Starting to Homeschool

Welcome! If you are on this page, then you are considering homeschooling as an option for your child/children or have already started! I’m so excited for you! Our family has been homeschooling basically from the start. We found that homeschooling works extremely well for our family. We love all the hands-on projects we can do and I love how I can tailor each of the kids’ education to exactly what they need.  But let me warn you, the process isn’t always smooth!! There are times when we have bumps in the road, tears (umm… yup!), and struggles.  Our house teeters from almost clean to mostly disaster.  Maybe not that bad, but it’s tough since we’re always here… unless we’re out of the house exploring the world (which is often)!   All kidding aside, I love, love, love being on this homeschool journey — and I hope you find some helpful resources here!

I started this blog when the kids were 17-months, almost 3 and 5… so you’ll find activities from the toddler years right up through early middle school.  I have always kept an extensive CATEGORY list… so if you’re thinking of studying somethings (say space or animal habitats or Ancient Egypt)… check through our category list and you’ll probably find some of our activities and worksheets. I’ve created a lot of materials for the kids from grammar and math sheets to science and history packets. Most things are free; a few things are for sale in our store to help keep the blog running and pay for our expenses as we continue along this journey. (If you buy something from us– THANK YOU so much!!) 🙂

Back to the topic at hand… I frequently get asked, “How do I get started homeschooling?”  This past summer I wrote a very long series to try to answer some of the questions that might come up–including the baffling dilemma… “How do I know *what* to teach the kids?” and “How do I find homeschool curriculums?”  I have tried to gather all these posts and link them in one place so you can pick and choose the topics/questions you might have.  If you have any other questions I might not have addressed in this series, feel free to leave me a note over on our Homeschool Den Facebook page and I’ll try to answer them.

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Getting Started with Homeschooling. And answering some basic questions about homeschooling:

If you are new to our blog, you might want to check out these free resource guides, which I put together to help answer questions like… Where do I start? How do I know what to teach?  What units did you kids do when they were in __ Grade?

Creating Your Own Homeschool Curriculum: These are some resources I made that might be helpful as you create your own homeschool plans.  These are somewhere between 30 and 50 pages and are FREE to download:

Homeschool Curriculum Kindergarten Grade 1

Homeschool Science Curriculum Grade 2-3

Creating Your Own Homeschool Curriculum Grade 4 - 5

Homeschool Curriculum Grade 6-8

 

This post has a wide range of different hands-on activity ideas and teaching strategies that might inspire you in your homeschooling! You can grab a free copy of the teaching strategies printable here:

Hands-On Activity Ideas - Homeschool Teaching StrategiesAre you a visual person? Be sure to visit this post with dozens and dozens of hands-on teaching ideas in pictures! Visit the Ultimate Hands-On Homeschooling Guide for some fresh inspiration!!

Ultimate Hands-On Homeschooling Guide

I put these posts together with some of the homeschool curriculum options available. There are posts for each “subject area”:

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Science: Be sure to browse around our blog.  We’ve done units on the Human Body, Rocks and Minerals, Earth Science, Simple Machines,  Chemistry and so forth (though remember these will come up in reverse-chronological order). You’ll see how our family covers various topics and what hands-on activities we’ve done to make learning more interactive.
History: Again, be sure to check out the various units in the CATEGORIES button to see how we’ve covered various topics.
Language Arts:

Math:

Preschool at Home:

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Other Helpful Resources:

Some of our favorite units and posts:

  • Native Americans – This past fall we studied many Native American tribes… and did a number of fun crafts

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  • Simple Machines – We did TONS of hands-on activities
  • China Unit – We spent an entire semester studying everything from Ancient China to Genghis Khan, Marco Polo and beyond!

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