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Do you need a curriculum to homeschool?

Answered by The Homeschool How To with Cheryl · Sep 17, 2026

No, not in the way most new homeschoolers imagine. After more than 200 interviews with homeschooling families, Cheryl, host of The Homeschool How To, says kids need far less formal instruction than parents assume, and that a boxed curriculum is a tool you can pick up or set down, not a requirement. What matters more is daily reading, real-world responsibility, and letting kids learn things when they're actually ready for them.

The fear every new homeschool parent has

Cheryl started the podcast because she didn't know anything about homeschooling and wanted to ask people who did. Two hundred families later, she's noticed the same worry in almost every conversation, including her own head: the nagging sense that you're not doing enough.

Her answer is that the fear is normal and mostly unfounded. Families who barely touch a textbook still raise kids who read, do math, and get into college or trades. The mistake is measuring your homeschool against a school day. A classroom of 25 kids needs six hours because so much of that time is transitions, waiting, and crowd management. One-on-one at home, the actual instruction takes a fraction of that.

"Your kids don't need nearly as much educational instruction as you think."

Readiness beats the scope and sequence

The biggest shift Cheryl describes is letting go of the idea that a child must learn a specific skill at a specific age. A curriculum's scope and sequence tells you what a typical seven-year-old covers in September. It doesn't know your seven-year-old.

She points to Finland, where formal academics don't start until age seven, and to families on the show whose kids learned to read at five and others at nine, all of whom read fine by their teens. Pushing a skill before a child is ready creates tears and resistance. Waiting until they're interested means the same skill takes weeks instead of months.

That doesn't mean doing nothing. It means paying attention. When your kid starts asking what signs say, that's the reading window. When they want to know how much allowance they'll have by Christmas, that's math.

"Your child will learn what they are interested in when they are cognitively ready."

The one thing she says to do every single day

If Cheryl had to name a single non-negotiable, it's reading aloud. Not phonics worksheets, not a reading program, just books, every day, at whatever level your child enjoys. She credits it with vocabulary, attention span, and the natural absorption of grammar and story structure. She mentions the Read Aloud Revival approach as an influence.

Beyond that, her son's days look nothing like a school schedule. He changes tires on the four-wheeler, takes care of chickens and the dog, rides horses with a neighbor several times a week, does BMX, takes seasonal wilderness classes, and spends a lot of time on his bike. Cheryl's view is that those hours are education, not a break from it. Kids are learning every minute of the day, and most of what they learn isn't in the curriculum book.

"You should read to your kids every day."

What a typical morning looks like without textbooks

Cheryl is candid that her family doesn't wake up and open workbooks. Some days they meet a co-op. Some days it's a horseback lesson. Some days her son just wants to ride his bike, and that's the day. Structured academics happen, but in short bursts and around the rest of life.

She's confident enough in this approach that she says she could skip curriculum entirely for the next two years and her son would still be fine. That confidence came from talking to families a decade further along, not from a leap of faith. The consistent pattern in her interviews is that kids who are read to, talked to, and given real responsibility catch up on anything formal quickly when it's needed.

"We do not wake up in the morning and sit and open our textbooks."

Handling the socialization question

The other worry Cheryl hears constantly is socialization. Her experience is that the problem is choosing between options, not finding them. In her area of New York there are more meetups and co-ops than one family could attend, and she's found the same in most places families on the show have lived.

Her practical tip is to skip the big group anxiety and go one-on-one. Ask another homeschool family to the park, or invite a parent over for coffee. If it doesn't click, there are plenty of others. Sports haven't been an issue either. Her son has tried multiple sports through community leagues without ever being enrolled in school, and she says it hasn't held them back at all.

"There are so many meetups, so many homeschoolers, at least in New York."

People also ask

How many hours a day should homeschooling take?

Far fewer than a school day. Cheryl says parents overestimate how much instruction kids need. Short focused sessions plus reading aloud and real-life activities cover it for younger kids.

What if my child is behind in reading?

Cheryl's takeaway from 200 families is that kids read when they're cognitively ready, which can range widely by age. Keep reading aloud daily and follow their interest instead of forcing a program early.

Will homeschooled kids miss out on sports and friends?

Not in her experience. Her son plays community sports without being enrolled in school, and homeschool meetups and co-ops are plentiful. She suggests starting with one-on-one meetups with another family.

Based on the episode "What 200 Homeschool Families Taught Me About How Kids Really Learn," released September 5, 2026 on The Homeschool How To, hosted by Cheryl.