Note: Please read “Hello Parents” post first. There’s an activity that will help with your planning. Also, this guide is meant for Indiana families. If you’re from another state, please check your homeschooling laws at HSLDA.org If you wish for personalized assistance, please click here.
There are usually two places where new homeschoolers start. They’re either starting school from the beginning or they’ve left another schooling style. If the latter, I recommend spending some time “deschooling”. Learn how to live with each other throughout the day and take time to shake off those school rules and routines. While this may seem frivolous and like a huge waste of time, it’s really essential for you and your child. You will learn a lot during this time, which can range from a few weeks to months depending on the trauma faced in the past.
Build a good routine
Your first step is to work on a good routine. Work on the order of the day versus a schedule. For example, when your child wakes up, what order should your child follow through the day. For our family, when we wake up, we take some time to wake up, eat breakfast, get dressed, and do our chores. When we start school, I will let the kids choose what they work on and when except for subjects we need to work on together. I do offer them a suggested schedule because I think it’s helpful for them to have our input. I allow them to change it so that they can have some autonomy over their schedule.
I try to keep my own routine the same from day to day. This helps me know where I’m at for the day and lets the kids know what to expect. If I do have to adapt my schedule or everyone’s to an event, I try to do so practically. What I mean by this is that it’s exciting and somewhat stressful to prepare a family or even just a parent to go out of the house during the school day. What can your kids reasonably be expected to do before and when will you make it up. Sometimes, there isn’t enough time to plan, so give yourself and everyone else grace.
Choosing Curriculum
I am not going to go into specifics about curriculum but I do have a few notes. When starting out, take into consideration your child’s interest, create fun learning experiences, and start off slowly. Build up to a full school load at your own pace and discretion. If you find that a curriculum is not working after enough of an adjustment period, find another. It’s not worth the lost time or the struggle to fit something in that wasn’t meant to be.
Choosing a curriculum is a lot like choosing your clothes for the day. While there are requirements that society puts on us, like being fully clothed to go out or learning x, y, and z, society can’t tell us how to do these things. Curriculum is a very individualized part of learning. Once you understand how your child learns best, you will be able to know what curriculums will work or not work for them. There are curriculum style quizzes that can help you determine your style of learning, but that style may not work for your child. Try helping the child with the quiz. This may also give you insight. But always remember that as we grow, we change and our lives change so one curriculum may not work all of the time. Cathy Duffy is known throughout the homeschooling community for her reviews of curriculum. Her website may be of service to you.
Grading
In elementary years, you should be very present during if not leading the learning process. By doing this, you’ll have a firm grasp of your child’s strengths and weaknesses, and how they’re doing in their school work. If, for some reason, you aren’t there while school work is being done, then you must look over their school work to make sure they are learning and absorbing the information.
In middle school I tend to bring in grading. This is when they are learning independently and they need to know and understand their mistakes. I will mark problems wrong and then sit down with them while we correct them together. You can let the child see if they can correct their mistakes on their own but I like teaching them the process of understanding why it was wrong, finding the information again, processing it to a fuller understanding, and correcting the mistake clearly.
By high school, I expect them to be fairly independent and be able to come to me with an issue. When they do come to me, I have them explain where their confusion lies and walk me through the problem like they would if they were helping someone else. This helps them process it in a different way and a lot of times the light bulb flips on. My oldest is almost to the point that he can do this process by himself. It’s rare that he needs further assistance. It’s kind of bittersweet.
In high school you do have to grade their school work. You are expected to form a transcript of all of their classes and grades. You should be consistent with your grading scale through this time. I will talk more about homeschooling high school in another post.
Here are the Rules
While Indiana is an incredible state to homeschool, there are a few laws to follow.
- Children must begin school by the fall of the year they turn 7 years old.
- They must have 180 days of instruction.
- You must keep attendance records.
- Instruction must be done in English.
- You must provide the following information to the state, if requested:
- The number of school-aged children you are teaching.
- What grade level each child is in.
A note about the age and number days requirements: While I am waiting for clarification, I have always understood that if your child was turning 7 during a school year, no matter how late, you started that school year. For example, if your child turns 7 in April of 2026, you would start school with them after July 1 of 2025 so that you had 180 days of school completed before June 30, 2026.
A note about attendance records: There are no requirements on the type of record you must keep. It can be dates or just a list of 1-180 with checkmarks.
All of the Details
There are so many little aspects to homeschooling life that I haven’t covered. I will add in these little bits here. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below.
- There are no requirements set on how many hours of school you must do to count a day. Say, for example, you are sick for a day. If your kiddos can’t complete their school work without you, you still have some options.
- Your first (and usually best) option is to just cancel school for the day. Resting will help you get better faster. Push everything out and pick up when you’re feeling better.
- You can watch educational videos and read/listen to books. Watching a video about something you’re studying is a great way to count a school day without having to teach a lesson. The best learning is immersive and repetitive. So videos are great tools.
- If spirits are low and no one is feeling like doing school, find something else you can do. A park day can count as a nature class and PE. A zoo day is science and PE. Art days, music days, clean the house days are all learning days.
- You don’t have to follow any schedule other than your own, other than the dates that your homeschool has to fall within.
- If your child is still in school, you must send a certified letter to the school. The IAHE has a great resource for this process. https://iahe.net/withdraw-your-child-from-the-public-school-in-indiana/
- If your child has never been enrolled in school, you don’t have to do anything.
- There is an IDOE form to register your homeschool. You are not required to fill it out.
- If your child has an IEP from the school, you can still utilize the school’s services. If you want to get services on your own, there’s a process for that. This will grant you ESA funds. You CAN homeschool your child and utilize ESA funds. Technically, you’re child will be known to the state as a “public school student”, but it doesn’t change anything about your homeschool. Please contact me if you have any questions.
- Field trip days can count as school days.
I hope this not-so-brief guide helps. Time and experience will help with feeling nervous or having doubts, too. That first year under your belt changes you and your child. You’ll have a better sense of security and calm surrounding your homeschool. We’re rooting for you and here for you when you need us!