New To Homeschooling in ILLINOIS

[hartgal71]

Hello, my name is Kim! Im a mother of 3. This is my first time homeschooling my 13 yr old daughter.Im very anxious nervous & excited!! Any advice would be great ! My oldest kids ages 25 & 22 think Im making a mistake by taking their sister out of public schooling.She has always been on the high honor roll but has trouble making friends due to being very shy & timid.We live in a small town & its not easy to find things to do to get her to make friends, so thats the main thing Im worrying about is her not socializing!!Any suggestions??

[hearthstone_academy]

Hi, Kim! Welcome to the forum.

You might be interested in the free Welcome to Homeschooling guide.

With my own kids, I have kept an open-door policy regarding friends. They have always been free to bring someone home from any activity (and I keep lots of snacks around ).

I was thought to be shy when I was growing up, but I wasn't really. I just preferred one-to-one interaction and disliked groups of people. I'm still like that to this day. So, whenever anyone mentions their child is shy, I like to throw that out there as a possibility. Not everyone wants a large circle of friends, preferring to have one or two close friendships.

My kids do community classes, volunteer work, part-time jobs, Scouts, 4-H, VBS, and so forth. They have friends of all ages and from all backgrounds. One great thing about homeschooling is that kids learn to relate to all different kinds of people, and not only those in their exact age group.

[MGIRONDI]

My name is Mishele. I am a mother of a 10 year old girl who has been in Special Education classroom since she was in early childhood. She is also very shy and prefers one on one friends. I have been seriously contemplating homeschooling. I am very nervous about it myself. Do I need to notify her school or the district when I decide.

[MJ510]

My name is Mishele. I am a mother of a 10 year old girl who has been in Special Education classroom since she was in early childhood. She is also very shy and prefers one on one friends. I have been seriously contemplating homeschooling. I am very nervous about it myself. Do I need to notify her school or the district when I decide.

Mishele, the policies regarding notification / withdrawal vary. Your best place to start is by researching the homeschooling laws of your state. Next, DO be certain to properly withdraw from your school / district to avoid being counted as truant.

More suggestions can be found here:

4 Ways to Manage a Midyear Homeschool Transition