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Homeschooling 101

Lesson 5: Record Keeping and Scheduling

Setting Educational Goals

Ok, the kids are home…now what??!!

For some, the decision to homeschool is made before they have children. For some, it is made the summer before the oldest starts kindergarten. For others, it is made after a problem with the school district. No matter which of these groups you fit into, the next decision you face seems to be the hardest. “ Ok, the kids are home…now what?” One of the first things I recommend is that you sit down, make a list, and check it twice! Even if you are a veteran homeschooler, this can be a valuable exercise. Once you have the answers to these questions, deciding how and what to teach will be easy! Some of the questions to ask your self are:

1. Why are we homeschooling?
If you decided to homeschool because the public school taught something that was not of your belief system, you have the ability to leave that out of your child’s education.

2. What do we want our child/ren to learn?
We want our children not only to learn “academics”, but also to learn life skills. Mom isn’t going to do their laundry forever!

3. Do we want them to attend college?
This will determine what course of study a high schooler needs to follow ie: 4 science credits, 2 math credits…

4. How long will we homeschool them?
If you plan to homeschool till they enter college, you can take it slower, and not have to worry so much that they are “at grade level.”

5. How much time are we willing to invest?
If you don’t have the time to do hands on projects, for example, you would want to look closely at any curriculum you are thinking of buying.

6. How much money are we willing/able to invest?
Science project are a wonderful learning tool, but if you don’t have the extra money to buy the materials needed, they can’t learn from them.

7. What is my child/ren interested in?
Kids will naturally dive right in to something they are interested in. We will touch on this in a future lesson.

Take some time to sit down and evaluate and reevaluate your list. It can be a real eye opener.

The most important thing to remember is to relax! If you pick something just doesn’t work at your house, it isn’t the end of the world. Mistakes will be made, and you will recover from them!