It may seem obvious, but figuring out why you want to homeschool is the most important step in homeschooling. It’s the step that will determine how you homeschool.
When I first began homeschooling, I didn’t like the choices available to us. For example, I hated the idea of a second grader doing two hours of homework, hated the lack of physical activity, didn’t like what was being taught at our local schools (very liberal history and weird common core math) and I wanted to spend more time with my growing family. Therefore, I decided that we would incorporate more hands on and active learning, less sitting at a desk, pick curriculum that lined up with our beliefs and spend as much time together as possible.
Equally important were our goals for our children. Being from an entrepreneur family and marrying an entrepreneur, business ownership is important to us to teach our kids. Specifically, we want our children to know how to make money without relying on a W2. This has been an undercurrent in what we’ve taught them from the very beginning. College hasn’t been as important to us as entrepreneurship, but we have made it possible for our kids to go to college, should they desire a career worthy of post high school education (I will save my college rant for another post 😉).
Valuable questions to ask yourself are:
What values do we want to pass on to our children? Religion, ethics, values, etc. This will likely be the same for all kids.
What are our education goals for our children? Ivy League college, community college, entrepreneurship, trade schools, etc. This will likely be different for each kid. Each kid is a different person with different strengths. It’s your job to see that and play to those strengths. The answer to this question will determine what type of classes you want to do. These can get very high level and rigorous, or not.
What are our family goals? Freedom to travel, spend time together, freedom of self determination in learning, working parents (yes, this can work and is extremely common in the HS community), ability to determine your own schedule, etc. This determines more of your “how.” Homeschooling can take place in museums, on the trampoline, next to dad in a quiet office, for an hour of book work in the evening after dinner or however you want. I’m somewhat high energy, very social and get bored easily, so a lot of our homeschool has been in museums, at parks, meet ups, Wild + Free, co-ops- all the places and people. I prefer doing math in our head quizzes (the kids claim to hate them, but they’re always enthusiastic because it’s competitive). There are no rules (other than what your state says).
Other questions would be more specific regarding topics- what level of math do you want your kids to get to? It doesn’t have to be calculus. Our goal is thru geometry. What history is important for your kids to know? If it’s important to you, the likelihood is high that you’ll talk to them about it, anyways. Is writing important? It is for us. This is my personal most important subject for my kids to learn. My son wants to be an author. In English literature, you get to choose the books they read, so choose well! If a language is important, should you study together? Or do they want to learn on their own? (If you’re not subscribed to Bow Tied Odin, go subscribe to his Substack ASAP).
Take some time to think about these questions, talk to your spouse and come up with your family plan. Write it down in pencil. Rewrite it as you get to know your kids and yourself better. Continually change your methods to reach the most important goals.
The way this works in our home is evolving, but with pillars in place. We’ve always had writing and math, our two MVP subjects. We also have gardening, animal care, Bible study, languages, car maintenance, CPR and first aid, health, biology, business management, general house maintenance, and various other “classes.” These are what we deem necessary for our kids. Things we don’t major on- any math after geometry, social studies (we live outside a major city- plenty of social study around), spelling and grammar (they learn as they write and they write a LOT), geography (it comes naturally), physics and chemistry (although my kids love chemistry, so we’ve been studying it), economics and politics (they get that naturally from being around their parents more than 1.5 seconds), anything I didn’t list and forgot about 😰😅.
This is not an exhaustive list of what to consider, but it should get you started. Any questions you would add?
