How to Get Started With Homeschooling: A Step-by-Step Guide for Parents and Guardians

Learn your state's homeschooling requirements

Before purchasing curriculum or planning lessons, find out what your state requires.

Depending on where you live, requirements may include:

• notifying your school district or state that you intend to homeschool
• formally withdrawing a child from their current school
• teaching certain required subjects
• maintaining attendance or educational records
• completing a minimum number of instructional days or hours
• participating in periodic testing or evaluations
• meeting specific requirements for high school completion

Other states give homeschooling families considerably more flexibility.

Start with your state's Department of Education or other official state education website. The U.S. Department of Education also explains the division between federal, state, and local responsibility for education.

Do not assume that another family's requirements apply to you simply because they homeschool. A family in Texas may operate under very different rules from a family in New York, California, or Florida.

Before moving on, answer these questions

• Do I need to notify anyone that I am homeschooling?
• Are there required subjects?
• Are there attendance or instructional-time requirements?
• Do I need to maintain specific records?
• Does my child need to complete an annual assessment?
• Are there additional requirements once my child reaches high school?

Save the official pages you used to answer these questions. You may need them again later.

Decide what kind of homeschooling you want to do

"Homeschooling" is often used casually to describe several very different ways of learning at home. Before choosing curriculum, decide how much responsibility you want to take on yourself.

Parent-led homeschooling

You select the curriculum, teach or facilitate the lessons, track progress, and organize the school year. This provides the most flexibility but also gives the parent or guardian the greatest responsibility.

Complete homeschool curriculum

Instead of assembling every subject yourself, you purchase or subscribe to a curriculum provider that organizes much of the material for you. You generally remain responsible for overseeing the student's education and complying with your state's homeschool requirements.

Accredited online private school

Your child enrolls in a private school that delivers instruction remotely. Depending on the school, it may provide teachers, grading, transcripts, credits, and a diploma.

Online public school

Many states also offer full-time online public schools. These can feel similar to homeschooling because the student learns from home, but students enrolled in them are generally public-school students rather than independent homeschool students. They typically follow public-school requirements for attendance, curriculum, testing, and academic progress.

There is no universally correct model. The right choice depends on your child's needs, your schedule, your budget, how much teaching you want to do yourself, and how much structure your family wants.

Find your state's academic standards

Once you understand the legal requirements, the next question is usually:

What should my child actually be learning?

One useful starting point is your state's academic standards. Academic standards describe the knowledge and skills students are generally expected to develop at different grade levels and in different subjects.

Standards are not the same thing as a curriculum. A standard might say that a fifth-grade student should understand a particular mathematical concept. It does not necessarily tell you which textbook to use, how many lessons to spend on it, or exactly how to teach it.

The U.S. Department of Education does not determine state education standards. States establish their own standards, so the most reliable place to find them is the official state education agency.

How to find them

Go to your state's official Department of Education website and search for:

Then narrow the results by:

1. grade level
2. subject
3. subject area or course

For example:

Whenever possible, use the state government's own website rather than relying exclusively on a commercial standards database. Also check the adoption or revision date because states periodically update their standards.

What about Common Core and NGSS?

Some states use the Common Core State Standards for mathematics and English language arts, while other states use their own standards or state-specific adaptations.

Science standards also differ. Many states have adopted the Next Generation Science Standards or standards influenced by the same framework, while others use separate state science standards.

The important thing is not to assume. Identify what your particular state currently uses.

Do homeschoolers have to follow state academic standards?

Not necessarily. Whether particular subjects, assessments, or standards are legally required depends on your state's homeschool law.

Even when following the state's academic standards is optional, standards can still be an excellent planning tool. They give you a reference point for what students at a particular grade level are typically expected to know and can help you spot gaps in a curriculum you are assembling yourself.

Think of standards as a map or checklist unless your state specifically requires something more.

Choose your curriculum and learning resources

You do not have to build every lesson from scratch.

Homeschool families commonly use a combination of:

• complete curricula
• separate curricula for different subjects
• online courses
• textbooks and workbooks
• free educational resources
• parent-created lessons and projects
• supplemental practice and assessment tools

The options below serve different purposes. Some provide broad homeschool curricula, some are online schools, and others are supplemental resources you can combine with an existing curriculum. They are included as starting points to compare, not as a universal ranking.

From ChalkDraft

Supplemental tool

ChalkDraft — supplemental lesson and material creation

Sometimes a curriculum gives you the overall direction but you still need something specific for tomorrow: an extra worksheet on fractions, a quiz after a science unit, a study guide before an assessment, or a different way to approach a concept your child is struggling with.

ChalkDraft is designed for that part of the process. It is not an online school and is not intended to replace a complete homeschool curriculum. Instead, it is a supplemental tool for creating educational materials based on choices such as learning setting, grade level, subject, subject area, topic, difficulty, estimated time, and material type.

Depending on the material, families can create lesson plans, quizzes, tests, homework assignments, worksheets, study guides, discussion questions, learning activities, and other supporting materials.

