How to Start Homeschooling
12 Tips to Starting Your Homeschool
Whether you are just contemplating the idea of homeschooling or you are 100% sure homeschooling is the path for your family, here are 12 tips to help you get off to a great start on the adventure of homeschooling!
1. Pray
Homeschooling may seem exciting. It may seem scary. It may sound fun. It may sound overwhelming. Whatever your feelings, ask the Lord to guide you and your family as you embark on this adventure.
2. Check your state/country laws
Depending on where you live, you will need to follow certain laws about homeschooling.
Do you live within the United States or in Guam, American Samoa or Puerto Rico? You can begin to learn the laws specific to your state/territory via the Homeschool Legal Defense Association’s (HSLDA) interactive map at https://hslda.org/legal. You can also find information on how to remove your child from a private or public school and about beginning to homeschool midyear on HSLDA’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page, https://hslda.org/about/faqs.
Do you live in a country outside the USA? You can begin learning about the legal requirements of your country via HSLDA’s international page at https://hslda.org/legal/international.
3. Remind yourself why
There will be great days and hard days in homeschooling. Write down the reason(s) you are homeschooling and post them where you can see them daily. Seeing your reasons for homeschooling will help keep you focused on what is important to you about homeschooling and will encourage you to keep going even on the tough days. Your reasons for homeschooling may sound like this:
I am choosing to homeschool so that my students can learn . . .
- . . . in a way that honors the Lord and our Christian beliefs;
- . . . in an environment that is healthy spiritually, intellectually, emotionally and physically;
- . . . to interact with people of various ages (rather than mostly their peers) and in real-life environments;
- . . . and pursue their unique passions (e.g. a sport or art interests that require a lot of time and travel that wouldn’t be practical with public/private school schedules);
- . . . and have time to spend with their parent who works ________ shift and would be away when they are home from a “normal” eight-hour school day;
- . . . to be able to travel often during the school year, including internationally.
These are just a taste of the reasons you may choose to homeschool - there are so many more! Write down your own reason(s) on a note card and post it where it will be easily seen to keep you on track.
Review your reason(s) and be willing to make adjustments as your family’s life shifts over the years. For instance, maybe when you start homeschooling one of your main reasons is that your family can spend time together in spite of unique working hours for one parent. Five years later, the job situation changes and now one of your main reasons for homeschooling is that your student wants to pursue a great entrepreneurial idea and homeschooling gives the flexibility to do that.
4. Learn from other homeschoolers
Especially as you are starting out, if you see someone "doing homeschool well", with a family marked by warm, kind relationships, start asking questions! Which curriculum do they use? How do they juggle homeschooling and all the rest of life? Which co-ops are the best? What do they do for school breaks? You may have friends/acquaintances you can ask these questions over a cup of coffee, or you may learn these things by attending a homeschooling conference (in person or virtually) or by reading books and online resources or listening to audiobooks. Even as you get your first year or two, or five, or ten, under your belt, you'll find that you are constantly searching for, and sharing, information like this.
Of course, it makes sense to get advice from the homeschooling families who seem to be doing well. But it can also be beneficial to learn from those who seem to be struggling or are in a rough season, so that you can avoid some of the pitfall they've encountered. Is a family incredibly stressed because they are trying to do too many activities every day? Learn to keep a healthier pace. Is a certain curriculum just not working, no matter how they try to adapt to it? Avoid that one! Is there a family that has such high standards for everything from algebra to zoo trips that there is no grace and joy? Learn to relax, have fun (more on that later!), and remember why you are homeschooling. Don’t look down on these families, but do take a moment to pray for them and to learn from them.
5. Pick a curriculum that works for your family . . . and your reason(s) for homeschooling
As you begin your homeschooling journey, one of the decisions you will need to make is what curriculum to use for each subject of your homeschool. Today there are many options to choose from, a fact that may feel like a blessing or a curse!
