Back to School Tips for Homeschoolers

Whether you’re new to homeschooling or you’ve been doing it for years, this post will help you make sure that your homeschool is ready for the new school year. Don’t worry if you’re short on time or money; we can help you get started quickly and simply. You don’t have to spend months researching methods and curricula or remodel a whole room in your house. All you need is a heart for homeschooling and a little bit of preparation.

To download this post as a handy PDF checklist, click here!

High-Priority Back to School Tasks

Some of your homeschooling decisions are more urgent than others. In this section, we’ll give you a list of high priority tasks to tackle first.

1. Decide whether your child(ren) will participate in any classes or activities through the school (this may affect which legal homeschooling option you choose). I’ve had kids participate in band, art class, and sports through our local public school, and in my state, this requires a little bit of extra paperwork. 
2. Research your state laws and select a legal homeschooling option. Be sure to check every year, because laws can change. Go to: https://hslda.org/legal and click on your state to view more information about your state’s requirements. 
3. File any required paperwork with your local school district. I usually just mail mine to the district office, but delivering them in person can give you extra assurance that someone’s actually looking at the forms. To download your state’s forms, start with your state’s homeschool organization or the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA – https://hslda.org/legal). 
4. Decide on a primary homeschooling method (for each child or for the family). Your homeschooling method is HOW you teach, which will affect WHAT you teach as well. Some homeschools are a lot like regular schools, with desks, and textbooks, and long hours of teaching. Others don’t use desks or textbooks or traditional instruction at all. You’ll base your method on how you like to teach and how your kids like to learn. This site has a concise description of the most common homeschooling methods: https://www.homeschool.com/homeschooling-methods/.
5. Decide which subjects you will teach to each child individually and which can be group-taught. History, Science, Religion, and read-alouds lend themselves to teaching multiple children/ages at once; Math and Language Arts are more difficult to do together. I have seven kids at home that I’m homeschooling this year, and I try to group them into twos or threes when I can. It saves time, and it gives us an opportunity for better discussion. Or, sometimes, it just leads to a bunch of fart jokes. That’s the downside.
6. Determine which subjects will require store-bought curriculum. Not everything you do needs to come from a textbook! There are a lot of free online resources, and don’t forget about your local library. You might have some books at home already that you can use to teach science, history, and religion. I print a lot of free online worksheets for math and handwriting, and we have a ton of fiction and non-fiction books that we incorporate into our Language Arts study. If you’re short on time or money, start out with Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool – it’s 100% free and 100% online: https://allinonehomeschool.com/.
7. Select curriculum for each student and subject (don’t overthink it). Some of the sites I use to look for new ideas are Rainbow Resource (https://www.rainbowresource.com/), Timberdoodle (https://timberdoodle.com/), and Christian Book (https://www.christianbook.com/). One of my favorite Catholic homeschool sites is Catholic Heritage Curricula (https://chcweb.com/). At this point, you’re just getting ideas. Don’t get overwhelmed by the prices. You can also do research at Cathy Duffy Reviews (https://cathyduffyreviews.com/). This site has reviews of just about any homeschool book and program available.
8. Check for used and discounted materials online. I like to use: Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/), Homeschool Classifieds (https://homeschoolclassifieds.com/), Thriftbooks (https://www.thriftbooks.com/), and Ebay (https://www.ebay.com/).
9. Order your homeschool materials. Don’t break the bank! Start with the core subjects and wait a few weeks to add more. Don’t forget to see what’s available at the library, on the internet, and through generous homeschooling friends! If you can’t afford Math books right away, spend the first few weeks reviewing math facts with homemade flashcards or games. If you can’t afford History books, check out a couple of biographies of famous people from the library and read them out loud. There are simple, free ways to teach just about anything.
10. Talk to your kids about the upcoming school year. Get the kids involved and excited by looking at their materials. Start talking about how much you’re looking forward to learning together.
11. Pray for your school year. Ask the Lord for what you need – whether it’s patience, courage, energy, faith – he will provide. Pray about homeschooling as a family too! This is another way to get your kids and husband ready and excited for homeschooling.

Medium-Priority Back to School Tasks

These tasks are still important, but most of them are not as time-sensitive and may not be necessary for you at all, depending on your state’s regulations and the way you choose to run your homeschool. 

