Welcome to Homeschool by Texas Home School Coalition Association

Welcome to Homeschooling

TEXAS

HOMESCHOOL COALITION

Keeping Texas Families Free

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. FOREWORD FROM ROXANNE PARKS 2. FIRST STEPS TO HOMESCHOOLING Have a Vision Don’t Expect Perfection Let Yourself Have Fun Find Your “Edge”—and Avoid It Celebrate Your Kids’ Uniqueness Remember You Are Not Alone

3. GETTING STARTED Properly Withdraw from Public School Get Your House in Order Teach Yourself About Homeschooling Know the Teaching Style You Can Handle Understand Your Children’s Learning Styles Find the Right Curriculum THSC—Suggested Curriculum Discover What You Don’t Need Optional, But Highly Recommended

4. SCHEDULING YOUR HOMESCHOOL Daily School Time Tracking Everyday Tasks Chores Organizing the House Time-Wasters

5. HOMESCHOOLING WITHIN THE LAW Dealing With CPS Homeschooling an Adopted or Split Custody Child

If you never thought you would one day be homeschooling, don’t worry— I never thought so either.

Foreword from Roxanne Parks

y husband and I had four kids in five years, and I felt a sense of relief when I finally enrolled my youngest in kindergarten. Now I had the day to myself to grab lunch with a friend, go jogging, or whatever I wanted to do! But shortly thereafter, my two oldest kids (around nine at the time) came to me and asked to be homeschooled. Needless to say, I was very taken aback and even more doubtful. I associated homeschooling with “weird,” super-smart people who baked their own bread and kept massive gardens in their backyards. I nearly laughed at the thought. Me, homeschool? Me, become one of those “weird” people? My kids were undeterred. I had always encouraged a can-do spirit in my house, prodding my family to try rather than adopt an attitude of failure. My kids reminded me of the times I had encouraged them to keep trying and asked me to push forward with the idea of homeschooling. I was both proud of their memories and uncertain about my own wisdom at this point. I took my concerns to my husband. Was I strong enough, patient enough, smart enough? Would my kids make it into college? Where would we even start? Furthermore, Ivy League schools had recently begun recruiting homeschoolers just as aggressively as they were public or private schooled students. Homeschooling was growing in prestige and popularity. But even this good news led to more questions. How do homeschooled students get transcripts? How would they be eligible for college admissions? Despite these doubts, after much prayer and soul-searching, we felt overwhelmingly convicted to homeschool our kids. We withdrew from public school, and the adventure began. I drew up a vision for my homeschool. Originally, my plan was to homeschool through the third grade to establish us as a close-knit family who loved the Lord. Once third grade arrived, my kids would transition back into public school. After all, elementary school materials would be simple and fun to teach. Let the other teachers handle the hard stuff in later grades. But ultimately, I found myself enjoying my new teaching role and time with my kids too much to end at third grade. I’m proud to say my husband and I homeschooled our children till the end of high school, and all four have now graduated from college. Homeschooling may seem like a daunting task that raises many questions. But with dedication and care, just about any family can cultivate a successful homeschooling environment for their children. T E X A S HOM E S C HO O L C OA L I T IO N —

1. First Steps to Homeschooling

Homeschooling is not a decision to be made lightly, and creating a plan is critical. Why do you want to homeschool? Know why you are making this choice. If you aren’t sure where to start, this section will help you begin to focus on your decision and to visualize its impact on your life.

A. Have a Vision

B. Don’t Expect Perfection

In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “Fail to plan, plan to fail.” Start by drawing up a plan for your homeschool journey. Will you homeschool up to a certain grade level or until graduation? Go to THSC.org and read more about homeschooling high school and beyond. Will you have set times or a more flexible schedule? Ask the important questions and make sure your vision contains definite answers.

Never be afraid to ask for help as you begin homeschooling. Guidance for new homeschooling families is invaluable. It can be as simple as attending a homeschooling conference or two (such as THSC’s Called to Teach Conventions), finding a co-op, or even just asking other families about their own homeschooling routines.

But as you draft this vision, remember that God’s plan may not look exactly like yours. Pray over your vision and change it as you feel led. Stay yielded to God’s will and your family’s wishes as you plan your homeschooling journey. Most of all, if God wills that the vision should change, change the vision. It may be humbling and difficult to accept, but God sometimes requires that our dreams die to make way for His perfect will. Surrender the vision with all its flaws and all your doubts to God and let Him work things out for good.

