Focus and Purpose of Each Unit

Homeschooling ≠ School at Home: It’s important to start here if you want to avoid some common mistakes right from the start! Become clear about your goals, let go of perceived limitations, and set the stage for a more peaceful transition.

Staying Legal, and Determining Learning Goals: Here you will figure out what you absolutely have to do, and also decide what else is important for you to do. Having clear goals makes it easier to actually reach those goals. This also introduces you to how to design a class plan for specific goals.

Learning Needs & Preferences; Socialization & the Real World; and Motivation: Increase the likelihood of homeschooling success, with “success” meaning that 1)  the student has learned, 2) has done so with as much peace and joy as possible, and 3) has prepared for life beyond school.

Assessment & Feedback: How do you grade? Is grading necessary? Learn how assessment and feedback can be a useful part of the learning process.

Curriculum & Tools; Public School Options; and Online Schools: Learn what questions to ask, and what follow-up questions to ask, to get straight answers when evaluating your options. 

What About College?: Know that college can be used as part of a high school program. Also, understand how to design your learning plans to aim for college preparation and admissions. 

"Reflect" and "Take Action" Sections

You might be tempted to jump past the “Reflect” and “Take Action” sections in this course. 

Please, give them a try. Taking the time to do these can save you time.

They are there to focus your mind and energy on what’s important, helping you quickly absorb and apply the information. Bonus: many are also thought-exercises you can use with other people to help them understand why and how you are homeschooling!

Video Clips

Some people find it easier to watch the videos first, and others prefer to read the text-base information first. Please do what works best for you. Note that the text-based information might have content not covered in the video clips.

Additional Resources & Guidance

Every section of this course could have been an entire class on its own. However, you likely don’t have time for that much information right now!  As such, most of the content was kept brief, and then suggestions for additional resources and guidance are provided along the way. In these cases, you can skip past this content and return to these suggestions later when you feel ready for them.

Go In Order

Final Tip: The sections of this course were organized to build upon each other, so the content will probably be most helpful if you work through it in the order it is presented.