How to Homeschool Independently

Homeschooling doesn’t end with declaring your independence - that’s the beginning of your homeschool life and responsibilities. Our founding fathers successfully declared independence because they seized the responsibility of governing. Be like the founding fathers! Seize the responsibility of homeschooling. Minimize delegation, and resist enrolling, registering, or enlisting in online homeschool programs. The homeschool lifestyle is at home, shaping and molding your children in your day to day interactions. If you aren’t home, it becomes more difficult to embrace the lifestyle of learning that makes homeschooling more fruitful.

Watch for natural learning. Learning isn’t limited to a specific time or place, it’s integrated into life. It is not boxed in by a school year, only between the hours of 9:00 am and 3:00 pm. The homeschool life is REAL life, not a make-believe world of age-segregated groups of people in public schools, or depending entirely on a homeschool co-op for your child's education, or doing 100% of your homeschool online. Embrace the freedom to learn naturally. Look for ways to focus on real-life learning, apart from age specific workbooks and dry textbooks with limited information.

Take time for fun. Pursue a relaxed and fun educational experience. Happiness isn’t a pie-in-the-sky wish, it’s a key ingredient for learning. The safe, secure, and fun atmosphere of home education is a better way to teach students of all ages. Be sure to discover your student's learning style, and be mindful of your own learning style. Education at home is faster, more convenient and more efficient. It doesn’t require tests. It’s less stressful, takes less time, and allows more time for fun. When you embrace learning with reckless abandon, your kids can wiggle as much as they need to, follow along with audiobooks until they are 18, or solve medical mysteries when they are teenagers; it’s all part of their homeschool education.

Encourage delight directed learning. While we want our students to be well-educated, and core subjects must be covered, we can still manage to pursue happiness. Everyone has subjects they don’t enjoy, but parents can make the drudgery of a subject more fun with games and meaningful experiences. Everyone has subjects they love, whether it’s math, music, writing, or P.E. Public schools have the ball and chain of common core classes and electives are limited to classes teachers are interested in. When you homeschool, you can create an elective out of almost any of your student’s passions. Core classes can be taught centered around your child’s learning style, to maximize their delight in learning and help them develop to their maximum potential.

Celebrate your independence responsibly. Make sure you are in control, not someone else. Keep a firm grip on the benefits of homeschooling independently and allow your kids to learn with reckless abandon. You don’t need to be a certified teacher or have college credentials to homeschool your children. Homeschool teachers educate their kids. Public and private school teachers educate groups and manage a classroom. While those are valuable classroom skills, they are not necessary in your homeschool. Don’t let anyone make you feel afraid of getting your homeschooler into college, earning scholarships, creating a homeschool transcript, creating comprehensive homeschool records, awarding a homeschool high school diploma, or providing great career preparation – the average parent is completely capable of homeschooling children successfully into adulthood.

While you revel in your freedom, don’t forget the prime directive: educate your children. You could get lost in your freedom and spend years in your pajamas in front of a flashing screen, but freedom means responsibility. You don’t want to produce feral kids, like cats left to forage on their own. You don’t want to produce moral, faithful, but illiterate students who love the Lord but can’t spell to save their lives. Instruct on purpose while parenting your kids, so you can shape and mold their heart and soul as they grow.

Relax! Homeschooling is fun! You’re not jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Homeschooling is a very real, legitimate, no-more-tears formula for educating children. Children should master material at their own pace. Keep moving forward in your plan to teach your kids. Make sure each subject is challenging, but not overwhelming, so they can enjoy learning. As you shape and mold your children’s character and behavior, it becomes easier to enjoy homeschooling. If your wondering how much does homeschooling cost, don't worry. Unlike private school, homeschooling is flexible enough to meet every budget. So  grab some iced tea or lemonade and put your feet up. Relax! This homeschooling thing is gonna be fun!