The Eden Institute Biblical Herbalism Education

How to Start Homeschooling: The 5 Biggest Questions New Moms Ask

By Camila Johnson · October 29, 2026

The best way to start homeschooling is to start with your child, not a curriculum. Look up your state’s law, try a week before you buy a year, and build from what you learn about how your child takes things in.

These are the five questions new homeschool moms ask most:

How do I start homeschooling?

Start with your child. Before you research a single curriculum, sit down and have a real conversation with her or him. You know your child better than anybody on this earth. That’s your starting line.

Then get clear on what education is supposed to do. It’s supposed to prepare your child for real life.

Public school is cookie-cutter education, built around standardized tests. But we don’t have cookie-cutter kids! God designed every single one of them uniquely. “For You created my innermost parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, because I am awesomely and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:13-14, NASB). Most of us grew up hearing it as “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14, KJV). Either way, God made your child on purpose.

Homeschooling lets you really tune in to the specific gifts, desires and inclinations God put in your particular child. Then you get to support them, nourish them and nurture them, so your child becomes who they’re meant to be way earlier than I did. I’m 45, and I’m finally bold enough to walk in my purpose.

What are the first practical steps?

  1. Look up your state’s homeschool law. Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states, but every state sets its own rules. HSLDA sorts them from states that require no notice at all to states with high regulation, where parents send a notice plus test scores or a professional evaluation, and sometimes more. Find your state on HSLDA’s legal map.
  2. If your child is in school now, withdraw them formally. HSLDA recommends a formal withdrawal, sending it by certified mail with a return receipt, and keeping copies of everything.
  3. Try a week before you buy a year. You can teach a real week of Eden’s Table free and see how your child responds.

Which homeschool curriculum should I use?

Don’t pick a curriculum and then try to make your child fit it. Start with your child, the same as everything else. Notice what your child is good at, what they love, and how they take things in, and go from there.

What does the research say about learning styles and intelligence types?

Here’s a quick outline. Every study is linked at the bottom so you can read it yourself.

  • There’s more than one kind of smart. Psychologist Howard Gardner introduced the theory of multiple intelligences in his 1983 book Frames of Mind. He named seven: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. He later added an eighth, which he calls naturalist intelligence.
  • Intelligences aren’t learning styles. Gardner wrote in 2013 that multiple intelligences and “learning styles” are two different ideas, and he objected to people lumping them together.
  • Matching lessons to one learning style isn’t proven. A 2008 research review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest found “no adequate evidence base” for planning teaching around learning-style tests.
  • Teaching one thing several ways is what helps. Gardner’s own advice to teachers is to “individualize your teaching as much as possible” and to “pluralize your teaching,” teaching important material “in several ways, not just one.” A 2008 review in Trends in Cognitive Sciences concluded that training through more than one sense at a time is “more effective for learning.”

So knowing your child matters as much as ever. Just don’t box them into one style. Give every child more than one way in.

What kinds of homeschool curriculum are there?

  • Textbook and workbook. A book for each subject, laid out like a school year, often with tests.
  • Literature-based. Lots of read-alouds and real books, with discussion instead of worksheets.
  • Charlotte Mason. Living books, narration, short lessons and plenty of nature study.
  • Hands-on. Manipulatives, projects and experiments.
  • Unit studies. One topic carries several subjects at once.
  • Online. Video lessons and practice on a screen. More on that in the next question.

Plenty of families mix and match, and that’s fine.

How does Eden’s Table teach in more than one way?

One plant carries ten subjects across the week, and your child comes at it from a different direction every day:

  • Monday, they hear it. A read-aloud, discussion and the week’s Scripture memory verse.
  • Tuesday, they see it. They study the plant up close, draw it and label its parts.
  • Wednesday, they do it. Kitchen lab: measure, pour, steep, taste and write down what happens.
  • Thursday, they find it in the world. History, geography and art, all carried by the same plant.
  • Friday, they go outside. The garden, and a review of the week.

Hands-on is the heart of it. Your child rolls a dried bud between two fingers, crushes a leaf, smells it and feels the underside before you tell them a single fact. A plant is science a child can hold. And every lesson is written at two depths, so a younger and an older child can work the same week at one table.

You can see all five days for yourself in the free week.

Should I use an online homeschool program?

For little ones, I wouldn’t. An online program like Khan Academy is a screen, and it takes discipline and independent work. Littles get more out of sitting down with you and doing it together, so they get the hang of the basics: reading, writing and even basic arithmetic.

Around 5th grade, a child can sit in front of a screen and learn how to become more independent. Even then, I’d keep it minimal. Use it for a subject you’re not comfortable teaching. Or use it just as an outline, a scope and sequence that helps you figure out what your child is supposed to be learning at each grade level.