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There’s also no shame in hiring a tutor or house cleaner if you can’t do it all yourself. Not everyone will have the money or the need to do this, but it’s a perfectly legitimate choice. Moreover, don’t let yourself fall into the trap of perfection. One of the most freeing things a homeschool parent can do is to realize that even the most perfect of plans will have some flaws. If you demand perfection from your family and yourself, you will inevitably end up frustrated and discouraged. Learn to adjust to the flaws and mistakes you encounter. Solve problems rather than deny their existence. Let everyone adapt to this new routine in his or her own time.

Pressing yourselves to be something you aren’t gets exhausting, so recognize your own insecurities and those of your family. Recognize that God, to keep you reliant on Him, may not grant you total security. Stay surrendered and give your anxieties to God. Your journey will be a “beautiful mess” that may be unpleasant and ugly in the present, but a beautiful learning experience in hindsight.

It is equally important to be careful of comparing your homeschool to other families’ homeschools. Surely, you can learn from others, but never assume that other families have everything figured out and their system is perfect. What works for one family may not work for yours. Measure your system’s success by what your kids get out of it—not how others do it.

Most importantly, be flexible. Many parents can testify that if the defined plan falls apart or not all the chores get done, the whole family can get irritable. Homeschooling gives you the freedom to change your schedule whenever you want, however you want, to accommodate any surprises or challenges that may arise. Focus more on the experience of learning than on completing everything on a chart, and trust God to see you through the hard times. Recognize that flexibility means more than just adapting to any situation. It also means adapting to your own mistakes.

C. Let Yourself Have Fun

Roxanne Parks, a homeschooling veteran, recalls one time when she accidentally skipped a subject for a whole school year. “Luckily I was around someone who mentored and discipled me,” she says. Roxanne’s mentor told her not to worry about what was done and to plan on hitting the skipped subject doubly hard the following school year. Following her mentor’s advice, Roxanne managed to steer her homeschool program back on track. While you may never make a mistake quite this significant, it’s important to remember that mistakes do happen. The best thing you can do is allow yourself to move on and work to improve things in the future.

Of course, how much fun you or your family has while homeschooling isn’t the standard of success. But a bland, uninteresting school environment doesn’t lend itself well to learning. There’s a variety of ways to make the school day more interesting for you and your students. Instead of just reading about different animal species, take everyone to the zoo or aquarium for a close-up, real-life experience. Redo the time-honored experiment of the baking soda volcano to discuss chemical reactions. You’ll be learning and reviewing these concepts along with your kids, so make them interesting for you too!

D. Find Your “Edge”—and Avoid It No one likes to admit it, but we all have triggers that just drive us insane. It may be a sleepless night, missing a meal, one too many broken toys, or any kind of stress that turns us into red-faced, raging monsters. You likely know from experience what pushes you to the edge and upsets your family. Be careful not to let yourself reach that point.

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Changing your homeschool schedule as needed can help you avoid your edge. Did you sleep less than an hour last night? Maybe today is a good day to do lighter schoolwork or declare a holiday so you can rest. Whatever ends up being necessary, keep yourself from the edge. Slowing the pace down a bit or skipping a day of schoolwork is far better than pushing through with a bad attitude that can easily rub off on your family. Maintaining a healthy relationship with your children matters more than ensuring they learn Newton’s third law right now.

E. Celebrate Your Kids’ Uniqueness Many homeschooling parents have said that the one-sizefits-all approach of the public school system doesn’t help their children. That’s the beauty of homeschooling. Each of your children is different and thus benefits from different approaches to learning. Part of adapting to their uniqueness is finding curriculum that works for different learning styles (see different learning styles for more content). But it doesn’t stop there. Accept and celebrate that your children may never use the minute details of everything they’re learning now. Your four-year-old who argues with you about math might grow up to be an animator instead of a scientist. Find ways to build your children up and show that you believe in them. Celebrate victories, no matter how small, and find teachable moments in mistakes or failures. Most of all,

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show the love of Christ to your children. As with anything in homeschooling, your children are learning from your actions. Your responses to difficulties will dictate theirs. In essence, let your kids grow to be whoever God wants them to be. Your children will not and should not grow up to be mere clones of you and your spouse. God gave them their own personalities, and your job is to let those personalities flourish. Show your kids that you believe in them always, even if they grow up to be nothing like you.

