I am writing a series about how and why I started homeschooling. I will be talking about our day to day life, curriculum that we use and lots of the little details about how we homeschool. I hope that you guys enjoy the series! If you missed my first post about why we homeschool, you can find it here.
How I Started Homeschooling
We started homeschooling our eldest daughter in the third grade. I was so nervous and excited. My husband was concerned about whether or not I could do it, so he had me start in June when she got out of second grade. He figured that that way, we would have two and a half months of homeschooling done before it was time to go back to school.
We loved it!! I was pregnant with my second child at the time, so it was only my daughter and me homeschooling. We had a table and a bookcase set up, and we homeschooled everyday. We had the best time!! We studied ancient history, and had a blast learning together. I was working three days a week, so we had a sitter watch her while I worked, and she would do review work on the days that I was at work. I would just check her work once I got home.
I have always used a variety of curriculums, and this year was no exception. I have finally gotten to the point, where I love all of the curriculums that I use for each subject, and I will tell you guys why I love the ones that I love in a later post.
Each state has different laws about the requirements to homeschool. I am fortunate to live in North Carolina, so it was not too difficult for us to start homeschooling. We had to take a paper to my daughter’s school with an intenet to homeschool. I had to fill out paperwork and send in a copy of my high school diploma. (I also sent in my college diplomas.)
Here are the requirements from the non-public education site for North Carolina:
“Requirements
Parents/guardians residing in North Carolina and desiring, in lieu of conventional school attendance, to home school their children who are at least age 7 but not yet age 16 must:
- Hold at least a high school diploma or its equivalent;
- Send to DNPE a Notice of Intent to Operate a Home School. The notice must include the name and address of the school along with the name of the school’s owner and chief administrator;
- Elect to operate under either Part 1 or Part 2 of Article 39 of the North Carolina General Statutes as a religious or as a non-religious school;
- Operate the school “on a regular schedule, excluding reasonable holidays and vacations, during at least nine calendar months of the year”;
- Maintain at the school disease immunization and annual attendance records for each student;
- Have a nationally standardized achievement test administered annually to each student. The test must involve the subject areas of English grammar, reading, spelling, and mathematics. Records of the test results must be retained at the home school for at least one year and made available to DNPE when requested. Also, see testing FAQS;
- Notify DNPE when the school is no longer in operation.”
There are also several recommendations. We should homeschool five hours a day and at least 180 days a year. Our homeschool actually exceeds both the hours and days each year, but my eldest two love to do schoolwork, and it works well for our family. Also, since we homeschool, we go as in depth as we would like to go on a subject, and spend extra time learning.
Individual State Requirements To Homeschool:
Each state has different regulations about how to homeschool. To find out what your state’s requirements are, you can visit this website.
Those of you that already homeschool, I am sure that others would love to hear your stores as well about how you started. Feel free to leave comments for others here. (-:
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I’ve been blessed to be able to stay home with my two boys and homeschool them from the start! My oldest will be turning 9 in July and the only time he went to a non-homeschool was in pre-school at a local church not too far from home. All the other daycare kids he was with went there also and it was easy for transport. Me and my husband had already been wanting to homeschool our children, but we both worked full-time. I worked first shift and my husband had always worked second shift. We had been praying as how we were going to be able to homeschool our two boys, the youngest was only about a year at the time and the oldest was in preschool. My thinking was that my husband would homeschool before he went to work and I would finish up anything else when I got home from work in the early evening. Well, God had other plans:)
