There’s so much on the internet nowadays and so much information that you can do a crazy amount of research, about how to homeschool and where to start and still be confused! This is no joke! I spent 2 months straight from sun up to sun down googling and YouTubing and just searching the web for “How to homeschool“, and “how to legally homeschool” and everything I looked up was different and contradicting what I had just read the day before!! I was stuck! Everyone had great ideas on school rooms and projects and all that jazz but nothing was helping me figure out the first step of how to legally homeschool… I couldn't just not make my kids go to school anymore… Could I? That's not legal... That's truancy! So how the heck do you do it? I had this wonderful dream of homeschooling my kids and going on awesome adventures and having the freedom public school didn’t provide... and so much more! I found so much information it was overwhelming but I still didn’t know how to START!
First step: Name
You are going to need a name for your school!
(Example: High Hopes academy!)
Secondly: There is really no right or wrong way to start (I learned after countless hours of searching) but, the most important part is filing a private affidavit!
IT’S FREE! LEGAL AND REQUIRED! (and can be done from your phone!)
In order to file a private homeschool affidavit, you will need a name for your school and a student count for the year! (side note: if you need help filing this because you don’t know what to do once you get to the site you can definitely take screenshots and contact me directly and I can help you figure out your answers)
So, you need a name for your school and your affidavit. (side note: if you don’t have a printer you can always save it to your phone or computer!) Make sure you save a copy of your affidavit that is proof you are homeschooling legally!
Next step: Figure out what style of school you’ll be using with your kids!
You may be thinking “Wait?! Styles? What does that mean?” There are different ways to homeschool. Here’s a mom who explains the differences wonderfully!
(if you are already familiar with the different styles then go ahead and skip down to the next step)
Most public schools mix and match all of the styles which you can do as well! This is actually a lot of fun to try out each of the different types and find out what works best for your kids! Here’s a fun little quiz to help you figure it out if you want to take a look! https://oke.io/bWW4fI
Then
You need to figure out the curriculum you want to use. You have the freedom to choose what kind of curriculum your family uses if any! Some families who unschool don’t go by any “curriculum” by this I mean they don’t order standard school books like “Saxon math” or “The good and the beautiful” they use real-life everyday things as their curriculum. Or they use an online source. It’s up to you as their parent/teacher to teach them using any method you choose. Don’t be too hard on yourself to stick to a certain way of doing things... unless you want to of course 😂 the choice is yours!
WELCOME TO HOMESCHOOL!
what an amazing and easy-to-read breakdown of how to start homeschooling! getting the correct legal documents to homeschool your kids is such an important and overlooked step that not a lot of sites/blogs cover. thank you for this! And I appreciate the separate links to check out with even more info!
I believe it would be best for everyone if children were given a head start in schooling at home. Nobody knows a child like his mother, and children are SO different that they require unique preparation and study. This is impossible for a teacher with a classroom full of children to accomplish.
I love how easy you post things in order with the links! It makes it so much easier to follow the directions so I don’t miss a step!