F. Remember You Are Not Alone There will inevitably be days when you feel overwhelmed. You’ll be holding a basket of five loaves and two fish, staring at a crowd and wondering how you’ll feed everyone. You’ll be looking at everything that’s gone wrong and desperately trying to scrape the pieces together. Whatever the circumstance, just remember that God is not absent. Even if you can’t see Him, He is working all things together for your ultimate good. Never stop praying. Don’t forget your homeschool “tribe” either! There will always be fellow homeschooling parents who will come alongside you to help you and lift you up. Don’t be afraid to reach out for help when you need it.

2. Getting Started

We rightly believe that doctors are experts in healthy living; lawyers are experts in legal matters, etc. Thus, it may seem logical that public school officials could give you sound advice on how to start your own education program. However, THSC strongly recommends against asking your local public school for any help in homeschooling. As THSC President Tim Lambert says, “That’s like calling the IRS and asking them for help in filling out your tax returns. About forty percent of the time, you get wrong information.”

If your children are just now reaching school age, or if you just moved to a new district and have no history in the local public school, do not contact the school for advice or permission to begin. Legally, you already have the necessary permission. Don’t invite someone else to get involved where they have no right to be.

Email the principal and two to three other authority figures in the school and provide the necessary information: your child’s name, the effective withdrawal date, and your homeschool start date. (It is a good idea to CC THSC on this initial email.) When provided with this information, the school is required to withdraw your children immediately.

THSC employs many legal experts and educators who are more than willing to help you begin your homeschooling journey. You are in much better hands consulting homeschooling veterans and experts rather than the public-school system.

Some districts will contact you after the initial email, asking you to fill out paperwork. Regardless of the school’s policy, filling out their paperwork is not required by state law and generally is not recommended for homeschoolers since some school officials are not well-informed about homeschooling law, leading to occasional confrontational situations.

A. Properly Withdraw from Public School This is a critical step necessary only for families with children currently enrolled in a public school. If your children are currently attending public school at the kindergarten level or higher, you must officially withdraw them to begin homeschooling. It’s recommended to do this in writing for your records and the school’s records.

Create a custom withdrawal letter for your children!

If the school district continues to challenge your withdrawal request or demand further action, ask them to submit their requests to you in writing. See this article for further information on how to do this. Once you’ve received their written requests, all you are legally required to do is to respond with a “letter of assurance or confirmation,” confirming that you have a bona fide curriculum that covers the five required subjects. Once you have sent that letter in response to their requests, your legal bases are covered, and you are obligated to do nothing more. T E X A S HOM E S C HO O L C OA L I T IO N —

Don’t be surprised if the school district continues to harass you after this. Even if you do everything right, school officials who either don’t know the law or simply don’t care may continue to challenge your right to homeschool and demand that you re-enroll your children. This is where being a member of THSC can be a big help. THSC’s legal department is always ready to help homeschooling families faced with legal threats or harassment. THSC has a long history of showing school districts when their behavior falls outside legal requirements and has thankfully never had to sue a school.

B. Get Your House in Order This doesn’t just mean cleaning up, though that’s not a bad idea either. Homeschooling parents must establish themselves as both parents and teachers to their children before home education can begin. If your children don’t acknowledge you as their authority figure, homeschooling will be very difficult. If your children already have a background in public or private schools, the adjustment can take even longer. Your methods will inevitably differ from those used by your children’s old teachers. Even trying to accommodate your children’s learned habits may not help. The best thing you can do is to remind your children that they are in a different educational environment now and that it is in their best interest to adapt. This will take a lot of discipline and care. Don’t wait for your children to become perfectly behaved angels because, let’s be honest, that’s never going to happen. However, your children can learn to accept your authority and your teaching methods. Proceed with care during this crucial time of adjustment.

C. Teach Yourself About Homeschooling If a friend or family member got you into homeschooling, ask them why they made that choice for their own family. Learn from their experiences and see which of their ideas will work for your own family. For further research, THSC offers an abundance of ebooks, articles, audio presentations and other resources that your homeschooling friend may not have. If you prefer an actual book, a few popular choices include: • “The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling” by Debra Bell.

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(Disclaimer: while most of the information in this book is sound and Bell takes a strong Christian approach, her take on learning disabilities is a bit outdated.) • “ How to Homeschool: A Practical Approach” by Gayle Graham. This book shows the day-to-day side of homeschooling and the balancing of education with housework. • Home Educator Quarterly, THSC’s quarterly magazine (technically not a book, but still a valuable resource). • “ The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home” by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise

D. Know the Teaching Style You Can Handle Teaching style depends on your confidence in your teaching ability, the time you can dedicate to your homeschool and how many kids you have and their ability to work independently. It’s perfectly normal to be nervous if you’re just starting out. So, make choices that will work with your confidence level. For instance, first-time homeschoolers may find themselves confused by abstract unit studies or living book programs (discussed in more detail below). Curriculum with a more defined schedule can help a new homeschooler a great deal.

E. Understand Your Children’s Learning Styles For now, we’ll focus on auditory, visual and kinesthetic learning styles. Most curricula can accommodate all three to some degree. Auditory learning simply means that your child learns best by listening. Songs and audio lessons may be helpful to this type of learner. Even having a detailed conversation about the topic can help them retain information better. A visual learner, of course, learns by seeing. Seeing a math problem written out on the board will mean more to them than having it explained to them. Visual learners do well with pictures, movies or other visual media. Finally, a kinesthetic learner learns through hands-on experience. Help him with that math problem—but let him do the work himself. Come up with projects and work to keep his mind engaged and help him remember what he’s learning. Explore THSC.org for more information on learning styles. T E X A S HOM E S C HO O L C OA L I T IO N —

F. Find the Right Curriculum There are a couple of important things to keep in mind while searching for the best curriculum for your homeschool. First, don’t be afraid to use different curriculum for different kids. Maybe your fourth-grader is a visual learner and prefers books with lots of pictures, and your thirdgrader learns better by memorizing educational songs. In that case, don’t try to force songs on your fourth-grader or picture books on your third-grader. Learn what curriculum and programs work for each student. Second, if you try a curriculum and it simply doesn’t work, you didn’t fail. You learned what doesn’t work. Keep trying new ideas until you find one that sticks. Think of every failure, every mistake, as a stepping-stone. And what’s the greatest thing about a mistake? The chance to learn from it. This lesson is as important for you as it is for your kids. If they see you allowing yourself to fail and picking yourself up, they will understand that they are free to do the same. They will not hold themselves to an impossible perfect standard unless you hold yourself to one. Most parents imagine using traditional textbooks available from curriculum publishers like Bob Jones University or Abeka. These books teach subjects in a chapter-based system and usually include tests and other activities separate from the primary textbook. Children with a public or private school background will probably recognize this as one of the more popular styles. A slightly different approach to education is consumable workbooks like those published by Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) or Alpha Omega Publications. Workbooks divide a subject into “paces” designed for the student to do by himself, each ending with a test. Once the student has completed a section, you administer the test. Workbooks generally contain the same lessons and information as a traditional textbook, but in a format that helps students work independently. The only downside is that workbooks are designed to be used only once, so you can’t pass them down to your younger children.

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Online programs, like Alpha Omega’s Switched-OnSchoolhouse, are also gaining popularity. These programs function similar to a workbook, allowing the student to complete a lesson on his own and to take a test. The program then grades the test itself and lets the teacher decide if the results are satisfactory, saving a good amount of work time. Since everything is electronic, the curriculum can easily be updated or altered without waiting on new books to arrive.

Another method, popular among homeschooling families who take a particularly strong Christian approach to education, is the unit studies. KONOS is a good example of this approach. Each unit is built around a character quality, beginning with attentiveness. For instance, science studies on attentiveness focus on the eye and the ear, and history studies focus on how Native Americans survived by paying attention to the wilderness around them. The downside to unit studies is that you will likely have to supplement sections such as math and phonics with outside curriculum since the lessons are often lacking in those areas. Some homeschooling families have found it helpful to use the umbrella method, where one lesson is taught to the entire family and each child responds at his or her appropriate age level. For instance, after learning about Texas history, the seventh-grader writes a paper, the third-grader writes a paragraph, and the kindergartener draws a picture. Everyone learns the same lesson, but the homework differs depending on their capability. Other homeschoolers prefer the living book method, which centers an entire period of education around a book or series of books, like “Little House on the Prairie” or “Hank the Cowdog.” Vocabulary lessons come from unfamiliar words found in the book, geography comes from locations mentioned in the book, etc. This is a very simple system and usually very enjoyable for everyone involved. However, no book will cover every necessary subject (“Little House on the Prairie” can’t help with a lesson on the electoral college, for instance), so you will have to supplement on some topics. Finally, classical education is making a comeback in the homeschooling community. Classical education focuses on reading and discussing such classics as Greco-Roman epics, ancient philosophy, Socratic logic and Latin. The ancient Greeks taught at a level appropriate to each stage of mental development, and this approach follows the Greek method. Classical education does return to a more rigid schedule than some homeschoolers like, and Greco-Roman literature isn’t always a pleasant ride, so this approach isn’t for everyone. Take a deeper dive into the different styles of homeschooling and further examples of each. Regardless of which system you choose, homeschooling law requires you to use a curriculum of some type. You will inevitably spend a decent amount of money to find a curriculum that covers the five required subjects. Visit THSC.org for more guidance on finding the right curriculum for your homeschool.

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G. THSC-Suggested Curriculum Many THSC member families have found the materials on this list to be helpful in their homeschool programs: Traditional Curriculum • Abeka Books • Bob Jones University • Landmark’s Freedom Baptist • Paradigm Accelerated • Saxon Homeschool Workbook Curriculum • Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) • Alpha Omega Publications • Christian Light Umbrella Curriculum • Christian Liberty • Texas Tech University online K-12 program • Rod and Staff Unit Studies • Amanda Bennett’s Unit Studies • Cornerstone Curriculum • Five in a Row • Giles Frontier

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• Heart of Dakota Publishing • Rainbow Resource • Sharing Great Health • Smoothing the Way Living Book • Beautiful Feet Books • Books Bloom • BookShark • Charlotte Mason • “Educating the Wholehearted Child” • “Hank the Cowdog” • Lamplighter Books • Perfect Paula • Sonlight • Total Language Plus Classical • Biblio Plan for Families • Classical Academic Press • Memoria Press • My Father’s World • Tapestry of Grace • The Well-Trained Mind • Trivium Pursuit • Veritas Press

H. What You Don’t Need We normally associate desks, blackboards, bulletin boards, etc., with traditional classrooms and school. Homeschooling requires none of that. You are free to use whatever furniture or accessories you feel are necessary, or to use none of the above and do homework on the couch. However, several of these accessories may still be useful. A map will help with lessons on geography, history or current events, and a whiteboard allows you to easily write out a math problem and erase it. But ultimately, it is your choice. Once you know your approach to teaching, you will have a good idea of what your classroom will need. Visit HomeEducator.com for helpful tips.

I. Optional, But Highly Recommended Homeschool law requires that parents teach reading, spelling, grammar, math and good citizenship. Several key subjects are absent from this list but are still highly beneficial for homeschools to include. • History: As cliché as it may sound, in the words of George Santayana, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” It’s important for us to know our history, and thus important for homeschools to include this as a subject. (Visit HomeEducator.com/Homeschool-HistoryCurriculum for seven history teaching tips.)

• Physical education: Kids have a lot of energy to burn. Even if you don’t have a structured exercise schedule for their PE, let them burn off some steam between lessons. • Science: This is not only an important subject, but a potentially fun one as well. Science lessons can be easily turned into projects such as watching caterpillars turn into butterflies, dissecting specimens and making chemical reactions. Science is a must for any homeschooling family. Find more ways to incorporate science, technology, math and engineering in your homeschool. Daily lesson plans are not required either. Knowing exactly how your day and school plans will function, however, can be a big help. Homeschooling parents are encouraged to make flexible lesson plans to help their days run smoothly. Finally, homeschoolers are also not required to keep records. But any homeschooling family can see the benefit in record-keeping, and many families save samples of their children’s work to show progression throughout the years. Colleges and employers will be interested in your children’s grades, high school transcripts, activities and volunteer history throughout their school years. Keeping records will help your children in the long run. (THSC offers fully customizable transcript templates, report card templates and more to member families.) In this section, we’ll be looking at the major changes to expect when you begin homeschooling and the ways to keep

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4. Scheduling Your Homeschool

Remember how dramatically your life changed once your children were born? Homeschooling those children will be a similarly drastic change. Your family will have to get used to spending the entire day together at home almost constantly, on top of keeping both schoolwork and housework moving along.

your life organized among all the chaos.

activities, but generally, this is the mark to aim for.

Texas law requires that public school students attend school for 170 days out of the year, though the law does not specify which time of year. Once again, this grants you immense freedom to decide which days to hold class and which days to take breaks. Though you may be used to following the traditional schedule of two semesters and a summer vacation, you are under no legal obligation to do so.

Once that instruction time is passed, don’t let the rest of the day go to waste. Take your kids along with you to the store, have them work on projects or crafts, etc. Find unique ways to occupy the rest of their time. Just don’t require or expect them to spend six hours a day working quietly at a desk.

A. Daily School Time Public or private schools traditionally hold classes for six to eight hours per day, five days a week. This amount of time may seem overwhelming to a homeschooling parent. How can you hold class for that long and still have time for chores, doctor visits and errands? Remember that homeschooling functions like tutoring. The one-on-one lesson time is more efficient to learning and helps you finish faster, so a full six to eight-hour school day is not necessary. THSC recommends that you plan for half an hour of detailed daily instruction time for a kindergartener, adding another half hour for every year. This time may be broken up into segments of fifteen minutes or so depending on your other children’s requirements and your daily

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B. Tracking Everyday Tasks As you’re planning upcoming school and extra-curricular activities, keep track on a calendar. (A paper calendar is probably better than a phone calendar in this case.) Not only does this provide you and your family a realistic picture of all your plans, it prevents you from having to keep your entire schedule memorized. A good rule of thumb is to choose the three most important tasks to accomplish every day, with provision for a reward for each accomplishment. This applies to you and your kids. For instance, once the math lesson is complete, your kid gets to watch his favorite show while you make yourself some tea. In short, provide an incentive for both of you to get things done. Remember, a rigid schedule is not necessary for homeschooling and may be detrimental in some cases. However, there’s nothing wrong with defining a strict start and end to

your day, especially in the beginning. You and your kids will feel accomplished once the defined time for school is over. Managing information is also critical. Your kids will likely participate in different activities that you need to keep straight. Aside from the calendar, keep a notebook of all the necessary information for these activities and store the notebook in a prominent place. Keep track of when your kids will be leaving or getting picked up, how long they’ll be gone, what they’ll be doing, etc. If any new information or an urgent reminder comes up, leave a sticky note on the fridge or on the central notebook for future reference.

C. Chores Involve your kids in chores to teach responsibility and to spread the workload. Homeschooling absorbs a decent amount of time, and you likely will not have the time to satisfactorily complete all the chores yourself. Start small, having the kids clean their rooms, and consider long-term chores as the kids show themselves responsible. Many families use a chore chart to divide the work and sometimes provide rewards for completion. Others simply assign a specific chore to each child. Still, others count chores as a home economics course. Find the approach that works best for your family. Regardless of what you choose, don’t expect all the chores to be done perfectly, especially in the beginning. Like homeschooling itself, adjusting to a new chore system will take time.

D. Organizing the House Identify your biggest organization problems and determine the reason for a change. Do you want to keep the kitchen clean so cooking goes faster or because you’re worried about your judgmental in-laws? Ask yourself if this merits a change. From there, determine what caused the problem. Maybe you get distracted halfway through cleaning or don’t even know where to start. If that’s the case, set a timer for five minutes and pick something small to clean or organize. Once the timer goes off, stop working and move on to something else. Practicing work like this will help you build new habits and help you get the house organized little by little. Maybe you simply have too much stuff, and the excess gets stored clumsily somewhere and forgotten. Sort through your

belongings and ask yourself three questions: do I need this, do I use this, and do I love this? Decide whether you can afford to donate a few items to a local charity shop to make room for your important belongings or whether you have the time and motivation to have a garage sale. Either way, you reduce the amount of unnecessary clutter in your home. Additionally, don’t assume that you must keep every completed piece of homework forever. While some families save work samples to show progression over time, homeschoolers do not need to save every assignment. Keep only what you or your children want or need to preserve. As you work to organize your home, remember you do not need to keep your house looking like a Pinterest board. In practice, that image will be hard to maintain while homeschooling. The most important thing is having a system and knowing where everything is, even if that system is organized chaos. Don’t over-organize everything or force yourself to maintain a certain system just for the sake of organization. The kids’ shoes don’t necessarily have to go in the little cubicles if they’re out of the way and you know where to find them. Your main goal should be creating whatever system works for your family, not creating unnecessary new habits.

E. Time-Wasters Cell phones, video games, computers, TV or even your house phone disrupt your school day. Are any of these devices evil or negative by themselves? Absolutely not. Can they be abused and detract from learning? Absolutely. While outright banning any of these devices is not a good idea, learning to keep them under control is. Only allow educational movies or games during school hours. Set phones to “do not disturb” until lessons are over. If using a computer-based curriculum, consider blocking unnecessary websites or programs during school hours. Ensure that your students’ focus remains solely on their work. Your homeschool group might become a time-waster too! As contradictory as it may seem, your support group can detract from your homeschool if you invest too much time in it. Even chores can detract from homework. Make sure your focus stays on educating your children.

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5. Homeschooling Within the Law

Texas law permits homeschooling, but many law enforcement or public school officials are simply ignorant of what the law truly permits. Unfortunately, many homeschool families will be confronted with legal threats. While these cases are usually resolved quickly, it’s critical to know just how to handle the situation should it arise.

A. Dealing With Child Protective Services (CPS) On one hand, CPS helps many children by removing them from abusive homes and helping them thrive in a healthy environment. On the other hand, CPS officials can be just as poorly informed on homeschooling law as any other government official, and many unfortunately associate homeschooling with abusive households. While recent years have seen improvement with only about 0.05 percent of THSC members reporting CPS interactions, homeschooling families still have to deal with unwarranted CPS visits. It’s important to know what a worst-case scenario with CPS might look like and how to weather the storm. Visit HomeEducator.com to educate yourself further on this topic. First, know that CPS has no authority to enforce a compulsory attendance statute in Texas and no authority to enter your home without a court order or your express permission. The Fourth Amendment protects you from their unreasonable search and seizure. Second, it’s recommended that you record your interactions with the CPS worker. Texas is a one-party-consent state, so the CPS official’s permission is not required. Ask him or her to explain the allegations that led to the visit to your home. Make sure to contact THSC at this point and refer all future communications to our specialized CPS lawyer. Most importantly, do not allow CPS to intimidate you. As a fit homeschooling parent operating within the bounds of the law, CPS has no legal right to touch you or your family. That’s not to say that they may attempt to do things outside of the law and may temporarily succeed in hampering your

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homeschool. But rest assured that THSC works tirelessly to make sure CPS leaves fit homeschooling families alone and focuses on actual abuse cases. Though it may take time, THSC wins the majority of cases against CPS.

B. Homeschooling an Adopted or Split-Custody Child Some homeschooling families have included adopted children in their education program. The good news is that once the adoption is finalized, the children are yours and you are completely free to homeschool them. The court only has jurisdiction over their education while the adoption is in progress. For a divorced parent, or one in the process of divorcing, the situation is more complicated. Even if the homeschooling parent has primary custody, the estranged spouse can still go through the courts to request a change to the situation. Two steps are recommended in cases like this. First, keep the estranged spouse informed of the choice to homeschool, even if he or she is not a part of it. Describe your chosen curriculum and schedule. This way the estranged spouse may be able to contribute some input and can’t later claim ignorance of your choice. Second, though it is not legally required, it is highly recommended in this case to regularly have your children tested by a third party. If the estranged spouse contests the decision to homeschool, the judge’s decision will be based on what is best for the children. Test records showing their educational progress will help immensely in that case.

THSC.org Homeschooling Multiple Grades Homeschooling 1st Grade Homeschooling High School and Beyond HomeEducator.com Setting Up Your Homeschool Classroom 8 Types of Home Schooling (Classical, Charlotte Mason, Unschooling, Montessori and More!) Homeschooling With Special Needs

Welcome to homeschooling is provided by the Texas Homeschool Coalition

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