During our homeschool experiment (links are at the very bottom of the page), we’ve benefitted from so many bloggers’ advice and ideas. I’ve generated my own tips throughout the year as well. So I’m hosting this “HOMESCHOOL TIPS AND ADVICE” project to collect links for new homeschooling families, or those considering it. Please write a post to share your own tips, and announce/link to this post, so your readers can find all the great tips as well. Then post your PERMALINK here in Mr. Linky. If you don’t have a blog, please feel free to share your tips and advice in comments. I’ll leave this post in first position, while I’m on vacation over the next week. Thanks!

You’ll find plenty of veteran advice in the links here, but here are my suggestions for novice homeschoolers:

1. Homeschooling is a full-time job, so it should be treated as such, at least at the outset. Even if you choose to only school about half the day (like we did), most likely your children will still be in your care the rest of the time. And you need to consider professional development, interaction with other homeschool teachers, reading what works for others, and reviewing curriculum that meets your family’s needs. I’m a business owner and part-time writer, and although some homeschool teachers manage all those responsibilities very well, it was very stressful for me to juggle it all — and much slipped through the cracks. (There’s an excellent point about burnout in comments – please check it out.)

2. Ideally, both parents share the teaching in some way. If the mom is the teacher, it can help tremendously for the dad to take over the math lessons, or gym. In our family, Dad was “recess.” He was also Principal;) Both roles were critical for my son. Not only does this help to ease the burden of the primary teacher – it also requires the parents to communicate about curriculum goals, and present a united front.

3. Seriously consider teaching a single curriculum to more than one child at the same time, especially for science and social studies. Taking the time to teach separate lessons for all subject areas, to each of your kids, can be overwhelming. Science and social studies are two subject areas that can be easily modified for various ages, and your kids can work as a team to complete projects — each taking on age-appropriate parts of the lessons.

4. Find a way to incorporate breaks into your calendar. For some families, a four-day week works best. Some rotate a “break week” every five weeks, so that the teacher can focus on lesson planning for one week, then focus on teaching for four.

5. Take advantage of the unique opportunities you have as a homeschooling family. School on the weekend once in a while, so you can enjoy recreational activities during the week, when the lines are shorter. Visit museums after the school field trips head home for the day at 1:00. Ask about special homeschool tour dates. Sometimes you can gain special access to attractions, but those opporutunities aren’t always well-advertised.

6. Choose curricula designed for homeschool, or for one-on-one instruction. Although there are excellent materials out there for classroom teaching, many of them don’t include the teacher’s guide or answer keys. Without these, you may spend a lot of time researching answers to your own questions, let alone those of your kids.

7. Carve out time to read what other homeschoolers are doing. There is a great starting list below! I’ve been consistently amazed by the creative, simple, must-do tips I’ve read in the blogosphere. Take the time to bookmark your favorite sites (I use Bloglines, but there are many options) and read them regularly — every teacher needs a prep period. It will help you and your students as well.

What works for you as a homeschooler? Please leave your suggestions in comments. And please link to this post so that your readers can find more tips and advice. Thanks!

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE LISTING OF ADVICE POSTS!

HOMESCHOOL EXPERIMENT RESULTS SERIES:
WHY WE STARTED
the JOYS
the STRUGGLES
the FUTURE for us
UPDATE after we Quit Homeschooling
Family out of Sync

Other Homeschooling Experiment milestones:
The Beginning
Week One – Starting with a Frazzle
Five Steps to Drive Yourself off a Cliff
Week Two – Just when I thought I knew what I was doing
Week Three — Let there be CRAFTS!
One-month Review
D’s Review at One Month
Week Five – Stress and frustration
Week Seven – Flip-flopping curriculum
Note to self – Consider having low expectations some weeks
Two-Month Review — Some aha moments
Three-Month Review — Not all peaches and cream
Four-Month Review — Loving ancient history
Five-Month Review — What I underestimated
Six-Month Review – Let’s Just Skip this Month
Seven-Month Review — Curriculum Review
D’s research paper — Save the Earth Saturday series
Tales of a Fourth-Grade Guinea Pig
All posts about the experiment — including WAY-COOL FIELD TRIPS!

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This is Part 4 in my Homeschool Experiment Results series. Read about Why we started, the JOYS, and the STRUGGLES.

I’ve written this post so many times in my head — the first versions, in tears.

I’m over that now, and at this point we’re all looking forward to the next chapter in our lives — even though it doesn’t include schooling at home. In some ways, I feel like I’ve let you all down, because you’ve been such great cheerleaders for me over the past eight months of this homeschool experiment.
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This is Part 3 in my Homeschool Experiment Results series. Read about Why we started, and the JOYS.

(This photo brought to you by a homeschool honeymoon moment in Florida)

In all things, we take the good with the bad, and we have certainly experienced hurdles this year in our Homeschool Experiment.
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This is Part 2 in my Homeschool Experiment Results series. You can also read Part 1, Why we started.

(Photo from Month Three.)

This is my Pass-the-Torch Tuesday post for this week. Educating your own children is a great way to pass the torch.

There have been times during this homeschool experiment, when I’ve thought I could do it forever. I’ve sometimes grieved the fact I didn’t homeschool since the beginning. Why did I wait until I was forced into a corner, before I considered homeschooling as an option?
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THANKS, TAMI for including this post in the Carnival of Homeschooling.

(Photo from week 1.)

This week I’ll share the results of our Homeschool Experiment. If you’ve been following along this year, you know I’ve given you periodic updates and Tales of a Fourth Grade Guinea Pig — which was usually written by D. I did this partly to celebrate tangibly the pretty cool stuff we were able to do as a homeschooling family. I’ve also revealed a lot of our struggles along the way.

However, you may not know the reason why we began this journey.
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