How to Start Homeschooling Little Kids: 3 Essential Steps

Are you wanting to start homeschooling little kids, but you don’t know how? You’ve come to the right place!

Although beginning the journey of homeschooling can feel daunting, it doesn’t have to be if you have a clear road map of steps to follow.

In this post, I’ll walk you through my simple, 3-step process to start homeschooling your little kids.

And in each step of the process, I’ll give you some actions to take to move through that step.

I was homeschooled all the way through grade 12. Then I went on to attend and graduate from university, and I became a teacher.

My husband and I started homeschooling our first daughter (when she was five-years-old) two years ago. It has been a fun, growth-oriented journey, and we have loved it. And we are still successfully homeschooling today!

In fact, we’ve added our second born into our home education as well. And because we love being a homeschooling family, we plan to add our 2 year old and our baby into the mix as the time is appropriate.

“Where do I BEGIN figuring out how to start homeschooling little kids?”

For many moms, figuring out what to do first in order to start homeschooling little kids is daunting.

There are so many curriculum options. And so many opportunities for homeschoolers. But they also ALL seem to cost money! It can feel overwhelming to think about how to budget for homeschooling, how to choose a curriculum, and how to set up a schedule. And will you, as the mom-teacher, EVER get a break?!

And sometimes, feelings of overwhelm comes from other concerns or doubts around homeschooling itself.

Perhaps you’ve never been around homeschoolers. Or worse, perhaps you have a negative association with homeschooling. You don’t want to end up with kids like THAT! (“That” being the negative image of a homeschooler you have in your mind!)

Or perhaps the concept of taking responsibility to formally educate your child or children is really daunting. Maybe school was a struggle for you, or you still wouldn’t consider yourself much of a reader.

So you ask yourself, “How on earth am I going to teach algebra? Or chemistry? Much less how to actually READ?”

Or perhaps your spouse questions the idea of homeschooling. Or your parents or in-laws or other family members have expressed doubts.

If you’re asking these questions or experiencing these situations, you are NOT alone. Many, many moms who are CURRENTLY homeschooling have asked themselves these questions, too.

And while each of these concerns is valid, I’m going to be honest with you: they aren’t a great place to begin figuring out how to start homeschooling little kids.

I will address common concerns about homeschooling briefly at the end of this post, but for now, let’s get you started on a peaceful path to start homeschooling your children.

3 Steps to Start Homeschooling Little Kids

The three essential steps you need to take in order to set yourself up to start homeschooling little kids are:

1. Prepare YOUR mind by clarifying what your approach to homeschooling will look like
2. Prepare your LIFE by setting up the environment of your home
3. Prepare your CHILDREN’S MINDS by creating a learning routine within a flexible schedule that works for your family

Let’s dive into each of these steps to equip you to do them confidently!

Step 1: Identify Your Homeschool Education Philosophy and Goals

If you’re new to the idea of educating your kids and the world of education, you might wonder, “What is a homeschool education philosophy?”

Great question! A homeschool education philosophy is the values and beliefs someone has about education, which then drive their goals and actions.

Each homeschooling parent will have their own unique, personalized view of what the purpose of education is for and how best to accomplish that purpose.

There are a number of different specific homeschool education philosophies. I encourage you to set aside an hour to read up on the most common homeschool education philosophies and consider the following questions:

• What do you think is the purpose of education?
• What do you think is the role of a student?
• What do you think is the role of a teacher?
• What do you think children should learn?
• How do you think they should learn it?

Jot down your answers to these questions, and if you are married, chat with your spouse about them.

Ideally, you and your spouse will have many overlaps in your values and beliefs around education. If you do not, this could be a point of frustration in your home! So it may be worth taking time to discuss and try to understand each other’s perspectives and find common ground to build on.

While I was homeschooled, my husband was private schooled and then later, public schooled. We had to do this step of identifying our educational philosophy to be able to legally homeschool our kids in New Zealand. It was such a helpful process for us!

Once you have a clearer idea of what your homeschool education philosophy is, you can begin to consider what resources you may need to get or develop in order to start homeschooling your little kids.

Action Steps to Take:

1. Familiarize yourself with the following common homeschool philosophies: Classical, Charlotte Mason, School-at-Home, Waldorf, Montessori, Unschooling, Roadschooling/Worldschooling, and Relaxed/Eclectic
2. Talk with your spouse about what you think is the main takeaway for each of these philosophies.
3. Identify which philosophy you and your spouse resonate with the most

Step 2: Cultivate a Learning Environment in Your Home

Once you have a philosophy identified, you’re ready to do the work of cultivating your home to be a learning environment for your children.

