How to Start Homeschooling Mid-Year
If you were deciding whether or not to homeschool until recently, we want to help! Here’s a Three Step guide for homeschooling once the school year has started.
Withdraw your Child from School
The Texas Homeschool Coalition offers some great resources to help parents withdraw from school. First step is to write a withdrawal email with an effective start date. We would recommend you put no later than the start date of the current school year (i.e this year on or before August 17, 2020 or the start date of your district).
THSC Withdrawal Email Generator
If a school district asks for proof of curriculum, or other information past a start date and your intent to homeschool, THSC has an assurance letter you can fill in and send to your home campus regarding those questions.
If you have a child receiving services for special needs or 504, please ask what your district withdrawal requirements are for that particular circumstance, especially if you intend to continue receiving services after withdrawal.
The longer you wait to withdraw, the higher the probability is of having home visits from school districts. If your child is labeled as truant more problems can ensue. So please be sure to withdraw as soon as you can if you know you want to homeschool.
Take a deep breath
We don’t think it’s a good idea to panic or slap together a homeschool plan. Take a deep breath first. Homeschooling is a commitment. Virtual schooling is one thing. You need to assess your options, and doing that when stressed is difficult.
Here are the basics to think over:
Read about Texas Homeschool Law
Virtual Curriculum Options - If you want virtual options, you will still need to assist your child in logging in, and in verifying they are doing work and learning. If you are looking at an online public school K-12, be aware they do not educate children grades K-2; only 3-12.
Traditional Curriculum Options - If you want to purchase a traditional curriculum, you will be doing parent-led instruction where you are the full time teacher.
We have a lot more information available, like an overview of Homeschool Philosophies, how to get started with curriculum, and we have a membership as well, for homeschool support and admission to our annual conference. Included with membership is our 2020 conference, which is virtually available to members and has an excellent workshop on starting to Homeschool. We highly recommend you watch this workshop by Lindsay Kronmiller. It will help you fully understand how homeschooling works, and what you need to think about to start.
Work on Homeschooling with your Child
Please remember that if your child has been in school for years, they need a lot of help adjusting to homeschool. There are no bells to signal period changes, there is no peer pressure to stay on task or behave a certain way. All that scheduling, and moving children through their subjects, is again on the parents. It will not be that way forever, but we seriously recommend that whatever age your child is, spend this first year of homeschooling working together. Please don’t purchase curriculum and expect your child to work through it on their own.
It takes a while to achieve the goal of independent learning, and since your child is facing a massive life change the more you are involved as their parent, the better.
We have a lot more to say about how to design a curriculum in our membership, but we will always advise that you start with observing your child. Consider their learning styles and interests as you look towards selecting curriculum.
Consider your childs’ specific needs as well, and look for gaps in their education you may need to address as you homeschool. When you remove your child from school, a lot of pressures to be at a certain grade level skill-wise, regardless of their true level of mastery, can go away. You can focus on educating your child, helping them transition to homeschool, and enjoy this process as a family.