Want to Homeschool? Start Here.

Hi! I am Lydia, and about to become a Homeschool Mom for the first (official) time. I’ve been considering this decision for a decade, and my husband bore with me through a few months of serious fence-walking before we decided, together, to dive in now. Our forms are in, curriculum on the shelf, year scheduled out, and we’re in the process of putting together our space and our brains to step into homeschooling well.

Though COVID-19 is not our primary reason for homeschooling, it happens to be a nice year to not be sending our three boys to school. I know that for many of you, the reality of navigating the shifting sands of the school system right now is nightmarish. You are interested in homeschooling, or at least desperately trying to find something that is possible for your family until COVID can be reasonably mitigated. And many of you really don’t know where to start.

I want to share some resources with you that have been tremendously helpful to me as I consider and plan our homeschooling possibilities. Here’s the thing: every homeschooling family looks different, has different reasons and goals, different resources, different styles of teaching and learning, different work schedules. I don’t want you to try to mimic my choices (or anybody’s choices). I want to empower you to make the best choices for your own family.

What would homeschooling even look like for us?

Start with considering the different styles of homeschooling. This article/video from Simply Charlotte Mason was so helpful to me, both in understanding the basic styles and in narrowing my Google-search focus. We will be using Simply Charlotte Mason for our core curriculum, but this video does not push their curriculum; it is meant to inform. The five basic styles referenced in the linked article are Traditional, Classical, Unschooling, Unit Studies, and Charlotte Mason.

Good grief, just give me the right CURRICULUM!

I knew that I wanted to pursue the Charlotte Mason style of schooling, and after watching that video I could narrow the playing field for myself by Googling “Charlotte Mason homeschool curriculum” or “living books homeschool curriculum” to get to a more customized list of Pinterest and blog results.

There are very, very many curriculum options out there. You can find curricula taught from a Christian or secular worldview (probably other faith or cultural traditions as well, but I didn’t dig that deeply). You can find programs that are all-in-one, open-and-go format. You can pick and choose every individual thing. You can find completely online versions, taught by other teachers. You can find super hands-on, never-look-at-a-screen philosophies. You can find price points from Free to Prohibitively Expensive.

A helpful rule of thumb: the more money you spend, the more work has been done for you. This doesn’t necessarily mean it will be more hands-off on your part as teacher. It means that the more money a curriculum costs, the closer to “no prep needed” you get. It is doable for many families to start with a free program, with resources available online. But it will take more time and effort for you to understand it, and more creativity for you to come up with your own resources.

Wait, what about MATH?

You will notice quickly that very few homeschool curricula include a mathematics program. I think the basic reason is because there are so many ways of learning and teaching math; choosing your own allows you to find a good fit for how your kids learn math. It’s also a great way to get a headache, or to feel hopelessly overwhelmed. I really appreciated this article from Kate Snow. She’s a Harvard grad that taught in the school system, then homeschooled her own kids, and currently makes a living reviewing math curriculum and resources, and by tutoring. If you appreciate the article I linked to, you will probably find yourself clicking through all sorts of other info and resources on her website.

If you are in New York State (or one with similar curriculum standards), you might start by looking at Math Mammoth. It is Common Core aligned, has placement tests to help you ensure you get the right level for your kid, and has free online lesson videos, if needed, that are taught by the author-teacher (Maria Miller). It brands itself as being “self-teaching,” though feedback I’ve read says it’s more accurate that your kid will need some help from you, but it’s designed to require little to no prep time from you. Win.

My husband is a high school math teacher, and for whatever reasons he has noticed a trend: when students come to his classroom from homeschooling, they have almost always been noticeably behind in math (even when they are up to par or above in other subjects). Because many of you, I assume, will only be homeschooling until it feels doable to send your kids back to school, please try to keep your kids up to speed on their math. The public school teachers will thank you later. Your kids will thank you later.

What do I need to do LEGALLY in order to homeschool?

You need to start by looking up your state’s homeschool requirements. Do that here.

In New York, which (no surprise) is highly regulated, this mainly includes paperwork that you file with your school district.

1. Send your Letter of Intent. This is super simple. It’s addressed to your superintendent, and simply says you’re going to homeschool the named children for this school year. You send this every year that you choose to homeschool. By NYS law, this is due by July 1 OR within two weeks of your decision. If you’re still deciding, it’s okay.
2. Send your IHIPs. This stands for Individualized Home Instruction Plan. It’s more or less your specific curriculum and resources for each child you’re schooling. It’s required for any child 6 years old or older (if you have a Preschooler or Kindergartener, you don’t need to file an official plan for them). Each child needs his own IHIP.
3. You will be filing quarterly reports, like a report card. You get to choose your own dates for this. You will tell the school district your dates in the IHIPs.
4. With your 3rd quarter report, you will tell the school district what your year-end assessments will look like. Depending on grade level, that might be a standardized test or a description by the parent of the student’s progress through the year.
5. With your 4th quarter report, you will ALSO submit, separately, your Year-End Assessment. Again, this is one per child.
6. Reassess, and repeat for next year. (If you stick with homeschooling, your actual date for that letter of intent will be July 1. You’re welcome.)

I am not responsible for telling you all your requirements. Find them yourself, and be thorough :0)

I have been told, on repeat, that membership in HSLDA is highly recommended. That organization is Home School Legal Defense Association. Some of their resources, like the link above and their blog, are freely available right on their website. Some of their resources, like templates for all those legal forms I just mentioned and actual legal defense if ever needed, require a membership. It’s about $130 for your family for the year. To me it’s worth it for the assurance that I have at my fingertips the answers to all my legal questions, and those forms. I appreciate that work begun correctly for me.

Also, who knows? New York suspended many of the legal requirements for public school districts and homeschoolers this past year, because COVID threw a wrench in what everybody was able to do. This year, I expect the State will either suspend a bunch of requirements again, or else be even more strict with homeschoolers. Because there will be so many more of us than usual. They’d better be sure they can regulate all our business, right? (Sarcasm.) HSLDA might become an organization we appreciate more than ever.

Do I do what the school does, just at home?

That’s up to you. One of the beauties of homeschooling is that you DON’T have to replicate school at home, either in style or schedule. We already addressed style, so here’s a note about scheduling. These two articles were helpful to me in thinking about how to format our year, and how we should format our days.

We’re going to do something non-traditional with our scheduling, and I’ve got good reasons for it. I am still second-guessing myself, because I’ve been in a traditional classroom (and so have my kids, and so has my husband) my whole life. It’s hard to wrap my brain around something different. And that’s okay. We’re going to try something different, because we can.

Get yourself a SUPPORT SYSTEM.

This might include official homeschool co-ops or Facebook groups. This might include people you know who are already homeschooling. This might include a spouse or grandparent or obliging neighbor who shares teaching responsibilities with you. This might mean you make your own little homeschool group with 2 or 3 friends who are new to homeschooling just like you. Whatever it can look like for you, IT’S IMPORTANT. You need other people. Your kids need other people.

Your days are going to be hard. Some of them will feel terrible. Some of them will feel great, like your kids thrived. Perhaps most of them will feel like you managed well enough, and everybody’s going to be okay. YOU NEED OTHER PEOPLE, WHO WILL CHEER YOU ON AND COMMISERATE WITH YOU AND CELEBRATE WITH YOU.

You can homeschool. It will be hard. It will be good. You might feel completely unprepared and overwhelmed. You might end up loving it.

And guess what? The good news is that we all learn best by experience, by just diving in and doing it. As they say, “It’s wonderful what you can do when you have to.”