1. Determine your state’s legal requirements for days/hours per school year. Check your state on HSLDA’s website (https://hslda.org/legal) to research your requirements. In my state, we have several different options for homeschooling; some include requirements for the number of days and hours of school, and some do not.
2. Put together a basic schedule for the year that meets the legal requirements for days and hours required. If there are no requirements, it’s still a good idea to outline your school year. Also, remember that field trips, homeschool group meetups, and catch-up days count as school too. Many families I know try to get all of their school work done by Thursday so that Fridays are free for activities and catching up on work that didn’t get done earlier in the week.
3. Create a daily schedule for each child – be as detailed (or not) as you want. If you enjoy this sort of thing, get a copy of Managers of Their Homes by Steven Maxwell and Teri Maxwell – you can find it for $5 used. They have a ton of great scheduling ideas and samples to inspire you. There have been many years when I haven’t bothered to do a daily schedule, but if you have a large family, I’ve found that it really helps to think through who’s going to do what when. Last year, I made sure that the older kids took turns watching my two-year-old during the morning so that I could actually get things done without running to the potty or getting her a snack every five minutes.
4. Research local clubs and after-school activities with your kids and sign up for the ones you agree on. I would recommend selecting one club/sport/activity per child per season, especially if you have more than one child. The more time you spend running to and from practices and traveling to games, meets, and competitions, the less time you’ll have together as a family.
5. Research local homeschool groups and activities and get on their mailing lists and/or social media. Think about how involved you want to be. You can find a list of statewide homeschool organizations through the HSLDA at: https://hslda.org/post/state-homeschool-organizations. The statewide organization should be able to direct you to your local groups. As with after-school activities, be selective in what you do with your homeschool group(s); you don’t have to show up (let alone volunteer) for every event. 
6. Determine what kind of grading and record-keeping you’ll do and set up a tracking system. I don’t do any grading or record-keeping until high school. Remember, grades are primarily a tool for communicating how well a student is performing in a given subject. Since you’re the teacher and the parent, you don’t really need grades until high school, when you’ll need a transcript and GPA for college. Of course, if there’s a state requirement to report your children’s grades, then you need to follow it, but in my state, there’s not. Now, this isn’t to say that I don’t go over my children’s work when they’re done to see what they got right or wrong, but I don’t calculate a grade for it or record a score anywhere. Instead, we go over what they missed together and keep practicing until they’ve mastered the skill or material.
7. Choose a place to store your homeschool materials, or clean and organize your existing space. You don’t need a separate room for homeschooling! We sometimes do school work at the dining room table, or outside, or in our den. It helps to always put your materials back in the same spot, though, so designate a box or bookshelf somewhere to hold your books and supplies.
8. Study your curricula. Skim through your materials so you get a basic idea of how they’re structured and what they require from the student and the teacher. Some will require more prep than others, so you may need to come up with a plan for how and when you’re going to prepare for each lesson.

 Lower-Priority Back to School Tasks

If you have time, start working on some of these lower-priority tasks. If you don’t get to all of them before the school year starts, don’t worry about it!

1. Gather a box of supplies for your homeschool (lined paper, pencils, art supplies), or clean and organize your existing supplies. Don’t buy anything new! Use what you can pull together from around the house. A couple of things I would avoid unless your kids are at least middle-school age are markers and mechanical pencils. I can’t tell you how many problems I’ve created for myself by allowing markers and mechanical pencils in my house. 
2. Decide how you’ll handle interruptions to your school day. My suggestion is to avoid interruptions of any kind, unless they’re an actual emergency. Every time you answer the phone or the door, you lose not only the time it takes to finish up with your caller or visitor, you lose at least another 30 minutes in trying to get back to where you were in whatever school work you were doing. Communicate your school schedule to family and friends and try to avoid using your phone during school time.
3. .Create a mission statement for your homeschool. It’ll help you make all kinds of decisions about homeschooling, from what books to use to which field trips to take to how to involve your husband. Thes blog posts will give you some great ideas for your family mission statement: Family Mission Statement (Part 1 of 2) and Family Mission Statement (part 2 of 2)
4. Make a list of homeschool expectations for yourself and your kids. Set yourself up for a smoother transition by letting everyone know what will be expected of them during school time. When does your school day start and end? Does everyone need to eat breakfast and get dressed before school starts? How do we act when someone else is reading out loud? I wouldn’t try to compile a detailed list of rules, but it will be helpful to have this conversation before you get started.
5. Let your extended family and friends know that you’re homeschooling. Share your excitement with them, and if they seem supportive, maybe talk a little bit about what you’re doing and why. If they aren’t supportive, don’t spend a lot of time arguing. Just graciously reply that you think homeschooling is the best option for your family. Within a few months, your results will speak for themselves.
6. Figure out lunch and snacks. This seems like such a small thing, but it can become a big headache. Take a few minutes to plan out some meals that you’ll rotate through for lunch, then think about whether you need any snack breaks. If so, stock up on some quick and easy snacks that your kids can eat without a lot of help from you. Having lunch and snacks at a consistent time will help keep your homeschool day on track, especially for little ones. Stick to simple favorites so that you can focus your energy on homeschooling.

Bonus Tips and Resources

Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by all of the homeschool materials available. If you’re struggling to make choices, consider going with an all-in-one option like Abeka (https://www.abeka.com/), Alpha Omega (https://aop.com), or Seton (https://www.setonhome.org/). These and many other companies offer packages that include every subject, so you only have to make one choice. Other companies, such as Timberdoodle (https://timberdoodle.com/collections/curriculum-kits?page=1) pull together packages from multiple publishers into grade-level kits. These allow you to sample a variety of authors and publishers.

Don’t try to replicate what a friend or someone you found online is doing. It won’t work. You have to figure out what works for YOUR family, and it usually involves some trial and error. Start out slowly, and don’t be afraid to stop using materials that aren’t working, even if they were expensive.

When in doubt, don’t buy it or sign up for it. Less really is more. 

Remember, your decision to homeschool doesn’t have to be permanent! Don’t let your fear of failure stop you from trying. You can always go back to school if it truly doesn’t work for your family.

Do you have any back-to-school tips or resources to share with other homeschoolers? Leave us a comment!