For parents teaching at home
Homeschool questions, answered from the sources
Getting started, your state’s rules, choosing a curriculum, keeping records and planning the year: plain answers for parents teaching at home. Each guide is checked against state education departments, national education statistics and published research, and names them so you can read them yourself.
What the guides will cover
Five subjects to start with, each one written from the sources.
Getting started
The first weeks: deciding, telling the school, and what a first month can look like.
Your state’s rules
Notice, required subjects, hours and testing, each linked to that state’s own page.
Choosing a curriculum
Boxed, mixed and free options, and what the research says about each.
Schedules and the school year
Days, hours, breaks and year-round calendars that fit a family.
Keeping records
Attendance, portfolios and transcripts: what to keep, and for how long.
How each guide is put together
Start with the people who make the rules
State education departments and the rules they publish, national education statistics and published research come before anything else.
Name every source
Each guide lists what it used, and a state’s rule links that state’s own page.
Date every number
A number is read from its source when the guide is written, and the guide says when.
Say where the sources disagree
On a method, a schedule or a curriculum, the guide shows both sides instead of quietly picking one.
Fix it, and say so
Tell us about a mistake and the guide is corrected, with a note at its foot.
House rules
- No ads, no affiliate links
- Never a photo of a child’s face
- A state’s rule links that state’s own page
- Corrections noted at the foot of the guide
Every guide is signed Marisa Holcomb, a pen name for a small team. Why a pen name