The Best Advice From Homeschool Moms for Beginners
Video: Advice From Homeschool Moms for Beginners
1.Familiarize yourself with the homeschool laws of your state.
The Homeschool Legal Defense Association is an excellent resource for new homeschool families who are making choices about their children’s education. Their website supplies information about each state’s homeschool law, resources for getting started, help for special needs, and information on homeschooling high school students.
According to their website,
“We believe every child is unique. That children should learn in ways that meet their needs. And that you want the best for your child. Homeschooling gives you the freedom to personalize their education so they can realize their potential.HSLDA passionately advocates for the freedom to homeschool and offers support for every stage of your homeschool journey.“
2. Pick a homeschool curriculum and just start.
You can be choosy, get some material in hand to look through, take your time, but understand that you will never be completely satisfied with your choice. I highly recommend Kathy Duffy’s Homeschool Curriculum Reviews. Use caution though! Finding a homeschool curriculum can be very overwhelming. There are so many great options available. Ask another homeschooler or use curriculum reviews, but pick something and just get started. You will learn as you go.
3. Remember the 3 R’s.
Make sure they are reading, writing, and solving math problems every day. These subjects are skills. Do not short-cut these! They should be progressing in these three areas daily. We start with the 3 R’s every morning because they are foundational subjects. Have them conquer these when they are fresh. The other content areas can have some flexibility, but reading, writing, and math should be a priority.
4. Read. A Lot.
Read to them, even if they are already readers. Find a good book list and start purchasing or ordering from the library. Many homeschoolers use Sarah Makenzie’s Read Aloud Revival booklist.
Read to your young children and read to your older kids. Students of all ages can enjoy having someone read to them!
When you make this a part of your homeschool routine, it is one chance you both get to sit together, to look at one another, to explore places, ideas, words, feelings. This will mean more to them than any cheap thrill or gadget you buy them.
If you think about it, other than math (which is a skill) and writing (which is the overflow of reading), children learn almost all other subjects through reading. This is why reading to them covers so much ground!
In addition to reading great books to them, allow time in your school day for them to read quietly. We have a time right after lunch when everyone drops everything to read something purely for enjoyment. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time. We do 15-30 minutes.
Audio books are another great way to help struggling readers. Let them listen to an audiobook every night in bed. Bedtime is a perfet time for audiobooks because they are not as easily distracted as listening to a book during the day. Here are more tips for Teaching a Child To Read.
5. Find a community of other homeschoolers.
This is a biggie in my book. It’s the difference in sinking or swimming. If you have a support group and your kids have great friends, you might start loving this new lifestyle! Many homeschool co-ops meet weekly or bi-weekly to offer classes, field trips, concerts, book clubs, dramas, sports programs, music lessons, and much more.
There is one caution that I would give. Be aware that if you choose for your curriculum a type of online learning (such as cyber schooling) that requires kids to be on the computer at certain and/or random times, and if you have more than one child, it will be very difficult to be available enough to be part of a regular homeschooling community.
6. You don’t have to teach individual subjects for each of your kids in all areas.
Although math, reading, and writing are subjects where kids progress at their own level, you can combine other subjects for multiple ages. You can cover history, science, and other content areas as a group.
For example, in history, pick a time period and explore that for a year. Pull library books, cook recipes, watch documentaries, visit museums. If your kids are crafty, let them make costumes or dioramas. When you find creative ways to explore their interests, you encourage a love of learning in your kids.
For science, ask your kids what they have always wondered about…the human body, simple machines, weather? Find a book of experiments on that topic and let them discover! Use this as a chance for them to learn about things that interest them! What do you remember from history and science in school? You remember the things that interested you!
7. Use this time with your kids as an opportunity.
Homeschooling is a great opportunity for you to do things with your kids that you’ve always wanted to do, but never made the time for. What is that one thing that you never have enough time to do with them?
Try asking the kids, “What is one thing you have always wondered about?” Or, “If you could pick one thing you would like to learn about, what would it be?” Then, take them to the library and find everything you can on that subject. Go places and talk to people that can teach you more about that topic. Watch documentaries on it.
Is there a skill they want to master? Have them watch YouTube videos to learn how to do it. I guarantee you, if you try this, your kids will learn things that they will never forget. In addition to that, they will love learning this way.
8. Don’t worry about what they are “missing” in school.
When we expect children to achieve certain skills or material at a certain age or grade, we are forgetting that children are unique individuals. Yes, we should have high expectations for them. We should also require diligent progress in their daily homeschool lessons.
But remember that children progress at different paces in different areas! They also have different learning styles.
Here is what happens when we set educational standards for all children of a certain age. A child who is weak in Math may be grade levels ahead in reading. In some areas a child might be ready to move on, but held back by these limitations and in other areas of study, he might be struggling and need more help or a slower pace, but be forced to move on.
In my opinion, when we try to fit large groups of children into “what you are supposed to know in X grade”, we ignore the uniqueness of the child.
Your child is an individual. Do not underestimate the headway you can make working one-on-one with your him or her! Do not worry about what they are missing in regular school. If they are progressing every day, they will be fine.
9. Pray.
Pray about your school year. God gave your child to YOU and you to your child. He thinks YOU are the one person who is best equipped to raise him or her! Ask Him for help with practical things… how to schedule your day, how to help your child in areas of struggle, how to teach math. Don’t doubt God’s ability to do “abundantly more than we ask or think.”
I have set the LORD continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Psalm 16:8
Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will act.
Psalm 37:5
If you are a beginning homeschooler, what questions do you have? It can be so helpful to ask homeschool moms for advice on how they do it.
Hello!
I recently bought your BOB Books Companion Guide for teaching with Bob Books. Right now, we are using AAR level one and my son is so bored with it. I know some people love it but I’m not sure he does. When you used BOB Books to teach your children did you use any other program or just have them read one book after another?
Hi! I’ve used only BOB books to teach my kids, along with the companion guide that I’ve created. Nothing else. We move through about 1-2 books a week, depending on the child. Some go faster. I hope you can find something that is a good fit for you!