Getting Started Homeschooling - Homeschooling 101

 Homeschooling is legal in all fifty states!  Oklahoma is THE best state to homeschool in, because homeschooling was built into the state constitution.  You are not required to report to the state nor to your school district.  There are no laws mandating or governing homeschooling in OK.  The legal opinion is that we provide “equivalency” to the education that public schools give children.  This is where the “you are required to teach 180 days” comes from.  Here is HSLDA’s legal opinion on homeschooling in OK: http://www.hslda.org/laws/default.asp?State=OK

The best place to start when considering homeschooling your children is the beginning:

• Know WHY you are homeschooling:  is it fad? Convenience? Do you find yourself all of a sudden too poor to afford private education?   Whatever your reason, homeschooling is attractive to more and more people.  However, these things may have brought you to homeschooling, but they are not likely to keep you there when times get hard.  Once you get started and have a few months under your belt, you may realize your purpose has changed, and now you are homeschooling for different reasons than you were in the beginning.  That is OK!  Just make sure you write them down, especially when they change.  When you feel like quitting, go back and read them.  They will renew your purpose. 

•  Know WHERE you are headed.  Do you have goals in mind?  You should! They will bring everything into clarity and focus and help you not to be swayed by every new thing that pops up along the way.

      Goals you should have:

1.                 Long Term

2.                 Short Term

3.                 Mid Term

•  Know WHAT you will use to get to your goal

Which materials are right for you depends on WHERE you want to go!

1.                 Do you want Thinkers? (preacher/politician)

a)                 Scholars? (Dr’s, Lawyers)

b)                Do-ers? (missionaries)

c)                 Citizens (dedicated to country)

2.                 Desire to want what God wants for them, and strive to lay aside your expectations and wants!

3.                 Be dedicated prayer warriors for your children! Tell them you are praying for them! 

Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box when it comes to choosing materials! 

1.                 Explore learning styles (both yours and your children’s!)

2.                 Research curricula-get familiar with what is out there! Know who wrote it and why! To whom are they writing it? TO you, the homeschool mom, or to a classroom teacher of 25 kids? Bottom line, what are they selling? !?!

     * Side Note on Bringing your children home from private or public school:  it takes roughly one month of decompression per year of institutionalized schooling to be totally “decompressed”. 

*  A note on K12, funding, and freedom:  Proverbs 22:7 The wealthy rule over the poor, and anyone who borrows is a slave to the lender.

If you are not the one who is paying for your child’s education, then you are not the one in control of it.

Plan! 

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”

“If you aim at nothing, you are bound to hit it every time”

     * Does that mean you are a failure if you don’t accomplish everything on your plan?  NO! You will undoubtedly achieve more with a plan then without one!

      * Luke 14:28  But don't begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?

  

      *Curriculum is your tool.  You use it, it doesn’t use you! It is a guide!  You are not behind!

IV.             Know what to leave out!

A.               Prune what is “good” to leave room for what is “best”

B.               Know what you are being sold. Because whatever it is, there is a price to pay.

C.               Do a Time Budget!  If you do music, football, youth group, volunteer at church…… quickly you become overly busy! Too busy to disciple your children.     Evaluate everything under this microscope: Does it help you meet your goals? (the ones you wrote down, remember those?)

Homeschooling is now this gargantuan smorgasbord of choices!  There are hundreds, maybe thousands of choices out there!  They are not all excellent. 

The same goes for coops, sports, extracurriculars, etc.

If you are keeping someone elses’pace, does it give you the time/flexibility that you need to achieve your goals? 

If not, set it aside!  Gift it, sell it, donate it!

Homeschooling is about much much more than math and spelling.  You must consider the whole person- mind, body, and spirit! 

Yes, it is a form of education that lends itself very well to attaining a superior education.  Why? Because we moms are all rockstar teachers?  NO! Because it takes the institutional constraints off of children and allows them to love learning!

When you focus on teaching your children to love to learn, and how to find out what they want to know, then the education part will fall into place. 

Teach them the ways of The Lord, so it will go well with them and they will live long on the earth. 

Teach them that you love them unconditionally, and practice what you preach, and they will cherish their relationship with you (eventually!) and be glad to have you in their lives.