Getting Started

How Do I Get Started?

1.  Check out this helpful Getting Started Homeschooling booklet put out by CHEF of LA.

2.  Browse a few homeschooling websites.

Here are a few to get you started:

www.donnayoung.org   She has lots of cool organizing ideas and files you can print. If you click on her homeschooling tab, you'll find some helpful articles along with printables.

www.hslda.org  This is the Home School Legal Defense Association, which is an organization that you can join to help protect your homeschooling rights and deal with any issues you might have with a school system, school board, or truancy officers.  In addition, HSLDA has lots of helpful information on their site. Click on “Teaching My Kids”.

www.simplehomeschool.net  This site has several helpful articles and e-books.

3.  Find a group to join or start your own.

Our group is Ruston Christian Homeschoolers (RCH).

Other nearby groups include: Bayou Homeschoolers, NELCHA, Classical Conversations

If you have a few like-minded friends, you can decide to meet for a play date at the park or decide to teach a class together.

It's a very good idea to get connected somewhere with friends who are homeschooling. Your non-homeschooling friends may be supportive, but your homeschool friends understand what you are going through and those unique challenges.

4.  Commit to try some curriculum and order it.

This can mean going to the library for resources, buying a box curriculum for a specific grade or combining resources found in a catalog. There are several curricula listed on the RCH website and RCH has a used curriculum sale at the end of each school year where you may be able to get some books and things at low prices.

Decide on which option you are going to use to meet the Louisiana requirements, and send that in or register online.

Connect with homeschool mom that you know, and ask them to share how they run a typical school day.