How to Start Homeschooling: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

Homeschooling can be a very taboo subject. There can be a lot of talk about whether it’s good for kids. Will they will get enough social interaction? Are they going to learn enough? Will they be “normal”? I heard every single one of these comments and questions as a girl who grew up homeschooled from Kindergarten to 12th grade. I married my high school sweetheart who, you’ll never guess, was also homeschooled until college. Now, he and I have heard these comments about our choice to homeschool our three boys. In this post you will learn the answers to all of these questions. My thoughts on homeschooling (from being homeschooled to homeschooling my own kids), how to know if homeschooling is a good fit for your family, and a step by step guide on how to start homeschooling!

The last several years (especially since 2020) the homeschooling community has grown a ton. However, It can feel so intimidating to parents to actually take the leap and try it out. It can feel huge to take over all of your kids education. Are you qualified or capable? I’m here to tell you ABSOLUTELY YOU ARE! The beauty of homeschool is that there isn’t just one “right way” to do it. You can adjust and customize school and eduction to fit YOU and YOUR KIDS. What a gift!

What Is Homeschooling?

Homeschooling is, obviously, teaching or educating your children at home. How you do it is truly up to you. If you have no idea how, this is where this post comes in! I will teach you the different ways or styles, how to find curriculums, how we set up our homeschool days etc. I will outline the basics of how to start homeschooling. The different styles or options you can choose from (which I will explain more later) are: Traditional, Charlotte Mason, Classical, Montessori, Unit Studies, and Un-schooling.

Common Myths about Homeschooling

Many common myths about homeschooling is that your children will A. Be anti-social and not know how to communicate and B. They won’t get a valid or strong education. I wanted to touch on this for a moment as I think these are sometimes the biggest reasons people will talk themselves out of homeschooling their kids.

First, I’ll address the social aspect because this is valid. When my husband and I tell people now, as adults, that we were both homeschooled growing up the most common response we get is “Wow! But you guys are so normal!” While there are for sure some kids or families that fit into that stereotype, my husband and I and many friends we grew up with, plus our kids and many of their friends are all proof that this does not have to be the case.

The key, I believe, is including tons of extra social interaction outside of school time. Have them play sports, do dance classes, get involved with a homeschool co-op, set up play dates multiple times a week, take them grocery shopping with you and have them talk to the cashier.

Statistics About Homeschooling

Here are some stats I’ve found on the benefits of homeschooling as well as a few websites that have even more stats if you are interested in the research before you decide if you should start homeschooling.

Homeschooled students typically score 15 to 25 percentile points higher than public school students on standardized academic achievement tests. While the public school average sits at the 50th percentile, homeschoolers regularly average between the 65th and 80th percentiles
Roughly 64% of peer-reviewed studies find that homeschooled children perform statistically significantly better on social and emotional measures. This includes higher self-concept, mature leadership skills, and lower rates of clinical anxiety
A landmark study published in the Journal of College Admission tracked home-educated college students, finding they achieved higher first-year GPAs (3.37 vs. 3.08) and higher fourth-year GPAs (3.46 vs. 3.16) than their traditionally schooled peers.
The college graduation rate for homeschooled students sits at 67%, compared to 57.5%–59% for public school cohorts.

These are just a few, but are really remarkable statistics. Here are some websites below if you’d like to read more.

Websites

National Home Education Research

National Center for Education Statistics

Research Facts on Homeschooling done by Kentucky Government

Child coloring shapes as part of a homeschool educational activity indoors with a marker.

Is Homeschooling Right for Your Family?

Now we’ve learned some styles and some research, as well as what homeschooling is, but is it right for your family? This is the question to ask befoe you start homeschooling and this is a question we have to ask ourselves every single year. Homeschooling is a lot, especially for the mom or the main person teaching. It also requires a lower income or single income, which can be hard in this economy. We have chosen to take each year and kid year-by-year. I know that as my kids get older it will get more challenging. We may have a kid, at some point, that homeschooling is not best for them or our relationship anymore. Give yourself permission and grace to navigate this.

Questions to Ask Yourself

Why do you want to homeschool?
What are your family’s goals?
Can you commit to consistency?
What support system do you have?

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Flexible schedule
Individualized education
More family time
Freedom to travel
Tailored learning
WAY more time in your and your kids’ day

Cons:

Time commitment
Budget considerations (some curriculums are pricy)
Planning lessons
Socialization concerns
Are you able to stay home?

