How to Start Homeschooling in the US
Starting homeschool can feel ridiculously complicated at first. There is so much advice, so many curriculum choices, and approximately 400 people on the internet telling you that their way is the right way.
It really doesn’t need to be that complicated.
I first started homeschooling my son in the UK because he needed a different approach to learning. We moved to South Florida in 2018 and carried on homeschooling there for more than five years. He then spent two years in public high school, and now, at 16, we’re back homeschooling for his junior and senior years in North Alabama.
So I’ve started homeschooling more than once, in different countries, different states, and at very different ages.
The biggest thing I’ve learned? Start with the legal stuff. Not the curriculum shopping.
Check Your State’s Homeschool Laws
Before you buy curriculum, make a schedule, or start imagining what your homeschool room is going to look like, find out what your state actually requires.
Homeschool laws are different in every state.
Depending on where you live, you may need to notify someone that you’re homeschooling, teach particular subjects, keep attendance records, arrange testing, or meet other requirements. Some states require very little.
Our homeschool laws by state tool brings the main requirements together in one place, including:
- Notification requirements
- Required subjects
- Attendance rules
- Testing and evaluations
- Record keeping
- Graduation requirements
Use that as your starting point, then check the current information from your state’s official education department or legislation.
Do this before buying curriculum. There is no point planning the perfect year and then discovering you’ve missed something your state actually requires.
Withdraw Your Child From School Correctly
If you’re starting from kindergarten, you may not have a school to withdraw from.
If your child is already in public or private school, don’t just stop sending them. Check exactly what your state and school district require and follow the proper withdrawal process.
Keep copies of:
- Withdrawal letters
- Homeschool notices
- School correspondence
- Previous report cards
- Test results
- IEPs or accommodation records
- Confirmation that the withdrawal was completed
I would also request a complete copy of your child’s school records.
You might not need them now, but they can become important later for placement, credits, testing, transcripts, and college applications. This matters even more if you’re starting homeschool during high school.
One other thing that’s easily confused: a state-funded virtual school isn’t necessarily homeschool. Your child may still legally be a public school student who happens to learn at home. Check how the program is classified before assuming homeschool laws apply.
Work Out What You Actually Need From Homeschooling
This is where I think it’s very easy to go wrong.
Homeschooling doesn’t need to mean recreating school at home, complete with six-hour days and everyone sitting at the kitchen table from 8 until 3.
Think about why you’re making the change and what needs to work differently this time.
Consider:
- How independently your child can work
- Whether they prefer books, videos, discussion, or hands-on activities
- How much teaching time you realistically have
- Whether they need lots of structure or more flexibility
- Which subjects need the most support
- Whether online lessons help or become another distraction
- How many children you’re teaching
- Any additional learning needs you need to accommodate
We’ve never used one particular homeschool method for everything.
Some subjects worked brilliantly online. Others were much better with books, discussions, games, projects, or a mixture of everything.
And what worked when my son was younger definitely isn’t the same as what works now that he’s in high school.
The homeschool style quiz can help you compare structured, eclectic, classical, Charlotte Mason, unit study, online, and interest-led approaches.
You don’t have to pick one and pledge allegiance to it forever. Take the bits that work for your family.
Choose Your Homeschool Curriculum
This is normally the part everyone wants to do first.
I get it. Curriculum feels like the thing that makes homeschool “official.”
But you don’t need one perfect curriculum that magically works for every subject.
You can use:
- A complete curriculum
- Different programs for different subjects
- Online courses
- Textbooks and workbooks
- Unit studies
- Library books
- Educational videos
- Printable activities
- A mixture of all of the above
We’ve always mixed and matched.
A math program can be fantastic for your child without that company’s language arts, science, and history automatically being the best choices too.
Our homeschool curriculum finder lets you filter programs by subject, grade, worldview, format, budget, and learning needs. It’s much quicker than comparing 30 programs when 25 of them were never going to suit you anyway.
Before spending money, check:
- What your state requires
- Your child’s actual level, rather than just their age or grade
- How much parent teaching is involved
- Whether lessons are online or printed
- Whether the program is religious or secular
- Whether grading is included
- How much preparation it requires from you
- Whether you can see samples or use a trial
- What it will actually cost for the whole year
I’ve reviewed lots of the programs we’ve used in my homeschool curriculum reviews, including what we liked, what we didn’t, and who I think they’re best suited to.
You can also look through my free homeschool curriculum recommendations, and I have a separate guide to secular homeschool curriculum if that’s what you need.
Most importantly, don’t panic-buy an entire year of curriculum because you’re scared of being unprepared.
Get the essentials sorted. You can add things later.
Create a Homeschool Schedule You Can Actually Follow
I like a plan.
