I love homeschooling! I love the flexibility of it, I love the extra time I am granted with my kids because of it, and I love being a part of their celebration when things finally click in their brain. My favorite moment with each of them has been when they finally learn to read. They work really hard on learning letters of the alphabet, the letter sounds, then blending letters and then suddenly, they are off on their own.
Since Covid, there has been a much larger interest in homeschooling. I was joking with a mom on my son’s flag football team about homeschooling and how both our families had been homeschooling since it was considered weird. Since Covid, homeschooling has become a little more normal. People homeschool for many different reasons.
We have homeschooled in two different states. Colorado and now, Tennessee. When there was a school shooting in Nashville, back in March, there was also an influx of people on social media wanting to start homeschooling as well. Rightfully so. School safety has become a huge question mark over the last handful of years.
Although I have homeschooled for five years, I felt because we had recently moved to Tennessee, I could better help these beginners since I recently navigated homeschooling here. The process of making sure I was doing it “right” is still pretty fresh in my brain.
I don’t consider myself an expert of any kind. This post is simply a guide as to what we found was the least overwhelming and most affordable way to start homeschooling in the state of Tennessee. You decide what is best for your family.
Understand Tennessee Homeschooling Laws
Tennessee is a pretty lax state when it comes to homeschooling laws. By that, we mean there aren’t a lot of rules and regulations you need to follow. These requirements include:
- Notifying the local superintendent of schools in writing of their intent to homeschool their child at least 30 days before beginning homeschooling.
- Maintaining attendance records, test and evaluation records, and immunization records.
- Providing a curriculum that includes instruction in reading, language arts, math, science, and social studies.
- Participating in a standardized test administered by a qualified person in grades 5, 7, and 9.
- Parents or legal guardian(s) having a high school diploma or equivalent.
- Homeschooling for at least four hours per day for 180 days per year.
This is where people start getting overwhelmed and intimidated. How do you find the contact information for who you’re supposed to notify? Where do you send kids for standardized testing? How do other families keep and submit all of these records?
First, let’s take a deep breath.
Now is a good time to mention there are a few different ways to register as homeschoolers.
- 1. Independent Homeschool: Independent homeschooling means that parents or legal guardians take full responsibility for their child’s education and do not use a public or private school for instruction. Parents choose the curriculum, develop lesson plans, and assume all costs associated with their child’s education. They also have complete control over their child’s daily schedule, learning environment, and educational goals.
- 2. Church-related School: The church-related school serves as an umbrella organization that provides legal coverage for homeschooling families. With this option, parents still have primary responsibility for their child’s education and are typically responsible for selecting and implementing the curriculum. However, the church-related school may offer support services such as record-keeping, testing, guidance, and counseling, as well as access to extracurricular activities and social events.
- 3. Category III Distance Learning School: This is just another way of saying accredited online school. I’ll admit, I’m not very familiar with this option because I don’t know anyone who has chosen this path. But it is a legal option in Tennessee worth mentioning.
If you decide to register as independent homeschoolers, I highly recommend looking into an umbrella school. They will file the necessary paper work for you, keep records on file, provide documents like transcripts, diplomas, teacher/student IDs, and offers exemption from state testing requirements. We personally use and love Honor School. Their membership pricing starts at $20 a year for your whole family and they are quick to respond to any questions you may have.
Pick Your Homeschool Curriculum
After all of the legal paperwork is taken care of, the fun begins.
I personally nerd out over curriculum. But there are so many options out there! Some are free and some are extremely expensive. So first, get an idea of your homeschooling budget. For our family, I wanted a smaller percentage of our homeschool budget to go towards curriculum so the majority of it could be spent on lessons and experiences outside of our home.
Another thing to consider is how much time you want to dedicate to lesson planning. With multiple kids in different grades, I didn’t want to be so hands on with the curriculum that I couldn’t focus on my younger kids. So we decided to go with Miacademy. It is an online curriculum that is self led and includes subjects such as math, language arts, science, history, life skills, music, art, and more. It is a K-8 program but they also have a high school platform called Mia Prep. You can read more about our experience with Miacademy on my blog post, “Why You Need to Homeschool with Miacademy.”
This year, we also decided to supplement with some handwriting workbooks from The Good and the Beautiful. This company also has other very affordable curriculum options that are worth checking out.
Homeschooling FAQs
I hope I covered most of your concerns in the previous sections of this post. If you have made it this far, you probably have a more questions about homeschooling that don’t include the legal requirements. So let’s see if I can answer those for you too!
How Do Your Kids Get Socialization?
“When people ask me about the socialization thing in homeschooling, I ask them about the peer pressure in school.” -Rebecca Devitt
But seriously, one of the biggest concerns people have about homeschooling is providing opportunities for kids to learn social skills. Just because it’s called homeschool, doesn’t mean you are forced to stay there. There are so many ways to ensure your kids have plenty of chances to hang out with kids their own age. One of the easiest and most obvious ones is to sign up for sports. A quick google search will yield options in about every sport in every grade.
Another one to look into are libraries near you. We have quite a few different libraries within 20 minutes of our house and each one offers something different on each weekday. Sometimes it’s just a simple story time and craft for the younger ones. But there are also cool STEM days that all of them can participate in. We have found out about most of these events by following each library Facebook page.
A few other places to look include the YMCA. I know the one near us offers a homeschool PE class once a week. The membership is also very affordable for families.
We have also found art classes at different art studios.
My kids’ favorite are the days we pack a picnic and head to the park. There’s always free entertainment and plenty of kids to play with there!
Do You Need a Specific Homeschool Room?
I love looking at the dining room makeover that turns into the most perfect school room on Pinterest. But that isn’t always easy to accomplish for every family. Or realistic. I think the best part of homeschooling is having the freedom to do our school work from anywhere we choose.
Do you want to know where my kids prefer to do their school work? Outside!
When it comes to school supplies though, I recommend checking out my other blog post, “Essential Items for New Homeschoolers.” This is a basic necessities list that isn’t overwhelming to look at. We try to keep all of our supplies confined to one bookshelf.
What Does Homeschooling for 4 Hours Every Day Look Like?
This question comes up more often than I thought it would. People assume the state requires four hours of hands on bookwork everyday. But what you teach and how you teach is different for everyone. Learning takes place in more places than just a book. So feel free to fill your time with education videos, science experiments, nature walks, baking contests, field trips, reading. This is your homeschooling journey to decide how to best spend your time. Have fun with it!
The Hardest Part About Getting Started, Is Getting Started
That’s it for now! I hope this helped ease your fears and doubts about homeschooling. You can do this!
If you have any other questions about homeschooling in Tennessee, feel free to leave your questions down below or send an email to jessica@blissthismessblog.com. I’m happy to help!
