So you’ve decided you’d like to explore homeschooling – but where to begin?

First of all, though homeschooling is a legal educational option in all 50 states, each state does have its own specific statutes. Your first order of business is to find out the laws for your particular state. A few good websites are A to Z Home’s Cool, About.com, National Home Education Network (NHEN) and the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA).

After that, a good idea would be to find some local support groups to get a feel for what is entailed, what kind of support to expect, find some new friends for your child(ren) and perhaps find a mentor for yourself from someone who has “Been There, Done That.” The same groups mentioned above (A to Z, About.com, NHEN, HSLDA) have extensive listings of support groups, as do popular discussion groups like Yahoo.

Get a feel for the various educational philosophies out there. Some choose a school-at-home approach. Others categorize themselves as “eclectic”. Don’t forget “unschoolers!” Then, you have folks who are devotees of certain schools of thought like Charlotte Mason, the Trivium/the Well Trained Mind/Classical Education, John Gatto, John Holt, the Waldorf Method or the Montessori Method. Most homeschoolers are a mish-mosh of many of these influences.

One caveat: do not run out and buy any curriculum in a box! Many homeschooling newbies run out and buy really expensive curricula only to find they hate it, or worse yet, their child(ren) hate it! See if your local support group has a resource library where you can look at various curricula before committing, or find someone in the group who might be willing to let you take a gander at their copy of whatever you are considering, and take a “test drive.”

Tomorrow we’ll discuss more on getting started as well as other online resources for curriculum, and other free or low-cost ideas to try in your homeschool.