21 Resources You Can Share With This Fall’s New Homeschoolers

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I have a list of tried and true resources that I like to pass on as source material for those new to the journey. If you confide that you are new to homeschooling and are open to learning more, I will quiz you (gently, I promise) on what approach you’re planning on utilizing, and urge you to think outside the classroom. Look beyond textbooks and workbooks and worksheets and seatwork, I will say. I will recommend Teaching From Rest, and Educating the Wholehearted Child as foundational readings. I will mention Cathy Duffy’s review site and books, and I will steer you towards your state or local homeschooling organization. If you mention a child that loves to read, or a fondness for time spent growing together in character and towards godliness, I will light up and tell you all about the goodness that is the Charlotte Mason method. I will leave you with my email address and a directive to reach out at any time, because I truly love helping families discover what an unexpected blessing home education can be.

This year’s crop of new homeschoolers need a radically different approach. As I discussed last week, the majority of moms reaching out right now for guidance are not going to embrace poetry teatimes or Wild Math. They’re not looking for your opinion on how they can lead their child into a deeper love of language arts if they put the BJU workbook away and turned to Sonlight. What they need is a quick solution to an immediate problem, one that isn’t mired down in the emotions we ascribe to crafting our our family’s educational atmosphere:

They want exactly one year of materials that coordinates as closely as possible with what their child would have been fed in the classroom up the street– and they want it to set their child up for a smooth transition back into that same classroom environment next fall.

This is not my area of expertise. It’s not my wheelhouse. And as I look around at my homeschooling friends as we try to grapple with coming alongside this radically different crop of newbies, I am beginning to feel in myself and others a certain sense of drowning and despair.

We want to help. We want to share. But what we’re being asked to speak to is nothing like what we’re actually trying to accomplish in our own homes.

Yes, there have always been school-at-home people. But the majority of us either tried on that jacket and quickly found that it didn’t fit, or stepped into this place already aware that what passed for education in a government school was not the same sort of thing we wanted to offer to our own children. As such, we don’t really know what’s out there. We can’t point this curious new breed of homeschoolers in the right direction. We want to pass on what we have learned– namely, that a homeschool can be as unique as the family that makes up its membership— but we lack knowledge of these more traditional resources and therefore can’t encourage these parents as we would like.

To that end, I’ve spent more than a few hours peeking into the world of school-at-home resources. I share them here in the hopes that others who are hoping to smooth the transition from classroom to homeschool for our friends, families, and neighbors can be have suggestions at the ready that meet them where they are, not where we are.

Disclaimer: I have not personally used these resources. I can not speak to their thoroughness, nor do I know whether they align with a particular state or district’s scope and sequence. Some are entirely hands-off on the parents part, others require interaction.

Time4Learning (online)

K12 (online)

Rod & Staff (textbook based)

A.C.E. (multiple options)

A Beka (multiple options)

Alpha Omega (multiple options)

Liberty University Academy (online)

Bridgeway Academy (online)

SAS Curriculum Pathways (online)

Khan Academy (online)

Acellus (online)

Easy Peasy (hybrid)

Power Homeschool (online)

BJU Press (multiple options)

Veritas Press (multiple options)

Calvert (multiple options)

Christian Liberty (multiple options)

American School (hybrid)

Homeschool Complete (textbook)

Connections Academy (online)

The Curriculum Store (can locate specific textbooks used by local schools)

 

There are surely hundreds of other resources that fit the bill. No list will be exhaustive, and this one in no way claims to be. However, it offers an easy go-to starting place to refer those families looking for the path of least resistance in this crazy time. I pray it helps!