Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau

Educator, Coach, Life Strategist

What to expect the first few days

Different families begin homeschooling in different ways.  Some parents begin thinking and preparing for homeschooling the moment their children arrive, while others jump into it with little or no preparation whatsoever.  In my book, I tell the stories of several different families and how each arrived at homeschooling in the first place — people are often surprised to hear the varied and diverse stories that beginning homeschoolers have to tell!

But no matter how prepared homeschooling families are, or how quickly they begin with no preparation at all, one thing remains the same — the first few days of homeschooling are not always perfect.  This is normal.  In fact, even though most people enjoy being homeschoolers, it is very common to hear about unpredictable things that happened or hectic moments that took place during their first few days, too!

It can be helpful to recognize that nothing ever goes smoothly the first time around.  Understanding that minor glitches and first-day jitters can be overcome will help keep a smile on your face and a feeling that things will improve each and every day.

 

These TIPS for the first few days of homeschooling can help.

 

Plan as much as you like, but assume you’ll accomplish less.   Starting off with impossibly high hopes will undoubtedly lead to disappointment later on.  Go ahead and plan an ambitious daily schedule if you like, but understand that it simply may not be possible at the beginning — if ever.  And be okay with that.

Give things a chance, before deciding if you (or your children) like them or not.  You have enough to think about during the first days of homeschooling to worry about all of the details of each and every product or method you have chosen.  If something isn’t right, rest assured this will begin to show itself eventually.  Give school a chance, say 2 to 3 weeks or even more, before trying to evaluate if you have chosen correctly and your children are making any kind of progress.  The first few days is no time to make new schooling  decisions or undertake major curriculum re-dos, since you haven’t enough information to go on — yet.

Be flexible and expect that schedules are meant to be broken in the beginning.  It is impossible to predict how long things might take until actually doing them.  And while schedules can be very important, they can take some fine-tuning until you get them just right.  Spend a week or so running through any schedules, plans, or charts you have created.  Only after you have run through each of them several times should you make the necessary corrections.

Keep things light, make at least some things fun.  Incorporate pleasurable activities and those that your children are guaranteed to enjoy into the first days of homeschool.  And while some may view this as a bribe or a sneaky way of getting children to love homeschool, it really isn’t.  Instead, it is a reminder that homeschooling doesn’t only involve books, paper and pencils.  There are many learning activities that recognize children who want to move, to play, to touch, and to experience things outside of a school book.  Adding in some of these activities will keep things varied and moving in a healthy and pleasant direction during the first few days.  Continuing to include these kinds of activities in your day long after school is at your own discretion — but not a bad idea, either.

Expect questions, and don’t become flustered by them.  Children may ask questions during homeschool.  Spouses and family members ask questions, too.  While you may answer these questions as honestly or as often as you like, do not feel compelled to justify your every action and statement to everyone you meet.  The decision to homeschool is a private one and is individual to every family.  Do not allow others to shake your resolve or to cause you to question your thinking while you are still gaining confidence with these decisions yourself.   It is alright to politely decline to discuss your children, your methods, or anything else at the beginning until you are ready, or even never if you choose.  Remember this is your homeschool and your family, and you may do with it exactly as you please.

End every day on a high note.  No matter what may have happened during the day, or what you have been able (or unable) to complete academically or otherwise, take some time each day to pat yourself and your children on the back for a job well done.  Celebrate successes, whatever they may be, in a way that leaves everyone feeling great.  Whether your children enjoy ice cream best, or a family movie or something else is what makes them happy, do something every afternoon or evening to recognize your dedication and hard work, re-solidify family bonds and leave everyone feeling ready and happy for the next day.

Want to learn more?  Here’s a book that will help you get started:

SuddenlyHomeschooling

Marie-Claire Moreau, Quick Start Homeschool

Help and support for homeschool families

In general, homeschooling is a positive experience.  That doesn’t mean it’s always easy.  In between all of the fun and learning and all of the productivity and positive results, some days can be very challenging, too.   Families that homeschool may have questions that only other homeschoolers can answer or frustrations that only other homeschoolers can understand.

Support needs differ from family to family and people have many different kinds of questions along the way.  Some parents need help selecting curriculum while others need interpreting the laws. Some have questions about keeping a clean house when using it all day, while others need fresh ideas on how to teach different subjects.

Homeschooled kids have support needs, too.  Some students need homework help.  Other times, kids needs study partners or other students to collaborate with on assignments. Some students aren’t sure what areas they’d like to study, and talking to peers may give them ideas.  And some kids want to find other kids to hang out and socialize with.

Homeschool support can help in all of these areas, and more.

Where can homeschoolers locate support where they live?  This post can help:  Finding local support

Where can homeschoolers find help online?  This post can help: Finding online support

Is belonging to a support group required when homeschooling?  Certainly not.  However, it can be nice to know that a veteran homeschooler is nearby if you have any questions along the way.  Plus, belonging to a support system opens up opportunities for activities for the whole family.  Don’t discount the value of mom’s groups, either, as these can offer another dimension of support and the ability to form connections on different levels, too.

Help is available for homeschoolers who ask.  Never be embarrassed or ashamed to look for help and answers.  Remember, every homeschooler was a beginner once, too, thus no question is silly and most have been asked hundreds of times before.  Homeschooling is a large and growing community — it’s easy to find exactly the kind of help you need.

Support throughout the years

New homeschoolers sometimes describe the learning curve as steep.  There can be legal jargon to figure out and curriculum decisions to be made, juggling multiple children and attending activities outside of the house, keeping a home and maybe even holding down a full- or part-time job to boot.  And though newbies have very little time to devote to support, it can actually be what they need the most at the very beginning.

