Linda Dobson - The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child: Your Complete Guide to Getting Off to the Right Start

Homeschooling Almanac 20022003 by Mary and Michael Leppert

Homeschooling Book of Answers: The 88 Most Important Questions Answered by Homeschoolings Most Respected Voices by Linda Dobson

Homeschoolers College Admissions Handbook: Preparing 12- to 18-Year-Olds for Success in the College of Their Choice by Cafi Cohen

The Homeschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith

Homeschool Your Child for Free [Internet resources] by LauraMaery Gold and Joan M. Zielinski

Homeschoolers Success Stories: 15 Adults and 12 Young People Share the Impact That Homeschooling Has Made on Their Lives by Linda Dobson

Homeschooling: The Early YearsYour Complete Guide to Successfully Homeschooling the 3- to 8-Year-Old Child

Homeschooling: The Middle YearsYour Complete Guide to Successfully Homeschooling the 8- to 12-Year-Old Child by Shari Henry

Homeschooling: The Teen YearsYour Complete Guide to Successfully Homeschooling the 13- to 18-Year-Old by Cafi Cohen

For Emily Caelin

Whose twinkling eyes, sweet smile, and affinity for my keyboard are at once my hurdles and my greatest rewards

What is most important and valuable about the home as a base for childrens growth into the world is not that it is a better school than the schools, but that it isnt a school at all.

JOHN HOLT

A RE YOUR PALMS sweating? Are you shaking in your boots? Welcome to your first year of homeschooling!

Relax. Here its understood that youre at least a littleor perhaps a lotapprehensive about your ability to enjoy and succeed in homeschooling. Your apprehension puts you in good company. Although the number of homeschooling families continues to swell, I daresay only a small minority of families begins with certainty, and even fewer are completely confident of success. Like most folks new to the idea of teaching your own, youre probably asking some form of the question Will homeschooling work for my family?

Just as a doctor cant recommend a single prescription for what ails all of his patients, no one can widely prescribe an educational option for all children. The answer to the question, then, depends largely on you. More specifically, whether or not homeschooling will work for your family is subject, to a great degree, to your willingness to be flexible. Flexibility is built in to the homeschooling process, so its only a matter of how well you bend and shape homeschooling until it fits your family. But it also requires that you limber up and increase the flexibility of your thinking about education itself so that you may comfortably unify everyday life and learning.

The first year of homeschooling has often been described as feeling like a leap off a cliff. If you, too, feel this way right now, consider this book the friendly push you might be needing to discover that you, like so many other homeschoolers, have wings.

WHEN PRESENTED with the challenge to put together a book specializing in information most useful and important to the brand-new homeschooling family, I turned to the experts in the fieldscores of families practicing homeschooling in myriad ways who could look back on their own first years to share with you what they learned. I was gratified and humbled by their willingness to share, their candor in doing so, and their deep insight into and devotion to the homeschooling lifestyle.

Their information and advice felt like a warm arm around the shoulders, the same hug your favorite aunt gives you while explaining that your baby wont be teething forever and your next good nights sleep is just around the corner.

What is the essence of their message to you?

• Yes, we made our share of mistakes.

• Yes, some days are hardnot all homeschooled children run off to help with chores, whistling while they work.

• Yes, there were many things we would prefer to have known before starting, but things turned out okay.

• Yes, were just like you, and it was possible to build a lifestyle we preferred because of homeschooling.

• Yes, as so well put by respondent Allison Dodrill, The rewards, so far, are astounding.

Anyone so moved was invited via e-mail to respond to one or all topics addressed in this book. This narrowed the field, in that the majority of responses came from those connected to national, state, or local homeschooling support via computer. An impressive number of responses, however, arrived via snail mail. Thanks to this shotgun approach, weve tapped into the experience of a wonderfully eclectic group of homeschoolers. While their differences are noted, its their similarities that will lead you to the best homeschooling has to offer.

IN TALKING to countless parents considering or new to homeschooling, I noted that a most pervasive underlying cause of trepidation became clear. When education takes place in the confines of a particular building (an institutional one, at that), options and choices are few; theres not much to think about. Along comes the notion of homeschooling, and suddenly education leaves the confines of an institutional concept and bursts into the big wide world. A parent has a whole lot more to ponder when the educational options and choices mushroom to such immense proportions.

This is where Your First Year of Homeschooling begins.

A home needs a foundation in order to stand. A happy homeschooling experience for your family similarly must include some attention to its foundation before you start building it. Basic to that foundation is thoughtful attention to the reasons you are considering homeschooling. An overview of the many reasons families turn to homeschooling will help you think about the very personal motives you bring to the decision. Your motives can guide you to start the process of bending homeschooling toward your childs unique needs.

Next well take a deeper look at some of the choices presented to you through homeschooling. When you observe your child for answers to questions about decisions on educational schedule, method, and organization, your discoveries can further lend direction to the way you might bend homeschooling. At the same time, youll learn how looking at homeschooling as an educational experiment, as opposed to a cliff jump, keeps all of these important decisions in perspective.