Get Ready: Preparing for Homeschooling from Day One

Some Suggestions for Preparing to Homeschool Your Children from the Beginning

By Alicia Van Hecke

Since I was homeschooled myself, I've been thinking about the idea for quite some time. My younger brother and I spent many hours discussing the merits and possibilities of homeschooling. By the time I was married I was fairly certain that I would homeschool my children. When I started reading things about homeschooling, though, I was disappointed to find very little information that specifically addressed parents who were going to homeschool their children from the beginning and gave people an idea of how to prepare for such an undertaking. Don't get me wrong, there's lots of wonderful information that's useful to homeschoolers at that stage, but I wanted someone to answer questions like - when do I start?

The following is a list of things that we have found useful in preparing to homeschool our children

Pray!

Can't give you better advice than that. That'll help you answer all the major questions of course - am I really supposed to homeschool? when do I start? what curriculum do I use? will my kids be socialized???? Remember when praying for successful homeschooling to define that success according to God's plan for your children. Beware of tyrannical societal conventions.

Read to your children!

Read lots of good books to your children. I think the Lives of the Saints and stories from the Bible are two of the most important areas to cover in your reading. But I also think it would be a mistake to limit the stories to ones with "religious" content. I recommend reading For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer McCauley. It has some excellent pointers for choosing books and ideas on how to read and discuss them with your children. Here are some booklist books that will be a great help in finding wonderful stories to share with your children:

  • Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum by Laura Berquist
  • For the Love of Literature by Maureen Wittmann
  • A Landscape with Dragons by Michael O'Brien
  • A Picture-Perfect Childhood by Cay Gibson
  • Reading the Saints by Janet McKenzie

Do your own reading!

Take the time now to read some of the good books about education (see Books About Education for some suggestions). Remember that you aren't required to read every word. You can skip the sections on teenagers and pulling your kids out of school (for now). Write down a few thoughts - things that you liked from each book. Talk ideas through with your spouse and perhaps some friends (especially homeschooling ones). Read some wonderful blogs written by Catholic Homeschool families (each with their own unique challenges, ideas and methods).

Here are a few blogs to get you started. Though most haven't been updated in a while, the older posts contain plenty of homeschool stories and wisdom. :)

Try to start developing an idea of what you want for your children's education, but don't expect to have it all figured out before your oldest starts kindergarten! You can also check out our page on providers of Catholic Homeschool Programs.

Learn right now!

Don't spend all your time thinking and preparing for future homeschooling. Right now your children are eager and ready to learn all kinds of neat stuff. That doesn't mean you need to go out and buy them stacks of workbooks. Spend a lot of time with them doing puzzles, reading, playing outside, observing nature out-of-doors, playing with blocks, drawing, talking about things... There's no time like the present. Also, don't worry too much about waiting till they're "old enough" to appreciate a certain book, game etc. (within reason). Try out interesting things with your children - maybe they'll love learning the Greek Alphabet! Have fun.