Why Homeschool? - How can it help my family?

Let’s start at the beginning and talk about why you should homeschool.  I have talked to numerous families and we can all have a different reason but I am going to discuss some of the most popular. 

Maybe you have a gifted child or a child that needs some extra help.  Homeschool is ideal for this because you can customize your child’s education to fit their needs.  You are able to adjust the difficulty level of your lessons based on your child’s needs.  So if you have a student that is gifted in math you can raise the level of math that you give him.  If you have a child struggling in spelling you can find alternative ways to help them learn their words. 

Organization is the KEY to keeping yourself sane!

I learned very quickly that organization is a MUST when it comes to homeschooling.  If you don’t stay organized you can get buried in paperwork almost overnight.  I wish I could get back all the time I spent trying to find school books the kids had misplaced.  And there is nothing worse than losing track of what you wanted to accomplish this year because you are unorganized. 

The best thing I did was create a binder just for me.  This binder is my “hub” for all things homeschool.  The first thing I did was sign up for this website called Mom’s Tool Belt.  She has tons of great designs for covers, spines, calendars, support materials, etc.  I like to use color coding so I picked a color for my binder that I know right away that it is mine.  My binder is green with “Mom’s School Notebook” on the cover and binding.  I put my binder together with tabs for each subject.  Behind each tab I put a lesson plan outline, a record sheet to record scores (or check off sheet), tests, and any answer keys I have in print off form.  I bought tabs that have built in folders so I could slip anything I needed to give the kids this week into the folders.