Before we dive in, let's begin with a quick piece of advice.

If your child has been enrolled in a public school, notify the school district that you are removing your child from enrollment to start homeschooling.

We’ll cover the homeschool legal option choices below, but no matter which one you choose, make sure you inform the school district before starting homeschool midyear. This avoids the appearance of truancy when your child stops attending school.

Now we're ready to plunge in. Let's go!

First, let’s consider why you want to start homeschooling in the middle of the school year.

Perhaps your child is:
- being bullied or exposed to negative influences in public school
- falling behind academically or struggling with unmet special needs
- missing too many school days due to chronic illness
- dealing with a recent family move or parental job change
- developing negative habits and attitudes in school
- feeling overwhelmed by the institutional school setting

No matter what your reason is, it’s vital that your “why” for homeschooling is more than escaping from a negative.

Make a list of the positive reasons you have chosen the homeschool option. Here are a few ideas.

Homeschooling allows you to:
- individualize your child’s instruction
- share your faith and values with your child
- strengthen your relationship with your child
- design instruction to follow unique interests or meet special needs
- shape a customized family-oriented schedule in your home
- have the freedom to direct your child’s education

Next, let’s turn to making a smooth transition from public school to homeschool.

Especially if your child has been struggling in his or her current educational setting, you will need an adjustment period. Your child needs this, and so do you.

When starting homeschool midyear, plan to spend a week or so acclimating to the new arrangement. Focus on getting to know your child better and enjoying time together.

- Explore some interesting sites in your local area together.
- Team up to do projects, like crafting, cooking, or building.
- Select some favorite books and read them aloud to your child, regardless of age.

The key here is to spend some time unwinding from the stress that motivated you to make this necessary change. Homeschooling is built on relationships, so start there rather than leaping into the coursework.

Finally, while you’re enjoying the initial acclimation period with your child, you can also devote some time for planning your new homeschooling journey.

Take these essential steps when you start homeschooling midyear:

1. Select a homeschool legal option
2. Identify your child’s learning style
3. Explore homeschool teaching approaches
4. Choose your curriculum
5. Create a simple schedule
6. Set up learning spaces
7. Get connected

Many of these steps are the same ones followed by those who start homeschooling at the beginning of the school year. Some of them, however, are applied a bit differently when you’re starting homeschool midyear.

You’ll find a thorough overview of the five legal options for homeschooling in Iowa on our website.

Two of them do not require any filing of forms with the school district, but they also do not provide access to most public school services.

The other three do require you to file a form with your school district within two weeks of removing your child from school enrollment, and they do provide access to public school services through dual enrollment.

If you’re removing your child from a public school in the middle of the school year, your school district will have already received full state funding for your child. This means the school was given more than enough funding to provide dual enrollment for the rest of the school year, if you want it, to access extracurriculars, classes, or programs at the school.

Be assured, though, that you are not required to use dual enrollment or file paperwork with the public school if you choose not to do so.

Hopefully, as you are enjoying the initial detox time at home with your child, you’ll also become more sensitive to the unique ways he or she interacts with his surroundings.

You’ll want to identify your child’s primary learning style and base your homeschool instruction around it. Learn more about the four most common learning styles on our website.

Every homeschooling parent settles into a teaching approach, but it often takes a while to find the one that works best.

Devote some time investigating the different homeschool teaching styles, but don’t feel pressure to commit to one immediately.

Okay. This step is important. And you don’t have a lot of time to figure this out when you start homeschooling midyear.

If you’re pulling your child out of public school, you might be tempted to sign up for dual enrollment to try to get copies of the schoolbooks your child was using there. We encourage you to reconsider this idea.

The textbooks used in the public school are selected for use in an institutional setting. They are not customized to your child’s needs and gifts. Also, the school district cannot provide you with the teacher’s manuals and test keys for the textbooks. And, more importantly, public school textbooks might not be the best fit for your child’s unique learning style or your teaching approach.

So if you’re not going to use the public school textbooks, what are you going to use?

Many parents who start homeschooling midyear decide to use free homeschool curriculum options at least at the beginning. If you choose this option, you won’t immediately have to financially commit to curriculum purchases for the remaining portion of the school year. Starting with free or low-cost homeschool resources gives you some space to acclimate to homeschooling and to search for what will best work for your child.

Another possible option to explore is Portals, an online support platform for homeschooling parents who want help setting up their homeschool programs. Portals assists with curriculum selection, lesson planning, and scheduling. They also offer on-call support and mentoring.

You’ll find lots of tips and tools for choosing homeschool curriculum on our website.

You’ll learn very quickly that your homeschooling efforts will go much more smoothly if you set up a simple schedule.

Keep in mind that a typical homeschool day is much shorter than a traditional school day, especially for younger students. That’s because home instruction is more concentrated and individualized.

Homeschooling is also incredibly flexible, allowing you to customize your homeschool schedule. You can build it around your child’s learning style, study pace, and extracurricular activities. Your family’s calendar and your work schedule can be accommodated, too.

You can find lots of advice on how to create a schedule for your homeschool day. One of the blog posts on our website contains a sample schedule used by an experienced homeschooling mom.

As you get started homeschooling, you’ll identify certain spots in your home where you and your child will learn together and where your child will study independently. You’ll also begin to develop places where you’ll store your homeschool materials.

Find lots of great homeschool space ideas in our blog.

It’s vital that you don’t try to do this alone! We’re here to help you get connected with other homeschooling families.

Check out the resources and links for homeschool connection on our website.

Yes, it can seem a bit overwhelming to start homeschooling midyear,
but you can do it!

Our website offers lots more information about specific concerns, like homeschooling a high school student or homeschooling a child with special needs.

Please use our Contact Us form if you need more help.

You can also reach out to the Homeschool Iowa Regional Representative who serves in your area of the state. Our Reps are all experienced homeschooling moms who are happy to help you.

Plan to attend our annual Homeschool Iowa Conference in June, too. We offer a Start Homeschooling Special Track with lots of helpful information and encouragement. You can do some hands-on shopping for curriculum, too, in our huge conference exhibit hall. 

Homeschool Iowa is here to help you as you begin your homeschooling journey!