Homeschooling

Documenting a Field TripBefore you take a field trip, think of some ways to document your field trip. This is useful for documentation purposes and it can be useful for follow-up work that you might require your students to complete, such as a fi...

Participating in Homeschool Conventions, Conferences, and SeminarsHomeschool conventions, conferences, and seminars are a great way to expand both your knowledge of homeschooling and your personal homeschool network. These activities generally of...

Homeschooling generally has a positive impact on social skills. Homeschooled kids are not subjected to the peer pressure, violence, drugs, and other negative influences found in today's schools. ...

Helping a Homeschooled Child Keep in Touch with School FriendsIf your child has been in an institutional school for awhile, he probably has some friends. Removing a child from the school environment obviously presents challenges for your child ma...

Getting Involved with Homeschool AssociationsMost states have a homeschool association. Most of these associations serve several purposes, such as representing the needs of homeschoolers with state government leaders, influencing the legislative ...

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...

As long as your daughter is enrolled in a public school, even part-time, she must continue to meet that school's specific requirements. The advantages of homeschooling will be nullified. ...

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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...

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...

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 ...

Many children return to school or start school after homeschooling. When the change is child-initiated, the transition generally goes well. When the change is parent-initiated, there can be an adjustment period of a few months. Find if homeschool...

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...

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...

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...

Creating Lesson Plans for HomeschoolingAfter you have identified the school days in your school year, you will be ready to start planning what you will be doing on each of those days. This is where lesson planning comes in to the equation. You w...

When it comes to screen time and kids, it isn't all bad news. The American Academy of Pediatrics offers guidelines on how to make screen time healthy and educational.

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...