Comprehensive Guide to Start Homeschooling With Success

Are you thinking that you might start homeschooling? That is an excellent idea! When you choose this option, you will not be alone. Homeschooling is a rapidly growing movement, so you will be able to network with other families for mutual help and encouragement. Fantastic organizations are available to provide support, and you will discover many excellent resources on the market.

You may be a new mom or dad, planning ahead to give your child the best education. Or perhaps your kids are already in public or private school, and you want to bring them back home. Either way, some questions have likely crossed your mind: Do I have time to homeschool? Can we afford it? Am I smart enough to be my kids’ teacher? How will my children develop social skills? What will my family think? While there is no guarantee that all your relatives will be supportive, there are pro-homeschooling answers to all of these questions.

There are some great articles online that highlight the benefits of home education and will fuel your enthusiasm to start homeschooling. If you are concerned about the opinions of other people, you will enjoy reading these 10 Reasons to Homeschool Your Children. When parents choose to homeschool their elementary aged children, the next question they face from people is “Will you send them to high school?” If you are struggling with this question and thinking that high school will be too difficult for you to teach, you will be encouraged by these ten answers to the question Why Homeschool Teens? It is always interesting to learn why other families choose the path of home education, so here are the Top Ten Reasons Parents Decide to Homeschool.

While there are many excellent reasons to educate your children at home, this article will focus on four of them and then will highlight four resources to start homeschooling.

Reasons to Homeschool

1. Academic. As a parent, you know and love your child better than anyone else knows and loves your child, and that makes you the best person to teach your son or daughter. You know their strengths, weaknesses, interests, and preferred learning style. You can give them much more one-on-one attention than the teacher can who has twenty-nine other students in the class. Many home-educated children advance faster and further academically because they can learn at their own pace, focusing more time on the skills that need more practice and less time on the lessons that they pick up quickly. In homeschooling, kids are not just learning things—they are learning how to learn. Besides learning the basics, they can be free to follow their dreams and study the subjects that interest them. Kids learn more when they study the topics that they want to learn.
2. Religious. Many families start homeschooling for religious reasons. For Christians, this involves the desire to protect children from negative secular values and instill in them positive Biblical values. Based on passages such as Deuteronomy 6:7 and 11:19, parents believe it is their God-given responsibility to educate their children, and it should not be left to the state.
3. Child Health. Children with special needs generally do better at home where their parents can customize the educational experience to suit their particular needs. We tend to learn best in a comfortable environment, and home is where many kids feel the most comfortable. Children with chronic health problems may have a lot of medical appointments and the need to rest at certain times in the day, making it more difficult to handle the daily schedule of public school.
4. Travel Flexibility. When families start homeschooling, they experience the freedom of no longer having to plan their lives around a school calendar. They can plan vacations and field trips when it is most convenient for the family. Children can learn much more about how “the real world” works by accompanying mom and dad than they can by being stuck in a classroom every weekday.

Resources to Start Homeschooling

1. Learn your local laws. Homeschooling is legal in all fifty states of the US, but not every state takes a completely “hands off” approach to homeschooling families. Before you start homeschooling, it is important to research your local laws to determine if there is any necessary paperwork to be signed, permission to be granted, or standards to be reached. It is also a great idea to join a local state homeschool Facebook group.

2. Join HSLDA. Membership in the Home School Legal Defense Association is highly recommended! They are here to protect your freedom to homeschool and to give you legal support if and when the need ever arises. You will have direct access to “Lawyers who focus on homeschool law and are homeschooling parents” (HSLDA website). They can provide you with forms and sample letters for your state and many other helpful resources.

3. Subscribe to The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine. Published quarterly, it is the trade magazine of the homeschooling community. From the day you start homeschooling to the day your youngest child graduates, it will be a constant source of help, encouragement, and inspiration. You will receive practical advice and teaching tips from veteran homeschoolers and will be kept up-to-date on the best curriculum choices and teaching resources on the market. Every issue contains 120 pages of beautiful, glossy print. As you collect them through the years, you will refer to them often and will still be enjoying them when your grandchildren start homeschooling.

4. Join SchoolhouseTeachers.com. This is the curriculum division of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine! One Ultimate Membership grants an entire family unlimited access to more than 400 online, self-paced courses (PreK-12). Lessons can be completed online or downloaded and printed. The site features 450+ streaming videos, 1,100+ pages of planning and recordkeeping tools, 10 Libraries of World Book Online, and 13 Focused Learning Centers. There is a Members Forum, a Facebook Group, plus a friendly and knowledgeable Customer Service team. There are no extra fees and no textbooks to buy. This is a FULL CURRICULUM website! Every Subject. Every Grade. Every Student. All courses adhere to a Biblical worldview!

Ready, Set, Go…

There has never been a better time to start homeschooling with success! You have all the right reasons and all the right resources to keep your children home where they belong, and you are the right person to teach them!

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