I do not like a plan that requires military precision and falls apart because somebody has a dentist appointment on Tuesday.
Your homeschool schedule needs enough structure to keep everyone moving, but enough flexibility that normal life doesn’t ruin the entire week.
Younger kids often get through focused academic work much faster at home than they would during a full school day. High school is different because the work takes longer and you’re dealing with credits, grades, and college preparation.
A simple homeschool day might include:
- Math
- Language arts
- A break
- Science or history
- Lunch
- Reading, an elective, exercise, or something practical
And no, you don’t have to teach every subject every day.
Science, history, art, music, and plenty of other subjects can be rotated throughout the week.
Our schedule has changed countless times over the years. Now we’re at high school level, we need more structure because I’m tracking credits and we’re thinking about college. But it still needs room for independent work, basketball, piano, appointments, and the occasional lesson that takes approximately three times longer than expected.
The best homeschool schedule isn’t the most detailed one.
It’s the one you’re still using by the end of October.
Set Up Your Homeschool Records From the Beginning
This is one of those incredibly boring things that Future You will be very pleased you did.
Set up a simple record-keeping system at the beginning instead of trying to reconstruct an entire school year later.
Depending on your state and your child’s age, you may need to keep:
- Attendance
- Subjects taught
- Curriculum details
- Samples of completed work
- Reading lists
- Grades
- Test results
- Evaluations
- High school credits
- Course descriptions
My homeschool record-keeping guide explains what you might want to keep and how to organize it without turning yourself into a full-time administrator.
You can also use the homeschool attendance calculator to keep track of completed days and attendance percentages.
If you’re homeschooling high school, I would be much stricter about this.
Record course names, credits, grades, and course descriptions as you go. Do not wait until senior year and attempt to reconstruct everything from old emails, abandoned planners, and your increasingly unreliable memory.
Our homeschool GPA calculator calculates weighted and unweighted GPA too, which makes transcript planning much easier.
Keep the First Month Manageable
Your first week of homeschool does not need to look like the homeschool you’ll have six months later.
Before you start, concentrate on:
- Confirming the legal requirements
- Completing any withdrawal or notification
- Choosing your core curriculum
- Setting up attendance and records
- Getting the basic supplies you genuinely need
Then start.
You could begin with math, language arts, and reading and add the rest once everyone has stopped wondering what they’re supposed to be doing.
Over the next few weeks, add science, history, foreign languages, art, music, electives, or whatever else you’ve planned.
By the end of the first month, you’ll have a much better idea of:
- Whether the curriculum is at the right level
- How independently your child can work
- Which lessons regularly cause problems
- Whether your schedule is remotely realistic
- What needs adding
- What needs changing
- What you can happily get rid of
One of the best things about homeschooling is that you can change things.
If a curriculum clearly isn’t working, changing it isn’t failing. Forcing everyone to use it for another eight months because you’ve already paid for it isn’t particularly useful either.
Plan for Life Outside the Curriculum
Homeschooling is more than finishing math and English every day.
Depending on your child’s interests, your week might also include:
- Sports
- Music lessons
- Homeschool co-ops
- Library programs
- Field trips
- Youth groups
- Community classes
- Volunteering
- Clubs
- Seeing actual human beings
We’ve used sports, music, travel, museums, libraries, and ordinary everyday activities alongside formal lessons throughout our homeschool years.
Not everything worthwhile needs to become a lesson.
Put these things into your weekly schedule from the beginning. Otherwise it’s very easy to create an academically impressive homeschool plan that leaves absolutely no time to leave the house.
What I Wish I’d Known Before I Started Homeschooling
I spent far too much time in the early years worrying about whether we were doing enough.
Looking back, these are the things I wish I’d understood sooner:
- Homeschool doesn’t need to look like school.
- One curriculum probably won’t be brilliant for every subject.
- Expensive doesn’t automatically mean better.
- You’re allowed to change curriculum.
- More resources often create more work, not better learning.
- Kids need very different amounts of support at different ages.
- Record keeping becomes much more important once you reach high school.
- A simple plan you actually follow beats an elaborate plan abandoned after three weeks.
The biggest advantage of homeschooling is that you can adapt education to the child sitting in front of you.
There’s not much point having that flexibility and then replacing the school system with an equally rigid system of your own.
Ready to Start Homeschooling?
Don’t try to plan the next twelve years this afternoon.
Start with three things:
- Check the homeschool laws in your state.
- Use the homeschool curriculum finder to narrow down programs that might actually suit your family.
- Explore my homeschooling resources for curriculum, planning, individual subjects, high school resources, printables, and online tools.
Get the legal requirements sorted, choose your core subjects, set up your records, and start.
You can figure out the rest as you go. That’s pretty much how homeschooling works anyway.