Happy diverse children playing with colorful balls indoors, showcasing fun and friendship.

Know Your State’s Homeschool Laws

Every state has different requirements.
Registration requirements
Attendance records
Testing requirements

We live in Colorado and have pretty simple requirements. We have to report to the local school district that we are homeschooling with a letter of intent. There is supposed to be 4 hours of education a day. We have to do state standardized testing in grades 3,5,7,9, and 11.

Choose Your Homeschool Style

Here are the most popular methods:

Traditional (what we do)

Textbooks
Structured schedule

Charlotte Mason

Living books
Nature study
Short lessons

Classical

History-focused
Logic
Latin

Montessori

Hands-on learning
Child-led

Unit Studies

Learning all subjects around one theme

Unschooling

Interest-led learning
Flexible curriculum

Flat lay of educational books and a notebook, ideal for learning and study concepts.

Pick a Curriculum

There is no perfect curriculum. There are many to choose from and it can feel really overwhelming. I will lay out the types of curriculums and factors below as well as my personal experiences I’ve had with different ones. Hopefully this really gives you a launching pad on starting your homeschooling journey.

Here are some different types:

All-in-one curriculum
Online homeschool
Printable curriculum
DIY curriculum
Mix-and-match approach

I have experienced a lot of different types of curriculums and homeschool styles. Not only was I homeschooled and I homeschool my own children; I also helped nanny/homeschool for a family of seven for 6 years.

I was homeschooled by an all in one curriculum. It was a very intense, high academic, all-in-one but pricy curriculum called Abeka (I’ll talk more about this curriculum and link it below). I use currently, a nearly all-in-one curriculum (I choose math, language, and spelling separate after 1st grade) called My Father’s World. For Preschool I used a printable curriculum called Playing Preschool by Busy Toddler. When I nannied we used a full hodge podge. Nothing was from the same curriculum.

Some Deciding Factors Before You Choose Your Curriculum

Budget
Child’s learning style
Parent teaching style
Faith-based vs secular

Curriculums I’ve Used or Have Heard About

Abeka-

I was raised using this curriculum. It is actually a private school in Florida and you can have the option to get video access to their actual classrooms. This is what I did growing up. Essentially I watched a real teacher and classroom for every class. It was very time consuming and my school day took almost as long as a public school day, but my mom didn’t have to teach every subject or lesson plan. I got a really good education from this curriculum, but it was heavy on the commitment and it’s very pricy. You can just pick certain subjects however, if you don’t want to do the whole thing. Over al this is a really solid, super great education curriculum. (You can visit their website HERE)

My Fathers World-

This is the curriculum we have used for the most part. We used a different preschool which I will talk about and link below, and we also tried My Father’s World preschool as well. I did not like their pre-k at all but have loved K-3rd, which is where we are now.

What I like about MFW is that is comes with every single extra thing you need for reading (all reading books so you don’t have to try to get to the library every week, and then you get to own all these amazing kids books.) It also comes with any games, puzzles, history, or science items you need. For Kinder and 1st it’s truly an all in one curriculum. I learned the hard way last year, from second grade on, you will get your own math, language, and spelling books. Once I figured that out I actually really like this option so I can customize by kid what works best for them.

I tried just using a language and spelling book I found on Amazon, which was fine and cheap, but I’m going to change it this year. I have heard great things and am going to try SpellingYouSee for spelling and maybe Abeka for Language. I’ve used Singapore Math for math the whole time and love it.

Busy Toddler Playing Preschool

We used this as our Preschool curriculum for our second and really enjoyed it! It’s simple and easy to follow and has a lot of on theme interactive activities. It’s a printable curriculum so it is cheaper but you have to bind it yourself and print it out. It also doesn’t come with any supplies. You can go to the library for all the read aloud books, but that was too much for me in that season to go look for them or try and order them. I always saved the read aloud portion for last and just looked up the book name + read aloud on YouTube. Every single one was on there and was a great timesaving, free option.

She also has written an elementary school course called Offshoots recently. I don’t know much about it, but might be just what you are looking for. Here is the website!

Sonlight

I know very little about this curriculum, but my sister-in-law tried it for a few years. She said it was good, but very heavy on the reading/literacy. She ultimately ended up switching to MFW. It is on the pricier side as well which may be something to consider, but I haver heard some people in my community that love it. You can check it out here.

