Homeschooling

Finding Homeschooling MentorsOne of the best relationships that you can cultivate is with one or more homeschool mentors – a mentor is simply someone who has more experience with homeschooling than you do (hopefully quite a bit more), who is wil...

Understanding the Reasons for Transitioning from "Regular" School to HomeschoolIf your child is already in school and you have decided to homeschool him or her, your reasons for doing so probably fall into one of the following two categories:My c...

Social Skills and Homeschooling: Myths and FactsIsabel Shaw The DebateI've heard it a hundred times. If you're thinking about homeschooling, it probably troubles you. "What about socialization?" is the major homeschooling question people hav...

Connecting with Other Homeschoolers (You Probably Know Some Already)Connecting with other homeschoolers probably won't be as hard as you imagine – it is likely that you already know several homeschoolers even if you don't know that you do. Just ...

Creating and Maintaining a Homeschool Calendar and ScheduleNow that you know how many days of instruction (school days) you will have in a year, when the school year will start, and when the breaks will be, you are ready to create your homeschool...

Understanding Why a Homeschool Network Is So ImportantThere are many reasons you should build a network of homeschool people with whom you interact regularly:Encouragement and support. There's nothing like being able to share the joys and frustra...

You've come to the right place! Family Education Network has free worksheets, games, and activities for your eighth-grader. ...

Planning Your Homeschool YearAfter you have determined the number of days in your school year, you will need to decide how you want to achieve that number of days by planning your school year. You know that the year has 365 days available for sch...

Monitoring Legal Activity Regarding HomeschoolingIt is a fact of life that education legislation changes frequently, and this can impact homeschooling. At any point in time, there is usually various legislative and legal activity occurring in sev...

Defining Your Homeschool YearIn order to start the process of lesson planning, you need to know how much time you are planning for; in other words, what is a school year for your homeschool? First, determine the total number of school days in yo...

Nothing is more important to academic achievement than being a good reader. Parents know their children best and can provide the one-on-one time and attention that will lead them to success in reading. Here is a list of ways to help your children...

Notifying the State About Your Homeschool and Documenting Legal RequirementsAll states except those in the "Least Regulation" category require that you provide some sort of notification that you are homeschooling your children. Make sure that you...

What Are Lesson Plans for Homeschooling and Why Are They Important?A lesson plan breaks down a curriculum for a topic into "pieces" and relates those pieces to a student for a specific period of time. In other words, a lesson plan is a map that s...

Determining the Legal Requirements for Your School System or Local GovernmentIf you live in a state that requires some type of oversight of your homeschool by the local school system, you will need to figure out exactly what that means for your h...

Homeschooling: Choosing the Subjects You Will Teach in a School YearThe first step in planning your school year is to select the subjects that you will be teaching each student during the upcoming year; the subjects define what you are going to t...

Creating Storage and Archive Areas for Your HomeschoolFrom the textbooks you include in your curricula to supporting resources such as videotapes and DVDs to completed projects and homeschool documentation, you will need to handle lots of "stuff"...

What Has Your State Government or Local School System Got to Do with Homeschool?Although the general requirements regarding education are laid out at the federal level, public education is mostly the responsibility of state and local governments....

Adding Audio-Visual Equipment to Your Homeschool ClassroomThere are thousands of DVDs, videotapes, cassettes, and audio CDs available today that you will find valuable additions to your curriculum. These include documentaries on DVD, such as Ken ...