Alaskan
Herd Master
My kids have been/are being all homeschooled.@promiseacres You homeschool? Can you help me out? How do you fill the day with learning? Do you use any online resources?
You first need to see what the rules are in your state. The rules for homeschooling vary WILDLY from one state to the next.
I love homeschooling. Where kids have issues you just keep trying different approaches or repeating material until they get it. Where they excell you zoom ahead.
I homeschool for a bunch of reasons, one of them being that I do not agree with how they organize and teach some subjects. So... I organized and taught how I thought was best.
Start researching parenting, but don't read the popular fluff, find scientific papers on learning and read those. And no, I can't tell you where to go and what to read. I did all of that research a great many years back.
But it boiled down to be very careful as to word choices, how you complement, always be consistent, if you say no it must mean no and you must follow through.
And then all of the language learning stuff. Reading out loud, lots of rhyming, clapping syllables. And there was research at the time that said that starting out with ONLY capital letters helped to reduce dyslexia.
Also the various thoughts on the best ways to learn math are fascinating.
I would suggest you do a great deal of research first, and go from there. Decide what you agree with, and build a learning plan from there.
Also remember that each kid is different and might need a completely different learning approach.
How I taught when I was teaching 5 tiny kids is way different from how I teach now. I am now teaching 2, grade 8 and 10. I do have a 12th grader, but he finished all required classes except for history and English, so is doing very little school this semester... mostly working.
With tiny kids it is way more fun. I would start the day with chores, animal feeding and wood hauling. If that didn't make them tired enough they would have to run in the hallway, or do jumping jacks. Once tired we would sit and do school. About every 20 to 40 minutes another bunch of jumping jacks (tired kids learn better and are more obedient). Then it was "cooking class" while we all cooked together for lunch. Eat. After that super tiny would sleep and the non-sleepers would do messy stuff like science experiments or painting. Then outdoor walk with learning. Water cycle, botany, foraging, weather, whatever. Then indoor quiet resting while I read history or classic books out loud incorporating morals, good character, critical thinking, philosophy, geography, etc. Maybe an hour or 2 where they play with toys or read.. Then we cook together again, eat, then they clean the kitchen while I put my feet up watching them, keeping them on task.
I think electronics with little kids is a rabbit hole of doom.