Where Not to Start Homeschooling

OK, so where do you start looking for information about homeschooling? You’ll want as broad a picture as possible, before you narrow down to a “fit” for your family. There are some homeschooling organizations out there that, unfortunately, feed newcomers a rather narrow and sometimes negative picture. Be wary of any group that could make money, lots of money, off of your family. I’ll tell you where not to go first and why:

• Your local school district – it is in their best interest to keep you tied to the district so they will continue to get attendance funding. They may either tell you independent homeschooling is illegal in your state or will greet you enthusiastically into their Independent Study Program. They’ll encourage you to duplicate at home what wasn’t working when your child was in their schools.
• A homeschool legal group – it is in their financial interest to scare the daylights out of you so you’ll buy into their insurance plan. If you follow the laws of your state, it is unlikely you’ll need legal representation. A family really needs a good, local family lawyer, anyway: one to draw up a will, and to be there should you need representation for anything, say, for an auto accident, let alone a confrontation with the school district.
• An exclusionary group of any kind. While it may seem comforting at first to find “your kind of people,” these groups often don’t see the whole picture, and tend to propagate misinformation because they are out of the loop.
• Any curriculum company or distance learning program – of course, their objective is to sell you a big package of books and materials, and maybe throw in a supervisory teacher for a lot more bucks.
• Self-proclaimed homeschool “experts” who have never actually stayed home and taught their own children.

Where do I Start Homeschooling?

“So where do I start? Where do I go to start homeschooling? Those are the easiest to find!” If the information is free or for the few bucks, go for it, as we say in California. You may find free material at your local library, or need to pay a few dollars for a few homeschool magazines or homeschool books, or maybe a tad more for a homeschool conference admission, but these are the best sources.

• Your local homeschooling support group – which is a group of families that meets on a regular basis, and can tell you how the homeschooling laws of your state are really applied in your town. Maybe the law says to keep an attendance record, but has any official ever asked to see one? The state and country pages on this site will help you locate a nearby support group.
• Your state level homeschooling association – join this group for the $20 or so that they’ll ask for membership. You’ll usually get a newsletter and invitations to various activities, such as conferences and campouts. They can keep you informed about the homeschooling laws.
• Homeschooling Conferences – typically in the spring and summer. Do try to attend the full conference. Bring along someone to watch the kids so you can concentrate on the information. The Homeschooling Events calendar is loaded with upcoming conferences. Early registration is often at a discount, so check the calendar and the Association sites often. Most have an associated curriculum fair where you can waste tons of money buying things your kids will never use. Either kid-test the products, or bring the vendors’ catalogs and flyers home. Buy when the pressure is off. Alternatively, get the curriculum catalogs before you go, know what you want, and save shipping costs. Many vendors will lower prices last day of the conference.
• Homeschooling laws for your state – I put this 4th so you’ll talk to the others first. The laws can seem pretty convoluted at times, but you need to have a good copy on hand to see all the options. The state associations can usually provide you with the current laws and an interpretation. Homeschool websites may or may not have current laws posted. “Current” is the keyword here. The most accurate links are the ones directly to the homeschooling laws on your state’s department of education web site.
• Homeschooling chats, email lists and Social Networks – people mean well, but can sometimes steer you wrong, so take what you get here with a grain of salt. On the other hand, they can also give you exactly the specific information you need for very unusual questions. (I can’t help you with such questions as “Help me find homeschooling material for my blind, adopted, 10 year old child from Romania who speaks no English.” but someone on a message board might!)

I also have written a lot more features to help you get started with homeschooling and have a whole library of net links I hope you’ll explore. There is also a huge set of net Explorations 4 Kids for your youngsters to teach things to themselves right online. Use the kids’ links yourself to plan your own unit studies.

Updated June 25, 2011 By Ann Zeise

The post Where Do I Start with Homeschooling? appeared first on A2Z Homeschool – THE A-to-Z of Homeschooling.

Another reason for naming your homeschool is for a sense of identity for your children. Everyone needs to feel they belong to something so it may make it easier for your child to answer the question, “Where do you go to school?” if they have a school name to give.

By Ann Zeise and Karen Gibson

Some ideas

• Memorialize a family member or hero (JFK Memorial School)
• Proclaim your philosophy or religion (Our Faith Free School)
• Use your own last name (Gibson School)
• Your street name (Ironman Road Academy)
• Features in your environment (Oak Hill School)
• Your town name (Smallville Independent Study Program)

Sample Names from Homeschool Families

I just thought I would tell you our home school name, but first let me tell you something. This is the first year that I have taught my kids, and it is going fantastic.

My kids are 17 and 14, school was very difficult for both of them, and they were always very stressed and angry (to name a few of the symptoms of school  stress). So, when we talked about naming our school, we were thinking along the lines of how home school made them feel. After writing down how they felt and looking up words in the dictionary, we finally decided, our school name is At Ease Academy  because that’s how they feel and our emblem is a dove with a green sprig in her mouth. It’s very peaceful looking and we are proud of our name.

Karen

We are new to homeschooling this year [2007]. My son attended full day preschool and kindergarten. This year he is six and in the first grade. For many reasons we are choosing to learn at home now.

I just wanted to thank you for offering such a valuable web site to the homeschool community. I find it so extraordinary that your child is an adult and you continue to be so involved! Your CA private school information was helpful as I just completed the form a few hours ago using your sample for reference. Thank you!

We named our school Ben Franklin School of Discovery. We’ve been reading about Ben Franklin lately and my son and I were so impressed with his life and discoveries that we both agreed this is the perfect name for our homeschool this year.

Sahara A.
Homeschooling mom to one 6 year old boy in San Diego, CA

We use the name Country Day Academy for the Gifted. Because Country Days are relaxing and fun and the students are very gifted each in their own way. Sounds professional and at the same time gives the kids a sense of belonging.

Great site! I found so many interesting things and will keep checking in!

Shelley A.

Ours is called Dejadoro Academy and it was created from the first 2 letters of each of our first names in the family–in birthday order. Denise (DE), Jann (JA) Donna (DO) and Rodney (RO)…the Academy part just sounds ‘professional’ to me, so that’s why it was included.

Jann

The land that we live on was called “Duck Hill Farm” back in the 1800’s. We are very proud of this, as the tract of land can be traced back as far as William Penn settling here. We have been considering naming our school, Duck Hill Academy.

Bri

I liked all the names that I saw on your web site. Every name was very creative and I thought I would share the name we selected for our school. We call ourselves E*wHim Academy. This means Education with Him (meaning our Lord and Saviour) in mind. And we thought is looked alot like E-mail, because just about everybody has it now.

Thank you for a chance to share.

Holly L.

Our Homeschool chosen name is “Eagles Nest Academy“. We learned that Eagles mate for life so this represents our Family’s stability. Nest symbolizes our Home and an Academy is a place of learning.

Trish

Loved all the creative names on your website. Ours is GLOW which stands for God leads our way. I made T-shirts with the school logo as part of their “uniform”. Don’t like when people stare and ask “Isn’t he supposed to be in school?”

Arlene

Hello!

I thought since I had to think hard about our name I would see if you wanted to post it, but you don’t have to. Our last name is Gates and we are Christians, we also have a bigger family too, so I finally came up with name for our school. ‘HIS Gates Quiver Academy‘. I felt this summed it up pretty well, ‘HIS’ being God’s, ‘Gates’ identifies us, and ‘Quiver’ lends to the full house we have as well as to the verse ‘blessed is the man with a full quiver…’. I am pleased with it so far and hope it sticks!

Thank you for your time in this matter.

Lisa Gates
<IXOYE>

Jolie Tristan Academy of Learning

My daughter’s and son’s name put together.

Anonymous

Kingdom Keys Academy

We’ve been homeschooling our 7 kids for 13 years.

The young years contain the keys to your child entering the Kingdom of God.

Mark

Being a bilingual family (Spanish/English), we chose “Mi Casa School“. “Mi Casa” means “my house” in Spanish. We’ll probably use it until the kids are older and would like to change it.

The Beattie Family

Thought I would send you our Home School Chosen Name. Our last name is Motes and we have a very talented 13 year old who is a great artist with brothers who are following in his footsteps. He likes signing his artwork with “MotesArt” Since we think MotesArt is cool and we also love music (Mozart) we’ve given our school the name “MotesArt Academy”

 The Motes Family

I was browsing and found a site linked to yours. I would like to share our name with you. We are

The Mustard Seed Academy
If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, nothing is impossible.

We like it and think it describes us perfectly. Sometime faith is all we have. And it is plenty. Thanks;

Jill

Hi! Was just reading your page on naming your homeschool, and wanted to share our name with you.

Growing up, both my husband and myself fell in love with Jean Craighead George’s classic, My Side of the Mountain. As a way of memoralizing that for us, and encouraging reading and nature in our boys, we have names our school, My Side of the Mountain Learning.

Kana C.

We are thinking of naming our homeschool The Neverland School. My son’s last name is Neve and his first initial is R, so it could also be written Neve,R Land School. (This is his land, er, home after all.) This is also a reference to our hopes that he holds onto his youth as long as he can.

Mel

We call our school SaturDays Cool (we jokingly say we took the “h” out of school), and we are using an art-based approach project work for children 5 – 12. Are you familiar with the schools of Reggio Emilia and constructivism? That’s are context. This fall we will work with many Homeschoolers during the week to offer them support. I am really enjoying reading your very informative pages.

Katherine M.

Universal Minds Learning Center.

Universal – we learn from everything
Minds – there are more than one of us living here
Learning – all the time
Center – the children are the center of my universe.. they keep me centered

Monica

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Question from a homeschooling mom:

I am going to start to homeschool my little ones this August. I want to get them used to it slowly through the summer but I don’t know where to start. I understand the laws and rules but how do I ease into it? I am not sure that I can teach at all. Help!

Answer from Ann Zeise:

No need to worry. Teaching and learning happen every day when parents and children do simple things together. Start off simple by doing fun, learning activities together. For instance, you and your children can:

• sort the socks on laundry day or sort the silverware into the silverware drawer – sorting is a major function in math and science;
• cooking a meal together or growing a vegetable garden involves not only math and science but good health as well;
• tell and read each other stories and use your imagination making up new story endings – storytelling is the basis for reading and writing (and a story about the past is also history);
• go to the library and check out books that interest your children, participate in the local summer reading club and read, read, read!
• Play a game of hopscotch together – playing physical games will help your child learn to count and start on a road to lifelong fitness.
• Playing board games and computer games together helps children learn to take turns and many subjects can be taught through educational games.

By doing things together, you will show that learning is fun and important. Homeschooling is a lifestyle. Start by building the foundation of a love and eagerness for learning. Have fun – make memories. Good luck!

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