From how to get started, to what it’s been like, all you need to know about our experience with homeschooling and resources are in the links in this page (which is currently being updated). We homeschooled our 4th and 7th grade boys last year during our travels. For the 2020-21 school year, we are homeschooling our 5th grader with a few of his buddies in a small pod that is like our own little school. I hope this info might be of use to you.

PODCASTS & BOOKS THAT INSPIRED ME THE MOST ABOUT HOMESCHOOLING:

GETTING STARTED WITH HOMESCHOOLING

  • General Overview – Homeschooling 101
  • Legalities
    • CA State Laws regarding homeschooling – 
      • Option 1 of 3 is what we are doing. I am not required to have specific certification in CA as a teacher, though I have prior certifications in other states, but we are required to provide instruction in the courses commonly taught in the public schools (e.g., language arts, math, science, social studies, health) 
      • I keep these records as part of my responsibilities in homeschooling.  
      • I’m not automatically exempted from the possibility of jury duty as a homeschooling parent, but hopefully they wouldn’t make me stay if I got called. 
      • Access to special needs services is not guaranteed in homeschooling and I can’t provide it in a formal manner, though I have prior training in how to adapt, accommodate, and modify for moderate special needs from my Master of Science in Education. 
      • There are no requirements for immunizations in CA for homeschooling.   
      • Withdrawing your child from their local school district – This template can help to notify your local school.
    • More legal information and general support/resources can be found with HSLDA – Homeschool Legal Defense Association

OUR EXPERIENCE DURING OUR FIRST YEAR – Blog posts about the initial ups and downs during school year 2019-20. I’ve learned so much that can help me be better prepared heading into year two!

  • Homeschooling – Our Daily Skills Practice
  • Homeschooling – The First Three Weeks
  • Field Trip Flops
  • Kids In Charge!
  • By January, my boys were setting their own goals within the curriculum, creating their own schedules, and highly aware of their working and learning styles. Into the spring, we were all able to see exciting progress overall. Even before the COVID-19 Pandemic, our youngest decided he wanted to continue homeschooling. Our oldest was on the fence, but heading into 8th grade, his priority is trying out what his friends are doing, so he will pursue the local district’s remote learning opening to school. We will see if he likes it, or if he will want more autonomy and make a transition back to homeschooling.
  • “Emergency Homeschooling” Tips- Advice for friends at the beginning of the pandemic based on my reflections after homeschooling myself for 8 months at the time.

OUR PROCESS GOING INTO 2020-21

As parents of the four children in our little pod, we got together to address the steps we would need to take in order to establish our little school. First, we agreed on our PURPOSE (language inspired in large part by the article “Homeschool GPS“)

Then we discussed our VISION for our children’s future and for our coming school year more specifically, including our fears and needs, as outlined in the image below.

Based on the input of the parents, I consulted all of the CA State-Adopted Common Core and other LEARNING STANDARDS, printed out all of the relevant 5th grade level pieces, put them in binders, and began the process of determining what would be required, according to the state, or according to other guiding documents – by skill level or by knowledge – by the end of the coming school year in order to feel equipped to enter 6th grade the following year in our local district schools if desired.

Our tiny pod hosts children with experiences in diversity when it comes to ancestry, ethnic culture, race, and religion to name just a few. Elements of social justice learning will be threaded throughout our experience both formally and informally. These resources inspired me for how to weave it in:

As pod parents, we will meet again within the first two weeks of August 2020 to review all of the learning standards and decide which things are non-negotiable and why, which things are not essential to our purpose and vision for this year, and which things we want to prioritize for this year that may not be included in formal, written standards, but were important to us during our initial vision-setting dialogue.

Once we determine that, we can create our year-long goals, our measures for our baseline data collection, and subsquently our check-point goals, so that we can measure our progress along the way. My informal conversations with the kids tell me they are excited to create my report card as their learning facilitator, too!

From there, we can very specifically address our philosophies, systems, routines, and more. For perspective, I asked our pod parents to consider the following:

  • This article offers a great overview of a variety of formal approaches within the education field, and particularly in homeschooling.
  • This visual is helpful in seeing a variety of homeschool resources at a glance.  

Meanwhile, I will more formally meet with our homeschool pod children to find out what their individual and collective hopes, dreams, fears, needs, expectations, and desires for the year are. It will be exciting to see what they say and to co-create our systems, routines, calendars, and day to day experiences based on them.

More to come as we proceed… Subscribe to our website by clicking the button at the bottom of our homepage to receive updates!