Getting Started
by Melody (written in 2003)

Homeschooling: Where to Start

The idea for writing this article came from a request on an e-mail list for information on where to start in preparing to homeschool. Hopefully this article will answer that question.

I hope that you enjoy what you read here and wish you well in your journey into the Wonderful World of Homeschooling!

First things first.

Learn the laws about homeschooling in your state. A great place to learn these is at http://www.hslda.org/. This is a website from the Homeschool Legal Defense Association. This site will tell the laws of your state. You can visit them to find out what your requirements are.

Get a homeschool education of your own.

I found that learning as much as I could about different homeschoolers’ experiences, different learning theories, and different learning styles made it easier for me to find the method that would work best for our family.

One way that I learned about homeschooling was getting on a lot of different homeschooling e-mail lists. What made it even more interesting was to get on many lists that have different learning styles from each other. When I started out, I was on one list for unschoolers, one for Christian homeschoolers, one for homeschoolers belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and one for Tennessee homeschoolers (where I lived at the time). The flavor of each group was so different from each other, the learning styles just as different. It was interesting to see four different approaches to the same problem. I am now down to, hum, three, but two of them are different from the ones I started out with.J

Another education I got was from Mary Griffith’s The Homeschooling Handbook. This is an excellent book. It has information ranging from homeschooling laws to whether or not let your child wear their pajamas to school. It is excellently written and has testimonials from parents all around the country. I highly recommend reading it from cover to cover, then using it as a resource for years to come.

Another interesting book by Mary Griffith is The Unschooling Handbook. The theory behind unschooling is that children are natural learners and if left to their own curiosities and parents’ knowledge, chauffeuring, and guidance the student of life will be educationally well rounded, happy to learn, and excited to pursue many venues of learning. Education is all around and ready for the picking! Unschooling is not for everyone, but it sure is a refreshing theory. There are several books that support the unschooling movement written by John Holt.

There are many child education theorists that have very interesting ideas on education. Some of these are Jean Piaget, Charlotte Mason, Rudolf Steiner (known for Waldorf Schools), Maria Montessori, and Howard Gardner. There are of course several others, but just these will keep you in reading for quite a while.

By educating yourself about different educational theories/theorists, you will be more prepared to know what you want out of your homeschool. You will also be able to learn about a style of learning that will suit your child best. Every child is different, as parents know, and every child’s education needs to be tailored to meet his/her needs. By immersing yourself in different theories and styles of learning, you will be able to take your needs and your child’s learning style and put them together to make a wonderful homeschool experience!

How will I teach these children???

The Core Knowledge Series, (_What Your __Grader Needs to Know_) by E.D. Hirsh is widely used by many. While I do not adhere to all of it’s contents, it is a book that will guide you through the school-year. I like to put more emphasis on U.S. history, and less on world and ancient history that these books supply, but all in all it is a good way to go.

Curriculums can be purchased as a package deal, or you can mix-and-match, depending on your wants/needs/budget. You will find out about curriculum fairs on many homeschooling e-mail lists. Also, you can get used curriculums at ebay, consignment shops/thrift stores, or from curriculum swaps. Also, don’t forget that public schools often get rid of old books to get ready for the new.

It has taken me three years to find the textbooks that I like best. I don’t spend a ton of money on packaged curriculums. I simply buy what I like and what I think works.   I really like MacMillan Mathematics Series M for elementary math; Holt Science; Joy Hakims A History of US  and historical fiction novels for American History; Scott, Foresman's readers; McDougal, Littell for English grammar; and age appropriate Classics for literature (I will add a booklist when I can).  I buy all of my curriculum used, usually from Ebay; you can get good books for great prices there.

That is what we do, but you will have to find out what works best for your family.  I would recommend looking at different publishers before you spend lots of money on a curriculum.  So many people I know have spent a fortune just to turn around and be disappointed with either the presentation of the material, or that the books don't teach their child in the way that the child learns.  Over the years I have tried several different publishers before  I found the one that works best (so far!) with my teaching style and my children's learning styles.  Be flexible, and remember you can always sell those books that don't work!

I will try to add other people's experiences to this section as time goes on.  If you have curriculum that you love, let me know.  I'd love to add your success stories, too!

What will I teach these children.

Now we get to the heart of the homeschool, the books. I love books! Homeschooling has given me the excuse I have needed to grow quite an extensive library because I have needed those books! J If your income is limited, a public library will work just as well.

In addition to textbooks (or if you want to disregard textbooks all together), there are several wonderful educational books on a myriad of subjects. The following books come highly recommended by myself. You can buy them used at ebay, new at most bookstores, or borrow from the library. The links that I have in blue are from amazon.com. Enjoy!

A History of US, by Joy Hakim. A wonderful series written in an entertaining way, spanning the years from the first people here in the U.S. to modern day. Written in several volumes, you can choose which era you want to teach at the time. .

McGuffey’s Eclectic Reader’s are wonderful readers.  The beginning books are easy to read for beginners, since they focus on phonics. There are seven books in set ranging from pre-primer to 6th Grade. Each grade level gets progressively harder. The latter books also takes time to teach oritory skills. The early books have wholesome, gentle stories that I just love for my little chilren and the latter books are also wholesome stories that are filled with good morals and heroes.  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-7477408-8913512.

Enchantment of the World series are wonderful books about countries of the world. They are published by Children’s Press (all of whose books I highly recommend as being well done!) They have beautiful pictures and interesting facts written in an easy to read entertaining style. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-7477408-8913512.

America the Beautiful series. Again, these books are from Children’s Press. These are wonderful books, one book for every state in the Union including Washington D.C. They have beautiful pictures, facts about each state’s flag, date of statehood, state song, state bird, flower, tree, etc. These would make a great addition to any library, but are quite pricey. The one on your state would be great for state history. If you can’t afford to take your child to every state to visit, take a look at these books! You’ll be glad that you did! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-7477408-8913512.

A New True Book These books are wonderful! We have many of the "experiments with…." Books. Including Experiments with Water, Experiments with Magnets, Experiments with Electricity and many more. I have not found one of these books that I have been sorry with. These are a wonderful addition to any science program for elementary grades. There are also many history books in this series as well, and they are just as well done. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-7477408-8913512

Activities in the Earth Sciences, by Helen J Challand, Ph.D. This book is a wonderful science book for upper elementary school age and middle schoolers. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-7477408-8913512 It is out of print, but often will have a used copy to be sold at amazon.com. Also there is similar books about physical science and life science by the same author. Here is a listing of her books http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-7477408-8913512. She is a very entertaining and intelligent writer with great activities.

Webster’s New World Children’s Dictionary  I highly recommend a children’s dictionary for elementary school kids through, and perhaps including, junior high age. You can use this dictionary to teach dictionary skills to your elementary schooler; they teach phonetical spellings, which syllable gets the accent, and guide words. With a children's dictionary, the definitions are easy to understand, so looking up vocabulary words is simple and beneficial. Another plus about children's dictionaries is they are visually stimulating since they have great color pictures. As I compared children's dictionaries in the store, this is the one I was most impressed by, for all of the above reasons.  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-7477408-8913512

An encyclopedia set is extremely helpful to have on hand at all times. Though I have never compared encyclopedias, we own and use The World Book Encyclopedia and I have been really happy with them. I bought our set for $60 from a public library that was getting ready for an updated set. Even though our set might not have the most up-to-date information, we haven't run into any problems with that yet. As my children get older and need to know the most up-to-date information on a topic, we will just borrow the public library's.