Beginning Homeschooling Resource Reviews
How to Homeschool Resources

Homeschool Directory
How to Homeschool Resources

Eclectic Educational Weblinks:

• A Homeschooler's CheckList
  by Tamara Eaton
  Public schools are in session again in our hometown and although we homeschool year-round in a relaxed style, our children have been motivated to create a new fall schedule and get ready for another homeschool year. Perhaps you're an inexperienced homeschooler and tempted to panic or feel overwhelmed. Look at this checklist to see if you've missed anything in preparing for this new year!
• A Short Incomplete List of Do's and Don'ts
  by Beverly S. Krueger
  Read our short list of do's and don't and then some suggestions from EHO Readers for ways to keep your family a happy homeschool family.
• Bouncing the Back-to-School Blues
  by Hilary Evans
  Every year beginning sometime in August, a new wave of nudging begins. Friends mention how happy they are their children are returning to school. Concerned family members inquire whether I've "had my fill", if I'll "take a break", or worse, if I'm ready to "cut the cord.” The downright rude and ignorant will demand it's time to give the kids a real education by putting them in school. It doesn't have to be so hard. As homeschooling parents, we have the opportunity - and some say the responsibility- to educate our family and friends on the benefits of learning at home.
• Doing It All: The Struggle for Your Home
  by Beverly S. Krueger
  This is the second installment in a three part series on Doing It All. In this article we'll explore the struggle for your home. How are you prioritizing and how are you organizing?
• Doing It All: The Struggle for Your Mind
  by Beverly S. Krueger
  Somehow homeschoolers get themselves trapped into expectations that have them trying to do it all. Doing it All is a series of articles that will take a look at the struggle for your mind, the struggle for your home, and the struggle for your family and give you solutions and advice on overcoming that overwhelming desire to do it all. We begin with the struggle for your mind and answer the questions who are your listening to and are you clinging to false expectations.
• EHO Homeschooling FAQ
  by EHO Staff
  Read the Eclectic Homeschool Online Homeschooling Frequently Asked Questions article.
• Getting the Most from Your Support Group
  by Beverly S. Krueger
  Support groups are a marvelous place to share our concerns, get encouragement, and participate in activities we cannot do on our own. There are many different kinds of support groups. Some offer group teaching while others are informal gatherings at the park. Whether your support group provides you the support you are looking for will depend on the type of group it is.
• Gotta “Get” It
  by Tammy Marshall Cardwell
  It’s amazing how you can listen to ten different people tell you the exact same thing and still be so completely stuck inside your own head, the mindsets that have developed over time, that you just don’t get it. That was me, the young homeschooler who began her foray into homeschooling by reading all she could find in the local library, books by Raymond and Dorothy Moore. I then attended two homeschool conferences, one taught by Gregg Harris. God gave me teachers who truly understood how children learn, but I was so trapped in my public-school-indoctrinated head.
• Helping the Newbie
  by Tammy M. Cardwell
  The following is a brief list of things I’ve learned from over a decade of helping new homeschoolers and homeschool wannabes. They are things you should bear in mind as people come to you for help in beginning their homeschool journey. And if you’ve only just begun yourself? Well, get ready, because as far as others are concerned you are now a homeschooling expert; the questions will come.
• Homeschool Methods
  by Beverly S. Krueger
  We offer a primer on homeschool methods to help those exploring homeschooling or reconsidering how they homeschool. You’ll find information and resources about traditional, classical, Montessori, Charlotte Mason, unit study homeschooling, unschooling, and, of course, eclectic homeschooling.
• Homeschooling as a Money-Saving Choice
  by Rhonda Barfield
  I won’t presume to say whether public, private or home school is best for your family. However, if financial considerations are an important aspect of your decision, you may want to consider homeschool. Here’s why.
• How to Become a Patient, Fulfilled, and Happy Homeschool Mom
  by Beverly S. Krueger
  “Homeschooling is wonderful, I just wouldn’t have the patience to teach my kids.” You’ve probably heard that remark or something akin to it from your non-homeschooling friends. It’s just one of a host of fallacies that non-homeschoolers fall back on to support their decision not to homeschool.
• More Homeschool FAQs
  by EHO Staff
  Homeschooling FAQs put together by other homeschooler on the Internet.
• Ordinarily Extraordinary
  by Beverly S. Krueger
  I’ve always believed that ordinary people can do extraordinary things through the power of the Holy Spirit. I’ve seen it happen to some of the most common people in the world.
• Purchasing 101: Forget the Curriculum; What Else Do I Buy!?
  by Tammy M. Cardwell
  What do I buy? It's a question that both excites and intimidates the new homeschooler. Curriculum purchases are hard enough, but what about everything else? What will you really need in your homeschool?
• Sour Grapes or Turned Around Truth?
  by Tammy M. Cardwell
  “You get so much done because you’re homeschooled. I don’t have as much time to work on it as you do.” Words similar to these were spoken to Thomas, my oldest, a few years ago when he earned a special Royal Rangers’ award - one that no other boy in our outpost had ever earned. I’m sure the words were repeated as, right up until the day he left the program, Thomas helped set standards that had never been set among our group of young men.
• Special Beginning Homeschooling EHO Links
  by EHO Staff
  Find answers to all your support, legal, curriculum and special needs homeschooling questions.
• Starting out with Older Kids
  by Beverly S. Krueger
  When you take the plunge into homeschooling with older children, fifth grade and above, you are often met with a whole array of problems that those who just flow into homeschooling in the early years never encounter. I’ve heard it said that children’s personalities are pretty much set by the age of ten. After that, it takes a life-changing event to affect a person’s core beliefs. I don’t know whether that’s true or not, but I do know that by age ten most children have definite opinions about many things and are usually more than ready to dig their heels in when a big change not to their liking occurs in their life. Homeschooling is just such a big change.
• Taking the Plunge into Homeschooling
  by Beverly S. Krueger
  Do you remember the first time you jumped off a diving pool into the deep end of the swimming pool? Although starting to homeschool isn’t quite like jumping off a diving board for the first time, it does have similar elements.

Unit Study Articles - Beginning Homeschooling

• Beyond Pudding: How Expectations Make the Education
  by Lisa Tiffin
  One of the reasons we chose to homeschool is that we feel schools today are not challenging the minds of the young people entrusted to their care. It seems to me that expectations have been lowered to such a point that, while inclusive of every possible learner, have nevertheless lowered both the level of learning and the self-esteem of the learner. We learned over the summer that the more we expected from and the more we challenged our boys, the more they learned.