Hybrid Homeschooling Facts

Hybrid Homeschooling is a home educating model where children split their weekly schedule between homeschooling at-home and a more traditional schooling environment in a classroom. Basically, Hybrid Homeschooling is part-time homeschooling. My kids go to school two days a week and I teach at home the other three days.

 This year we are back to full time home educating and back attending a private homeschool academy — so it’s really a hybrid homeschool situation. This is a familiar situation for my family because we did HYBRID HOMESCHOOLING for 6 years before we decided to take a break. My youngest daughter wanted to attend a formal school and my older daughter wanted to take a break from the academy and homeschool at home by herself. This worked for my family — at the time — but we are always adjusting situations, plans, school years as issues arise.

Each family is unique and you have to do what is right for your family

and what fits your family and lifestyle BEST.  

WHAT IS HYBRID HOMESCHOOL?

Hybrid Homeschooling is part-time home educating. Homeschool students attend classes two days a week (sometimes three days a week) and homeschool at home the remainder of the week.

All of my children attended the Academy we now attend and began the program at grade 3. This is our current Hybrid Homeschool. Hybrid Homeschooling is a mix of classroom time and homeschooling—at home. There are several different homeschooling models all over the suburbs, but this fits my family best. At the Grammar Level (grades 3-6), my children attended classes once a week, on Mondays, and we schooled the remainder of the week at home. At the Logic Level (grades 7-8), the students have the option to attend Tuesday as well for a study day. At the Rhetoric Level (grades 9-12), student must attend classes Monday and Tuesday. For the Logic and Rhetoric Levels, the remainder of the week is at home as well.  

HOW DOES HYBRID HOMESCHOOLING DIFFER FROM PRIVATE SCHOOL AND FULL-TIME HOMESCHOOL?

I can’t speak to public schools as my daughters have never attended a public school. My son attends a public high school, but he is IN a private academy program for gifted students IN the high school. He attends the public high school, but his classes are for students who tested and were accepted into this gifted program. He does eat lunch and have PE with the student body, but that is all the experience my family has with public schools.

I home educated my daughters from preschool through grade 2 at home — full-time — homeschooling — I picked the curriculum, I set the schedule, I taught everything. It was A BLAST! We had so much fun and I will say, those were probably my most fun homeschooling years with my daughters.

Both of my daughters attended a co-op once a week for about two years early in our homeschooling days. This was a program where they attended enrichment classes once a week and parent involvement is how the program ran well, in addition to small-cost tuition. They took classes such as choir, cooking, PE, Science and a few other enrichment classes. It worked well enough. I didn’t love it, they didn’t love it, but they went, it was only once a week, so it was enough to not make me want to quit.  

CAN YOU HOMESCHOOL AND ATTEND PUBLIC SCHOOL?

I can’t speak to different state laws, but in my school district, yes, we absolutely can homeschool and attend public school. This was not always the case. When I began our home educating journey years ago, the public elementary school was not willing to work with me in any capacity. That has changed in the past few years. My girls can take one, two, three, or as many classes as they want at the public middle school and high school. The schools in my district were very accommodating and willing to work with my family for whatever classes my daughters wanted to take.

The Hybrid Educational Approach

The hybrid educational approach provides the student an accredited diploma:

• Assists the parent in meeting deadlines

• Provides accountability

• Is affordable

• Allows the child to be at home three days of the week

• Assists the parent in meeting attendance and testing requirements

At the academy we attend, teachers are educated in the classical curriculum and teach a full classical preparatory curriculum. The balance of the week is taught in the home with lesson plans that are already prepared for the home lessons. 

HOW DOES HYBRID HOMESCHOOLING WORK?

This hybrid homeschool is a private school, with homeschooling at home as well. The school has teachers for each subject they teach, and they select the curriculum and create the syllabus' and schedules. Each week, we receive a homework schedule with specific assignments students need to complete each day. The following Monday, students turn in their completed homework, which will be graded and returned at the end of the day.

Each week, it just repeats. Classes on Monday (and Tuesday), complete your work at home — homeschooling — the rest of the week. I guide my children now that they are older. But at the grammar level, I was reading assignments to/with them and aiding them in all subjects. This hybrid homeschool academy does not teach Math classes at the grammar level. It is offered at the Logic level and is mandatory at the Rhetoric level.

A lot of the teachers are former teachers from the public or private schools, who decided to become stay-at-home moms once they had their own children. It’s a great situation for my children. The teachers are amazing, kind, sweet, and loving. This is probably one of my favorite aspects of this school, besides the curriculum. The teachers genuinely care about my children and pray over them.