You see, I thought that I HAD to work because my husband had a manufacturer job and was always getting laid-off for extended periods of time. It wasn’t unusual for him to be laid-off for six moths out of the year. With a baby and a toddler, I had to carry the insurance for the family. My heart was aching to stay at home with my boys, but financially I didn’t think it was possible. Well, on May 2, 2007, I got the shock of my life. I was the one that got laid off! I really didn’t see it coming as I was in a department that only had two people to begin with. I’m an optimist and it didn’t take me long to get over the shock of the lay-off. I was kind of excited and scared at the same time! My heavenly father provided me a way to stay home with my boys and I realized that HE would provide for our family. It was just a matter of me letting go of my fears and fully trusting in Him! It’s been four years now and we haven’t looked back! I’ve learned how coupon with the best of them and saved my family enough money to fill our pantries and share with others. God has given me such freedom and peace of mind when I gave up my control and handed it over to Him! Thanks to God for Him paving the way for me to stay home and homeschool my boys! Michigan is such a homeschool friendly state, for now. There is always the threat that things might change in the future, so I recommend that everyone join an association like Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) to protect your family’s homeschool freedom from the beginning! Don’t wait until you have a problem. For a little over $100 a year for membership, you have legal protection that is unsurpassed in my opinion. This covers all the kids you would homeschool, not just one. My membership gives me so much more value than just the legal protection! We homeschool because Proverbs 22:6 says:
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (KJV)
God bless you Rene and thank you for letting me share part of my story:)
Esther
What a wonderful story, Esther! I love hearing about how God has worked in ways that you never would have expected to work everything out. I really appreciate you sharing, and I am so glad that you were able to trust God to care for your needs. It is amazing how much He is able to bless us when we trust Him!! I have loved hearing little bits of your story over the past little bit. You are quite an inspiration. (-: Thanks so much for reading my blog & sharing!! Rene
Hi, I mentioned in a comment to your first post that our beginning to homeschool story was kind of long. It is, so I’ll do my best to shorten it! :)
I have two boys, a 12 year old and a 2 year old. I heard about homeschooling when my oldest was three. I was fascinated by it, but my husband put his foot down. He had had some bad experiences with alternative education (not exactly homeschool) when he was a kid so he was against it at first.
When we sent DS12 to a private Christian preschool, I should’ve known that he wasn’t really ready for formal education. But with one year of preschool under his belt, he headed off to public school kindergarten.
After a nightmarish 2 1/2 years of dealing with IEPs and diagnoses/meds for ADHD and testing for autism sprectrum disorders (which came back negative by the way), I came to my own conclusions that my poor boy just wasn’t ready for school. At almost 8 years old, he was still a non-reader and was coming home daily with anxiety attacks from a mean first grade teacher who was attacking him regularly for his Christian beliefs and ostracizing him from his peers.
After my own personal run in with said teacher about Halloween, telling me my son should keep his relgious beliefs to himself, (we don’t celebrate Halloween) it was the last straw. One of my sister-in-laws had started homeschooling about six months prior. After a teary phone call, she suggested that I homeschool. I was afraid to start but I had been thinking about it for months. My husband had long since come around and supported it 100 percent. This was the end of October and after Christmas break, we began our homeschool adventure! This is our fifth year and we love it! My son is a thriving 12 year old who reads above grade level, is on no meds and no anxiety at all! Greater still, we are able to instill in our children instruction about the Lord about how to love him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. :)
What a great story, Wendy! I am so glad that you were able to bring your son home and homeschool him. It sounds like you are doing a wonderful job. How wonderful that he is not having to be on any medicines either. What a difference you guys were able to make in his life. That’s great!! Thanks so much for sharing! Rene
I am so excited about this series!! Thanks so much!!
I loved both of these stories. I am so happy to be able to stay home with my girls, but my husband doesn’t like the idea of homeschooling, but I do. Please pray for us that some day we could homeschool our kids.
Gina, I will definitely pray for you! I know it can be hard to have that desire, and not be able to do it. My husband was hesitant at first as well. I actually started homeschooling in the summer just to show him that I could do it. This way if he wasn’t satisfied, I could put her back in school in the fall. I also found lots of statistics that were helpful from HSLDA. I even found a list of famous people that he admired that were homeschooled. I made sure not to pressure him, just gave him the information when he was in a good mood, and eventually he came around. It also helped that my mother ‘n law was very supportive. You will be in my prayers! Rene
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