tell you what to type into an Internet search engine if you want to find certain homeschooling information on the web. For example, using homeschool magazine as a search term should give you most (if not all) the homeschool newsletters and magazines that maintain their own websites, plus a few miscellaneous discussions about the pros and cons of homeschooling magazines in general. (Don’t you love the Internet?)
Foolish Assumptions
Knowing you picked up this book tells me who you are. You, of course, knew who you were all along. I’m the one who has to figure it out, and this is what I came up with so far:
This phenomenon called homeschooling interests you and you want to find out more about it.
You are thinking about teaching your children at home, you already teach your children at home, or you may know someone who does.
This book is the answer to your search for an understandable guide that you can hand to concerned-but-loving grandparents, siblings, and friends because you already homeschool.
You may have a computer at home with Internet access (because most homeschoolers around the country do). Or you may not. Either way, you can use this book because it was written with you in mind.
Words such as unschooling, classical education, and portfolio reverberate in your mind like a half-understood foreign language.
Icons Used in This Book
Throughout the book, you see a collection of handy icons in the margins. While they manage to make the pages look cool as you flip through, they also perform a useful function. They mark information that you want to note for one reason or another.
Beyond the Book
While Homeschooling For Dummies gives you a good introduction to the topic, your adventure certainly doesn’t stop here. For a list of child- and family-friendly magazines and newsletters (some specifically for homeschoolers and some just for fun), take a look at the book’s Cheat Sheet online at Dummies.com. In addition to possible periodical reads, the Cheat Sheet also gives you some handy website suggestions and an easy way to determine a grade point average. Find it at www.dummies.com, and then search for “Homeschooling For Dummies Cheat Sheet.”
Where to Go from Here
Because Homeschooling For Dummies, like all For Dummies books, is divided into easily managed sections, you don’t actually have to start reading at Chapter 1 if you don’t want to. Diving into the middle of the book is great — especially if it contains the information that you need right now. How you read the book is up to you. Read it from front to back, back to front (a little more difficult, but still manageable), or start in the middle and go from there. This decision, like almost every other one in homeschooling, is entirely up to you.
No matter how you decide to digest the book, dive right in — a wealth of information, ideas, and other tidbits await you.
Part 1
Heading to Homeschooling
IN THIS PART …
Ponder the big questions related to homeschooling. How did you get here? Can you afford it? Do you know enough about everything? And how are you going to tell your mother?
Determine your own reasons for homeschooling, and look at some some interesting situations such as teaching and working another job. How and when you begin your journey is completely up to you, but this Part offers suggestions to guide you.
Find your state homeschooling law, including the number of days you need to teach each year in order to be legal. When and if you need to interact with your local school system, you’ll be prepared.
Draw the entire family into the homeschool experience. If you plan to pull students from a public or private school, spend some quality time detoxing from school, or deschooling, before you embark on your new adventure.
Chapter 1
Answering the Big Questions
IN THIS CHAPTER
Perhaps you just found out that your best friend intends to homeschool his children next year, and you want to know more. Maybe you’re thinking of pulling your children out of the local school and want to know about your options. You may be a veteran
