So You Wanna Homeschool, Now What?

by Meg 6:25 PM 1 comments

I have been homeschooling for five years now.

No. I do NOT count the preschool years or toddler years as "homeschooling". I'm sorry. I was parenting in those years, just as the folks that end up not homeschooling their kids were doing.

So, as I was saying, I have been homeschooling for five years. My son, Chaos, was first of my children to homeschool. It was through his education that I was able to discover the joys of learning at home. I say "joys", but mentally I'm thinking "stress, insanity, doubt, fear, mommy-guilt, paranoia, lack of sleep, and constant isolation." Sounds fantastic so far, right?

Well, it is. Err, um, it's fantastic I mean. No, this time I'm not being sarcastic. I LOVE homeschooling. No lie. I didn't love it at first. I was constantly worried about failing my kid. I was always nervous and filled with doubt that I was going mess it all up. He wasn't going to learn anything. I wasn't a teacher with degrees in child education. OH NO! IT WAS ALL GOING TO GO DOWN IN FLAMES! MAY DAY! MAY DAY!

*deep breath* Okay, I'm better now. Whew! Bringing back memories of those early days just was a bit stressful in its own way.

What is my secret to successful homeschooling? I stopped making it be all about "school" and started making it about "learning". (More on this in a bit, pinky promise!)

So, you have decided, for whatever reason, that you want to try teaching your kids at home. You're probably thinking, "What the heck do I do now?"  Here's my handy little checklist for you in two forms, the short form and the long form. The long form will explain the short list.

WHAT THE HECK DO I DO NOW?

1. Google "Homeschooling in INSERT_STATE"
2. Determine required method of student withdrawal from school/notice of intent for your state.
3. Figure out HOW you want to homeschool.
4. Figure out your homeschooling style.
5. Find a support group.
6. Pick your curriculum.
7. Relax and breathe, it's time to teach.

Ok, So, that was a VERY brief list. I'm sure you're sitting there wondering if I've skipped a few things. Let me explain it a little more in depth.

What do these all have in common? These are ALL school activities.

CAN YOU EXPAND ON THAT?

