Getting Started
Just Getting Started with Homeschooling?
Unsure where to begin?
You’re in the right place. These eight steps will get you moving down the road, in the right direction, with the necessary equipment.
Step 1:
PRAY & Understand What’s Most Important
Pray for God’s guidance as you begin your homeschool journey. God cares about you and your children. He will help you, and He will never leave you.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all, without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
James 1:5
For more encouragement in Step 1, check out some of Kris’s personal experience.
Step 2:
Rules of the road
Learn your state’s homeschool laws. Homeschooling is legal in all fifty states, but each state has its own requirements. If you’re not from Minnesota, visit hslda.org to find your state’s laws. If you are from Minnesota, you can
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Watch our free video on Minnesota homeschool laws here;
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Use the Minnesota Reporting forms provided by the Minnesota Association of Christian Home Educators (MACHE) to meet state requirements;
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Use our free tutorial to apply for tax exempt status.
Step 3:
Identify Your Destination
Set out in concrete language the target of your homeschool. You won’t know what to do or if it is working unless you know what you want to accomplish. Your target doesn’t need to have microscopic detail at the beginning, but it should have a vision and some goals.
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Vision, for this purpose, is a mental picture – using imagination as much as needed – of what your homeschool in the distant future would look like and accomplish if somehow every part of it was working the way you want it to. That doesn’t mean this will ever happen. Almost certainly it will not. But it’s helpful to have a mental picture of what that would look like if it did. Another way of thinking about it is to ask what your homeschool would look like if it showed up at the end of a Hallmark movie.
You can create a rough vision by writing down some thoughtful answers to these questions:
- Why are you homeschooling?
- What are your hopes for the future for your family?
- What are your hopes for the future(s) of your individual child(ren)?
- What do you want your children to be able to do when they leave your home?
- What do you want you and your children to spend your time doing?
With your answers written down, consider crafting a mission statement to help provide an overarching framework for your school. Here’s an example:
“In our school, we aim to foster strong family relationships, godly character and a Christian worldview.
We will develop life-long learners and young adults who are equipped for real life.
We will challenge our children in every arena: academically, physically, socially and spiritually to be the best they can be.
Ultimately, our goal is to help our kids love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and to help them discover their God-given giftings and His design for their life.”
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Goals are smaller, specific tasks that move you closer toward your vision. If the vision is a house, a goal is a brick or a tool that can be used to build the house. We recommend creating specific goals at the beginning of each school year, based on your vision. A goal might be educational, spiritual, personal, or family-related. You might have a set of goals for each student in your homeschool.
Here are some examples of goals:
- Spend 15 minutes each day reading Bible independently before school.
- Memorize James 1-2 this semester.
- Have morning chores completed and checked off on chart before school each day.
- Begin our school day with together time: read 3 books aloud together this semester and pray every morning to begin the day together.
- Begin school each day by 9:00am.
- Each student will read alone for 25 minutes each day.
For more guidance with vision and goals, watch our Firm Foundations seminar. It provides three hours of helpful information, insights, and encouragement on how to get started with homeschooling and how to homeschool well.
Step 4:
Research and Select Curriculum
Curriculum is like the roadmap for one segment of your journey toward the ultimate destination.
There are many paths that can get you from Point A to Point B. Some paths are shorter but cover rockier ground or have steep hills. Some paths require special equipment, or perhaps a boat. Other paths take the scenic route or have flatter, softer ground, but cover more miles. The path that is best for a strong climber might not be the best for someone who’s walking barefoot.
In the same way, different curricula work better or worse for different students. A major advantage of homeschooling is the ability to choose a curriculum that fits your specific child, without worrying about how it would work for twenty-five others. Dedicating a little time up front to pick a suitable curriculum can save you a good amount of time and trouble during the rest of the school year, and increase student learning..
There are two basic considerations when choosing curriculum:
- Your child’s personality and learning style. For an in-depth look at learning styles, check out our discussion here (Part 1) and here (Part 2).
- The different available curriculum types. Major types include All In One, Unit Studies, Classical, Charlotte Mason, and Eclectic.
For further help with choosing curriculum, read Kris’s thoughts here. We also highly recommend the Cathy Duffy Reviews.
Our Firm Foundation Seminar covers learning styles and curriculum types, too.
Step 5:
Marching Patterns
After you know where you’re going and what path will get you across the next segment of the trip, you’re ready to figure out the nitty-gritty detail of how you’re going to travel that path, step-by-daily step. It’s time to nail down daily and weekly Schedules and Routines.
While some people may quake at the mention of a schedule or a routine, these things are not prison sentences or punishments. Quite the opposite, in fact. Daily and weekly schedules and routines are a powerful tool to make your life as a teacher easier. Building and following a pattern of daily and weekly activities ensures that your students are learning everything they need to learn while reducing the amount of micromanagement needed from the busy parent/teacher. Just as programming your phone alarm to sound at the same time every day releases you from the burden of setting the alarm every day, training your students to complete certain tasks at certain times each day or each week releases you from the burden of instructing them to do these tasks over and over and over.
HWC has thought a lot about schedules and routines. You can benefit from our experience here (Adding Routine), here (Organizing), here (Loop Scheduling), and here (9 Simple Steps).
Our Priority Planner for Homeschool Moms can also help you align your days and your priorities.
Step 6:
Pics or It Didn’t Happen
Record-keeping is an important part of homeschooling, so that you can remember and show what you’ve accomplished – whether that is for a future college application, qualifying for a program your student wants or needs to be part of, or satisfying state regulations. The key to record-keeping is to do it along the way, and not try to leave it all for some unknown time in the future after you’ve forgotten half of what you need to write down. If you do it now, it’s easy; if you do it “later,” it can be hard, time-consuming, or even impossible.
The types of school records that you should keep are
- documentation with the school district
- lesson plans
- school schedule
- number of school days
- samples of student work
More details here.
Our All in One Planner also gives tons of help in getting organized and staying organized.
Step 7:
Hit the Road
Planning is important, but planning is useless if you don’t step out on the road. Be confident that you’ll be able to make homeschooling work, once you’ve put in the preparation described above, and get started! We have resources for that part of the process, too. Check out these articles: