Questions About Homeschooling

My inbox is always full of questions about homeschooling, especially homeschooling in New York. I am digging into some recent inbox questions and laying it all on the table.

When you get ready to embark on homeschooling your children, it is entirely reasonable to be filled with what if’s, to be slightly stressed out and overwhelmed. If you live in New York, we are considered a pretty strict state for homeschooling, requiring paperwork to be filled out, submitted, and held onto each year. Take a deep breath. If I can homeschool, I am pretty sure you can too. Before we jump into my inbox filled with questions about homeschooling, please take a moment to pin this post to your homeschool board.

What curriculum should I buy?

While I can not tell you specifically what curriculum to buy because it is important to base that decision on how your child learns best and their needs, I can give you pointers on how to choose curriculum and where to purchase it. Here are a couple of posts where I really break down how to choose curriculum and what to keep in mind when choosing it, and where to buy your curriculum.

How do I Schedule My Homeschool?

All homeschools look different. Some of us have lessons Monday through Friday, some of us only do 4 days of lessons, some of us do lessons on the weekends sometimes to catch up. Some of us to our school in the morning while others get more attention in the evening. Whatever works for your homeschool, for you and your children is what is best. Here in New York they don’t care if you work every day from Monday through Friday from 8am to 2pm. All they care about is that you get in you 215 hours for each quarter. Once you change your mindset from traditional school to homeschool, you will start to notice that everything is a learning opportunity and you will start counting it all to your homeschool hours.

How Can I fit all the lessons into our homeschool?

Again, it is best to do what is best for your children. If that means doing math, reading and language arts each day and focusing on one other lesson like art, history, science, or geography. Some subjects can be combined, reading and writing can be found in all subjects. Read about History, practice those reading, vocabulary and even writing skills. Learn about the geography of the places you are learning in history. That is an example of how you can cover it all at one time or in one theme. When you feel like everything is crumbling around you and you can’t keep up, drop everything and just read, read to your children they learn tons from it.

Do Field Trips Count as School?

Yes! Field trips count as school in public school, so field trips, including the trip to the grocery store, post office, bank, and library, as well as anywhere else you go with your children can be considered school. Start making it all a learning experience.

What do I do If My Child is Behind or Advanced?

You teach them based on their proficiency. If they are behind you go to where they are at or even further back and teach from there. My daughter was struggling with math a little bit, we took a break, we went ALL the way back, and started again, so she would have a good foundation, she is still a little off for her grade, but now she has that good foundation, and she is working so quickly she seems to be catching up.

How Does Standardized Testing work in Homeschool?

There is a service called homeschool testing services, and you can purchase the tests and proctor them yourself at home, send the test packet back to the company they will grade it and send you the results, you will then report this to the DOE.

What if I don’t do enough in our Homeschool?

We all worry and stress that we aren’t doing enough, but trust me, you are. If you are doing the work, the research, the implementation. If you are trying, you are doing enough.

What if my Child receives services, such as speech or occupational therapy etc.?

When it comes to services, some local school districts do cover support for homeschooled children, however more likely than not, you would have to get services through your insurance. If your insurance does not cover it, then you have to pay out of pocket.