First, you might be surprised to discover that the typical homeschool day—especially for elementary-aged children—takes a lot less time than it does in a traditional school setting.
But your instinct to consider the time commitment is right on. Homeschooling is a big investment for you as a parent. It involves taking full responsibility for your child’s education—planning out their school year and field trips, arranging for testing or other assessments, recordkeeping, figuring out what parts you will teach and what parts you might delegate to a tutor, a co-op, another parent, or an online or local course, etc.
And you’re already wearing a lot of hats—that’s true, too! Homeschooling is incredibly flexible—that gives you the beautiful opportunity to completely customize your homeschool schedule around your child’s learning pace and interests, your family’s calendar, and unique learning opportunities.
While homeschooling will not magically make them perfectly behaved, you’ll get to really know your kids and their passions. You’ll be able to develop a deep and lasting healthy relationship with each child, to nurture strong relationships with their siblings, to see their “firsts” and ah-ha! moments, and to help them learn to persevere through tears to triumph over their own challenges. You’ll also probably get to connect with other parents who will be happy to swap teaching or babysitting with you occasionally so you and they can get a break!
Yes. HSLDA’s leaders, directors, and employees are Christians who seek to honor God by providing the very highest levels of service in defending homeschool freedom and equipping homeschoolers. And because of our beliefs, we want every family to have the freedom to direct their children’s education, no matter their background or religious affiliation. Therefore, we do not make religious beliefs a condition of membership or any other service we offer. You can learn more about HSLDA here.
That’s OK! Not every schoolteacher teaches every subject. For the elementary grades, textbooks with teacher’s guides will give you the structure and the teaching tools that you need to teach subjects you’re unfamiliar with.
When your child reaches high school, you can call on subject specialists to help you out! Think about reaching out to your friends, family, faith community, homeschool groups, local networks, and online communities to for help with tutoring your teen, grading essays, or answering questions. You can also have your high schooler take outside courses at a co-op, community college, or online.
For an added boost to your confidence, keep in mind that homeschooling melds two of the strongest predictors of academic achievement: parental involvement and one-on-one learning.
