Lorilee Lippincott - Homeschooling for Absolute Beginners: Make Learning at Home Simple, Affordable, Fun, and Effective

Copyright 2020 by Lorilee Lippincott

This book was originally published under the title Homeschooling Handbook.

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Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-6520-7

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-6526-9

Cover design by Daniel Brount

Cover photo licensed from Shutterstock.com

Printed in the United States of America

T his book is dedicated to my darling children who continue to live through my learning how to parent and homeschool by trial, error, and prayer. As I try to teach them to wash their faces and multiply double-digit numbers, they are teaching me about the wonders of childhood, how natural learning really is, and the joy of grasping a new concept. I love being a parent and find it a great privilege to be part of your educational journey. You are both special and brilliant, and I love you both very much!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

I have to say right away that I am so excited about writing this book about simple homeschooling. It is also something ten-years-ago me would never believe I am doing.

Even though I homeschooled most of my first-grade year, I never planned on homeschooling my kids. I believed, like so many people, that kids need socialization with lots of other kids. They need other kids for competition and motivation, and they need all the structure and schedule schooling provides.

Really, homeschooling landed in my lap as a last minute thing and it started a journey for me, my kids, and our whole family that has been amazing.

My daughter has always been a quick learner and loves books. She taught herself to read at the age of four and couldnt wait to start kindergarten. All her friends were getting ready to start, but because her birthday was not till November, she missed the cutoff to be able to start kindergarten that year.

Because she was so excited about school and academically ready, I tried to get the school to make an exception and let her start kindergarten. They tested her, and although she tested high enough to be ready to start kindergarten if her birthday was earlier in the year, she didnt test high enough to get the exception that would allow her to bypass the October birthday cutoff.

What I had was a kid who was excited and wanting to learna girl whose friends were starting schoolbut a girl who was one month and four days too young to start with the school system.

What was I supposed to do? The kid wanted to learnso I decided to teach her.

We set up a schoolroom in our basement that year. We had a chalkboard, a globe, and lots of crayons and glue. We didnt stick to schooling for the whole year, but by the time she was supposed to start kindergarten the following year, she was halfway through first-grade work. What was I to do? I couldnt send her to kindergarten thenshed just be bored and frustrated.

Now shes in fourth grade and our homeschool has gone through lots of changes since that first year; we have learned tons about schooling, our kids, and ourselves, but we have never looked back.

This is my story for starting homeschooling, but there are thousands of reasons parents choose homeschooling over traditional school every year.

Just to Be Clear

This book is not written to put down traditional education in either the public or private settings. When we started homeschooling, we had a very good public school down the street and private options we trusted. I also know and look up to many elementary teachers and believe they work hard for their students. Instead of saying one option is good and one is bad, I believe the educational system is good and necessary, but I also believe, when possible, that homeschooling could be the best option.

We chose homeschooling over the other good options, and I believe that it could be the best option for your child as well.

Goal

The goal of this book is to encourage families who are interested in homeschooling. The basic principles of homeschooling are simple and come naturally to both kids and parents. You can do it!

Too many parentsme includedtook in too much information and tried to do way too much in our early homeschooling years. It led to both the teacher and the students being overwhelmed, frustrated, and burned out. I hope with this book to help share with you what I have learned along the way that has changed my perspective, not only about homeschooling itself, but about homeschooling methods.

Format

I love a good story and think it is the best way to communicate. I think talking about ideas is great sometimes, but what most of us need is real (people) examples.

Because of this, I am going to both share with you what I believe as well as the reality of how it looks in our house. I am also going to introduce you to lots more homeschooling families with different personalities, challenges, and experience levels. By sharing our stories with you, we hope to give you new ideas, encourage you, and help you know that life (and school) doesnt have to be perfect to have amazing results.

Many of the other families I share about also blog. I did this intentionally so that if there are specific stories you connect with, you can learn more about them online. Information about all the people included in this book in both case studies and quotes is at the back of the book.

Note: The goal of sharing stories of specific homeschooling families and what they do is for informational purposes only. The author and Skyhorse Publishing are neither an educational body nor able to provide legal advice for homeschooling. We encourage you to research and find out what is required in your area. Resources for this are provided at the end of the book.

Finally, I want to thank you for picking up this book (and for reading the introduction!). I am excited to share our journey, and I am excited for the journey you are on as well. I wish you peace, purpose, stronger relationships, obedient kids, and a never-ending supply of chocolate. Lets go!

Why Homeschool?

The feeling of watching my children love learning and open themselves up to knowledge that will help them to grow and develop is about as good as it gets. Stephanie

Every day feels like a huge accomplishment, because every day the boys cant wait to tell their dad what they learned at the dinner table! My favorite memories involve math concepts that finally clicked, or the day reading went from painful sounding out of letters to fluidity. I truly cant imagine missing these special moments with my children! Lindsey