Once families get rolling, support needs can begin to change.  Curriculum choices may be questioned or suggestions for scheduling the school day could be needed.  Record-keeping systems, that may not have existed prior, may need to be developed.  Families may decide that they need additional experiences to fill in the blanks left at home.  Maybe students begin looking for other homeschoolers to study with or just to hang out. Students who struggle in certain areas may require help, or their parents some guidance.  There are dozens of other areas where outside support can be helpful during these early years.

Some years into it, when homeschooling reaches a fairly comfortable level, support needs may begin to change again.  Homeschooling older children with younger siblings around could become a challenge.  Teaching multiple children the same age, or schooling several children together might be an issue.  Sometimes, approaching middle- or high school concerns or perplexes parents.  Others just want to learn more about grading, calculating course credits, or finding college classes of volunteer work for their teens.  Or perhaps the questions are about allowing students to focus on their skills and passions while still covering the basic core.

The good news is that there are many levels of homeschooling support — one to match every stage of homeschool growth and almost every imaginable need.  While larger state or national groups can be helpful initially for obtaining legal information and basic homeschool requirements, smaller local support groups may play a larger role later on.  Focused groups, such as ones comprised only of families with teens or just for families who use a certain method, can be helpful down the road.  So can resource groups for those of students with specific challenges or parents who must work full- or part-time.  Lifelines, whether they be via telephone, email, online discussion groups or physical meetings, extend all across the nation for homeschooling families of every kind.  The choices are there, just ready for families to draw from whatever resource pools exist or to partake in whichever activities are available.

And though there are many families who operate very successfully with no support at all, the truth is that most homeschoolers appreciate at least having some level of support available, in case they ever need it.  Just knowing that these individuals and groups are there — should the need ever arise – can be comforting all by itself.  Having the ability to ask questions, hear from experienced families who have done similar things before, and stay connected to people, places and resources, is even better.

 

Where the homeschoolers are

When first starting out, one of the things that new homeschoolers want to know is where to find other families like them.  Another time this appears to be more important is during the ‘tween and teen years, when parents again begin looking for ways for their children to hang out with other kids.

Finding other homeschoolers can be easy, once you put up your homeschool “radar”.  Give it a little time, and you’ll begin to notice homeschoolers all over town.

For starters, though many homeschoolers adhere to a morning-into-early-afternoon school schedule at home, there are plenty of families that get out during those hours, too.  That means that at least some of the folks you see around town during regular school hours are going to be homeschoolers.  Particularly if they have a gaggle of children with them.  Or even just one or two children.  Start getting out a little bit more during the day, and chances are you’ll bump in to some of these homeschooling families soon.

Next, figure out where homeschoolers are likely to hang out in your area.  This will naturally depend on the size of your locale and the availability of educational resources, but some of places to check out are libraries, community centers, zoos, museums, parks, church rooms, centers for research and information, plus any other places in town that it would seem might be tempting for these families to go.

Finally, when visiting places of interest, ask someone who is likely to know where the homeschoolers are.  Talking to a museum curator, reference librarian, or a youth group leader can easily yield the name of an area homeschooler who is active at that location.  Even better, you might even score information about classes and other opportunities for your own homeschoolers there, too.

Like anything else, spotting other homeschooling families may take a little practice.  For modern homeschoolers, this is compounded because today’s homeschoolers can look very much like every other family on the block – despite the myth that homeschoolers stand out or all look alike.  But by raising your awareness and noticing families out and about your town, finding other homeschoolers will eventually become easy as pie.

The homeschool “Open House” — benefits of attending

Even though homeschooling happens year-round, there are many families that follow a [semi-traditional] academic calendar and end up taking time off during the summer.  As the result, in most larger cities and towns, there is a large population of homeschoolers who wrap up their yearly planning and start back to school at approximately the same time — usually somewhere in late August or September.

Area support groups use this pattern as a cue to re-group at the end of every summer as well.  Though support groups are each a little bit different, once thing they frequently have in common is taking time off from activities during the summer, too.

It is important for homeschooling families, especially new ones, to notice that local support usually starts back up in August and September of every year.

Some support groups are very well established and highly structured, thus are able to start right back up again without missing a beat.  Others, however, re-open the membership window, assess who they have in the talent-pool that year, discuss what members want to see-go-do, and essentially begin the process all over again each and every year.

No matter what kinds of groups exist in your area, use late summer as the time to think about the kinds of support that you might like that year.  Watch the papers, listen to friends who homeschool, and stay up-to-date on email to learn about homeschool support for the year.  Your city may even offer a “Homeschool Open House” as a way for newbies to check out the groups that are available in the immediate area.

If an “Open House” is offered near you, don’t hesitate to attend.  Going to these meetings is valuable in so many ways.  First, they showcase a group — or several different groups – that exist within commuting distance to where you live.  Next, they offer a way to meet other homeschooling families who live  in the area, too.  Children (if they are invited to the meeting) are able to see other homeschooled kids, plus any dads who attend can see and hear from other dads, as well.   Overall, everyone there gets a better idea of what is happening in the homeschooling community all around them.

And there are even more benefits to the Homeschool Open House, too!

In addition to general information about the groups themselves, Open Houses often point to city-wide resources and regional family events, not just those sponsored by particular groups.  Families might hear about events taking place at a library, a museum or a park –things that are open to all homeschoolers, not just those who pay the membership dues to join a group.

In the end, the information gained by attending a large homeschool meeting — or Open House – may be enough to carry your family forward and sustain your support needs for the entire year.  On the other hand, if you leave the meeting inspired, with a desire to stay connected to those you met that day, or with a questions that are still unanswered, the choice to join a local support group will be that much easier.