Hey, there!
I’m Mary, and I homeschooled all 4 of my children from preschool through high school graduation. It wasn’t always easy, but it was definitely worth it! Want to learn how to homeschool your children? I can help!
I Loved Homeschooling
My children were the 4 people I spent the most time with everyday teaching them to read, write, and do arithmetic. I also potty trained them, taught them how to tie their shoes, and ate lunch with them almost every single day. I wouldn’t trade the time I got spend with them for anything in the world!
How to Homeschool: Let My Story Inspire You
You can learn how to homeschool your children from many different people who hold many different opinions. I wanted to share how I started and hopefully inspire you to do the same without all the confusion and endless decision making. Ready? Let’s go!
Getting Started in 1998!
It was way back in 1998 when I first learned about homeschooling. My firstborn was almost ready to start school, so my husband and I began looking into some private schools. We quickly realized we were not going to be able to afford it.
We were both raised in the northeastern United States, and we had both gone to public school. We were now living in Florida for three years while my husband attended seminary and decided that we did not want our children go to public school. However, we now felt as if we had no choice since private schools were too expensive for us. We were about to find out there was actually a third option, homeschooling.
I was talking to a friend about my dilemma at church one day, and she said, “Why don’t you just homeschool?” This was the first time I had ever heard of homeschooling. That may sound crazy today, but 27 years ago it just wasn’t as popular especially in the north. I just did a quick online search and found that there were somewhere around 800,000 children homeschooled in 1998. In 2024 that number was around 3.4 million! What a difference!
Needless to say, I had a lot of questions for this friend about how to homeschool. Is it legal? What do I have to do? What about books? She very calmly answered my questions and gave me instructions on what to do to be able to homeschool in that state specifically, and then she gave me several copies of a homeschool magazine. I read some of articles on homeschooling and among those articles were advertisements for homeschool curriculum. It turns out that in the same town in which we lived, there happened to be a publisher of Christian school curriculum. It was Abeka.
Our First Homeschool Curriculum
I decided to go to the Abeka store and purchase their preschool materials and start homeschooling my son. Back then most homeschool books were just school curriculum designed for a classroom. There were no homeschool versions like we have today. I just purchased teacher versions that would have been used for teaching a class of children and tweaked it to homeschool my son. This is how I learned to homeschool. By doing it.
I purchased song CDs, posters for the walls, all the teacher’s materials, and all the student books. I wanted to make sure my son wouldn’t miss out on anything by being homeschooled. I also wanted to make sure he was not behind when we would eventually enroll him in private school in the future.
As you can see, I didn’t research all the different learning styles, educational philosophies, or even all the different ways on how to homeschool. I just purchased the Abeka book curriculum, because their store was right in my town. As a side note, to this day, after many years of homeschooling, and experience with many different types of homeschool curricula, I still think Abeka is one of the best curriculums out there for elementary grade children. It’s good for older children as well, but I like to be more eclectic in the upper school years. I am not affiliated with Abeka in any way either. You can check out Abeka at their website here. As I was saying, I just jumped right in, bought the homeschool curricula, and started teaching my son at home. I quickly fell in love with homeschooling. I also found out it was fairly easy. I would put the baby down for a nap and do school with my son.
You Don’t Need to Know Everything Before You Start
I tell this part of the story, because I want you to see that all the research into which curriculum you should use and what philosophy of education is the best to follow doesn’t really matter as much as just getting started. I think most parents learn how to homeschool from doing it rather than reading about it. You don’t need to read about everything out there before you make a decision. There is no perfect curriculum for your family. It doesn’t exist. No matter what you choose, you will need to make adjustments. Some smaller than others, but you will figure it out in the end. In my opinion, you should find something and get started. Once you and your children get a feel for your school day and schedules and what things you like best, you will either be able to adapt to your curriculum or you can look for something that aligns with how you want your school days to work. Once you have that experience, you will better know exactly what you want and be able to find if there is something better for you and your family.
That is how I started homeschooling. I had no plans to continue it forever, so I wasn’t worried about what would happen in the higher grades or how I would ever be able to teach algebra. Looking back, that was probably a good thing that I didn’t know what was ahead, so I wouldn’t spend so much time worrying about it. This is how you should homeschool as well. One day, one week, one month, one year at a time.
How to Homeschool: Adding More Children and Dyslexia
After 2 years, I would add my daughter to our little homeschool. It was so easy to teach my son, and I thought it would be just as easy to teach my daughter. That was not the case. I have said ever since that if I would have had my daughter first and she was the first child to be homeschooled, I might not have homeschooled the rest of them. LOL! This poor child had the hardest time learning to read. She couldn’t remember anything like letter sounds or even what letters looked like. At first, I thought maybe there was a discipline problem, but it turned out to be something very different. After much research, I realized she had dyslexia. I wrote about our journey of homeschooling and dyslexia in some blog posts titled, “homeschooling a child with dyslexia. click here if you would like to read all about how my daughter excelled in her educational journey, and even graduated college last year! I was so worried about her and how things would be for her as she got older. She is proof that with hard work and dedication, you can do anything you put your mind to even with a disability such as dyslexia.
How to Homeschool: There is a Purpose
The whole dyslexia thing is what caused me to start researching different homeschool curricula and specifically different reading curricula. I learned about unit studies, Charlotte Mason, the Trivium, Unschooling, the Orton-Gillingham method of teaching spelling and reading, and so much more. It’s most likely the reason I am here right now writing all about homeschooling and homeschool curriculum. It might all have been divinely appointed after all.
How to Homeschool: Continue the Journey
We added 2 more children to our homeschool within the next 4 to 5 years and had full days of homeschool 4 children. The youngest 2 were only 18 months apart, so I was able to do a lot of their school work together in the early years which saved us time each day. I also started to find curricula that we could all do together at least in some subjects. One example would be the Mystery of History curriclum where you can teach the lesson to all your children at the same time, but then give them each their own assignment at their grade or age level. If you would like more information on homeschooling multiple children you can listen to my podcast here or wherever you get your podcasts. There were hard days and even more wonderful days. There were lean years where we couldn’t afford much, and there were years where we were able to do so much more than I could have imagined. There were trials and learning challenges and illnesses and just all the things of life, but we made it through. My children did not miss out on anything, and they would tell you so themselves if they could talk to you. In fact, I interviewed both my daughters on my podcast. Go take a listen to episodes 5 and 12 of the Brave and Balanced Homeschool Podcast to hear what they had to say about their homeschool experiences. I also plan on interviewing both of my sons in the future as well.dyslexia.
How to homeschool: The Conclusion
- You don’t have to know everything before you start. Just start.
- You will learn as you go. You will learn what works for you and your children, and you will make adjustments as needed. Your homeschool will most likely not look like anyone else’s in the end.
- You don’t know what the future holds, but God does. Trust Him with all of it, and don’t be afraid.
Bible & Mocha Coffee
First thing everyday
My Home
Favorite place
My Family
most important
The Call of the Wild
Favorite book
