Homeschooling as a Single Parent

✨Homeschooling as a Single Parent✨
-Knowing the state laws
-Building your village
-Doing regular Stuff

Parenting is going to be challenging. Homeschooling is going to be challenging. If it’s something you’re committed to doing, here just a few ways to make it happen.

✨Not to be confused with distance learning, that’s a whole different struggle/balancing act.

So, you want to start homeschooling.
Step 1: Check your state laws
www.hslda.org
Step 2: Deschool
Step away from what you think School is supposed to look like. Most children only need 1-2 hours of active instruction per day
Step 3: Join homeschooling groups/communities
Step 4: Learn about different types of homeschooling (unschooling, worldschooling, gameschooling, hybrid, co-ops, Montessori, etc)
Step 5: Choose a curriculum or build your own
Step 6: Create a schedule that you and your children can agree to
Step 7: Find out your teaching style and your children’s learning style
Step 8: Don’t be scared to ask questions, take breaks, scrap it all and start all over

This is not a comprehensive list of steps 🙂
There is a lot of information to sift through and it can feel like it’s TOO MUCH. Be patient with yourself.

Signed,
A homeschool mom that has changed approaches several times, joined, subscribed, and starting programs and left, bounced between co-ops, forgets to keep records (sometimes), and takes more breaks than the average school year consists of and my daughter still scores above average on standardized test (which I think are trash because my babies not standard)

You got this!

How to choose curriculum:

✨You can ask for recommendations BUT it really comes down to what YOU want and what works best for YOU and your child(ren).

Some curriculum might work well for one child but not the other.

1. Ask for recommendations.

2. Read the reviews on the website.

3. If this isn’t available on the website, ask for a sample or see if a trial is offered.

4. Let your child have a say so in what curriculum you choose.

Don’t choose a curriculum because someone else said it worked for their children.

5. You can pick and choose which sets you want to combine. Full set curriculums can be purchased but you can also purchase math/science/ELA/SS workbooks from different retailers.

I make recommendations and suggestions based of what I like and what my daughter has enjoyed. I also develop the majority of my lesson plans and curriculum.

✨You do not have to shell out a ton of money.

FREE online resources that I use:

PBS (they have an entire history section complete with lesson plans, worksheets, and videos).

Scholastic (book discussion questions, study guides, and project ideas).

Supplements that I use:

-Kamali (ELA workbook)
-Project Ujima (history workbook)
-Beaut and Beast (Flashcards – history and vocabulary)
-Blackgirl Mathgic (Math subscription box)
-Because of Them We Can (history subscription box)
-Election Day (board game – government)
– Rhyme Antics (board game – vocabulary)
– Black Wallstreet (board game – Business/Finance, Math)
–
⬆️All black owned ⬆️

Spectrum (science and geography workbooks)
Horrible histories/math/geography Books

And, just books and reading…and plenty trips to Michaels(art)!

Things you can do instead of buying curriculum:

✨Read together
✨Watch documentaries together
✨Cook together
✨Let your children watch you budget and pay bills
✨Take a walk and talk to one another
✨Clean the house together
✨Draw pictures together
✨Meditate/Pray together
✨Exercise together
✨Build something together
✨Plant/start a garden together
✨Compose a song and dance/sing together