Our advice is to pick curriculum that works for your family and supports your reason(s) for homeschooling. For instance, if one of your reasons for homeschooling is to have flexibility to travel internationally often, you will probably be best served by a curriculum that doesn’t require a lot of heavy books that will fill up your suitcases.
If you have questions about a particular curriculum, feel free to get in touch with the curriculum provider. Their customer service staff is there to help!
Help Choosing a Curriculum
Feeling overwhelmed by all the options?
Check out our blog post here with 10 questions to help you choose a curriculum and a FREE PDF worksheet.
6. Set a budget for homeschool expenses
Money is a great tool, and it can also cause stress. Help alleviate that stress by setting a budget for your homeschool expenses right at the beginning. We recommend that couples agree on budgets together so you can be a team. Maybe you don’t have a lot to set aside right now for homeschooling. That’s OK. Maybe you have a big budget. That’s also OK. Either way, use what you have, and enjoy it!
7. Start simply
If you are like many of us, when you are starting a new venture it can be tempting to think you need to buy, buy, buy – more must surely be better! But the truth is that often simple is better, and simple often doesn’t require lots of buying.
So, what might simple look like? Well, before you start buying courses for Mandarin Chinese and ASL and pastry making and signing up for ski lessons, start with the basics: any courses you are required by law to have as part of your homeschool and the skills your children truly need like math and reading, writing and, well, we have to say science! Once you are doing the basics successfully, add in the extras. Or pick just one “wow” class that gets you and your student(s) really excited.
Starting simply could also look like using materials you already own instead of going out to buy new items. Use the pencils, pens, crayons, scissors, notebooks and markers you already own. Need to practice matching skills with your toddler? Instead of thinking you need to buy a matching game or two, you could match socks together. Your child will learn not only about matching but also build a necessary life skill, and you will be able to check a chore off your list without it costing you shopping time, a dime or more storage space. Sounds like a win-win!
Another way to start simply is to begin just one or two of your subjects as you start your school year. Especially if you have had an extended time off from school, everyone might benefit from a gradual adjustment back to the to-do’s of school. Once you and your student(s) have your routine a bit down with those first couple of subjects, add in a couple more until you are doing all the subjects you are choosing to do this year.
8. Have space(s) for learning and for your school tools
It might be your living room. It might be your kitchen. It might be your patio table. It might be a section of your basement. It might be the table in your RV. Whatever it is, you need a place for doing schoolwork. This will help your children to know, “It’s time to get our work done!” and to focus.
In your homeschool space, keep distraction to a minimum. Turn off the TV or computer screen (unless you need it for the work you are doing at the moment, like one of Science Shepherd’s video lessons!), leave your smartphones in a different room or at least silence notifications, keep toys that might be too tempting out of sight, and try to have some semblance of peace-bringing tidiness. Of course, we all need to learn how to focus in spite of distractions, but we don’t need to make it harder for ourselves (or our kids!) than it needs to be, right?
Once you have a space for doing schoolwork, it’s good to have space(s) designated for your school tools. It might be a book bag for each child on hooks in your hallway. It might be a cabinet near your kitchen table. It might be a suitcase tucked in your hall closet. It might be a wall of bookshelves in your “schoolroom”. Whatever it looks like, we highly recommend having a space to store all your school materials – books, pencils, math manipulatives, charts, whiteboards, tablets, DVDs, etc. – in an orderly way. After all, an all-hands-on-deck house-wide search for Sam’s math book might build cooperation and searching skills, but you’ll probably all be happier if you put your time and effort into putting things away where they are supposed to be at the end of each school day instead of into searching for them. With this in mind, try to make it as easy as possible to put things back. When you’re tired or ready to head off on that fun fieldtrip, it’s best to have as little hassle as possible connected with putting things where they should be. (And for books, important papers, delicate projects, sharp scissors, etc., a place out of the reach of inquisitive toddlers and curious pets is highly recommended, too!)