Your educational philosophy will help you determine which curriculums (if any) you are going to invest in.

There are many, many curriculums to choose from! The process of choosing a curriculum can be overwhelming, but if you know what homeschool education philosophy resonates with you, it will help you narrow down your choices.

There are websites that provide in-depth reviews of curriculums, which may be helpful to utilize. And it also may be helpful to join some homeschool facebook groups.

But remember, cultivating your home (and life) to support your educational philosophy isn’t necessarily just about books!

In our family, our educational philosophy has led us to set a goal to be outside in every season. So I make sure we have outdoor gear for all of our kids: sun hats in the summer, and rain boots, rain overalls, and rain jackets for the winter.

We value having a systematic, comprehensive approach to a few subjects (namely language arts and math) so we have a paper workbook for each of those subjects for each child. And since we also value our children being able to be independent as much as possible, we store those school books on a shelf where even our five-year-old can easily access it.

Since we lean heavily into our public library’s resources for history and science, I have a permanent spot in our home where we keep our library books so they stay safe and don’t get lost.

Cultivating your home to start homeschooling little kids is about purchasing tools to use in your homeschooling as well as beginning the process of setting up your home to start homeschooling little kids.

Action Steps to Take:

1. Consider these questions to help you compare and contrast curriculums:
   • What legal requirements do I need to be aware of if I education my children at home? (ie: If I start homeschooling little kids, am I legally required to teach certain subjects?)
   • What is my child’s learning style?
   • What level of structure do you want in your curriculum? Do you prefer a flexible, laid-back approach or a more rigid, scheduled framework?
   • Do you want your kids utilizing screens during their school day, or do you prefer print-based materials?
   • Are you looking for faith-based materials, or do you prefer secular curriculum?
   • How much time do you have to commit to planning and preparing? Would you prefer an all-in-one, done-for-you curriculum, or are you open to pulling together resources for each subject?
   • Are you interested in a curriculum with lots of support for you, as the teacher, or are you comfortable proceeding more independently?
   • What is your budget? And which subjects would you prioritize your budget for?
   • What resources are already available to you? (ie: through the library, friends, co-op groups, etc)
     
2. Take inventory of your home. What resources do you have to help your young children engage in learning? Some things to consider getting are:
   • kid’s scissors and adult scissors
   • tape/glue
   • printer
   • printing paper
   • colored pencils/crayons/markers
   • small white board/white board markers/erasor
   • stickers
   • index cards
   • outdoor gear
   • magnifying glass
   • sidewalk chalk
   • large vinyl or plastic tablecloth to serve as a drop cloth
     
3. If you think it would be helpful, you can check out my youtube video about what curriculum and resources we’re using this year in our homeschool with a 2nd grader and Kindergartener (and toddler and baby hanging out!)

Step 3: Create A Simple, Flexible Homeschooling Schedule

Once you have defined your education philosophy, and you have equipped your home with resources to support your children’s learning, you’ll want to create a simple, flexible schedule.

Schedules and routines help kids feel safe. And when kids feel safe and secure, they are far more likely to learn! So developing a simple, flexible schedule prepares your kids’ brain for learning.

It also will help you prioritize time to focus on facilitating learning with your kids. As a parent, you have many things jockeying for your attention.

And when you homeschool, there is a bit of a juggle between keeping the household running as well as making sure you oversee aspects of education (particularly when you start homeschooling LITTLE kids).

So a simple schedule can be very helpful to make sure you are getting done what needs to get done.

Your philosophy of education will impact the details of your schedule. If you align more with Unschooling, then your schedule may include significant chunks of time out and about. If you are more Classical leaning, then you will likely have multiple subjects to complete each day.

The beautiful thing about homeschooling, though, is that YOU get to choose what works best for YOU as you start homeschooling your little kids!

If you are curious about what our family’s daily routine and weekly schedule looked like when we started officially homeschooling with a 1st grader and a preschooler (and a toddler hanging out as well), my post on our First Year of Homeschooling: Term 1 Easy Daily Plan + Easy Weekly Routine may be helpful.

Action Steps to Take:

Consider the following questions to help you develop a simple, flexible schedule:

1. What is your child’s natural rhythm? Are they an awake-by-6am kid, or sleep-until-8am child? Do they have lots of energy that needs to be directed first thing, or does a slower start serve them well?
   
2. How long is reasonable for your child’s attention span? Plan for short chunks of concentration time – young children typically are not able to focus for prolonged periods of time on new concepts.
   
3. What ways can you incorporate physical movement into your day? Young children typically need to wiggle and move! Can you integrate a morning walk, some dancing time, and some free-play outside at different times during your school time?
   
4. How can you set yourself up to manage hands on (ie: possibly messy!) learning effectively? Do you have an outdoor space you can plan to do messy play? Can you schedule one day a week for messy play so all the mess is consolidated? What is your capacity for messy-ness?
   
5. What are ways you can encourage your kids to be independent in their work? Young kids often need a LOT of oversight and direction, but there are also opportunities for training and beginning to allow them to do things independently. Could you incorporate simple chores into your routine that your children can learn to do on their own to give you a chance to help a second child, change a diaper, put a baby down for a nap, etc?
   
6. How can you get creative to build flexibility into your schedule? Can you plan a 3 or 4 day school week, so that you have an optional day or two for catch up if things go off the rails? Can you alternate core subjects so you can provide a little more flexibility if the day is an “off” day?

Additional Tips and Resources to Start Homeschooling Little Kids

I am a huge fan of a paper planner to help me keep my homeschooling and life administration organized. I have created a planner that pulls both of those aspects of my life into one place.

(FYI: I am currently updating the planner to make it un-dated and add some additional features. It will launch in July 2025.)

Besides a planner, I’ve found, as a mom, that it has been important for me to streamline my time in the kitchen since I started homeschooling.

For me, developing a plan for simple breakfasts and lunches, meal planning for our dinners utilizing things that can be made in the crock pot or prep work can be done ahead of time, and making the most of our freezer have been really helpful household things that supported me to start homeschooling little kids.

This post on how to minimize time in the kitchen may be helpful for you.

And if you are looking for inspiration for meal planning, this post on with ideas for seasonal summertime meals, and this post with ideas for seasonal winter meals might be useful for you.

If you’re looking for ideas on how to make the most of your freezer space so you can start doing more bulk cooking, this post with 5 tips to make the most of your small freezer might be worth a look.

Also, I would strongly encourage you to consider developing an intentional sabbath/rest day if you start homeschooling little kids. Homeschooling is a beautiful and purpose-filled endeavor, but it does mean that you are taking on a part time and you will need to intentionally rest.

If you are wondering how to do that, I created this post about How to Begin a Restful Sabbath Practice, which would be helpful for you!

Regarding Concerns About Homeschooling…

At the beginning of this post, I mentioned several valid concerns people have about homeschooling.

While it is normal to feel a level of doubt if you are considering doing something that the vast majority of people do NOT do with their kids, there is a very strong chance that you wouldn’t be ruining their life but instead setting them up for what is best for them!

The truth about your kids’ socializing is that they could be awkward even if they went to public school – and how much more painful for them to spend each day FEELING awkward.

Personally, I would prefer my kids to be “socialized” to interact with all ages, not just with people their own age.

And the truth about the responsibility of formally educating your kids is that yes, homeschooling your kids is a big responsibility. But you have no guarantee that sending your kids to school will actually result in them getting educated well.

A teacher with 25+ kids in a classroom needs to spend way more time dealing with classroom management than actually teaching. So the majority of the time your child is at school, they are NOT actually being formally educated.

You’ve already taught your child how to walk, how to be toilet trained, how to speak, etc. You know your child better than anyone, which probably makes you BETTER prepared to teach your child.

Of course, you will need to be willing to learn alongside your child, but isn’t that what you’ve been doing since they were born?

And you don’t have to do this alone. There are SO many resources to support you in the process of homeschooling. Tutors, online options, co-ops, even people in your community or church that may have the pieces of knowledge that you lack.

Final Encouragement As You Start Homeschooling Little Kids

As you start homeschooling your little ones, I want to reassure you of three things:

1. You don’t have to know everything to begin. You just need to know what the next step is.
2. If you are willing to keep persisting, You CAN do this. Keep working the schedule, keep learning, and keep growing along the way.
3. Speaking from my personal experience as a homeschooled child, you may find that starting to homeschool your children is the best and most valuable gift you can give to them.

I hope these three steps to help you start homeschooling little kids provides you with the structure and confidence to venture down this path. Homeschooling is a joy-filled, growth-filled journey, and it has been one of the best things our family has done for our connection and family culture.

Before you go!

Hey, before you leave, if this post has been helpful for you, would you be willing to do one of the following?

• Share this post on Pinterest
• Send it to a friend
• Comment on this post and tell me what was most helpful for you

And if you like this kind of content, you may enjoy my monthly newsletter. Its a bit more personal and kind of a “glimpse into my life,” but since we’re a homeschooling family and I share resources and things we are doing currently while homeschooling, there may be some helpful nuggets for you there, too!

Thank you!