If you want to start homeschooling anytime in the near future, you might feel a bit overwhelmed and nervous about whether you can actually teach your children. There are some pretty simple steps you can take that will help you get started and give you the confidence you need.
First, make sure that you know the homeschool laws in your state and that you know what is required of you as a parent. Some states just require you to take attendance and others require you to give a list of “intended curriculum” to tell them what resources you will be using to teach your children.
Secondly, it helps to know your child’s learning style and your personal style too. There are some assessments you can either read or take online to determine how your child learns best. You also need to take into account your personal style. Are you a very structured person or do you just like to take things as they come? Most people are somewhere in between. In other words, don’t buy a very structured curriculum that tells you everything you need to say each minute of the day if you are a creative person that likes to go with the flow.
Another thing you need to do before you start homeschooling is to determine your homeschool budget. Decide how much money you are willing to set aside to spend on homeschooling. You might need to look at a few catalogs first to get an idea of how much different books and resources cost. Some families can homeschool for free using their time and energy to find free resources while other families spend $1000 per year per child. On average you can expect to spend about $100-500 per child per year. This is much less than private education and provides much more individualized instruction.
You will need to spend some time collecting resources and looking over what is available for homeschooling. If you know someone that home schools that is successful at it, then you might get some good ideas from them. The key to finding a good mentor is finding someone that home schools who has children that you like. If they have obnoxious children that you don’t even enjoy being around, then it doesn’t make sense to ask the parent what they are using because you will not want to copy what they are doing.
If you don’t know someone in person that home schools, there are plenty of places on the Internet where you can find people that are willing to help you.
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