Introduction to homeschooling: I'm a Finance Professional, Not a Teacher — But I Have a Spreadsheet & Determination

Welcome to The Homeschool Recap, a new blog where I document our weekly homeschool journey in real time, one week at a time. I have no idea what I'm doing as a first-time homeschool parent. I'm just jumping in and hoping for the best. If that sounds like you, you're in the right place.

Why We Decided to Homeschool Our 3rd Grader

Over the summer, our family decided it was best to homeschool our daughter, who is going into 3rd grade. I won't get into the why — that's a story for another day — but it was a decision made by the whole family, and it was decided that I would be the primary teacher. I went from full time finance professional to full time home school teacher and full time finance professional. My days are full right now but rewarding.

How I'm Balancing a Full-Time Job and Homeschooling

I have a full-time job, and luckily I have a very flexible employer who okayed me going semi-remote so I could be more at home to focus on homeschool. My hours look like this:

• 8:00–10:00 AM: Homeschool

• 10:00 AM–6:00 PM: Work; some days at home and in office

It's a tight window, but it's ours. If you're a working homeschool parent, I see you.

I'm Not a Teacher — I'm a Finance Professional

Here's the thing: I didn't have a clue how to homeschool or teach. I am not a teacher. I didn't go to school for teaching. I am a finance professional. I'm good with numbers, spreadsheets, and schedules. I'm the person who shows up to appointments 15 minutes early. So, not going to lie, this was a little scary when I first decided to take this on. I fully panicked, thinking I have no idea what I am doing.

So I thought: If I have a plan and a spreadsheet, I CAN homeschool a third grader.

That's the whole philosophy right now. We'll see how it holds up.

Choosing a Curriculum With Zero Experience

We enrolled our daughter in a charter school in our hometown. They give us options for curriculum and we have to use one of their preferred vendors. I must add, their many, many preferred vendors, who I have never heard of and had to research.

Since I had never homeschooled before, I had no clue about curriculum. I couldn't even tell you what my daughter used at her public school last year. So I started building my homeschool parent tribe — very slowly, one parent at a time. I reached out to other parents I know who homeschool their kids, asked what they were using, and started researching and deciding what I liked. I discovered pretty quickly that there are alot of home school parents out there. One being my daughter's soccer coach that we just met.

Anyways, back to the charter school, we got approved for the charter school in June, which gave me until the end of August to figure it out. I started in summer. Thank goodness. Planning, visualizing and thinking.

One of my big pluses that I had no idea about at the time was it was so important to include my daughter, who I am homeschooling in the process. She asked me today to go to the teacher store for more supplies.

Including My Daughter in the Process

From the very beginning, I wanted my daughter to be excited to homeschool, so I included her in the process. We have an area of our house designated for homeschool. We, her and I established this spot in our house, piece by piece. It's in our living room, so everyone who comes into our house can see her designated homeschool area. We got a desk that she uses from an estate sale. We actually bought it a few years ago, I remember the lady saying, I used this to teach my kids, I am so glad it is going to you, speaking to my daughter who was 6 at the time.

My daughter and I went to the local teacher store and started building our supplies over the summer. I am so glad we did, because once the school year started in late August, we ordered curriculum through the school but it wasn't here in time to start school. It has slowly trickled in over the last few weeks. I still don't have my math cirriculeum. I use Evan Moor workbooks at the moment.

One thing about starting from scratch in homeschool is you have no idea where your kid is in their studies. I mean you have an idea from the prior years parent teacher conferences, if there are any but really, you have no idea.

So, one thing I did was I started a 2nd grade review with my daughter at the tail end of summer.

How did I do that? With workbooks of course, I grabbed a 2nd grade workbook from Barnes and Noble, its a Spectrum workbook.

We also used IXL, its a program that my daughter used at her prior school and she was familiar with it. We would go into the different learning categories and just click on a random category and I would sit with her while she went through them, taking notes to see if she didn't know something.

Starting Early With 2nd Grade Review

The first few weeks — and even before we were supposed to start — I just started going over 2nd grade stuff with my daughter. My son is in 5th grade at his current school and started a week earlier than homeschool, so I used that time to ease in.

I liked going over the 2nd grade stuff because I had no idea where my daughter was in her learning journey. When you drop your kid off at regular school, you don't see them for hours and have no idea what they are doing and what they really know.

Starting early showed me something important: she needed a lot of help with her handwriting. Her handwriting was terrible, putting it kindly, and I knew that was something that needed my immediate attention.

Building Our Homeschool Day Around Journaling

So at Target, during their back to school sales, I bought her a grade-appropriate journal, and from Barnes & Noble, a question-a-day book. We use her journal daily to answer the question of the day, and I also ask her to draw a picture.

Very slowly, I started building in my head what our homeschool day would look like. Once we got done journaling with a question a day for a few days, I placed this task on a spreadsheet under Language Arts. I thought maybe we won't do this every day because she will get bored, but at least it can be an option.

My Favorite Workbooks: Evan Moor Workbooks

My most favorite thing in the world right now: workbooks. These are separate from curriculum, and Evan Moor are my favorite workbooks.

Within the first week of school, our educational facilitator sent us our learning plan that documented the different areas of learning for my daughter that we were to focus on.

These areas include:

• Language Arts

• Math

• Life Skills

• Science

• History - Social Science - Geography

• Special Interests - My daughter wants to learn German

  
  

Prior to the first week of school, I typed into Amazon, "Evan Moor – Language Arts Grade 3" for each subject and purchased the different workbooks for each subject.

I am really glad I did this, because in week 4 when we met with our educational facilitator to show her everything we have been working on, she was really impressed with how far we got in just this short time of school. Evan Moor breaks down the weeks into days for each subject, and it is really easy to follow. I highly recommend it for new homeschool families.

What I'm Learning as a First-Time Homeschool Parent

• A spreadsheet can only take you so far, but it's a start.

• Starting with review showed me exactly where my daughter actually was and I am still learning.

• Workbooks like Evan Moor gave us structure when our ordered curriculum hadn't / hasn't arrived yet.

• Including my daughter in setup made her excited instead of nervous.

• Routine is important.

• Follow your kid - if they get tired, take a break, I can't tell you how many times I have said, okay "let's take 5 minutes."

• Most days don't look the same.

• There are distractions everywhere - week 3 we adopted a dog ....

  
  

What to Expect Next Week

Next week I'll share what our actual daily schedule looks like, how the curriculum trickling in changed things, and what's working (and not working) in our 8 – 10 AM homeschool block. Hint, hint; its not always 8-10 AM of homeschooling, its when we can fit it in and and its when my daughter is interested.

A Note for New Homeschoolers

If you're a first-time homeschool parent who isn't a teacher, has a full-time job, and is figuring it out as you go — welcome. This is the real, unpolished version. Come back next week for the next recap.

Thank you for reading and being here.