How to Start Homeschooling

En Espanol: Comenzando a Instruir en Casa

You’ve decided to homeschool. Awesome! It is incredibly rewarding to watch your kids grow, personally and academically. Taking the first step can be hard, but we are here for you with support and resources. El Paso has a robust homeschool community, and there has never been a better time to Homeschool. We also have a membership for those who know they want to jump into homeschooling and want additional support and resources as they do so!

We’ll take you through withdrawal from school all the way through figuring out how to identify what makes your child tick when it comes to their schooling, and how to begin thinking about curriculum choices. If you have additional questions and want to meet our team, all our current virtual meetings for 2020 can be found on our event calendar.

Withdrawal from Public or Private School

First of all, remember Texas is homeschool friendly! We’re considered a green state for homeschooling. This makes withdrawal processes much easier.

We share a lot of information direct from Texas Homeschool Coalition, a homeschool organization that is and has done great things at the state level for homeschool rights in Texas. They also offer legal help to homeschoolers in the event that is needed. (Note: El Paso Homeschool Association, membership and support to El Paso area homeschool families, does not offer legal counsel or representation to members)

Withdraw your Child from Public School: Texas Homeschool Coalition - The basic steps of withdrawal and how to do so legally.

Sending an Assurance Email: Texas Homeschool Coalition - Schools may not ask you to provide them curriculum. This is a sample email you can send to a school if they ask questions above and beyond what is required by the Texas Education Agency (TEA).

Texas Homeschool FAQs: Texas Homeschool Coalition - This is exceptionally useful if you have questions that are fairly unique. They have information ranging from homeschooling as a foster parent to applying for college scholarships as a homeschooler.

Withdrawal doesn’t have to be a confusing process, and please note the following: If you’ve just withdrawn your child(ren) out of public or private school, we highly suggest de-schooling. De-schooling is the process of helping your children get out of the traditional school mindset. School at home doesn’t look the same as the traditional school schedule.

resources and more

We have some very detailed getting started information below, but if you feel ready to jump straight to curriculum or specific grade levels, please jump to the bottom of the post which links to grade specific information and resources.

Develop Goals

Developing goals for why you want to homeschool will help you make a lot of the decisions regarding home education. These goals will help guide you as you choose curriculum(s), schedules, etc.)

Here are a few samples goals:

• We want to prioritize spiritual development

• We want to have a close relationship with parents and siblings

• We want our kids to think for themselves

• We want to focus on character development

Some questions you can ask yourself as you begin to develop your families goals:

• What do we want for our kids?

• What do we want our days to look like?

• Is there a special need(s) that need to be considered?

• What do I (as the parent) need to make home education work?

Now, how to make this work. You’ve thought about your goals, but you aren’t really sure how to make that work.