Homeschooling Resources

Often confused with "unschooling", but it's not the same thing. De-schooling is a necessary process to learn how to live and learn together as a family, apart from the institutional mindset. Sometimes it's needed more for us parents than the children! This website provides very thorough information on this important step in starting to homeschool!

The Homeschool Resource Roadmap provides current and prospective homeschooling parents with information about more than 4800 homeschool-oriented resources in over 300 different content areas. You can search by curriculum name to see the resource's alignment status with Common Core.

The Homeschool Resource Roadmap - Deluxe Charts

One page frequently accessed from this site is the list of nationally-normed standardized tests. (There is no "approved" list in Ohio - any nationally normed standardized test can be used if you choose to use the test option for your annual assessment.) To access the list of tests, click on this link and scroll down to the Standardized Tests section.

 - This "Rest Stop" section of the Homeschool Resource Roadmap website noted above is so robust that it needs its own listing.

OHP member Nicole Ott has authored two very helpful guest posts on our blog:  Choosing Homeschool Curriculum and Mistakes in Choosing Homeschool Curriculum. She suggests starting with the Mistakes post first.

Cathy Duffy's Top Picks website is another good resource for beginning your curriculum search.

Annie and Everything's website has a wonderful article that will set your mind at ease about homeschooling high school. Spoiler alert: WE make all the requirements - the state has nothing to do with it! 

Lee Binz, The HomeScholar, is a wealth of information for everything high school, transcripts, and college acceptance! 

Nothing is done with the state or school district under compulsory age (in Ohio that is age 6) and it's best to keep learning experiential and hands-on. This is is best done just in the context of regular family life, but sometimes preschooler families still want a little help and direction in getting some ideas for their little ones.  This article is one of the best we've seen about homeschooling preschool.

Eclectic Homeschooler “Quiz” – What kind of homeschooler are you? 

It's one of the most common questions, but it's also a non-issue. Unless children grow up to live and work only among peers born around the same year, the socialization gained in home education is more like the real world. Home educated children have the time to be out in society instead of spending 13 years within walls and behind desks; they are rubbing shoulders, working, and learning from the elderly, infants, and everyone in between. That is the real world. That's socialization.

Here are a couple resources on "The Socialization Question":

Up to date (2018) Researched Facts on Homeschooling from NHERI

Why I Don't Worry about My Homeschoolers' Socialization

Social activity is not the same thing as socialization, as described above, but if you are looking for groups and activities to join, the possibilities are endless for children who don't have their days taken up by a school building 5 days a week. We maintain a list of groups, arranged by area of the state, on the Member Resources page of this site.

We recommend that homeschooling families join HSLDA. Even if you never experience legal trouble yourself, your HSLDA membership will help enable other homeschooling families to get the legal help they need and will help defend our right to homeschool. Membership in HSLDA also gives you personal access to the legal staff; HSLDA's experienced high school, struggling learners, and early years consultants; selling privileges at the HSLDA Curriculum Market; and discounts through HSLDA's PerX program. (For more information about HSLDA's many benefits, see www.hslda.org.) 

OHP group members SAVE $15 off the HSLDA membership price when you enter our Discount Group code on the HSLDA membership form! If you are a member of our group, Contact Us for the discount group code!

National Center for Life and Liberty (NCLL)

Heritage Defense

(Some religious based, some secular. Amazon links -nonaffiliated- unless noted.) 

• Homeschooling - The Right Choice, by Christopher Klicka
• Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler's Guide to Unshakable Peace, by Sarah Mackenzie
• The Underground History of American Education, by John Taylor Gatto
• Dumbing Us Down, by John Taylor Gatto ( link is a free PDF version)
• The Harsh Truth About Public Schools, by Bruce N. Shortt 
• The Joy of Relationship Homeschooling, Karen Campbell
• Education - Does God Have an Opinion -Israel Wayne 
• The 3 R's - Dr. Ruth Beechick
• You Can Teach Your Child Successfully -  Dr. Ruth Beechick
• Better Late Than Early - Raymond S Moore
• For the Children's Sake -  Susan Schaeffer Macaulay 
• 8 Great Smarts - Dr. Kathy Koch
• The Well-Trained Mind