Homeschooling help and encouragement from experienced homeschoolers - find out how homeschooling works and how to start, get tips & ideas for when things need adjusting, read curriculum reviews before buying, learn how online schools work, gain confidence about homeschooling high school, and more.
Once you’ve homeschooled for a couple of years, you may be in a position to help people who are considering homeschooling or who are homeschooling. This series has some ideas for ways that you can give back to the homeschooling community, as well as best practices for doing so. If there is a topic you would like to see addressed, please let us know by commenting on one of the posts or on our Facebook page.
A question to consider: how will you change homeschooling? You might be a long-term homeschooler, or you might be homeschooling in reaction to public school closures and virtual classes. If so, your choice, along with the choices of many others, may impact both public school and homeschooling. Will the public education ecosystem change as a result of so many people opting out of the public schools? Will homeschooling change? Continue reading »
You float an idea on a homeschool email list or a Facebook group:
"I'm planning a field trip to Smith Historical Farm on the morning of April 10. I can get a group rate if we have 20 kids, and they'll do special hands-on projects with the children."
You give the details, and people say "count us in," giving a headcount of 32 children for the field trip.
The day before the field trip, emails start flying with all the reasons people can't be there. You go anyway, embarrassed to find that only 11 kids are there, and two of them are technically too young to participate. The Smith Historical Farm people are nice, but point out that you no longer qualify for the group rate, meaning that each family is now going to pay double what they expected. Continue reading »
What do new homeschoolers need from "old" homeschoolers?
In a previous post in my "Homeschoolers Helping Homeschoolers" series, I suggested that providing new homeschoolers with information is better than giving directive advice -- but what else is helpful?
If you are an established homeschooler reaching back to assist new homeschoolers, in addition to offering basic information about homeschooling -- offer Support, Resources, and Inspiration.
What are the best way to provide support? Continue reading »
If you've homeschooled for a couple of years, you may be in a position to help people who are considering homeschooling or who are in their first year or two of homeschooling.
Chances are, by now, you've learned a lot of content for answering homeschooling questions. You know your state law. You know six or eight different approaches to homeschooling. You've examined ten math curricula in detail. You've seen the transcripts of homeschoolers who have gained admission to college.
So you have information to share.
But do you know the best technique for communicating homeschooling information to interested parents? Continue reading »
It's National Library Week, and homeschoolers love libraries!
If you're looking for a way to provide a service for homeschoolers in your community, consider becoming a liaison between your library and homeschoolers. Continue reading »
Maybe you've been homeschooling a while, and you're feeling confident in what you're doing. Maybe you're just getting started, and you're still reading about homeschooling and researching your options.
Either way, chances are you have benefited from homeschoolers who have gone before you. They have started homeschool organizations, lobbied to keep homeschooling free and legal, blogged thousands of the ever popular "day in the life of a homeschooler" posts, organized conferences, published homeschooling magazines, arranged park days, started geography clubs, shared curriculum ideas, and written homeschool help books.
What have you given back to homeschooling lately?
Continue reading »
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