To Homeschool or Not to Homeschool? 7 Things to Help Sort it Out

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Are you asking yourself whether to homeschool or not to homeschool? If so, what are the important first steps to take? How do you know if homeschooling will be a good fit for you? What information do you need to research?

If you are asking these questions, I will attempt to get you on the right path as a homeschooling mom of 10 years.

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• The first thing is to determine how homeschooling works in your state. I live in Michigan, which at the time of this writing has absolutely no requirements. We don’t have to register anywhere, check in anywhere, or show records of any kind to anyone, but not all states are this liberal with these requirements. The HSLDA is a great place to start. After examining your state’s requirements, you will also want to dig in to any requirements that your local school district would require of you. It is important to know what will be expected of you before you make the commitment to homeschool. The last thing you want is to be caught by surprise when it comes to something like record keeping.
• Examine your finances to see what kind of budget you have to work with. There are many free resources out there, but the fact of the matter is that there will always be things you need to buy. Whether it is enough computers to access the free resources, the pinter and ink to print off your free resources, or curriculum itself, homeschooling will have costs associated with it.
• Determine who will be handling what. Will you be going it alone? Will your spouse be helping you, will much of the schooling be done online or by a computer software based program, or will you have the support and help of someone outside of your home? Perhaps a grandparent can take care of the science portion if they love science, for instance. It is important to decide who will be handling what when it comes to the planning, organizing, teaching, helping with homework, and the grading.
• After you have the roles and expectations for each person laid out, it will be necessary to make sure that each person involved has the time to commit to these roles. Homeschooling is a commitment, and there are many sacrifices that need to be made by parents who homeschool their children. When your friends have kids in school and are asking to meet for coffee, shopping, or an evening out, you will most likely have to say “no” much more often than you are able to say “yes.” As I pointed out in the previous point, homeschooling is not just the teaching, it is also the planning and organizing, helping kids who don’t understand in a homework sort of way, grading, filing, and record keeping depending on what you discovered in the first point here.
• Next, you will want to make sure that everyone is on board. Of course there are times when homeschooling may be necessary without the willing participation of your children, but for the most part, you won’t really enjoy homeschooling if your children hate it and make your life difficult for it. It will also be very hard for you to homeschool is unsupportive. I will say that sometimes spouses, particularly husbands, can be indifferent, which is different from being unsupportive. Sometimes, indifferent spouses are willing to go along on a “show me the results” sort of way.
• Choose your curriculum. I wrote an excellent post, 5 Steps to Follow When Choosing Homeschool Curriculum. This is a great place to start as it lays out how to do this step by step. The one thing I will draw attention to here is to make sure that the curriculum you choose fits within the budget you created above.
• Finally, take a deep breath and relax. Take it all in. Let it settle. If you make the decision to homeschool, taking a deep breath to mentally prepare for the journey ahead of you is vitally important. The journey is long and filled with struggle at times, and at times you will question yourself and your decision, but it is a decision that is totally worth it for countless reasons and in countless ways.

While the idea of homeschooling can feel enormous and overwhelming, it does’t have to be. If you are wondering whether to homeschool or not to homeschool, following these seven steps will greatly help you determine whether it is at least logically a good move for you and your family.

Looking for more on homeschooling? You might like The Calling of Homeschooling, Why We Prefer Your Round Homeschool, or my 5-day series on homeschooling starting with Homeschooling: A Series Part One

Here are also some great resources Homeschooling 101: A Guide to Getting Started.
and Homeschooling 101: The Essential Handbook