Over the past several months, many parents who had never considered schooling their children at home were faced with the challenge for the very first time. Taking control of your child’s education is an important responsibility that can be overwhelming for parents who don’t know where to begin, but it doesn’t have to be stressful or complicated. As a parent, free yourself from the burden of being “perfect” and let your best efforts be “enough.” Don’t be afraid to dive in. Here are some resources and tips to get started.

1. Read, Read, Read
Read with your child, and have fun with it. Learning happens when children are reading. It doesn’t have to be timed or complicated. Let your children pick books that interest them, or take time to introduce your child to books you enjoyed as a child. If your child is young or just learning to read, implement “popcorn reading” by taking turns reading a sentence or paragraph aloud to them, and then let them read one aloud to you. Make time for this daily.

2. PBS Kids
For elementary-age children, pbskids.org offers a wide variety of fun, free educational games. Parents can browse by topic: science, vocabulary, numbers, spelling and many more.

3. Khan Academy
Khanacademy.com is an excellent learning platform for learners of any age. It offers practice exercises and instructional videos in all levels of math, science, reading, art history, economics and more. Khan also offers ACT and SAT prep. Free login is required to get started. Not sure where your child should begin? If you think your child is advanced, start at their grade level. If your child is struggling to keep up, that’s okay—start on the previous grade level.

4. Cook Up Some Fun
Families who cook together not only eat together, they also spend time together and learn together. Even if it isn’t easy, make plans to regularly include your child in meal preparations. Not much of a cook yourself? No worries. Start with planning a meal once a week, and take it one step at at time. Pick a recipe that your family will enjoy; plan and gather the ingredients, and dive into the process. Things are sure to get messy when kids are involved, but that’s okay. Incorporate some extra love and patience for one another, and a great meal will result. Kids can begin to explore the world of food and cooking with recipes and activities at americastestkitchen.com/kids.

5. Grow Together
It’s the perfect time of year to explore the wonders of gardening. Don’t have a lot of time, money or space to invest? Start with a large inexpensive container and seed packets. Or, if you want to kick it up a notch, your nearby garden center (such as Valley Growers Garden Center at the Murfreesboro Co-op) can help you get started on larger garden projects. Companion gardening and square-foot gardening are popular small-space methods to implement in urban areas. If veggies don’t appeal to you, try planting a perennial flower garden instead. Much can be learned from getting our hands in the dirt and observing nature working its wonders in the springtime.

6. Google It!
With the plethora of information available on the Internet, there’s no excuse for not learning something new each day. When you can’t travel, Google Earth is a fun way to explore geography. Help your child locate cities or landmarks in their favorite state or foreign country, and before you know it you may discover a remote tropical island that you didn’t even know existed.

7. Get Outdoors
Growing up, my grandmother would make us go outside to play, even when we didn’t want to. She understood the importance of getting enough sunshine (vitamin D), and keeping our bodies flexible and mobile, as opposed to remaining sedentary indoors. Hiking, biking, swimming, playing sports, playing games, even outdoor chores—there are many valuable lessons to be learned from moving around outdoors. With busy work schedules this isn’t always easy, but spending some time outdoors each day fosters healthy habits that are necessary to keep every body in the family fit.

8. Arts and Crafts
Visit crayola.com/kids for ideas for easy and simple crafts to do at home with markers, crayons and materials you probably already have on hand. Pinterest.com is a terrific resource for project ideas for all ages.

9. Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool
One of the positive things about the internet is that it has made homeschooling accessible and affordable for families who never thought homeschooling would be possible. In that same way, allinonehomeschool.com has proven itself a valuable resource for many homeschooling families who wish to home-school on a permanent basis. Also known as Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool, the program offers a complete, free online curriculum for pre-school through grade 12. It covers reading, writing, grammar, spelling, vocabulary, math, history/social studies/geography, science, Spanish, Bible, computer, music, art, PE/health and logic. It uses only free materials found on the internet. A benefit of this curriculum is the flexibility and versatility it offers. Each course provides 180 days of content, and parents can either start from the beginning or pick and choose single lessons from subjects that a child may need more practice on. Corresponding worksheets are printable, or can be purchased in workbook form from amazon.com for those who prefer to work offline. Parents can also take advantage of My EP Assignments for free lesson tracking.

Free Online Curriculums and Resources:

• The Good and the Beautiful (goodandbeautiful.com) offers a free language arts course that combines reading, writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, literature, geography and art into one course set. This course is a free PDF download available for grade levels 1–5. Our family has used this curriculum for several years, and it truly is good and beautiful, challenging and thought-provoking.

• Kids.nationalgeographic.com offers videos, games and reading activities that allow kids to further explore geography, history and science related topics.

• Kids and teens can learn more about history, culture, art and science-related topics, as well as virtual exhibits from the videos and activities available from the Smithsonian at si.edu/kids.

Other Considerations:

• Learning happens in everything a child does—reading, drawing, cooking, crafting, exploring outdoors, sports. Keep your child active and engaged.

• Each family and each child is different. Take time to read about and explore the various learning styles that work the best for your children. Don’t be afraid to change things or vary the routine each day to keep learning interesting. Variety is the spice of life.

• As a parent, you are inherently ordained and equipped by the Creator of all life as the primary keeper of the little souls that have been entrusted to your care. Remember that you are called and more than capable of shepherding and teaching your children if you have the desire. In other words—you’ve already got this!