Question:
We'd love to homeschool but don't know how to start. How did you get started?
Answer:
We've been homeschooling since our oldest was in first grade. The reason we pulled her out of school then was because of vaccination disagreements, but that is not the same reason we homeschool today.
First, we found our state's laws by going here, and submitted appropriate forms to the school district to inform them of our intent to homeschool. This is different in every state so make sure you find out your state's laws.
We then joined a local homeschooling group and bought a very simple and cheap curriculum to start off with. I won't lie. It wasn't all that easy and I was sure I was ruining my daughter forever. The first year was the worst but it has gotten much easier every year after - even now when we are officially schooling 4 of our 7 children.

Question:
What kind of curriculum do you use?
Answer:
Like most homeschoolers who've been at it a while, we take a very ecclectic approach to curriculum. And while we use a pretty normal curriculum for subjects like math, we don't do regular book work in science, history or social studies. We love taking the hands on approach with these subjects - call us 'partial unschoolers'. Our primary book for learning is the Bible. We use it as a springboard for everything.
Getting outside, helping the kids experiment, getting them involved in projects we're doing, keeping a pretty extensive library, etc... all helps them enjoy learning. It is also amazing how much our children pick up just by talking with them. Since we are available to answer their questions they feel more free to ask them - and boy do they! Conversation is a terrific way to learn in many different areas. It's through conversation that we recognize our children's interests. Encouraging them to investigate more about what they are interested in will help develop their love for learning through what they love to learn about. We feel that this not only teaches them a skill but also teaches them how to learn. Knowing how to learn is a tool they can and will use to pursue any subject they want, whether it comes from their school books or not.
So, you can see that yes, we do find importance it telling them what to learn in certain areas, but we find greater importance in teaching our children how to learn, which is an essential element necessary for a child's full potential to be found.

Question:
How many hours is your school day?
Answer:
This is an absolutely impossible question to answer. While we do have a specified time of work for a couple of hours each day, the learning doesn't stop when the school books are put away. Since we don't watch TV that leaves a lot of time for the children to discover other ways of entertaining themselves. Usually, after the book work has been completed, my boys head outside in search of bugs and lizards - often carrying around their numerous National Audobon Field Guides with them. Kait has a particular interested in photographing wildlife and can often be found sitting silently with her camera around her neck. It would appear that the learning never stops around here.

Question:
I want to homeschool but I'm worried about socialization. I don't want my kids to be weird. How do you deal with the lack of socialization?
Answer:
Easy answer. I stopped worrying about socialization when I started homeschooling. I also don't care if somebody thinks my kids are weird. If not dying your hair black, not wearing revealing clothing, not piercing every body part, not drinking or having adult relations, not smoking, not cursing, not disrespecting authority is weird then I'm all for having weird kids. Most homeschooled kids have terrific, caring friends whose parents are good friends with each other, too. There's plenty of appropriate socialization going on. Just because homeschooled kids aren't typical doesn't make it wrong. Actually, it makes it very, very right!

Question:
How do you know your kids won't grow up not understanding how to function in a sinful world when they've been sheltered from it their entire lives?
Answer:
We begin teaching our children about sin from a very early age. We don't even put them in children's church anymore, but have all seven of them sitting right in the sanctuary with us learning from the real Bible. We want them to know and understand the truth of God's word. We want them to have a through knowledge of good and evil, and we want them to know the consequences of each. While we do shelter them much more than the average parent shelters his kids, we haven't hidden everything sinful from them. We discuss evil with them straight from the Bible. Because of this they can spot evil in the world immediately and know to stay far from it.

Question:
What is the hardest thing about homeschooling?
Answer:
So far, the most difficult part of homeschooling has been disciplining the youngers while the school is officially in session in our home. You thought I was going to say something about a certain subject or getting the work done on time, didn't you. The little guys tend to get away with disobedience more often and know that during school hours they are less likely to get into trouble for their offenses. It takes constant effort on my part to keep them in line. My oldest has become very helpful in this area.

Question:
How do you deal with lazy children who don't want to finish their work or only work with minimal effort?
Answer:
Learning how not to be lazy is a part of childhood discipline. If this isn't taught out of a child when they begin demonstrating it they will no doubt grow up to be lazy adults who have a hard time focusing on any task. In our home a lazy child is delt with by training them to not be lazy. Sometimes laziness is just a bad habit, but often the laziness stems from a disobedient heart. In the first case, we give them a short assignment where the work must be done to perfection before they can move on to something else. This is repeated many times a day, each day, until the lazy habit has been broken. In the second case, where laziness is in the heart, we discipline it as we would any other disobedience.

Question:
Do you take holidays off? What about summers and after a baby is born?
Answer:
We take book work off here and there, but we don't take as much vacation time as the public schools do. Christmas time gets about 3 or 4 days, Thanksgiving a day or two. During Easter we take Good Friday off and we do school here and there during the summer. After we have a new baby we take off a full month. We do this when we are being transferred, also.

Great resources we have found helpful -

The Home School Legal Defense Association

Homeschooling Adventures

A to Z Home's Cool

All Things Homeschool

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

Christian Light Publishing (non-profit curriculum publishers)

Tips -

• Don't teach irritated. When you're irritated the schooling isn't fun. You're kids are less likely to retain much information, as well.
• Don't spend more than 30 minutes on a tough subject. You're kids will burn out very quickly.
• Teach your children to be respectful of one another. This means keeping quiet during another child's reading or testing time and not rubbing it in if something that is easy for them is hard for their siblings.
• Be encouraging. Sometimes this means dropping a particular problem subject or section for a while and coming back to it a few months later. A discouraged child can have their natural love for learning snuffed out easily.
• Don't try to stuff your child with more information than their ready to learn. A 4 year old doesn't have to learn to read. Sometimes recognizing that schooling isn't a competition can make all the difference in a frustrating school day.
• Realize that not all children are the same. Just because Sally read at 3 doesn't mean that John will. John may not be ready to read until he is 7. And that's okay. Don't push your children to the point that they'll hate reading.
• Do it all for the glory of God.