Home Schooling To Do List  (part 2)

In this article our home schooling to do list will take a look at a few peripherals on the home teaching to do list. Although maybe not the first items to pop into your head to get done, these are certainly no less important.

If you are just beginning to get started in teaching your child at home, you may not have a reference library. Not to worry the public library in your community is an excellent reference for you. Go make friends there, and discover all of the wonderful resources you can use as a homeschooling parent! Having your own home education reference library is not only a plus, but its fun to get started and keep adding to. I strongly encourage putting this on your list.

If you haven't yet, you'll need to become familiar with the legal aspects of homeschooling in your state. Home schooling is legal in all 50 states, but each state has its own regulations, requirements and mandates. Visit the our web page that has an overview of all the state's various homeschooling laws and regs.

Bringing the topic right into your home is your organization. I must admit that early on I struggled. Mostly from information and material overload. But for starters make sure your house gets a good cleaning. Go through and get rid of all those things in your storage areas that you just don't use or look at any more. While designating an area for your homeschool classroom make sure you have a place for everything and don't be afraid to use some sort of labeling system to help you with your ongoing organization.

And speaking of household organization be sure to include your families schedule and their organization into your overall scheduling and calendar. I am very big on keeping a daily/weekly list of everyone's jobs, duties, and chores around the house. Trust me, home schooling your child is beyond a full time job and it's a truly wonderful experience, but you have to maximize your organization and schedule for efficiency. Do be shy about training your kids to follow their daily schedule and routines. Everyone will benefit from it.

Some time before the home school season always set aside a block of time to do a teacher (you) review. Bone up on the subjects you are going to be teaching, take time to evaluate some of the latest curriculums if that's what you use. Get your reference material up to speed. Once you've done that begin to map out and put together a calendar for the upcoming homeschool year. The calendar should include the length of each subject or unit, test days, field trips, days off, etc.

Then take time to take a deep breath. And if you are new, don't panic. For those of use that have been through the early years, I think we would all agree that there is no perfect schedule. Especially just starting out. Be flexible and know that your home schooling schedule will evolve over time and the rough edges will get polished off. Keep good notes of all your planning stages, what worked for you and what didn't and in no time you'll get it done. Save your notes for next year so you aren't reinventing the wheel each year and after a couple loops through the process you'll be running downhill with teaching your child at home.