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Are you considering homeschooling your children? The thought never crossed my mind, and yet here we are in our 16th year of being home-educators! I marvel at the journey, the things I didn’t know, what I’ve learned and what I still don’t know (any ideas on how to re-teach a child correct pencil grip??)
I present to you a short to-do list of things to consider before you start the road to home education (If you hang around here long enough you’ll see that I’m quite fond of lists):
- Pray and keep praying. If your husband is in support of this form of education then by all means petition heaven together. If not then perhaps a trusted friend who doesn’t think your crazy!
- Write down your goals and how you intend to achieve them. It’s okay if the goals seem simple. Simple goals don’t always mean the execution will be simple.
- Write down your philosophy of education. We started out with the unit study approach, but in the last two years we switched have switched to Classical education model and lived to tell about it. You’ll find more about different types of learning styles in this post.
- Find out the homeschool law for your state. Click HERE to go to the Home School Legal Defense Association site. I have found their information on the law to be the most credible.
- Be aware of the learning style(s) of your child(ren). I would recommend The Way They Learn by Cynthia Tobias which I have read personally. Curriculum specialist Cathy Duffy, also discusses learning styles in her curriculum book 101 Top Picks.
- Keep your first year simple. Try to limit extracurricular activities while your family establishes a new normal.
If you’re overwhelmed with how to get started homeschooling, I offer homeschool coaching services to give you personalized solutions for your homeschool journey.
I invite you to book a FREE 15 minute call with me, so we can chat about how I can help you overcome fear of failure, information overload & curriculum confusion so that you can create a flourishing homeschool!
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I love this list. We asked people we knew and trusted before we started and I’m still asking questions all the time! One thing that is easy in theory is the last point, keeping things simple. We are still trying to do this in our lives overall, but things always come up. I think it is perfectly ok to say no to many things while you all adjust. Great points friend!
Alison recently posted…Routines 1
Thank you Alison!
I agree that keeping it simple is easier said than done. But I believe it can be possible by keeping a clear focus of the vision that we have for homeschooling (or anything else for that matter) :-). That way when opportunities come our way that aren’t in line with our vision we can stay the course (by saying no).