How to Start Your Own Homeschool

If you’re considering homeschooling for the first time, I would recommend that you first read “Can I Really Homeschool? I’m Not a Teacher!”

Now, once you’ve made the decision to homeschool, the next question is: where to begin? In contrast to the clear steps of dropping off your child at 8:15am, picking up your child at 3:30pm, and hoping that something productive happened in between, the possibilities in a homeschool can seem endless. Further, when you choose to take ownership over your child’s learning, the weight of that responsibility can definitely seem scary and stressful.

That said, your child’s learning is your responsibility, whether or not you choose to act upon that duty. The public school system is, with rare exceptions, a colossal failure. Many private schools are no better. While you might not be the best teacher in the world, and some public school teachers are individually truly amazing (I've been fortunate to have experienced incredible teachers in my life!), you don’t have to be brilliant in order to achieve better results than the public schools. So while you owe your children your best efforts, take the pressure off of yourself to teach everything perfectly. As long as you nurture your children’s love of learning and strength of character, they have their entire lifetime to learn more. Most children begin with a love of learning, but too often they lose this spark by adulthood because the school system squashes it from them.

Getting into the logistics, a general guideline for homeschooling is that it should provide both a classical education as well as concrete job skills. Additionally, learning should happen both through formal classes and through play. Here is an example middle school schedule for a student who is especially interested in math and classics.

Two math classes: combinatorics + number theory

Two classical language classes: Latin + Greek

One science class: physics

One history/literature class: American poetry for 1st semester, classical mythology for 2nd semester

Two or three “productive fun” endeavors: dancing, making stop animations, and writing a book

Start each day by reviewing any rote memorization knowledge (e.g. Bible verses, Latin vocabulary) your child should know. This totals less than an hour of the day. Then, pick two or three of the classes for a deep dive. You can schedule in advance which classes your child covers per day, or let your child decide each day. Agree on benchmarks with your child for how much progress he/she should make for each subject by different points in the year. The "productive fun" should not feel like a class, and instead, happens when your child feels like it. If minimal progress happens with the "productive fun," then reevaluate the chosen projects. You can also sign your child up for a small handful of classes with other teachers; homeschooling does not mean you have to teach every single lesson! Rather, you simply need to stay involved.

Notice that the above schedule generally covers the standard bases of subjects that kids should know. However, the schedule is also geared heavily towards your child’s academic interests and goals. This degree of customization is a major benefit of homeschooling. Do not try to reproduce a public school; you can do something entirely different and better-suited to your child’s unique needs and wants.

As for the “productive fun” projects, it is cliché to point out that children learn much faster through play than they do through listening. Such learning is certainly a benefit. Moreover, there is the even stronger benefit of enriching your child as a whole person with unique talents. I often see parents trying to fit their child into a particular mold, pursuing law or medicine or engineering, while the child is passionate about writing poetry. On the flip side, I also see many families that claim that their child is passionate about slam poetry, only for the child to have unimpressive writing skills and no career prospects. Both practical skills that can provide your child with employability as well as hobbies that give their lives more meaning are important and should get prioritized evenly in the schedule.

(As a side note, if you’re sufficiently good at a “fluffy” skill, that can become employable; I personally have made tens of thousands of dollars for my dancing and video editing skills as an adult. But even if your child would rather keep their painting as strictly a hobby, your child can become a more interesting person by having well-developed interests and goals!)

One more note with scheduling times of the day for homeschools: midafternoon is often not a productive time for kids. A benefit of homeschooling is being able to work whenever your child works best, which varies from person to person. I know that I personally got most of my work done in the mornings and evenings; my "productive fun" and any live classes I took worked well in the afternoon. Some homeschool families like to try to finish before lunch.

Ultimately, homeschooling is what you make of it. It won’t be perfect, but what your child will remember most is the love you show them and the care -- or lack thereof -- that you put into their studies.