• First up- don't join every group in existence that has to deal with homeschool. At least, not yet. I know it sounds like a simple, one-stop solution: join a group and ask THEM what to do first. Let's face it, you will get the same answer from about 90% of the people in the groups: Sit down and open your web browser. Go to Google. Type in "Homeschooling in (insert your state/country here). Seriously, it's that easy. What you are looking for is your state law on homeschooling. Read it. Find out what your state requires in the way of documentation. You'd be surprised. Quite a few states have absolutely no requirements to homeschool. Some require testing or evaluations. Some states insist that you get the same exact resources public schools get- like iPads, speech therapists, and musical instruments. Some states even allow you to use homeschooling expenses on your taxes. Just get a decent idea of what your state wants up front and print a copy of that law out for your records. It's a good idea to keep it handy.
• Withdraw your student from the school. If your child is already enrolled in school, you'll generally have to go through a withdrawal process such a filling out a form. If your child isn't going back in the fall or you've never sent them to school, you might have to send a Letter of Intent form to the school district. This is where knowing your state law comes in handy. Do NOT trust your school district to know the state law. Very rarely do the school secretaries know the state laws for homeschoolers and often give a lot of well-meaning misinformation. Keep in mind, there are some states that absolutely don't require ANY paperwork to homeschool.
• Now you need to figure out how you homeschool. I know this seems kind of like a no-brainer, but really this will affect quite a few things down the road. Ask yourself, "Why am I homeschooling? What are my personal views? Do I care about religion? Do I want to emphasize free play and art or science and math?" There are a lot of people that homeschool for religious reasons. However, on the other end of the spectrum, there are a lot of completely secular homeschoolers. I bring up religion as a specific example at this point because once you look for support groups and curriculum, if you know going in what you want your kids to get out of homeschooling, you can avoid a lot of the isolation that many homeschoolers feel by finding a group or curriculum that closer aligns to your personal views. I know from personal experience that not-fitting in with the local homeschool groups can really make you miserable and willing to give up before you even get started.
• Now you can figure out your homeschooling style. Why do you need to know this? Well, for starters, it will tell you if you even need a curriculum. No, I'm not crazy. Let me explain a little further. There are a LOT of schools of thought when it comes to how children learn. Many people actually combine several methods into their own groovy schooling style.
• School-at-home: This is sometimes called Academic Homeschooling. This typically involves workbooks and sitting around a table. There is often an emphasis on test prep.
• Unit Studies: I love the idea of unit studies. You pick a topic. You work ALL your curriculum around. Studying dinosaurs? You do dino math, dino reading, dino art, dino history, science, and field trips. So, as the name suggests, you study a unit. While it's often touted as being great for younger learners, I find that even high school age kids can benefit from some of the methods.
• Lapbooks: Similar to unit studies, lapbooks also study a single topic at a time. With a lapbook, however, you put together bite size bits of knowledge scrapbook-style into a single folder. For example, on a lapbook about Ancient Egypt, you might find a mini-map of Africa with Egypt and the Nile colored in. Next to it, you might find an envelope filled with vocabulary cards. You might have a scarab with your name translated into heiroglyphics and an anotomical diagram of a mummy. A lapbook tends to focus on only the most important bits of a unit study.
• Unschooling: This is often called child-led learning. Touted by John Holt, unschooling has no set curriculum and often no set hours. It is based upon the basic premise that children learn from being offered freedom in exploring their interests. Unschoolers often focus on what their children are interested in and allow them to set their own schedules. There's no emphasis on reading, writing or math. Don't think this means unschoolers don't learn to read, write, or add. They do. However, this learning stems from their interest in following whatever piques their curiosity. For example, let's say your child loves rabbits. So, they might own a rabbit (teaching responsibility and life science), go to library and check out picture books about bunnies, decide they want to learn to read so they can read rabbit breeding books, learn to use money so they can pay for rabbit feed themselves, etc... The simplest way to describe unschooling is that every life experience is a learning experience.  (Note: There is a sub-branch of unschooling called Whole Life Unschooling. These extend that every life experience is a learning experience and that children model and regulate their own behavior by observing the adults around them. How does this differ? WLUs tend to extend their child's exploration to EVERY aspect of their lives including making their own choices about eating and sleeping, rule enforcement, clothing choices, and body autonomy.)
• Charlotte Mason: The Charlotte Mason method relies on the belief that children are growing adults and learn best from real-life situations. Children should be given time to play, create, and be involved in real situations from which they can learn. A typical CM day often involves nature walks, field trips, and "living books". (Living books are books that make a subject come alive such as A Day in the Life of a Farmer.) They don't typically test on subjects, but narrate their interest.
• Waldorf: Based on the studies of Rudolf Steiner, Waldorf method stresses the importance of educating the entire child: mind, body, and spirit. Waldorf students often focus on the natural order of the world and stresses art, music and creativity. Children are often taught to develop self-awareness and how to reason things out for themselves. Often, television and computers are eschewed as being unhealthy.
• Montessori: Montessori tends to emphasize the simpler side of childhood while rejecting too many chaotic or complex influences. Like Waldorf, children should be free to play and explore their world. Toys are often simple and made of cloth or wood. Plastic toys and technological toys are frowned upon.
• Internet Homeschooling: To be fair, I thought I'd give this a mention. While most homeschoolers don't consider k12 type public school alternatives to be homeschooling, there are plenty of internet based homeschooling options. (Wait, what? Why isn't Connections Academy and other k12 alternatives homeschooling? Simple. They are public schools, funded like public schools, and treated like public schools. Don't get me wrong- I tried one for a year with Chaos. It wasn't a good fit for us, but it MIGHT be a good fit for you.) Back to what I was saying, there are plenty of internet-based learning options. Kahn Academy offers amazing math classes. Time4Learning offers wonderful language arts. Don't forget Netflix and Hulu for educational television options. The internet abounds with educational video games and online lessons.
• Eclectic: To be honest, very few homeschoolers fit in a single style. Most of us combine several techniques to meet the needs of our children. Personally, I consider myself an Eclectic homeschooler. I mix workbooks with video games, field trips with hands on unit studies. This is only a SMALL list of the possible options for homeschooling.
• Finally, it's time to reach out to other homeschoolers. Why now? I know, I know... it would have been helpful to have folks to talk to when trying to figure out what kind of homeschooler you are. I have found it to be a lot easier to reach out to other homeschoolers when I have a kind of road map of what I'm looking for in support. For example, I personally teach a lot of science including evolution. Before I figured that out, I joined a LOT of homeschooling groups. Several of the groups I joined were... hmm... let's just say they were a bit conservative when it came to the topic of science. I genuinely tried to fit in to what they expected of their members and ended up feeling very ostracized and silenced. It stressed me out as a parent and a teacher and in turn, began to stress my kid out. Once I realized that I was unable to reconcile the type of homeschooler I was with the type of homeschooler I was expected to be, I stepped back from that group. Guess what? Things improved quickly. I learned that what I was looking for was a secular homeschooling group. By adding that one keyword, a whole world of homeschooling support opened up. I was finally able to find curriculum that matched my point of view. I made friends with other homeschooling moms. My kids made friends with other homeschooling kids. Now, when I ask a curriculum question or opinion, I find myself talking to what I consider peers. Even better, it made me understand the homeschoolers that were a bit more conservative than I am. I have several good friends that don't teach science at all. We've found other common ground to base our mutual support on. So, that's why I say don't jump right into support groups until you figure out what is important to you.
• Now pick your curriculum. Now that you've found your peers, you can ask them what they use. Feel free to research it. Feel free to buy, or not buy, what you think might work. Guess what? It's really common for your first choice of curriculum to not work out. Also, your second choice. And third. Don't think you have to stick to something that isn't working. Also, just because it doesn't work now, doesn't mean it won't work later. Likewise, just because it doesn't work on one child, doesn't mean it's a bad fit for your other child. I am currently homeschooling two boys. Chaos, the older, is an engineering type. He learns by doing and breaking it down. We don't even have a curriculum anymore. Doc, the younger, LOVES his workbooks. He loves his structured, scripted curriculum. Totally different styles, but I've learned to not stress it. I go with what works for them. 
• RELAX AND BREATHE. Teach them stuff. Let them learn. Let them experience. You aren't going to screw up your kids. I promise. If you need to take a pajama day, do it. If they get it in their head that they want to read books in the bathtub, why not let them? Even a trip to the post office has educational opportunities. Just embrace it all. Relax and breathe. You are going to do great.