Well whether you know it or not you just took the first step. For me the hardest thing was making the mental commitment to stay home and home-school, but it was the best decision I have ever made. I will take you through the exact steps I took.
1. First I made the decision to home school.
2. Next I found out what the state laws were for home-schooling in our area.
For us (we live in NY) we had to give a Notice of intention to instruct at home. This was just a simple letter letting our school district know we intended on home-schooling. see below for an example.
Local School Department
Address Your town, New York
Attn: Superintendent
To whom it may concern:
We intend to home school our child/children (names) during the school year 200?-200?.
Attendance will be equal to that required by law in public schools (180 days) and NY law will be followed with regard to courses taught.
If you request any additional information, please contact us by mail. Thank you for your attention regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
Mr. and Mrs. Your Name
Address
No Phone (Correspondence should be in writing to avoid miscommunication.)
They sent me a letter back within 10 days letting me know they had received it. They will also sent a form along with it, to fill out called the IHIP.
3. Also required by New York State law is the IHIP (Individualized home instruction plan)
For this I just listed which books I would be using for the school year. This part takes a lot of thought there are so many curriculums out there, and based on that decides which books you will choose. I can't say which is the best, it really has to do with the way your child learns and your own teaching style. Since this is my first year I took a little from this one, a little from that one, and pieced together what I thought would work for us. It has been trial and error, but that's to be expected. Below are examples of some different approaches I really felt worked for us.
Mostly we followed the Traditional Style approach:
This is just working through a work book. This worked great because...
Everything is laid out for ease of use
Follows a standardized scope and sequence
Has definite milestones of accomplishment
Testing and assigning grades is easy to do
Follows a standardized scope and sequence
Has definite milestones of accomplishment
Testing and assigning grades is easy to do
We also use the Unit Study approach:
If we find something that is really interesting we center all of our subjects around it. This can be fun because...
The family’s interests can be pursued
Curiosity and independent thinking are generated
Knowledge is interrelated so is learned easily and remembered longer.
Unit studies are fairly easy to create
4. Once the paper work was done I joined HSLDA (Home-school-Legal-Defense-Association).
You may not find this even necessary. For me it was because we pulled Dash out of school, and his school was giving us a really hard time. If you do find that your school district gives you a hard time go to http://www.hslda.org/ it is $10 a month and a whole lot of peace of mind. A lawyer will help you with your rights and even deal with your school district if you find they try and hassle you.
5. Then came the fun stuff looking into groups and activities.
I did this at the beginning of the school year but I also have to do it each month as activities and schedules change. It depends on your child, but Dash is very active so we looked first at sports. We started him in MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) and Hip Hop, they run through the whole year (we didn't want to overwhelm ourselves, and we also wanted to spend this first year focusing on our schooling). For the Spring we added in Soccer which he will be starting this next month. Besides sports I wanted other activities. I will be putting up a post soon of different places you may not think to look to find stuff for your child to do. Then there is always the home-school groups. Look for a local one and try it out. I am still shopping for one so to speak, but it looks like this upcoming month we might just settle down.
6. The last step I got organized!
Before the school year began, Dash and I made up our daily schedule. We wrote it on a poster board and decorated it. It gave us a set idea of what time to wake up and what we will be doing at each part of our day. I will show you an outline of what it looks like.
7:30 Wake up/do morning routine (get dressed, make bed, ect..)
8:00 Eat Breakfast
8:30 Yoga (It's good to get the heart pumping, and the muscles moving)
9:00 Start Lessons
11:30 Lunch
12:00 Outdoor Play (weather permitting which for us is pretty much most)
1:00 Back to Lessons
2:30 Snack
3:00 Music (either listening to music for music appreciation or practicing piano)
3:30 Art
4:00 Free Time
If Dash has a class determines what we do next if he has none than...
4:30 Help with making dinner
5-5:30 Eat dinner
6-8:30 Family time (board games, movies, or an outing)
8:00 Quiet Time (Bath, reading, and get ready for bed)
9:00 Lights Out
If Dash has a class...
If it's early go to class
Have dinner @7
8:30 Quiet Time
9:00 Lights out
If it's late eat dinner @ 5
Go to class
8:30 Quiet Time
9:00 Lights Out
Since we have this schedule in place we have done very well with time management. Other things that I needed to get in order were school breaks and holidays. What material I would cover in each month. And when I would send in my quarterly reports.
Quarterly reports are also a New York State Law. I send this into my school district three times. Once in the Fall, once in the Winter, and again in the Spring. See example below.
HOMESCHOOLING STUDENT: Dash Incredible
GRADE LEVEL: 2
THIS QUARTER COVERS: November 11, 2014 - January 28, 2015
DATE SUBMITTED: January 28, 2015
Dash Incredible is progressing at a satisfactory level or above in all subject matter.
We have had instruction in all the following areas, as per Section 100.10 of the Regulations of the New York State Commissioner of Education and Dash Incredible's Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP): Reading, Writing, Spelling, Language Arts, Arithmetic, U.S. History, Geography, Science, Health, Physical Education, Music and Visual Arts
We have covered at least 80% of the planned material for this quarter.
Dash Incredible had no absences from instruction this quarter, and has exceeded the required hours of instruction (225).
_________________________
Parent's Signature
I find having a calendar with all my dates written down, helps us to stay on track. the only other thing I did to get organized was to read as much as I could from others who have been doing this, what are their secrets are, and finding out where to go for information or assistance.
I really hope this post has helped answer any questions you may have had about getting started. It really is as simple as those six steps. I wish you the best of luck as you continue forward, and reach out if there is any other questions you have that I can help you with.
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