Homeschooling

Options, Ideas, Resources

So you’re thinking about taking the BIG step! You’ll have lots of good company — about two million American children are home-educated, and the number grows every day. Also, the number and variety of resources available to home educators vastly outranks the options available in the typical classroom situation, as you’ll soon see.

Rather than try to let you know about everything (an impossibility), our goal is to share some of the best and most popular materials and resources, then give you the means to investigate to your heart’s content beyond that.

We think you’ll be pleased with your decision to home school your children! 

Read on…

Know Your State Law and Your Options

Homeschooling regulations vary from state to state. Consequently, the options available vary somewhat from state to state as well.

Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) has information about the laws and regulations for each state and for countries other than the U.S.

Get Connected

You are not alone!  Families have been educating their children at home for years.  You don’t need to start from scratch!  There are many home education support groups and organizations to help you.

HSLDA also has extensive lists of state organizations and some local organizations or groups.

Homeschool World also has lists of organizations and groups for each state as well as in countries outside the U.S.


Curriculum, Materials, Teaching Methods

Choose Curriculum and Materials

Here are links and ideas for picking out the materials for your home school.

Read reviews of home education curriculum:

CathyDuffyReviews.com Cathy Duffy has an ebook, How to Choose Homeschool Curriculum, that walks you through goal setting and the process of determining what approach to use, your children’s learning styles, and other factors that will help you sort out the best curriculum to use in your situation.
homeschool-curriculum-reviews

Rainbow Resource Center  (They sell products, but they have excellent descriptions for many of their products.)

Teaching Methods

The Homeschool Mom.com
Investigate some of the most popular teaching methods and find links to sites that specialize in them. Tips on how to use the methods instead of letting them use you.


More Answers and Suggestions

“Homeschooling Pros and Cons”

“Homeschooling is no different than public school, private school, charter school, unschooling, and other models in that there are pros and cons.” Read the complete article for more. It includes a chart listing some pros and cons.

Start Home Education: Step-by-Step Suggestions
Here’s a step-by-step list to follow as you start your homeschooling!

Get Creative.  Home Education May be an Option Yet
Are you worried that you just can’t handle home education — financially, emotionally, or in some other way? Take a look at these ideas and options before you give up.


Search the Web

Search the web for more home education information. Using a search engine such as Google, try a variety of words and phrases to search for the same thing. Add home education or homeschool to searches. Be more (or less) specific about what you’re looking for. Let’s say you’re looking for math games — you can try math games, elementary math games, math board games, math software, and so forth.

Another example: special needs, special needs homeschool, special needs education, special education, etc. It’s usually quicker to do a new search using different words if you don’t find something of interest on the first page or two of results.