How to Homeschool

Planning for a Field Trip Give and take is part of the homeschool life. Although you will no doubt participate in field trips that other people organize and run, you should also be prepared to plan field trips in which others can participate. And...

Adding Field Trips to Your HomeschoolField trips are a great addition to your homeschool for a number of reasons, including the following:Improved learning. Field trips are a great way to make the lessons you are teaching to your students more re...

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. ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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"...

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 ...

Homeschooling TeensThe Whys, and the Must-Haves The idea of homeschooling through high school can be scary. Parents tell me, "I could never homeschool my teen - I barely got through some of my own high school classes!" But homeschool advocates a...

Developing a Curriculum for HomeschoolingOnce you have selected topics and understand the types of resources that are available to you, it's time to identify the curricula you need. As with the subjects you select, you will need a curricular for ...

Using Unit Studies in HomeschoolingUnit studies are a special kind of curricula because they combine multiple subjects into one curriculum. You then teach all those topics by using the single unit study. Unit studies are typically built around o...

Building the Curricula You Will Use to HomeschoolAlthough the list of subjects is what you will teach, the curricula are how you will teach those subjects. You will need a curriculum for each subject for each student for each year. What Is a Cur...

Read the extensive Questions and Answers published by the New York State Education Department. Unfortunately, New York is not a "homeschool-friendly" state. ...

Preparing for HomeschoolHomeschool, like traditional schools, is based on a year period of time for planning and assessment purposes; progress through a student's education is measured by grade level. There is lots of work you need to do to prepa...

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...

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...