We live on an off the grid homestead in the Yukon. Due to our remote location we can not commute back and forth from school. When we first started homeschooling our two daughters were coming from starting their education in public school. My older daughter was behind in school due to a learning disability, while my other daughter was ahead. It made sense for us to teach them the grade level curriculum. The first year of homeschooling seemed difficult doing it all on our own. The second year we joined a Distance Learning program and the YHES. Currently, our oldest daughter boards in town to go to school for 3 days and homeschool for 2 days. Our younger daughter does full time homeschooling. We participate in a child-centered, experiential, project based curriculum. Our subjects revolve around art, science, and nature based learning. All of school work is outside from April to September. We reserve the winter months for indoor learning.
Homeschooling helped us get my older daughters work up to grade level despite her disability. At the same time it allowed my younger daughter to excel and be challenged in a totally organic way. One recent learning project was participation in a community craft fair where my daughter sold jewelry. This learning experience taught her about art, math, business, organization and a huge amount of life skills as she had to track inventory, calculate profit margins, and talk to people while selling her products.
