First of all, take a deep breath. And believe me when I tell you.. You can do this!
I’ll be approaching this from the standpoint of a first time homeschooler from nearly the very beginning. You can read my story of how (and why) I first started homeschooling, you can see what my curriculum looks like today nearly 6 years of homeschooling (and several more kids in the mix) later, and you can check out the progression, scrapbook, and how-tos of all those years in between.
But today I want to give you a much drier kind of how-to. I want to give you a bunch of links that I used just after I first started homeschooling and still scan at the beginning of each year. I want to give you a starting point. Let you meet others who are doing this too (check out the comments here, leave one yourself, write a post, “like” my TheJoyfulChaos Facebook page and introduce yourself). And reinforce again and again that you can do this. One day at a time. One list, one book, one child at a time. You can.
Okay, here’s what I’m assuming.. you have thought about this, stressed over this, talked to your husband about this, and mostly made a decision. If not, if you’re in the researching phase, that’s perfect, just read, take in, and keep praying. For those of you who will be homeschooling for the first time, but have older kids that you’ll be pulling out of public schools, first of all let me say “Yay you!!” Secondly, I don’t have much experience in this area, but there are those who do. Ask around. One thing I’ve seen about pulling older ones out is that you need to expect an adjustment period. A cocooning time, where you relearn your family, you reconnect in a whole new way, and you ride out the bumps that came along in public school. Take the time to do that. Your family is more important than any checklist. Watch them, pray over them, ask for wisdom, and take it one day at a time. You won’t ruin them in one sabbatical year.
For those of you who have decided and know “Yep, I’ll be homeschooling a Kindergartner come August. Now, what?” Here are some first steps.
1. Find your state’s laws If you aren’t in Arkansas you should google your state’s laws regarding homeschooling. If you live here in Arkansas your first and frequent stop should be the Arkansas Education Alliance. They are here to help you. Get on their mailing list, scour their site. They will be your best friends as you get your feet on the ground. To begin in Arkansas you only need to fill out two forms (we’ll get to those in a second) each year. And your older child will have to test each spring between 3rd grade and 8th grade. Those scores aren’t seen by anyone but you and the scoring agency. It’s not nearly as daunting as it first seems.
2. Is your child old enough to start school legally? Decide if your child should really be starting school. Officially, anyway, because you know you’ve already been teaching your child from the very beginning. But this is one thing I didn’t know. And for some reason no one in either of the school districts that I spoke with when I was enrolling my son told me. First, if your child is not going to be 5 by August 15, they will not need to be officially enrolled in homeschooling through the district. Second of all, if your child’s birthday is near that and you want to homeschool for a year, get your feet on the ground, and let your child get a little older, more ready then you can opt out of Kindergarten until they are 6 years old. I sure wish I had known those things. If I could go back I would’ve held my oldest back. He has a September birthday and back then the cutoff date was in September. He started school when he was 4 and no one told me I should do anything differently. In fact I didn’t think I had any other option other than putting my tiny one into school. You do have options. You can find the form to opt out of Kindergarten on the Arkansas Department of Education’s site – look for the “Kindergarten Waiver Form” link.
3. Fill Out The Forms Once you’ve decided your child will be of age and legally homeschooling in the fall you’ll need to make it legal. Under the Education Alliance’s “Getting Started” category are some links you will need. Arkansas’ rules are pretty lenient, but you should be familiar with them. You must print (or pick up from your local school district’s superintendent’s office) 2 forms: the Notice of Intent form and the Waiver. The Waiver simply says basically yes, I know I’m responsible for my own child and I will not hold the school district or the state of Arkansas liable if my kid ends up stupid. Really. Sign the form and you’re done. On the Intent form, it’s a little more involved, but don’t let it scare you. It always scares me. But I’m getting over it. Print off the example form, it will help you. Now, when you get ready to fill out the curriculum section know that no really cares or looks at the form more than likely and that you are not bound by what you put on there. You can change your curriculum at any time in the year. You just need to write down whatever you plan to use. Now, as for the days and times and all that, I figure up how many school days are in the public school year and basically adhere to that. Last I checked the minimum required days of mandatory school days is 180 per year. But check that on your own. It could change. Though I’m a year rounder I take off about the same amount of time the public schools do I just take them off throughout the year. You have that freedom. Just report your amount of days. Also, on your daily schedule.. I always write that our day is basically a 7 hour day. If you know me, you know that we’re usually through with our book work by around noon. That seems to not add up, right? However, figure in your breaks, your breakfast, your lunch, your recess time, your naps, your coloring pages, your home ec time, your field trips and the fact that I start our school day by about 6am you have a full 7 hour day. You must remember that public school kids are not sitting in their desks writing 7 hours a day. Now, make copies of those 2 forms, take a deep breath, and go turn them into your school district’s superintendent before August 15.
