Homeschooling in Iowa

Explore

Hot Topics

How To Homeschool

Homeschooling offers parents the flexibility to choose the best educational method for their children. The spectrum of homeschooling models runs from unschooling, also called self-learning or child-led learning, to a structured “school at home” type of environment. In addition, there are many schools of thought, fostered by educators such as Raymond and Dorothy Moore, John Holt, Maria Montessori, Charlotte Mason, and many other. Explore the different methods and styles of homeschooling. You’ll be inspired, intrigued, and equipped with the tools to make the best educational choices for your own family.

What's Popular

The Seduction of Homeschooling Families
Do the public school authorities feel threatened by homeschooling? Judging by their efforts to lure homeschooling families into dependence on local school districts, the answer is apparently yes. For the last several years, homeschooling has been the fastest growing educational alternative in the country. The sheer number of homeschoolers represent a distinct threat to the hegemony of the government school monopoly. Qualitatively, the academic success of homeschoolers, measured by standardized test scores and recruitment by colleges, debunk the myth that parents need to hire credentialed experts to force children to learn.
How to Respond to Haters When You've Decided to Homeschool
If you’ve made the decision to homeschool your children, more than likely, you’ve met resistance from almost everyone who knows and loves you and your children. These lighthearted examples can help you respond. 
Lego Challenge Math Activity-Free Printable
Practicing math skills like spatial awareness and geometry can be fun, especially when the math activity involves Legos! Here’s a free printable math challenge for kids using Lego or Duplo bricks!
Seton Testing Services
Seton provides affordable, nationally standardized testing, including ability and achievement tests, practice tests, and test prep materials for homeschoolers, private schools, and home school groups. Testing services and materials are available for grades K-12. Tests include the Stanford 10 Online, CAT E-Survey, IOWA Form E, and TerraNova 2/CAT 6. Ordering is easy and you will get test results returned within two weeks. 
PLATO Learning, Inc./eduTest Assessment
PLATO Learning, Inc. delivers just-in-time online assessments that are tied directly to state and provincial standards. Their courseware includes thousands of hours of basic to advanced level instructional content for K-adult learners. They provide web based assessments that assist in placement, progress monitoring, and accountability requirements with diagnostic and prescriptive tests, simulated high-stakes tests, lesson progress tests, standards-based tests, and cumulative tests.
Family Learning Organization Testing Services
Family Learning Organization offers standardized tests for homeschooling families. Through their Educational Assessment & Testing Service, tests may be obtained by parents to administer to their homeschooled children. Their services include standardized achievement tests (California Achievement Test, Fifth Edition), review of parent-administered assessments by a certified teacher, toll-free telephone answers to your questions about administering tests and interpreting results, and computerized score printouts for tests including Percentile Rankings, Grade Equivalencies, Stanine Scores and Scaled Scores, where applicable.
Teaching Young Children at Home
How do you teach young children? What do you do all day? How do you provide a "stimulating environment"? These questions are asked frequently by parents of young children who understand the immense magnitude of what it means to take responsibility for their child's education.
The Perfect Crime: How Psychology and High-Tech Marketing Have "Deformed" Education
Beverly K. Eakman explains how, as a teacher, she saw that public schools are places where bad ideas are legitimized. She discusses the evolution of educational policy thought and the psychologizing of the educating process. This is a fascinating look at the state of the educational system today.
The Iowa Civics Project
Public Interest Institute believes that Iowa youth need a course in the rights and duties of citizens, and hopes that the Iowa Civics Project will contribute to the development of civic pride and responsibility in our youth. In 1996, Public Interest Institute developed and started distributing free copies of their THE IOWA CIVICS PROJECT, a twelve-unit curriculum on Iowa state and local government, to government teachers across the state -- including homeschooling parents.

Goals: The students will gain an understanding of the role of government in Iowa by:
  • Understanding the constitutional foundation and structure of government in Iowa.
  • Recognizing the powers and processes of each of the branches of state government.
  • Recognizing the role of county, city, and school governments; and how they set policy.
  • Identifying the major services provided by state and local governments.
  • Identifying the major sources of revenue for state and local governments.
  • Understanding the role of the political process in electing public officials at each level of government.
  • Demonstrating the knowledge, skills, and leadership qualities necessary to become effective Iowa citizens.
  • Understanding and recognizing that freedoms are accompanied by responsibilities and that citizens in a free society are obliged to exercise their freedoms with respect to the freedoms of other.
The Iowa Civics Project textbook, IOWA GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS, consists of twelve separate lessons, each designed to focus on one aspect of government in Iowa. Each chapter includes a list of Useful Websites, a Vocabulary list, a Review Quiz, and Suggestions for Additional Activities.

Ambleside Online

AmblesideOnline provides you with a list of books you'll need for each year. The subject covered include history, literature, geography, poetry, science, picture study and art appreciation, composer study and classical music appreciation, folk songs and hymns, Shakespeare, and Plutarch's biographies of Greeks and Romans. You add in your own math and foreign language curriculum. This program is free and is built on the educational philosophies of Charlotte Mason. 

Resources

Looking for Another State?

Small Map of the U.S.A.

Featured Resources