I want to homeschool my son, who is 5 y/o.?

Question

how much does it cost to start, and where would i find help??

Answer 1

hi my name is Stacey, I'm 13 and i have home education. for help just phone your local education and they will help you with any questions.

Answer 2

First, contact the school district and get a copy of their rules for home schooling.  Your child needs to be registered as a home schooler before you can actually do it.

Next, all you need to do is find a good curriculum.  There are many out there, you can find them by googling 'homeschool curriculum'.  Find the one that best fits your budget.  Then BEFORE you buy, check wiht the school district to make sure that this curriculum is recognized as viable in their system.

You can also find many MANY homeschool support groups on the internet by googling homeschool and forums, support and using other keywords such as these.

Answer 3

talk with someone in your local government building && get a copy of the home school rules/guidelines from your local public school.

Answer 4

EDITED TO ADD (for the person who replied at the same time): Do NOT, do NOT contact your local school district.  That is NOT necessary in most states.  In most states your homeschool is a private school that has NO TIES to the local school district.  This is especially true if you have a child under the compulsory age (usually 7, sometimes different).  You do not need to contact them about your decision to HS nor do you need to use a curriculum they approve.  (There may be very few exceptions to this, but they're rare.)

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It can cost anything from nearly free to thousands of dollars.

First find out your state's HS'ing laws.  Here's a good place to start:

http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/default.as...

From the HSLDA site, there will be links to your state HS'ing associations, which should be your next step - connecting with other HS'ers.

Then you need to figure out your son's learning style(s).  You also need to figure out what "type" of HS'ing you're going to to - boxed curriculum, eclectic, unschooling, online curriculum, etc.  After you know these two things, you can then shop for curriculum (if you decide to use it).

This is the season for HS'ing conventions.  I would highly recommend attending one.  Even if all you do is go to the vender hall, and no sessions, it will be worth the money.

Those are the basics.  I would also read every book your library has about HS'ing (well, I did anyway!).

There are some great Yahoo Groups you can join also.  Most likely there's a HS'ing group for your state, and possibly for your region/city.

Answer 5

Homeschooling a five year old costs nothing.  Have fun - let him explore the world.  Get to know him really well.  Find out what interests he has, and provide opportunities for him to explore.

Answer 6

The law and who you should contact really depends what country/state you live in.  As for cost, anything from nothing to as much as you want to spend.

Answer 7

DON"T CALL THE SCHOOL BOARD!!!! All they will do is try to tell you how bad it is because they want the funding your son would provide to their school!

Start with HSLDA. www.hslda.org They have all the laws you need for a start! You many not even have to report that you are home schooling depending on the state you live in.

Second don't worry about curriculum this year, he's 5. I went to walmart and bought him workbooks for math, phonics and writing. When he finished those I ordered a few things from Sonlight for him (I was ordering curriculum for my oldest as well) We got him Handwriting without tears and Get ready, Set and Go for the Code (3 workbooks that are followed by Explode the code for reading) We also got him Math U See Primer. These were mostly because we were ordering for his older sister and we wanted him to get things as well.

Sonlight is awesome! We absolutely love it! It is a Christian program but don't let that turn you off if you are looking for secular. You can easily skip the bible lessons each day.  www.sonlight.com

We also use Math U See they have a free DVD to see how their program works www.mathusee.com

Answer 8

In most places you do not have to inform anyone that you are home schooling until your child is 7yrs old.   So you won't have to worry about that part for a couple years yet.

Do not talk to your local school board about home schooling.  Most are very anti-homeschool and will not give you the help you want.

www.hslda.org has all the laws for all states/provinces/countries.   That's a great place to look once you get to that point.

You can do a search for homeschool groups in your area.  That's a great way to get help and learn a lot.  

As to how much it costs, that depends on you.   You still have a lot of time to figure out what type of homeschooling you want to do.    Do you want to use workbooks, child led, eclectic, etc?  

When my kids were younger we used Five in a Row, Math U See and Explode the Code.   That's it.   I loved those years.  

A 5yr old really doesn't need a lot of sit down book work.   That's too boring.   If you can do a lot of hands on things you are ahead of the game.    Make learning fun.  :)