I’m Thinking About Homeschooling, but …

… I’m not organized.

… I wasn’t good at school myself.

… I don’t have enough time.

… my child will miss out.

So you’re thinking about homeschooling but have doubts and concerns. Everyone does. Let’s address a few common worries.

I’m not organized enough to homeschool.

The good news is that you only need a tiny bit of organization to homeschool well!

Currently available curricula, including All About Reading and All About Spelling, have detailed lessons ready for you. Choose your curriculum, stack it on the corner of your dining room table, and work through the stack each day.

For recordkeeping, simply put a date in the Teacher’s Manual next to the lesson in the Table of Contents. If you prefer, you can print the Table of Contents for All About Reading and All About Spelling, so you don’t have to mark in the Teacher’s Manual. Keep in mind that in All About Spelling and All About Reading, a lesson will take more than one day to complete. Thus, you’ll have multiple dates for each lesson marked. Since the Table of Contents lists the key concepts covered in each lesson, it becomes a record of what you did and when you did it. If you step away from lessons for other kinds of learning, such as review games or interest-led studies, just leave a note in your Table of Contents record.

In addition, have your children date any work they complete, such as spelling dictation. I purchased a date stamp, set it to today’s date each morning, and then taught my children to stamp their own work. Then, all the finished work was put into a bin. I had one for each child. If the laws where you reside require you to keep attendance, the dates on the Table of Contents and the completed work can serve as attendance records.

The specifics of what you need will vary with the laws and requirements of where you live, but if you must put together an annual portfolio of work to submit, the above method will ensure you have something to work with. However, in many places, dating what you do after you do it is above and beyond the requirements.

All About Reading and All About Spelling, along with many other available homeschool curricula options, are designed to be open-and-go, with little to no day-to-day preparation. I used All About Reading and All About Spelling for years as a Simple Samantha, taking a quick moment to read the Before You Begin section as my child settled into a chair next to me. Sometimes, I cut the activity while my child read or spelled words with tiles, and sometimes, I had my child cut them while I corrected another child’s math. I never needed more organization than that.

Know that you will learn to organize as you go–you don’t have to know everything upfront. There are no “perfect” methods! Routines and organization have to be adapted as children grow anyway, so give yourself the freedom to learn and grow with your children!

I wasn’t good at school myself, so I can’t homeschool.

Thankfully, you don’t have to know everything to be a great homeschool teacher! Nowadays, experts have written wonderful materials in all subjects that allow you to teach like an expert. You will become a good student, learning so much as you teach your own children!

All About Reading and All About Spelling are designed to be easy to teach, with no previous knowledge, training, or experience! You won’t have to know why “kit” is spelled with a K and not a C or how to tell if you should double the L in “excel” before adding the suffix “ed.” Our Teacher’s Manuals will guide you step-by-step so that you can confidently teach your children.

And we at All About Learning Press are here to help! If your child is struggling, or you are just wondering why some words have double Fs at the end, we are happy to assist. You can reach us by email at support@allaboutlearningpress.com, through social media, and by phone at 715-477-1976. We’ll work with you to help you feel confident in helping your child.

I don’t have the time to homeschool.

Homeschooling does take time, but it involves less time than you may think!

Teaching a child one-on-one or one-on-three–however many children you have–is far more efficient than teaching a classroom of twenty or more students. Instruction focused on your children alone allows you the luxury of not wasting time reviewing what they have already mastered or dealing with questions they have not asked.

We recommend spending just 20 minutes per day on reading and 20 minutes per day on spelling. Our programs are designed to be used at the “just right” pace for your child, allowing you to spread a lesson out over as many or few days as needed. Short, daily work promotes long-term retention and the best progress.

Each family’s situation is different, but homeschooling can work in various complex situations. I have known families with both parents working and single-parent families with the parent working full-time away from home who have homeschooled well. Mom would teach on the weekends and review each evening, and Auntie would ensure assignments were completed while Mom was at work. Finding the time to homeschool your children will not be easy in these situations, but creativity makes it possible. Flexibility goes a long way toward successful homeschooling.

My child will miss out on what the school kids are doing if we homeschool.

This doubt can stem from two concerns. One is your child not being “on grade level,” and the other is all the extra things schools do, such as field trips, science fairs, and homecomings.

What is considered “grade level” in specific subjects can vary widely depending on which state, school district, or even school your child attends. One school district may use a reading program that requires kindergarten students to memorize over two hundred sight words, while another may use a program that teaches few sight words and expects students to decode unfamiliar words with ease. Children who excel in the first would be “behind” if they transferred to the second at the end of kindergarten, and vice versa.

Since “grade level” varies so much, forgetting grade levels and instead focusing on whether your child is making progress toward mastery is far more reliable, especially if your child has a learning disability or is struggling. Foundational skills and concepts must be mastered for learning success, even if some consider them to be below grade level. Focus on your child’s progress and avoid comparisons.

As for the other concern about all the extra things that schools do, that is simply FOMO, or the fear of missing out. Consider this: homeschool students have extras and opportunities that students in traditional classrooms don’t. For example, I knew a family whose father was sent to Washington, D.C. for work for a few months. If his children were in a classroom, they and the mother would have had to stay behind because too much school would have been missed. However, since this family homeschooled, they all could go to D.C. No school was missed, plus the children could visit national monuments, historic sites, and many other places that they would never have seen otherwise.

Moreover, most communities have at least one, and often many, homeschool support groups for all those extras, such as field trips, talent shows, and even proms! If you search for the name of your community and then “homeschool group,” you’ll find them. And if what you find is not a good fit (maybe you find a group for homeschool teens, but your oldest child is only seven), ask them for suggestions. Local veteran homeschool parents are your best resource for what is available close to home!

I hope this shows you that many of the doubts and concerns parents have as they first consider homeschooling may be less of a problem than they first appear. What other “but…” worries did you have when you were first thinking of homeschooling?

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Robin E. Williams has homeschooled five children, counseled others on homeschooling for over 15 years, and has worked in customer service for All About Learning Press for a decade.