by Natalie L. Komitsky
If you have made the decision to homeschool, the next step is to decide how you would like to approach this challenge. Here we will discuss the steps involved in planning and pursuing a successful homeschool program. In Part 1, we will focus on the initially planning steps and in Part 2, we will explore practical aspects and educational philosophies.
1. You will be doing a lot of research and analysis through this process so you will want to have a notebook and folder to keep track of your findings.
2. Spend a few moments writing down about what you think constitutes a good education. This overriding philosophy will help you form some guidelines that you can refer to when making related decisions about how you will homeschool. Don’t worry too much about established markers, you want to define what you want to accomplish as an education coordinator.
3. Think about how this philosophy applies to the stages of development: early childhood education, elementary school, middle school, and high school. Sketch out some objectives that are specific to each stage. Try to resist the temptation of referring to educational resources while you write. What you want to get on paper is what you, as a student of life, a parent, and an educator think will be important for each stage of development. You can always revise it if needed.
4. Look at the stage that your child is at now. Plan which academic subjects you would like to cover as well as their content. The right answer can only come from you.
5. Look at the educational law in your jurisdiction. Each state in the US has established guidelines for homeschoolers. They range from notifying the state that you intend to homeschool to approval of educational plan and detailed reporting of proof of progress. You can quickly check your state’s requirements at the Home School Legal Defense Association website. They are an advocacy organization that defends the rights of homeschoolers and they provide up-to-date information about state requirements online. Most states require yearly testing of Math and English and require minimum scores as proof of progress.
6. After you have established your goals, you can compare them with your state’s standards by searching for the department of education in your state and looking for standards of learning. You will find a detailed list of the items that the state would cover if your child were in public school. In most cases you don’t need to follow this literally but you can use it as a guideline to cover the topics within the range of a few years. In addition, you can find a listing of the typical course of study at worldbook dot com.
This concludes the academic planning phase of your preparation. In our next article in this series, we will explore the semantics, sources of support, and resources that will help you achieve your goals.
As a wordsmith, Natalie L. Komitsky optimizes the effectiveness of text to impact readers with substance and style through exceptional research, writing, editing, and project management. For more information, or to get in touch, visit: www.nkomitsky.com
If you have made the decision to homeschool, the next step is to decide how you would like to approach this challenge. Here we will discuss the steps involved in planning and pursuing a successful homeschool program. In Part 1, we will focus on the initially planning steps and in Part 2, we will explore practical aspects and educational philosophies.
1. You will be doing a lot of research and analysis through this process so you will want to have a notebook and folder to keep track of your findings.
2. Spend a few moments writing down about what you think constitutes a good education. This overriding philosophy will help you form some guidelines that you can refer to when making related decisions about how you will homeschool. Don’t worry too much about established markers, you want to define what you want to accomplish as an education coordinator.
3. Think about how this philosophy applies to the stages of development: early childhood education, elementary school, middle school, and high school. Sketch out some objectives that are specific to each stage. Try to resist the temptation of referring to educational resources while you write. What you want to get on paper is what you, as a student of life, a parent, and an educator think will be important for each stage of development. You can always revise it if needed.
4. Look at the stage that your child is at now. Plan which academic subjects you would like to cover as well as their content. The right answer can only come from you.
5. Look at the educational law in your jurisdiction. Each state in the US has established guidelines for homeschoolers. They range from notifying the state that you intend to homeschool to approval of educational plan and detailed reporting of proof of progress. You can quickly check your state’s requirements at the Home School Legal Defense Association website. They are an advocacy organization that defends the rights of homeschoolers and they provide up-to-date information about state requirements online. Most states require yearly testing of Math and English and require minimum scores as proof of progress.
6. After you have established your goals, you can compare them with your state’s standards by searching for the department of education in your state and looking for standards of learning. You will find a detailed list of the items that the state would cover if your child were in public school. In most cases you don’t need to follow this literally but you can use it as a guideline to cover the topics within the range of a few years. In addition, you can find a listing of the typical course of study at worldbook dot com.
This concludes the academic planning phase of your preparation. In our next article in this series, we will explore the semantics, sources of support, and resources that will help you achieve your goals.
As a wordsmith, Natalie L. Komitsky optimizes the effectiveness of text to impact readers with substance and style through exceptional research, writing, editing, and project management. For more information, or to get in touch, visit: www.nkomitsky.com