The Good and the Beautiful

The Good and the Beautiful is a FREE curriculum. I have friends who use it and love it. From what I understand you still have to print most of it and maybe need to buy some supplemental things, but this could be a great place to start if you don’t have a huge budget, don’t want to hodge podge, and want a faith based curriculum. You can find their website and read more about them HERE.

Calvert

I did this curriculum just for kindergarten before my mom switched to Abeka. It was a pretty good straightforward curriculum. I don’t think it had alot of supplemental things but defintely covered the basics. Here is their website.

There are so many different curriculums out there and I’m sure so many are amazing! These are just a few I have had some personal interaction with and could give some insights on. I’m sure there are many websites that compare hundreds of curriculums you could read before you start homeschooling.

Set Up Your Homeschool Space

This can be anywhere from your kitchen table to Pinterest as you would like! You don’t need a whole separate room or to put hundreds of dollars into decor or supplies. Anywhere you think will work well for you and your family can work!

Kitchen Counter
Dedicated homeschool room
Reading nook
Dining room table
Living room

We personally use a separate room that we call “the everything room.” It’s our “library,” school room, play room, extra storage room, and sometimes a guest room. It’s not picture perfect, but it does work well and function well for our family. You can read HERE how I organized our “everything room” and how I clean my house.

Supplies You Will Need

Crayons, markers, colored pencils
Kid scissors and scissors for you
Plenty of paper
Water color paints
Pencils
Pencil Sharpener
Erasers
Binders
Notebooks
Pens
Tape
Staples
World and country map
Glue

A few things I also love but are not necessary: a printer (I’ll link ours we love below), a supply cart, an electric pencil sharpener, a cd player

Create a Daily Homeschool Routine

You can read my full daily routine while homeschooling HERE if you want more details!

Morning

Breakfast
Chores
Bible
Spelling

Mid-Morning

History
Grammar
Math
Science

Afternoon

Quiet Time/ Reading
Screen time
Outdoor play

Late Afternoon

Household Chore
Clean up the house

It doesn’t have to be a super rigid schedule to homeschool. Some families enjoy that and some enjoy more of a loose structure. I do believe however, the secret to success is having a plan and sticking with it. Your kids will learn the rhythm and this will save you so much arguing!

How to Keep Kids Motivated

Ideas:

Hands-on activities
Field trips
Library visits
Educational games
Read alouds
Nature walks
Reward systems
Movement breaks
Playdates

Finding Your Community

Ways to connect:

Local homeschool groups
Co-ops
Sports
Church groups
Library activities
Homeschool Facebook groups

There are so many families homeschooling now, I promise you can find people to be your village through this. It is such a gift that homeschooling takes WAY less time in your day than public school. My kids are done by lunch every morning. This leaves so much time to explore and play with friends and do fun things. Finding some people that you can do life with that also homeschool is such a blessing. You can get out of the house and socialize yourself and you kids on a random Tuesday afternoon.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do we get summer and holiday breaks? YES! You can pace yourself however works best for you! We typically take the week of Thanksgiving off, 3 weeks for Christmas, and maybe a day or two in the spring if we have a trip. We don’t start before Labor Day and are always finished by the third week of May.
How many hours does homeschooling take? Check your states requirements. We do school from 8:30-11:30 and do “recess” and nature time and independent reading to make up the last hour.
Do homeschoolers receive a diploma? Yes. Both my husband and I have our highschool diplomas.
Can homeschoolers attend college? Absolutely. My hubby and I both have college degrees. Fun Fact: our pediatrician for our kids was homeschooled and is the best doctor!
How much does homeschooling cost? This really depends on the curriculum you buy but you can do it very inexpensively. Even Amazon has a ton of resources.
Can I homeschool multiple children? Of course! It takes a little time to figure out the best way, but I have learned what things they can do independently and work with the other kids and then switch off.

Final Encouragement

If you’ve made it this far, wow. Thank you! I hope this post was informative and encouraging that you can do this! Homeschooling is a journey and it doesn’t have to be perfect. You are capable and will adapt and learn exactly how to do this! You can learn how to start homeschooling! It is hard work and can feel very overwhelming at times, but you are truly giving your child or children their childhood back. They get to be kids and have so much more time in their day to do it! Just remember, Friend, no-one knows your kids like you and no one loves them like you can.

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