Getting Started with Homeschool

Trying comparing these categories: responsibility, academics, supplementary curriculum, values, safety, and environment.

Turns out, preschool at home was a pleasure both to our son and to me.

When God convicted my family to disciple our children in an unconventional way by homeschooling, we indeed thought the idea was radical. A friend of ours said: “It’s such an old idea, it’s new.”It is true. Biblically, the notion is familiar, yet remains unfamiliar.Although the world may see it as unconventional, radical, or even wrong for parents to homeschool their children, there is clear evidence that affirms why homeschooling is right for my family.

As a mom, I think often of our children and how I should prepare them to hear from God. Here are some concrete ways.

Broadly speaking, there are three steps you need to take in order to start homeschooling: know your state's laws and regulations; develop your curriculum and enjoy your family.

Learning should be exciting for elementary aged kids, but few students are enthusiastic about school.

I looked to older mentors who were transparent and willing to share with me what they’d learned about homeschooling without regrets. Let’s look at 7 things I’ve learned along the way.

Early education is something parents can be in charge of and that should begin with baby’s arrival. Start by reading!

I was excited about homeschooling before we ever had our son! I loved the family closeness and personalized learning homeschooling offered. Also, it seemed a good fit for the repeated parenting instructions from Scripture for moms and dads to be constantly with and constantly teaching their kids about the Lord (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). While we knew lots of Christian families who successfully navigated public school, for my husband and I, the idea of all helping our son develop the way God made him through homeschool seemed a great fit. This last year, our son turned four and I could tell by all the questions, his growing attention span, and attempts to read, that he was finally ready for regular, formalized learning. It was perfect for us to have a practice run at homeschool, get into our rhythms, for me to learn his learning styles, etc so that when kindergarten came we could really nail it. What I felt led to make as our number 1 goal wasn’t letter recognition, or learning colors in Spanish, but to spark a passion for learning. We weren’t officially in school, so we didn’t need to meet any state standards, and even when he was older and had those standards, I knew the most important part of learning was to love it! So with this foundation, I prayed for guidance, creativity, and wisdom and set out creating a curriculum for our first year of homeschool. We just wrapped up our final segment of this first year of homeschool. I had earthworms in a jar in my living room, inflatable bugs hanging from the ceiling, and Safari Ltd bugs that kept escaping the sensory bin to scare the heeby-jebbies out of me when I got up in the morning and forget they were only plastic. And we have both loved it! Here’s a few things I learned in my first year of homeschooling: Photo Credit: ©GettyImages-Kerkez

Children memorize words—it is part of the way they learn. But will we encourage them to memorize more than just pop songs?

Never in my life had I felt like such an imposter. Act natural, I told myself, as if you’ve been doing this all your life—like everyone else here probably has. I glanced around the room, surveying the faces, tables, and whiteboard. So, this is what sitting in an actual classroom feels like. Never mind the usual tough transition from high school to college. Never mind the fact that I’d just wedged a time zone-sized gap between me and my entire comfort zone, leaving my family, friends, and homeschool identity behind. Those challenges were foreboding enough, looming like mountains I’d have to cross in a grueling four-year expedition to reach my degree. But now, here I was, corralled together with same-age strangers about to start the climb, and only I knew the truth: I’ve never been to “school” before. Had my homeschool years equipped me with the skills, tools and savviness to survive? Or would I freefall to rock bottom before even reaching the first milestone? As the semesters ticked by, I discovered that God had used homeschooling to supply me with just the “climbing equipment” I needed to tackle my degree. Here’s how home education lent me five pieces of that equipment—and how you, as a homeschool parent or student, can access the equipment too. Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/nd3000

It was incredible how our simple study of Ancient civilizations from The Mystery of History was churning in the children, making them want to explore the present to find a link to the past. What was even more incredible though was how they saw that God was woven throughout all of history.