Sunday, February 19, 2012

How to begin homeschooling



Long long (haha) ago, before children I always thought in my head "I would really like to homeschool my children". I was already teaching (although it was preschoolers) and though that would be the plan. After the long wait of parenthood we were blessed with a wee little guy that came to our home with all of these extra attachments: feeding tube, apnea monitor, bipap machine, nightly feeding machine....surely I'm forgetting something oh and about 4-5 appointments a week to various physicians, therapists and the weekly trip to DSS for visitations with A~mans biological family.

As you can see with all of THAT any thoughts of eventually homeschooling went out the door as he came in the door. Then after the experience of kindergarten (I need a link back to that info;) as it is a novel in itself) God showed us that we should keep A~man home and teach him ourselves. In our state a child does not have to be registered in public school until they reach the age of 7 and he had just turned 6.. All states are different though and I recommend this site for the rules and regulations of homeschooling.

When I first started teaching him at home there was a nifty used homeschool curriuclum/bookstore nearby. I had a lot of fun picking things up there. Mainly how to books and also some manipulatives to use for learning skills. Fortunately though, I also had most of my things from when I was a preschool teacher which was very beneficial as he was still learning preschool basics.

What would have been REALLY helpful would have been a basic easy to read guide that told the basics of starting to homeschool. This How to Home School guide does just that! I cannot tell you how many homeschool books I have read over the last 6 years! I've read some really good ones but something like this guide would have been a good way to quick start our homeschool.

Another helpful thing for the child that is going to be schooled at home would be a book about another homeschool child. Recently I did a review at Homeschool Literature about a family trying to decide if they want to homeschool their children. This book is called Katy. Another book that might be helpful for a child to see the day to day of another child homeschooling is Allison's Story, which is written for younger children. Check out my reviews to see if theses books could benefit  your family.

Whatever your reason is for wanting to start homeschooling, or even considering it, knowing the basics is the first step to success!!

1 comment:

  1. Fantastic post! It's amazing how God can lead us right where we need to be:-) You're fabulous!!!!

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