Finding just the right app or resource for real-life homeschooling can be a challenge. However, I finally found an app for flexible, real-life homeschooling!
For years I made plans for our homeschool filling up the blank squares on a calendar. I fully expected everything to get completed without a hitch.
I did so even though I couldn’t see what each day held. My overfilled homeschool days were a great struggle for me.
I simply couldn’t wrap my brain around being flexible in our homeschool when my plans were already made. Flexibility wasn’t a word that I could embrace.
I finally learned that relaxed homeschooling was best for our family.
There are times that I truly miss making detailed, year-long plans for our homeschool. However, most of the time I love the flexibility that being relaxed homeschoolers gives us.
Flexibility is a key to life, so why shouldn’t it also apply to a homeschooling journey?
My biggest struggle has been finding the “right way” to keep track of our homeschool year. Our year round homeschooling schedule combined with being relaxed homeschoolers has made it a bit of a challenge for me.
Paper planners have always been my go-to, but with high schoolers, they fell short of what I needed. I wanted to have the ability to see exactly where we were in our homeschool year.
In addition to having a list of all the resources I’d picked out for the year, those we had used and those that we hadn’t gotten to yet.
Thankfully, I’ve found a resource, specifically an app that works with flexible homeschooling. It has everything I wanted in a tracking app and more!
The App for Real Life, Flexible Homeschooling
The Flexible Homeschool App gives you the ability to plan your homeschool with structure, but its flexibility is what makes it shine.
No longer do you have to rework your plans, worry about being ahead or behind or wonder what resources you’ve forgotten you picked out. After all, you’re a homeschool mom, so you have all the books!
How are you supposed to remember 4 months into a homeschool year which ones you wanted to use for this year?!
When we began our homeschooling journey, technology wasn’t a big part of it. The last few years we’ve been using digital resources for the majority of our homeschooling.
Sometimes figuring out how to use digital curriculum and resources can be challenging. Thankfully, the Flexible Homeschool App is not.
They have 14 video tutorials making setting up the app a breeze! There is one for each step of setting up and a couple of extra including sharing their philosophy.
With the Flexible Homeschool App you’re able to…
- Plan with flexible timeframes, not rigid dates and times.
- Spontaneously break from school without extra effort.
- Record what you actually did, when you did it and even how long it took you to do it. (When and how long are optional)
- Create beautifully formatted, customizable and printable reports for your records.
- Structure each child’s schoolwork to their own personal pace.
- Set up accounts for your children to follow the plans you’ve made and mark what they’ve completed.
- Make a list of the resources you want to use all year.
- Configure multiple homeschool years ahead of time.
- Use it on your PC, laptop, tablet and smartphone.
Two things that the Flexible Homeschool App will not do…
- Scream that you’re falling behind.
- Pile up overdue work.
Take a 2-minute sneak peek at the Flexible Homeschool App…
The Three Main Features of the Flexible Homeschool App
The resource manager within the Flexible Homeschool App is a dream come true for me. While I don’t typically plan out our entire homeschool year at once anymore, I do tend to pick out a lot of resources that I want to use throughout the year.
Keeping a running list of the items has been challenging, especially because I don’t want to purchase things too far in advance. I’ve found that by purchasing too much at the beginning of the school year leaves us with resources we’ve never used because I planned for too much.
The resource manager allows you to add as many books, videos, audio, apps and links as you want. You also have the option to list whether you have the item you’re adding on hand, you borrowed it or you’ll need to purchase it.
All of this makes starting with what you have on hand easy as it is color-coded! Once you add the resources you’ll never have to look at a teacher’s manual or find your paper list again. Just open up the app and voila there is your need to purchase list!
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Planning with the Flexible Homeschool App
Planning your homeschool is easy as a cinch within the Flexible Homeschool App! Once you’ve set up your students within the app, you’ll be ready to plan your homeschool year.
Rather than sticking to a set homeschool year start and end date, the Flexible Homeschool App bases your homeschool year on terms and the number of weeks within each term. This is where the app’s flexibility becomes a true blessing to homeschoolers.
You complete your “weeks” and “terms” one step at a time. There is no beginning or end of a week, month or year. One week your homeschool may run Monday-Friday, the next Thursday through Monday because life happens and plans change.
With the Flexible Homeschool App you’ll never have to erase your plans or rearrange your schedule!
Planning your student’s homeschool work is a 3 step process for each subject. You’ll give the course a name, assign a resource that you’ve added to your main resources list, determine how often they’ll need to complete that subject each week and click save.
You can add additional information for your older or more independent students such as; what chapters they should be completed that week, which lessons need to be done, etc. This additional information can be seen by you and your students on the tracking portion of the app.
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Tracking within the Flexible Homeschool App
When you follow a year round homeschool schedule it can be difficult to actually see where you are in regards to the end of your homeschool year.
The Flexible Homeschool App gives you the ability to see how much each of your students has accomplished throughout the homeschool year, the term and the week.
I’ve found that my teens love seeing how close they are to completing the term they’re in and how far they have to go until the homeschool year is complete.
If you have older students that are able to mark their classes completed each day, you can assign them a user account in the app. They’ll then be able to “complete” each subject they’ve done on their own.
I chose not to give my teens user accounts because I know I can trust them. It is easier for them to just pull it up on my PC and mark each subject from there.
However, this option may not work for everyone. I am glad that they have another way for students to learn to be independent in regards to tracking their homeschool work.
Many states have strict reporting guidelines for homeschoolers and the Flexible Homeschool App’s reporting will make things much easier for homeschoolers in those states.
While I do not live in a strict homeschooling state, I do love the reporting options within the app for homeschooling high school.
At any point throughout the homeschool year, you can pull up the reporting tab and see what your students have completed for the week or the year.
Each of these pages is ready to print and can be added to your homeschool portfolio as they are professionally designed.
If you choose to have your students list the specific date they complete each lesson/chapter or how long each subject takes them that time will be listed on the report!
This is an amazing tool for those that choose to track hours for high school credits.
The Flexible Homeschool App has given the Year Round Homeschooling family two month’s free access using coupon code –>> yearround
This app makes flexible homeschooling a breeze and organization as easy as can be. If you’re looking for a digital resource to keep your homeschool world in order, look no further.
How does an app make flexible homeschooling easier for you?