ChalkDraft also supports official state-standards selection for certain states, grades, and subjects. When you are using standards for formal planning, always review the linked official source and confirm that the selected standard is appropriate for your homeschool requirements.

Good to use if: you already have a curriculum or learning plan but need additional lessons, practice, assessments, or materials tailored to what your child is learning.

Create a material →

Featured curriculum option

Homeschool Pro by RemoteLearning.School

For families looking for a broad online homeschool solution rather than assembling every subject independently, Homeschool Pro is one option worth comparing.

Homeschool Pro currently describes its program as a complete homeschool curriculum with hundreds of classes and electives. Its listed features include auto-graded quizzes, instructor-graded assignments, printable worksheets, flexible course placement that lets students work above or below their nominal grade level, and the ability to mix its courses with other curriculum.

It also includes a dedicated homeschool advisor. According to RemoteLearning.School, advisors can help families understand state-specific homeschool forms and requirements and can assist with areas such as records, transcripts, and college planning. Parents should still verify legal requirements against official state sources.

The provider also currently says that one membership can include all children in a family. Because features, offers, and pricing can change, check the provider directly for its current plans before enrolling.

Good to compare if: you want a broad online curriculum, flexible course selection, grading features, and additional support with the administrative side of homeschooling.

Visit Homeschool Pro →

Turn standards into a simple learning plan

This is where many new homeschool parents make homeschooling harder than it needs to be.

Do not try to turn an entire state's standards document into a day-by-day curriculum immediately. Start at the subject level.

For an elementary student, your initial list might look like:

Your state's required subjects should come first. Then look through the relevant standards and group related expectations into larger topics.

For example, instead of seeing a long list of individual mathematics standards, your semester plan might initially contain:

You can build individual lessons underneath those topics later. The goal at this stage is to understand the map, not plan every turn.

Build a schedule that works for your family

Homeschool does not have to reproduce a traditional classroom schedule.

A classroom teacher may be responsible for a large group of students, transitions between classes, attendance, group instruction, administrative tasks, and many other demands that do not exist in the same form when one parent is working with one or several children.

Your schedule can reflect that.

Example weekly rhythm

That is only an example. Some families prefer four-day academic weeks. Others follow five traditional school days. Some teach several subjects every day, while others use longer blocks and concentrate on fewer subjects at a time.

Your state's attendance or instructional-time rules, if any, should shape the schedule you choose.

Create a basic recordkeeping system

Even when your state does not require extensive documentation, keeping basic records is a good habit.

You do not need a complicated school information system. Create a folder—digital, physical, or both—for each school year.

Consider keeping:

• attendance records
• subjects and courses taught
• curriculum used
• reading lists
• major assignments
• writing samples
• quizzes and tests
• project photos
• assessment results
• grades, if you use them
• extracurricular activities
• field trips and volunteer activities

For younger children, this may simply serve as a record of progress.

For middle and especially high school students, recordkeeping becomes increasingly important because you may eventually need course descriptions, credits, grades, portfolios, and a high school transcript.

Remember that homeschooling does not have to mean learning alone

Education at home does not require spending every day at home.

Look for:

• local homeschool groups
• homeschool co-ops
• library programs
• recreation-center classes
• sports leagues
• music programs
• museums and science centers
• community-college programs for older students
• volunteering
• clubs
• field-trip groups
• tutoring groups

Your local library is often an excellent first stop.

Try searching for:

Local groups can also be valuable sources of practical information about curriculum, activities, and nearby resources. Just verify legal information against official state sources before relying on it.

Plan the first month, not the next twelve years

You do not need the perfect homeschool system on day one.

Create an initial four-week plan. Pick:

• the subjects you will teach
• the curriculum or resources you will try
• a basic weekly schedule
• a few learning goals
• a way to keep records

Then start.

After several weeks, ask:

• Is my child appropriately challenged?
• Are lessons taking much longer or shorter than expected?
• Which subjects need more structure?
• Which resources are actually helping?
• Is our schedule realistic?
• Does my child need more independent work?
• Do we need more projects or hands-on learning?
• Are we covering our state's requirements?
• What should we change next month?

One of homeschooling's greatest advantages is the ability to adjust. Use it.

Create lessons around what your child needs to learn

Once you know your child's grade + subject + topic + academic standard, lesson planning becomes much easier.

Suppose your state standards show that your seventh-grade student needs to work on proportional relationships.

This is also where supplemental tools can save time. Instead of beginning with a blank page, you can start from the student's grade, subject, topic, learning setting, and applicable standard, then build the lesson, worksheet, quiz, study guide, or activity you need.

The technology should support your educational plan—not replace it.

You do not need to have everything figured out

Starting homeschooling can feel as though you suddenly need to become a teacher, curriculum designer, school administrator, and guidance counselor at the same time.

You don't.

Start with the things that matter most:

Your homeschool does not need to look exactly like your local public school—or like another family's homeschool—to provide a thoughtful, structured education.

It needs to work for your child.