valuable—focused areas of study, serious extracurricular opportunities, intentional course planning, and room for students to develop expertise—and build those into our homeschool.
For my daughter, that means academics are happening alongside things like music, voice, dance, theater, film, and other areas of interest.
The goal isn’t to cram more things into her schedule.
The goal is to build a high school experience that actually reflects who she is and where she wants to go.
I’m going to be talking much more about that process because I think there is a lot to unpack.
But first, we had to actually start high school.
Our 5th Grader Is in Her Final Year of Elementary School
Meanwhile, my youngest is beginning 5th grade.
This is her last year of elementary school, which is another little milestone that I don’t think I’m emotionally prepared for.
The nice thing about fifth grade is that we’ve done a lot of this before.
We’re using curriculum and approaches that are familiar to us, so there isn’t the same level of uncertainty I feel with high school.
We have a pretty good handle on what works for her, what kind of independence she can manage, and where she still needs me sitting beside her.
That doesn’t mean fifth grade is going to be effortless.
It just means we aren’t reinventing the wheel.
And there is something really comforting about that.
What We Actually Did on Day One
One of my goals this year is to show not only what we’re planning, but what happens when we actually use it.
We’ve talked a lot about our curriculum choices leading up to this school year.
For high school, we’re working with:
- French through Rosetta Stone and additional materials
- World history with Nomadic Professor
- Biology with Nexbooks and additional resources
- Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts
- Algebra 2
- Advanced academic writing and other supporting resources
For fifth grade, we’re using several familiar resources and continuing some of the approaches we’ve used successfully in previous years.
And the first day gave me a chance to see whether my carefully constructed plans made any sense in practice.
French Was One of the Things I Was Nervous About
French was one of the things I was genuinely unsure about.
I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out how I wanted to use Rosetta Stone as part of our overall French plan.
But that’s the thing about planning.
You can look at a curriculum.
You can research it.
You can organize it.
You can make a beautiful plan.
And then you put it in front of your actual children.
That’s when you find out.
On day one, we used Rosetta Stone together. We were able to work through the material as a group, using the microphone and having everyone practice speaking aloud.
And honestly?
It worked really well.
I’m not declaring the entire French plan a success based on one day.
That would be ridiculous.
But it was a very encouraging first impression.
And that’s exactly what I wanted this year to be about.
Not pretending I know the answer before we start.
Testing the plan.
Paying attention.
Adjusting.
World History Was Easier Than I Expected
World history was another one I was curious about.
We used Nomadic Professor with the podcast audio playing while we read along and worked through the material.
The kids were also doodling in their history timelines, which is very much how our homeschool tends to operate.
And again, it worked.
The actual process was much easier than I had envisioned when I was planning it.
That doesn’t mean I’ll never change anything.
It just means we have a starting point that makes sense.
Biology Was Another Big Question Mark
I’ve talked about our biology plan before because I’m piecing together resources to create a more complete high school-level course.
That always makes me a little nervous.
When you are building a course yourself rather than simply opening a textbook and following it from chapter one through chapter fifteen, there are a lot of moving parts.
Will the resources fit together?
Will the workload be reasonable?
Will it feel cohesive?
Will my kids actually enjoy it?
On day one, biology went well.
And my kids performed better than I expected.
Again: day one.
I’m intentionally resisting the urge to declare everything perfect.
But I will absolutely take the win.
I’m Giving My High Schooler More Control
Another change I’m making this year is giving my ninth grader more control over how she approaches some of her work.
This doesn’t mean she gets to decide whether she receives an education.
It means I recognize that she’s fourteen, she’s been homeschooled for years, and she has demonstrated that she knows how to learn.
For example, when we got into Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts, I gave her some choices.
Did she need me to walk through every introduction?
Did she want to start at the beginning?
Did she need me to read the student portions?
Or could she jump directly into the work?
She chose to skip some of the introductory material because she already understood much of it.
And I was completely fine with that.
Curriculum is a tool. It isn’t the boss of our homeschool.
That’s something I think becomes increasingly important as homeschoolers move into the high school years.
The goal isn’t to complete every page just because a page exists.
The goal is to provide the education your child actually needs.
The First Day Was Surprisingly Manageable
By the end of our first day, I was surprised.
Not because everything went perfectly.
But because the things I had been most nervous about were manageable.
Rosetta Stone worked.
Nomadic Professor worked.
Biology worked.
The kids moved through their work.
My youngest was able to work independently while I helped her sister.
My ninth grader completed her first Algebra 2 lesson.
And we were finished much earlier than I expected.
Our official schoolwork wrapped up around 10:47 a.m.
Now, I know exactly what some people are going to hear when they read that:
“They only homeschool for a couple of hours?”
No.
Our academic work doesn’t represent every minute of learning in our lives.
We’re still doing piano.
Voice.
Dance.
Archery.
Girl Scouts.
Science classes.
Theater and other interests.
There is a lot of life happening outside our official homeschool hours.
And that’s intentional.
Homeschool Doesn’t Have to Look Like School
This is something I’ve become increasingly comfortable with over the years.
I don’t need our homeschool to resemble a traditional school day in order for me to believe that my children are learning.
Sometimes learning happens at the kitchen table.
Sometimes it’s a formal lesson.
Sometimes it’s a class.
Sometimes it’s a rehearsal.
Sometimes it’s reading.
Sometimes it’s a conversation.
Sometimes it’s a trip to a museum or a national park.
Sometimes it’s a kid spending two hours obsessively researching something I didn’t put on the schedule at all.
That’s part of why we homeschool.
I want the flexibility to build an education around our actual lives rather than forcing our lives to fit inside an educational schedule.
The Plan Is Good. Now We Have to Live It.
If there is one thing I want to emphasize about this year’s homeschool planning, it’s this:
The plan isn’t the point.
The plan is a starting point.
I can make the most beautiful curriculum plan in the world.
I can organize every book.
I can make the schedule.
I can build the transcript plan.
I can figure out the credits.
But eventually, I have to hand it to my kids and see what happens.
That’s where the real homeschool happens.
And that is what I’m going to be paying attention to this year.
Not whether we followed the plan perfectly.
Not whether every day looked beautiful.
Not whether we got everything done.
But whether the education we’re building is actually working for these particular kids.
Starting Year 10
So that’s where we are.
Ten years into homeschooling.
One kid beginning high school.
One kid beginning her last year of elementary school.
A whole new set of plans.
A whole lot of things I’m excited about.
And, if I’m being honest, a few things I’m still nervous about.
But that’s okay.
Because after ten years, I’ve learned that I don’t have to know exactly how the entire year is going to unfold before I begin.
I just have to start.
Pay attention.
Adjust when something isn’t working.
And keep going.
And that’s exactly what we’re doing.
Day one was a success.
I’m cautiously optimistic.
Very cautiously. 😂
Because the real test is coming next:
the first full week.
That’s when I’ll start figuring out what actually works, what needs tweaking, and what looked much better on my planning spreadsheet than it does in real life.
And honestly?
That’s the part I’m most excited to share with you.
Because this year isn’t about pretending I have it all figured out.
It’s about building it as we go.
Ten years in, we’re still making everyday magic.
