Getting Started in Homeschooling

The opportunity to customize the homeschool around our family's interests and philosophy is something many of us have come to value above all else. Nevertheless, people often want to know in the beginning how homeschooling is supposed to be done. "And where do we get the books?" is a frequent question. The good news is the same as the bad news: there is no one way, and there is no one set of materials.

Reading is a great help in getting oriented to the new territory you are about to enter. Besides this website, there are a number of other very good books and periodicals (such as HSC's California HomeSchooler) written by a wide variety of homeschoolers who have had many years of combined experience. In reading some of the literature by those who have already explored the territory, you can become acquainted with the wide range of philosophies, methods, and materials that other families have explored. As you try a bit from here and a tad from there, beginning to carve your own path, you will soon discover that you and your children have more innate wisdom about your own educational needs than you might have realized.

Making the Most of Decompression Time

One fairly universal dynamic is the need for a decompression period after leaving school. The intensity of the need for decompression time is usually in direct proportion to the time that was spent in school and to whether or not (or to what degree) it was a difficult experience. Time allowed for the mysterious but necessary process of finding one's own rhythm is as legitimate and useful as formal academic study might be at this point. A child who suddenly has the opportunity to think for himself, learn in his own way, and work out his own schedule might appear as if he is not "doing" much, but this phase gradually evolves into more active interests and activities. The pot will generally come to a boil faster when it isn't watched with restless anticipation.

This can be a special and delicate time for your family—a time for getting to know and trust in one another in a new way—and it's a time to relish. This is a great time to relax and read to the family, take walks and field trips, bake and do crafts, and leisurely pursue special interests—all those wonderful things there was no time for earlier. You will find rich opportunities for learning everywhere! A wonderful aspect of homeschooling is the opportunity to actively pursue your own interests in a personalized way; time tends to reveal more and more possibilities for learning many unexpected things through those interests.

"People often think that their first job as a new homeschooling parent is to figure out which curriculum to use. I say their first job is to learn about learning and about their own kids' learning styles. Only then, when they've done their own homework and their kids have had a chance to shed their conditioning from school (and it is not at all uncommon for this period of time to involve a whole lot of video game playing or tv watching, by the way) the parents and kids can, together, determine the course of their homeschooling journey with more likelihood of all of them being happy with it."- Pam Sorooshian