Starting At the Beginning

As I said before my daughter is not "school-age" yet but we are looking into the requirements and regulations along with tips and suggestions for those school aged years.

I am also going to be creating a preschool "curriculum" for her this year and the next several. I am a strong believer in learning through play and exposure, so this will not be a solid curriculum with times to complete certain activities and specificities, but I will have weekly/monthly goals for her. I will post these soon. Remember if you are working and desiring to homeschool your child, this is possible too. It simply is not my route!

Now back to the research. There is so much information out there, and I am just beginning. However, here are some of the places I have started to help me on my way.

1) First things first, what are your state guidelines. Check out your state's Dept. of Ed. site. For Indiana, http://www.doe.in.gov/sservices/homeschool/. Luckily, in Indiana I simply have to allow my 6 year old and up (kindergarten is not mandatory) to experience 180 days of school. There are not any other laws! Praise the Lord for simplicity. Watch we will move to a new state when she is of age :)

2) Start making a list of TO DOs! I love lists and know that lists are a fluid tool. They are always changing. Here are my first priorities (more to come): research legalities (check), check local support groups (I have church connections to this), research learning philosophies and styles (did that in college, but loved the refresher found in many books), choose/create my own educational philosophy (a working project), research curriculums (wow, this is daunting), research ways to document and organize, begin to read, read, read!

3) As you can see I have begun to work on my to do list. I am currently in research mode and feel like I am back in college. I love to read (check out my devos page) and take notes. So I got out my biggest notebook and started with The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child  by Linda Dobson. I found this very helpful and a great place to start. I also checked out several homeschooling sites. I could list them, but really just google or bing "homeschool" "unschool" or "christian homeschool" and you will find all the same things I did.

4) Since I want to begin exposing my daughter to "education" early. I have begun to develop a basic  curriculum for my daughter based on my own experiences and using some ideas from www.letteroftheweek.com . This wonderful mother has already developed lessons for ages 3 months to 11years. Her lessons are a little disconnected and to detailed for my person preferences but are a great starting point with lots of great ideas.  I will be posting my own "curriculum" once I have fine tuned it.

5) Get to work!! There is much to do and little time to do it.

Colossians 3:23(KJV)

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

Proverbs 14:23

In all labour there is profit: 

Praise the Lord for the opportunity to stay home and educate my daughter. First and foremost I want to raise my daughter in the fear and admonition of the Lord. 

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.


If you have any questions, please comment or email! Thanks for hearing my thoughts!