If you’re a new home education family, you might be tempted to think that you have to recreate the school at home. You may be thinking this, especially if you don’t have a home education background yourself. Maybe neither spouse was homeschooled, and you don’t know anyone who’s homeschooling, so you’re kind of launching into this alone and you’re falling back on your prior knowledge and experience, which is the classroom. I did the same thing. I didn’t have any background, neither my wife nor I had any experience with homeschooling when we started, and so we fell back into that mindset of recreating school at home. I want to say that’s fine. If that’s where you are, that’s where we were. That’s where we started. That’s where our comfort level and security level were. That’s what we knew, and that’s where we were going to start. If that’s where you are, that’s fine.

I have learned through experience and through conversations with other homeschooling families. They’ll talk to veteran homeschoolers, and these veteran homeschooling parents—”veteran” meaning they’ve done it 10-plus years, so they’re seasoned, they know what they’re doing—have kind of forgotten how they started. Maybe they started the same way, but they’ve kind of forgotten, and so they mean well and they’re giving a lot of advice, but that advice is overwhelming. For whatever reason, you know, it’s just too much. You’re thinking to yourself, “There’s no way I can do that. That’s too much.” No problem. I experienced a little bit of that myself, so I know where they’re coming from because I’ve found myself giving the same kind of advice, but having to throttle back and say, “Whoa, wait a minute.” When you’re first starting out, you’re taking baby steps. You’re not ready to do what a 10-plus-year veteran homeschooling mom or dad can do. So give yourself a lot of grace, a lot of patience, and a lot of time to settle into this new role, and it’s not just one role, it’s multiple roles. So give yourself a break. Start where you’re comfortable and move out from that. Establish that foundation, get that beachhead, and then from there, go forward.

With that said, if you need to create a school-like environment at home with a desk and shelves and a chalkboard or whiteboard or computer desk, whatever that’s going to look like for you, go for it. Maybe in three months, maybe in six months, maybe in a year, you’ll look back and think, “Oh, why did I do that?” You feel more confident and so you change how you do things. Fine, no problem. You’ve learned, you’ve grown, but start where you’re most comfortable. Start with small steps. It can be tempting to think that you need to recreate school at home not only physically and structurally but also in terms of the courses and the topics, the scheduling, all those kinds of factors. If that works for you, awesome, fantastic. But if it doesn’t work for you, don’t feel obligated to stick with that or even start with that. What I would do is start small. Choose your son or daughter’s most favorite topic or subject. Start with that one and then build from there. Especially in the younger grades, start with the reading and the reading comprehension and then start adding the math, and later on, art or sports or whatever. But start small, little steps. You don’t have to go buy the $800 all-in-one inclusive package of a gazillion topics and textbooks and workbooks and assignment books and this and that. You don’t have to do that. If you want to and you feel confident in that, great. But feel free to start small. Especially when you’re starting young, focus on reading, reading comprehension, and then add to that and make it fun. Don’t forget to add the fun element in there. But I wanted to just say a word to those families who are new: start small, baby steps. Give yourself until Thanksgiving, maybe even Christmas, to feel like you’re in a routine and that you have some sort of plan in place because it’s a change for the entire family, not just your son or daughter. It’s you, your spouse if you’re married. I mean, just your extended family also. You might be having to fight against naysayers, you know, well-meaning as they may be. You just have a lot going on. So focus on one or two main topics and then just add as you go, and even with those one or two main topics that you’re starting with, start small, you know, start baby steps and then grow. That’s my advice to you there. We can certainly have a conversation later about fleshing that out, know what that might look like, but the bottom line is, start slowly.

I also wanted to talk to the family who’s new to who could be new to homeschooling but you’re new because of a problem, a learning problem, perhaps with your son or daughter, or whatever kind of issue it has forced you into homeschooling. The needs aren’t being met at the local school, so you’ve taken the bull by the horns and you’re saying, “I’m going to provide what’s lacking. We’re going to do it at home through homeschooling.” In that kind of environment, the same principle applies. Start slowly with small steps. Everything I said before applies here, but also the new things would apply because oftentimes, or I would say oftentimes, this scenario where you’ve you’ve tried the teacher-directed, you know, on-campus schooling, and it’s just hasn’t worked. Something’s going on, the needs aren’t being met, so you’ve brought your son or daughter home. Same temptations can come up with “I’ve got to recreate school at home” or “I’ve got to do the four core plus the three subject, three electives.” You don’t have to do that, especially if there’s a problem that needs to be addressed. Oftentimes it’s with reading comprehension. The reading, you know, the decoding part of things is fine, but the comprehension is not there. Maybe it could be math, whatever it is, it’s usually math. You know, language arts reading or it’s it’s math. Really, who is going to home school because there’s a problem with science? Alright, so let’s say it’s reading comprehension, and/or and whatever it is, focus on that. Again, referring back to previous videos, you’re in control. You’re not only in control of the resources and topics, but you’re in control of which topics, which means you can choose one topic. If Johnny or Susie can’t read, why would you do social studies? Why would you do science? Why would you do anything else that requires reading? Focus on reading. You can do that. Just remember, you’re in charge. You are in absolute control. If you need to spend the first month or three months or the first semester on reading and comprehension and all those kinds of things, then by all means, do that. You are authorized by the fact that you are in control. You’re the teacher, principal, superintendent, school board. You have full autonomy and full responsibility, full authority, to choose what you teach. That can mean you’re focusing on one topic, right? You can do that. So I can think of lots of situations, but you know, if this applies to you and you want to talk further about it, please feel free to call me, but just know that you are fully authorized and encouraged to address that single issue if this scenario applies to you. You do not have to recreate school at home. You don’t have to do four core plus the electives. Focus on what needs work if this, again, if this context applies to you, and go for it. So again, in all things, with all this planning, you are in control. You get to decide what it looks like. We at THEE fully encourage you to do that. If you have questions on what that might look like, certainly give us a call, but I just wanted to give you this information if you’re new to home education just because you may be thinking that you are limited and that you are bound by certain expectations, and that’s not the case.