The fun and extracurricular subjects, like herbalism, belong off screens and outside. Eden’s Table works that way: you teach it together at the table, one plant a week, with the plant right there to see, smell and touch.

I wrote out exactly how I use Khan Academy for the basics, step by step.

Can I homeschool for free? What does it really cost?

Yes, you can homeschool on very little. You just have to get creative.

What does homeschooling usually cost?

It depends on what you count. HSLDA surveyed more than 4,000 homeschool families in 2024 and asked them to include curriculum, supplies and printing, co-op fees, online classes, transportation, music and art lessons, sports and tutoring. Its write-up found that homeschooling costs “significantly less per child than public and private school tuition.”

Where can I find free homeschool resources?

The most popular free-homeschool guides online agree on most of this list:

Your public library. It’s the first thing most free-homeschool guides recommend. Get a library card for you and each child. Ask whether your library offers free ebooks and audiobooks through an app like Libby, whether it can borrow books from other libraries for you, and whether it lends museum passes or learning kits.

Free books and audiobooks. Project Gutenberg has more than 79,000 free ebooks, mostly older works whose copyright has expired, and LibriVox has free audiobooks of public domain books, read by volunteers. That covers a lot of classic read-alouds.

Free curriculum. Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool calls itself a complete, free online Christian homeschool curriculum, from preschool through 8th grade. It’s online, so the same screen rule applies. AmblesideOnline is a free Charlotte Mason curriculum, built around living books you can borrow from the library.

Khan Academy for the basics. Math and language arts, free, from a nonprofit. Here’s exactly how I use it, starting around 5th grade.

Learn-to-read games, with a caveat. Starfall is a nonprofit, and its Learn-to-Read program is free for every child (a paid membership adds more). Teach Your Monster to Read is free to play on a computer and comes from The Usborne Foundation, a charity. Both are screens for little ones, which isn’t how I teach K-4. If you use one, sit right next to your child, keep it short, and let it back up the reading you do together at the table rather than take its place.

Used curriculum. Buy used, borrow from a friend, swap in local homeschool groups, and sell or pass on what you finish, keeping what a younger sibling can reuse.

Museums, zoos and homeschool days. Ask about homeschool days, free-admission days and educator discounts.

Your everyday life. Cooking, nature walks, the garden and writing real letters all count. That’s real learning, and it’s free.

Your parks and recreation department. Call your city and ask. Here in Clarksville, Tennessee, Parks and Recreation has run homeschool PE and art classes at the Crow Recreation Center, and its S.P.A.R.K. program takes 25%, 50% or even 100% off eligible programs for city families who meet the income limit.

Two free weeks of Eden’s Table. Sprouts (K-2) Week 1 is lavender and Seedlings (3-5) Week 1 is elderberry. Each one is five full lessons, sent to your email, free.

Do any states help pay for homeschooling?

Some states have education savings accounts (ESAs) and scholarship programs that put public money toward your child’s education. EdChoice counts 21 ESA programs in 18 states, and each program sets its own rules for who qualifies and what it pays for. Look up your state on EdChoice’s ESA page. If you already have an ESA, Eden’s Table is an approved or registered vendor in seven programs, and the ESA page shows how buying works in each state.

Can I really homeschool my own child?

Yes. No state requires every homeschooling parent to be a certified teacher. Some states do have basic requirements, like a high school diploma or its equivalent, so check your state’s law before you start.

You’re more qualified than you think. You’ve watched your child since the day they were born. You know what they’re afraid of, what lights them up, and exactly what their face does when something’s wrong. What you don’t know yet, you can learn right alongside them. God trusted you with your kids, and He knows better.

I let my own teaching certificate lapse on purpose. I tell that whole story in You’re Qualified to Homeschool.

Sources

Questions families ask

How do I start homeschooling?

Start with your child: talk with them and get clear on what education is for, which is preparing them for real life. Then look up your state's homeschool law on HSLDA's legal map, and if your child is in school now, withdraw them formally and keep copies of everything.

Which homeschool curriculum should I use?

Pick one that fits your child instead of making your child fit a curriculum. Research has not shown that matching lessons to one learning style helps, so look for a curriculum that teaches each lesson in more than one way.

Should I use an online homeschool program?

For young children, this guide recommends learning reading, writing and arithmetic together at the table instead of on a screen. Around 5th grade, a free program like Khan Academy can help a child become more independent, used minimally for a subject you are not comfortable teaching or as a scope and sequence.

Can you homeschool for free?

You can homeschool on very little by using your public library, free nonprofit learning sites and community programs like city parks and recreation classes. Some states also have education savings accounts that help pay for curriculum.

Do you need a teaching degree to homeschool?

No. No state requires every homeschooling parent to be a certified teacher, though some states require a high school diploma or its equivalent.