5 Things You Must Know Before You Start Homeschooling • diy mama

5 Things You Must Know Before You Start Homeschooling This post is sponsored by BookShark. I am a BookShark partner and a portion of our curriculum was provided by them. As always, I only work with companies that I have previously used as a product. We used and loved BookShark when we homeschooled for Pre-K and are very happy with their 1st-grade curriculum.

We’re at the halfway point of our homeschooling year for first grade. This time last year, I had no idea I would be homeschooling again. We really enjoyed homeschooling for Pre-K because of the situation we were in (new baby) but my daughter really thrived in her public school last year and she wanted to go back. We weren’t comfortable having her go in-person to school this year because of COVID. When I asked her this past week what she thought about going back to school next year or homeschooling she said she wanted to homeschool again! I am assuming I’m doing something right if she’s even considering it!

There are so many people struggling with having their children go back to the confusing schedules of remote learning or the complexities of in-person learning, and are leaning towards having their children homeschool for the second semester of the 2020 school year. I wanted to share what 5 things you need to know before you start homeschooling that really helped us when we were making this decision.

5 Things You Need to Know Before Homeschooling

Find out how to withdraw from your child’s current school

When we withdrew our daughter from her public school I sent an email to the principal and office administrator letting them know our situation and asked them how we needed to proceed. They had said the email was fine and the office administrator had later called to get a verbal agreement that we were withdrawing. That is all that was necessary at our school but your state or county may have different rules.

While you’re talking to the county, you should ask what requirements they have (including the state) for homeschooling. They may have a certain number of days you are required to teach or they may have certain tests your child needs to take. It’s different for each county and state so make sure you know both the state and county’s rules on homeschooling.

Determine what you want to teach your child

This may seem like common knowledge to a teacher but you are likely not a teacher. You need to determine what you want to teach your child. Where did they leave off and what do they have an interest in? I knew that my daughter loves science experiments and animals so I wanted to be sure there was a solid science lesson in whatever curriculum we used.

You might also want to teach them things that their school wasn’t teaching yet and you thought they should know. Over the summer we started working on learning coins and how to tell time. This year we’re learning American Sign Language. You don’t need to strictly use a curriculum to teach your child. Go off of what their interests are!

Research what cirriculum you want to use

This tends to be the step that many parents give up. It is overwhelming the amount of information there is on the different curriculums. Between blogs, videos, and friends’ suggestions there is so much to consume. BUT if you narrow down your needs, you can find what curriculum works best for you fairly quickly.

Do you want a faith-based program or a secular one? Do you want some subjects to be secular but not others? Knowing this will narrow down your search by a lot. We knew that we wanted a completely secular literature-based program. Having a literature-based program gave us the chance to really strengthen our reading skills from my daughter needing to sit and listen and read on her own each day. We also wanted to make sure there were hands-on elements of our curriculum (as that is how I learn best).

With BookShark, both science and history have hands-on elements. When we get to do science experiments and build crafts for history we truly understand the lessons we’re learning.

Find out what the return policy is for the curriculum

Despite all of the research you’ve done to determine the right curriculum, you won’t truly know it’s the right fit until you look through it with your child. You might realize it’s way too much prep work. Your child might decide they’re completely uninterested in the lessons. The number one goal is to have your child interested and intrigued by what you’re teaching.

Thankfully, BookShark is zero prep (meaning I can open the binder that day and be ready to teach the lesson) and they have a 30-day return policy.

Talk to your kid(s) about homeschooling

This is the most important thing you need to know before you start homeschooling. You must be on the same page as your child on why/how/when/where you will be homeschooling. You’ll need to navigate what it is like to be both your child’s teacher and parent. They will need to learn how to be both your student and your child. There will definitely be a transition period as you figure out your rhythm.

Just know that mistakes will be made, on both parts. Patience, grace, and empathy are the three biggest lessons I’ve had to work on as a homeschooling parent. Working together as a team will always be more successful. And you must always remember that homeschooling can be done anywhere, at any time, so feel free to work outside of the ‘normal’ school times.