Guest Author - Meg Grooms

You need to pull your child out of school and you need to do it now. The problem? You’ve only half-heartedly thought of homeschooling or maybe you’ve thought about it a lot but haven’t taken the actions necessary to put all your ducks in a row. My husband tells me “it’s not fire, aim, ready”, but I think in some instances when a child is in danger emotionally, physically or academically, then firing first is the appropriate action.

Here is an outline of steps to take when you are “emergency homeschooling”.

1. Pull your child out of school. This is the first step, pick your child up from school knowing that they will not return the next day. Some people do this on a Friday, some do it after a long school holiday and some people do it after a negative event.

After you pull your child from school you need to know what to do next to avoid truancy charges and legally homeschool. Nearly every state requires you to file a letter of intent to homeschool. Some states require a detailed curriculum be submitted. Some states require nothing. The laws are not hard to find and carry out. Ideally you would have been planning this for months, you would have talked to other parents to see how they carry out the laws and you would be ready to go. Since this isn’t an ideal situation you will have to backtrack a little bit.

Read your state laws and the practical application of those laws. A reliable place to find up-to-date laws is online at A to Z Home’s Cool website, http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/directory/Legalities.htm. If you search for your state Department of Education online you can find the laws in their entirety.

If your state requires a curriculum or scope & sequence to be filed, you can find that online too. Worldbook Online features a Typical Course of Study which has been adopted by school systems nationwide. Start there and fill in the holes as you see necessary, changing the list to meet your needs. If necessary you can pick up books or workbooks for each subject very inexpensively at any bookstore, department store, office supply store or teaching store.

2. Decompress
Your child will need time to adjust to not going to school and you will need time to adjust to having your child home all day (or find alternate care & devise a schedule if you are working). A general rule of thumb is to allow your child 1 month of “off” time for every year they spent in school. If you are worried about required testing or evaluations, don’t. Most states require these annually and you have a whole year to squeeze in any lessons needed. You have 365 days to do what the school has 180 days to do, remember that and relax.

Part 2



New to Homeschooling?
Take a look at my ebook
Homeschooling With Confidence: A Plain English Guide to Homeschooling in the United States