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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Chapter 1: Homeschooling and the Supermom Syndrome
   Who are you and why are you telling me how to homeschool?
   What will this book teach me?
2. Chapter 2: Overcoming Your Lack of Self-Confidence
   I’m not smart enough to homeschool
   I have attention deficit disorder
   The public schools are better at this
   My schedule is already full. I don’t have time to homeschool!
   What else
   More resources
3. Chapter 3: Convincing Your Spouse, the Grandparents, the Kids, and Other Concerned People That You Should Homeschool
   Convincing the non-teaching parent
   Convincing a spouse to do the homeschooling
   A homeschooling trial period for both spouses
   Convincing a non-custodial parent
   Convincing the grandparents
   Convincing your children
   Convincing friends and your own siblings
   More resources
4. Chapter 4: Homeschooling Laws and Support
   Support groups
   Official school resources
   Finding real homeschoolers
   Do I need a support group?
   More resources
5. Chapter 5: Organizing Your New Life
   Where do I put all this stuff?
   Organizing your day (more or less)
   Organize Your Mornings
   Organize Your Afternoons
   Planning your school day
   Organize Your Evenings
   Finding enough time
   Organize Your Weekends
   When it doesn’t work
   More resources
6. Chapter 6: Recording Weird Things in Respectable Ways (Record-Keeping)
   Homeschool attendance records
   Description of this year’s curriculum
   Your teacher’s notebook
   Portfolios
   Recording cross-curriculum lessons
   Recording non-traditional learning
   Don’t record everything
   More resources
7. Chapter 7: Homeschooling One, Many, and the Baby
   Homeschooling the only child
   When only one of your children stays home
   Homeschooling the large family
   Managing the baby and smaller children
   More resources
8. Chapter 8: Homeschooling Part-time
   Afterschooling
   Part-timing
   More resources
9. Chapter 9: Getting Homeschool Supplies When You’re Cheap...ummm...Frugal
   More resources
10. Chapter 10: How Am I Going to Teach? How Are They Going to Learn?
    Do I need a curriculum for my home school?
    Gathering prepared materials for your home school from many sources Will these materials work?
    What kind of homeschooler do I want to be?
    Structured learning
    Unschooling
    Eclectic learning
    Learning styles
    Hands-on learners
    Visual learners
    Auditory learners
    Now that I know all this, what do I choose?
    More resources
11. Chapter 11: When Your Child Is Behind or Ahead of His Peers
    Catching up
    Helping your child believe in herself
    Learning disabilities
    Starting out behind
    When your child is ahead of his peers
    They know more than I do!
    Early readers
    Emotional challenges of giftedness
    A word about pacing
    More resources
12. Chapter 12: Using Ready-Made Lesson Plans
    Adapting ready-made lesson plans in your homeschool
    Putting action into your homeschool lesson
    More resources
13. Chapter 13: Building Your First Lesson Plan
    Choose the topic
    Narrow the topic
    Write a statement of purpose for your homeschool lesson
    Research your topic
    Organize your research
    Choose teaching methods
    Introduce the basics
    Work with the material
    Organize and make final plans
14. Chapter 14: Turning Lesson Plans into Unit Studies in Your Home School
    Statement of purpose
    How much time do you have?
    Outline your unit
    Locate homeschool materials
    Decide what to buy
    Organize your homeschool materials
    Homeschool pacing and scheduling
    The final step
    Simplifying the process
15. Chapter 15: Teaching Math When You Can’t Even Do Percentages
    Conquering your own math phobia
    How to teach your little children
    Memorization
    Reducing writing
    Dealing with dawdling
    Teaching math to older students
    More resources
16. Chapter 16: Reading, Phonics, Sight Reading, and Other Scary Words
    Loving books
    Language skills
    First reading lessons
    After the beginning
    Chapter books
    The other stuff
    More resources
17. Chapter 17: History: Time Machines for Homeschoolers
    Teaching history geographically
    Teaching history chronologically
    Teaching older children
    History is filled with real people
    More resources
18. Chapter 18: Science: You Mean I Have to Touch That?
    The scientific process
    Elementary school science in your homeschool
    The science some moms hate
    Science for older students
    More resources
19. Chapter 19: Writing Things Down: Compositions, Reports, and Stories
    First, teach yourself
    Journaling with little children
    Non-fiction
    Fiction
    More resources
20. Chapter 20: Slipping in Values, Religion, Electives, and Other Treasures into Your Home School
    Electives
    Religion and values
21. Chapter 21: Opening Your Home School
    Getting started with your kindergartner
    Removing a child from public school
    Removing a special needs child
    It didn’t go well
    Recovering from public and private school
    Social skills
22. Chapter 22: So, Did They Learn Anything in Your Homeschool
    Homeschool Tests
    Learning to test
    Non-traditional ways to evaluate learning
23. Chapter 23: What Do You Do in Homeschool? Nothing!
24. Chapter 24: Homeschooling Until Graduation
    Creating independent learners
    Surviving really bad days
    Homeschooling in crisis mode
    Returning children to public school
    Getting into college
    So she will get into college—but will she succeed?
    How do we know when we’re done?
    More resources
25. Chapter 25: Stupid Questions and How to Answer Them
    What about socialization?
    Doesn’t it worry you that your sister’s children read better than yours?
    What about college?
    How can you teach algebra? You flunked it three times!
    How can you stand being with your children all day?
    Are you ever planning to do the laundry again?
    What makes you think you know more than a trained teacher?
    How will they experience the real world stuck at home with you all day?
    Don’t you think your children ought to get exposed to a wider range of ideas than just yours?
    What about the prom, grad night, graduation?
26. Chapter 26: The Bad Stuff No One Tells You
    Your children might hate homeschooling—at least sometimes
    Your house might not be tidy
    Some days you won’t be a good teacher
    Some days you and your children will be sick of each other
    Sometimes you will ditch school
27. Chapter 27: The Good Stuff Most People Won’t Tell You
    Your kids will never have to eat a school lunch
    Your children will say good things about you behind your back
    Your children will know more important stuff than other kids will
    Your kids will avoid labeling
    Your kids won’t know certain things traditionally school children do
    Your children will grow up knowing you better than their traditionally-schooled friends know their parents
    You are freed from arbitrary schedules for vacations, class length, and life
    Kids brag about learning in their jammies and having short days
    You don’t need a back-to-school wardrobe
    You will get smarter
    This is supposed to be fun—you will learn to laugh at yourself
    You are making memories to last an eternity
28. Chapter 28: How Homeschooling Will Strengthen Your Family
29. Glossary of Common Homeschool Terms
30. Index