9. Pursue order
Let’s be real. There will probably be quite a few days when your life won’t feel particularly orderly or organized on this adventure of homeschooling. When you mix kids (especially young ones!), work, home management, maybe a pet or two, and all the other things that make up life, there are just so many things that might – and will – pop up and pull your world away from the orderly vision you might have had for a given day. That said, order is still something worth pursuing (even though we might never quite “arrive”) because it can add so much peace and productivity to your homeschool adventure.
Obviously, this tip and tip #8 are closely connected. Besides having space(s) designated for learning and your educational tools, here are three organizational tasks that could make a world of difference for your homeschool journey.
- Keep required records consistently. For example, your state may require you to track your hours. Make keeping required records part of your regular routine and keep them in a safe place. You’ll be glad you did for your own peace of mind!
- Put things away where they belong. We get it – putting things away can be easier said than done when you are living in the real world. This is where the part of tip #8 about creating as little hassle as possible for putting things away helps. Also, consider making a short tidy-up time part of your regular routine. And let your students help. Even if it’s just 5 to 10 minutes, if you multiply that by 3 people that’s 15 to 30 minutes of tidy time that could make a world of difference for your homeschool atmosphere. When you go to get the scissors, it’s always so nice to have them where you want them to be!
- Have a system for managing school papers like completed workbook pages, co-op homework, artwork, field trip memorabilia and any quizzes and tests. You could have a file, folder or basket for collecting these papers and mark a time on your calendar every couple weeks, or at least once a month, to go through them and select what really ought to be kept. You can either keep hard copies or take pictures or scan items to keep digitally. Students can help go through artwork to select their best / favorite work to keep. It doesn’t matter so much what system you pick as long as you actually use that system. Staying on top of the paper piles will be a blessing to you and your family!
10. Be kind to those who choose educational paths different from yours
Perhaps you are gung-ho about homeschooling and want all of your friends and relatives to join you on this great adventure! That’s fabulous, but remember to be kind to those who have chosen a path that looks different from yours. After all, God’s best for each family doesn’t necessarily look the same across the board.
Or maybe as you get your feet into the ocean of homeschooling you realize that there are lots of different ways to proceed. The variety can be beautiful unless you want everyone to do it the way you do! Of course, there are certain things we should all be doing in our homeschooling – truly loving and caring well for our children and doing our best before the Lord, for example. But beyond the imperative building blocks, there are lots of ways to keep going. After all, one of the blessings of homeschooling is being able to choose from all the options to pick what suits your own family best. So be kind to those who choose a homeschool adventure that looks different than yours.
And if you are really hoping to convince someone to join you in homeschooling or on your particular homeschooling path, just remember the old saying, “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”
11. Have fun!
That’s right. Have fun! Homeschooling involves challenges, work and sacrifices, and some days will be just hard. But remember this is your life and your family’s life, and you only get to live it once. So remember to smile. Laugh together. Use a yummy manipulative with your math problems. Make a silly game for clean-up time. Go to a favorite park when everybody has reached the goal of history reading done. However you do it – please have fun!
12. Trust God
Homeschooling is an adventure. And like any good adventure there are risks. There are days when you wonder what you are doing. There are mountains to climb and bends we can’t see around. Will Sam ever learn his math facts? Can Marie and Ellie make it through just one day without squabbling? What will it be like to homeschool across the country or on the other side of the world when we move? Wherever you are on the adventure, Psalm 62:8 is a good Scripture to remember,
“Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us.”
We hope these tips are helpful to you as you begin your own homeschooling adventure! May the Lord bless and guide you and your family.
Would you like more advice or need answers to questions about Science Shepherd Homeschool Curriculum? Feel free to message, email or call our customer service department. If you are unsure which Science Shepherd products would be the best fit for your students, take our helpful quiz here or check out our scope and sequence page.
Until next time!
Science Shepherd
“Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
