The ABCs of Home Schooling

How to Get Started Before Getting Started

You're considering home schooling your child, but you don't know where to start? Welcome to the club! Home schooling, at first, seems almost overwhelming. Contrary to popular belief, most home schooling parents did not pull their children out of the traditional school system on a whim. Completely taking over the reigns of your child's education is scary stuff! We are well aware of the import of such a weighty decision. Most of us, if we are going to be honest, are scared to death until the minute we realize we are actually going to float, and it won't be as difficult as we'd feared. I was an education major in school, and I still had all those fears.

I'm not going to tell you what you should do, or what curriculum you should use or even how to home school. I'm simply going to help you get off on the right foot. There are many things that you need to take into consideration, whether you are pulling your child out of a formal schooling situation or you are starting off by home schooling.

The first thing you should consider are your state's laws. I live in Illinois, which has very liberal home schooling laws. I don't need to notify school authorities of my intentions, I don't have to file a lesson plan, I don't have to get approval from anyone - I can just simply do my thing. But not all states are like Illinois, and you absolutely must do your homework and find out what you must do legally before starting. Running afoul of the law is a bad start to any venture. Check with the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA.org) to see where your state stands. HSLDA is inarguably a religious organization, but it stands firm for the rights of all home schools, regardless of religious affiliation.