This academy believes that memory drill, logic, and rhetoric are relevant skills and capacities at all grade levels. The teachers encourage every student, at each grade level, to make use of each element of the classical trivium in their thinking. My children are receiving a FULL liberal arts education that is classical in purpose—my children are growing in knowledge and in virtue.

WHAT IS A TYPICAL DAY FOR A HYBRID HOMESCHOOL FAMILY?

SCHOOL DAYS: My daughters attend school two days a week, Monday and Tuesday. The day is quite long, school begins at 8:00 am and I pick them up at 3:45 pm. My youngest daughter has 6 classes and my oldest daughter has 7 classes. Each have regular class time for instruction, projects, activities, and foreign language. It is just like a regular school, except it is private, they wear uniforms and have to bring all their books with them in crates.

HOME DAYS: My daughters are home Wednesday-Friday and they work off of their weekly homework schedule. My daughters are awesome, in that, they are so used to this schedule, that they get up on at-home homeschooling days and just get to work. They know when they complete their work for the day, they are free to do what they want. When they were younger, it was a bit more difficult to keep them on track because school can be boring and playing is so much more fun. But now that they are teens, they just get to it and get it done.

I like that if something comes up in our schedule, we can shift schoolwork to the next day or the afternoon, or the evening or even to the weekend. I’m not tied to a specific driving schedule to drop off children and pick them up at school 5 days a week. I LOVE the flexibility that homeschooling offers.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

IS IT CHRISTIAN?

We do pay a monthly tuition to attend this private hybrid homeschool academy. And yes, it is Christian based. But it is a REAL Christian based school. The tuition is a smaller amount than we paid at the private Christian schools my children used to attend. But they are only attending two days a week. Obviously, each school would implement their own tuition rates, and these fluctuate between homeschool models and states.

WHAT ARE THE DRAWBACKS TO HYBRID HOMESCHOOLING?

Naturally, there are some drawbacks to hybrid homeschooling. Everything is not perfect and fluid. We have no control over the curriculum used at the academy. Thankfully, my daughters and I have always really enjoyed the curriculum used in the Grammar levels. In the Logic levels, obviously I would select Theological curriculum that was more in line with what we are taught in our home church, but it’s not bad for my children to learn about other religions either. Some of the teachers are sticky on facts about what they believe, and this causes some incorrect papers etc, but it’s not a point that I argue. At the Rhetoric level, I do not love and neither does my daughter, the Omnibus curriculum, but it is just one class that is not enjoyable for her.

Another drawback some families may not like it testing. There are tests for each subject and there are grades. I do know some homeschool families who do not believe in tests or grades. The academy does offer to provide standardized testing to any family who would like, but it is not a requirement for students to take standardized tests each year.

Some families may find that providing your own transportation to and from school is a negative, but this does not affect our lives at all. I have always driven my kids to and from school because they never attended public schools.

The aspect my daughters complain about the most is the uniforms. They really do not enjoy wearing uniforms. But, I like it. We never have to worry about “what” to wear to school, everyone looks the same and as the headmaster of our academy states . . “if you dress smart, you act smart”.

WHAT ABOUT EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES?

SPORTS, MUSIC, ETC?

The academy my daughters attend does not offer sports, however, it does collaborate with private schools in the area. In addition, my girls can join any sports team or band or orchestra in the public schools if they want. The public schools are very inclusive of the homeschooling community in my school district. If my daughters want to take an art class at the public school, we simply just need to register and attend. We have not ever taken advantage of this, but it is available to us if we want. My daughters do not enjoy sports activities, so that has not ever been something we looked for. They are very musical and have joined private orchestras in our communities for many years now. In addition, my daughters attend an art class at a local private school that offers classes to homeschoolers. Also, the park districts offer numerous activities to homeschoolers as well. They are not lacking for activities that is for sure.  

Is Hybrid Homeschooling Right for You?

There are so many educations choices available to families today, it can seem overwhelming. If you are considering the home education path and are not sure where to begin, or what curriculum to select, then Hybrid Homeschooling may be the perfect option. Hybrid Homeschooling offers my family the best of both worlds and is a great fit for my family.

Every year we evaluate how the school year progressed, we make appropriate changes and tailor education to the needs of the child. Each of my children are different, have different learning styles and educational needs. I have to set priorities and educational goals for each of them and we review all the time. I take things one year at a time.