We've been homeschooling in some form or fashion for 24 years!
Our oldest was 9 months old when I first became a part of the homeschool community in central Texas, and began hanging around new, old, and veteran (truly pioneering !) homeschoolers. I was able to glean so much insight simply by listening before and after classes full or eager homeschooled students as young as three years old up to 18. What a BLESSING that was throughout my parenting journey.
STEP or TIP number one: Hang around older homeschool moms. They say the most hilarious things. Find a mom who you like and admire, and you like her kids (or at least some of them) and ask to come hang out. She'll say yes, I promise. "Suzanne told me to find a mom who I admire. And that you would let me come hang out." You can even just text her that, if you're scared. It'll work.
TIP number TWO: BABY STEPS!
Just like trying to clean an entire house, change an entire diet, or re decorate an entire kitchen....executing a completely new schedule in one day is doomed for failure. I highly recommend adding in ONE new thing every few days or so. The way I did it was by having a practice prep day... about two weeks before school started, I'd ave a little "school breakfast practice." I made french toast, pancakes, eggs, the works, and let them know the night before we would do a little practice run. During breakfast, we talked about what we liked from years before and what we'd like to change. It's lovely.
The next day, we added in afternoon reading time. Then the next day we made sure we had a library stop. Finally on the fourth day of prep, we were ready to discuss the first week.
We ALWAYS start on the day of labor day, so it's already a short week for us. Tuesday morning, we start on time by decorating our first day signs, writing our goals in our journals, doing Bible time, take a picture. That's it. Then add in reading in the afternoon and they continued math lessons on their own. The "morning time" took about an hour, max, and their afternoon time was even shorter.
By the end of the week, we had added in each subject, and finished on Friday with a field trip with some friends somewhere.
TIP number THREE: TALK about IT!
Chat with your children, and see what CRAZY zany ideas they might have! Try it! One that we tried that stuck was trampoline math, front porch spelling, and "Johnny America Time" - instead of tea time at the end of the day. Some events that I loved that didn't stick was literature by the fire pit - I thought it was GREAT - build the fire, keep it going while I read. They preferred doing ANYthing else, lol! Some of the zany ideas we did:
glow in the dark phonics (sit under the table and use flashlights)
run and touch math (stick numbers on the fence and call out problems. They RUN and TOUCH the answer. The little ones accidentally learn!)
loud literature (try reading with loud rock music and without. What works, what doesn't how does it feel?)
EVERYthing turned into school for my five. The could get me to an amusement park to study architecture or physics, and an ice cream parlor to do the scientific method on gummy bears or jelly beans as toppings! Even shopping- "Mom, it's fashion and history.... and budgeting!" Involve your children.
TIP number FOUR B&W: Ask what was best and what was worst each day. This gives every member of the family a judge free zone to confess heartache, or promote the goodness of life. I recommend doing this AFTER or BEFORE dinner. Otherwise. my food gets cold, because I'm sitting in rapt attention listening to these amazing souls tell me all about a day that I was present for, but I didn't have their filter on it.
What a blessing!
LAST TIP: POST it! Post your goals, your progress, your art, your grammar rules. SLATHER THE WALLS with it. It's a good idea. I promise. We used a retractable clothesline mounted inside a window sill to increase wall space.
BONUS tip: have snacks ready throughout the day. If my kids were hungry, they could ALWAYS have a carrot. They knew that. And thus, very few complaints about being hungry! ;-)
Here's a few more anecdotes and tips, but same ideas in the video format.