You’ve decided you want to homeschool. Your child is old enough. You know the laws. You’ve obeyed the laws. Now it gets a little more fun!
4. Curriculum and Styles – You may have already done your research in these areas, you may be winging it and have never heard of this stuff. Either way, it’s kinda fun to see what all’s out there. There’s a ton of ways to homeschool. None are perfect. Several may be right for you and your kids. Google “homeschooling styles” and you’ll be amazed. Click around, check out some library books, ask others. This post is not all about this, but I will tell ya my style is mostly eclectic. Shocking, I know. There is everything from mega-expensive all laid out for you curriculum to all free plan it yourself, print it off, do it online curriculum. It is amazing how much is out there. Do what works for you and your child. Let me warn you though, do not over do it. Especially in Kindergarten your first year out of the gate. Really, under buy. Keep reminding yourself of the big picture – you’re lighting the fire of excitement about learning, you’re teaching them how to learn, you’re giving them foundational basics. Please don’t try to teach them everything they’ll ever need to know before they turn 6 years old. Please? For me? For them?
5. Decide what they need to know when I like this part. I start by looking at my state’s Kindergarten readiness guide. I print that out and check off what they can do for sure. Then I star the things they need to cover. I put it in a binder for future reference. Then I go to the Arkansas Department of Education’s siteand print out their “Refrigerator Curriculum” checklist. They have one for every grade. This is not a comprehensive list, it’s a minimum list of what they’ll cover that year. But again, it’s just a safety net for me, I like to know that I’m covering the basics that the schools would cover. Also, it helps me see that most of the time I’m going above and beyond what the schools are doing. Then I make my own list of subjects that I think they should learn: reading (phonics of some sort), writing, and math are the basics I hit hard in Kindergarten. I make sure to cover the checklists and expose them to many field trips and make science and history and geography and social studies a fun exploration of the world around them. Again, you can seewhat my Kindergartener used this year in my curriculum post.
6. Find support Find a local group (here’s a list of local homeschooling support groups around Arkansas), ask around at the library, your church, check your newspaper. There’s the very large Home Ed group in Little Rock that you can get connected with that has sports teams, senior banquets, and graduation, just to name a few of the things they offer for their older students. There’s a bunch of us out there, we’re just kind of underground. But once you start asking, you’ll be surprised how many of us homeschoolers are out there just dying to connect and offer support and find encouragement. In addition to finding playmates in the real world, find a support group online. Moms want to help other moms. If nothing else, speak up here, you won’t be alone. But I want to mention here again, don’t overdo the outings with your little one. Sure they need socialization, but as conscientious as you are that will happen, don’t over schedule them. It will wear them and you out.
7. Don’t overdo it I can’t stress this enough. Don’t go overboard with anything. Not with the money spending, book buying, coloring page printing. Not with the making them sit there for way too long, not with the playdates and outings. Don’t try to overschedule your school year and thereby suck the fun out of your days. As Melissa said recently childhood is for playing. It really is. And there is so much they learn while they play. Just breathe. Just take it one step at a time. Ask as many questions as you want. But don’t put so much new pressure on yourself that you forget why you’re doing this in the first place.
I know that I’ve forgotten a lot of things to tell you. It’s a broad topic and I’ve already used a billion words. But I would love to take your questions and have future Q and A’s. Also, if you’re local to me, let me know, I have a friend who’s having an informational meeting complete with snacks, curriculum to browse, and it’s a bring-your-kids-event in July. Let me know, I’ll get you connected.
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Don’t forget to stop by everybody’s blogs who link up and see their suggestions!
Now, please, since I only have my limited view of beginning homeschooling with a 5 year old (or younger) and in Arkansas no less, I would love, love, love if sometime in the next week you would write a little something (even if it’s just a Facebook note, yes, you can link that here too) and link up or leave me a comment with your best suggestions or questions. We really need to learn from each other!
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