Get Started Homeschooling: Include Extra Subjects in Your Homeschool

I’ve been basing the “how to get started guides” on my state requirements for what subjects must be taught. This post includes some other subjects that students may or may not be required to be taught and that you may want include, including homeschool foreign language options, life skills in your homeschool, and more.

Even if it is not requried, you may want to teach your children a foreign langauge in your homeschool. Here is how you can! — Even if it is not requried, you may want to teach your children a foreign langauge in your homeschool. Here’s how you can.

Foreign Language Learning at Home

Foreign language in homeschool can be tricky, since parents may not know a language themselves. Some of the following options may help parents get started in teaching Spanish or other languages at home.

Homeschool Curricula with Multiple Language Learning Options

Some homeschool curricula companies offer quite a few differnt langauges following their model.

Muzzy BBC (Spanish, Fench, Italian, Chinese, German, Korean). Movies, songs, and games teach languages in a natural emersion method to learners as young as PreK. Save when you subscribe through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op.
DuoLingo (15+ languages). FREE online, interactive lessons focus on reading, translating, hearing, and speaking. Reading skills required.
Rosetta Stone Homeschool (15+ languages). Online, interactive lessons, focusing on reading, translating, hearing, and speaking.
The Learnables (Spanish, French, German). Online lessons focusing on language learning and comprehension. Advanced levels offer books and CDs.
Learn in 10 Minutes a Day (10+ languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Russian). A program with the goal of learning the language as quickly as possible. The purchase of the book and audio also includes flashcards and a downloadable software component.
Middlebury Interactive (Spanish, French, Chinese, German). Immersive online classes for K-12.
Panda Tree (Spanish, Mandarin Chinese). Personalized online tutors. See my full review of our Panda Tree experience.

Homeschool Spanish Learning

Spanish is a very common language to learn in the U.S.A., and my children and I have been learning Spanish. So, I find lots of resources for it.

Salsa Spanish. FREE online videos entirely in Spanish for K-3. Teacher notes on the PBS site provide lesson ideas. Videos also available on YouTube.
Sara Jordan Bilingual Kid Series. Also includes French and Mandarin. For Prek-grade 5.
Foreign Languages for Kids By Kids. This video-based Spanish immersion instruction provides games and workbooks as ancillaries. See my full review for Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids!
Flip Flop Spanish. This program teaches Spanish naturally and various products are offered from toddler to high school Spanish.
La Clase Divertida/ The Fun Spanish. This program provides video and audio curriculum (through eighth grade), as well as live online Spanish high school courses.
Spanish for You. Easy-to-implement theme-based Spanish teaching programs for grades 3-8. Each themed book comes with worksheets and audio files of the entire book.
Homeschool Spanish Academy. Online native Spanish speakers provide tutoring sessions.

Homeschool Latin

Getting Started with Latin. This book-based learning program teaches beginning Latin, with audio on the website providing both the classical and ecclesiastical pronunciations. Note: This is a Christian program.
Lively Latin. The program offers live online lessons or independent study lessons, as well as a book option with audio, videos, and games on the site. It focuses on grammar lessons, vocabulary, history, and the connections with English that come from Latin, all in a lively and fun way.

Homeschool ASL

I studied American Sign Language in high school and again in college. I have a friend who married a deaf man and she is a sign language interpreter. I have a great fondness for this visual language! Here are some great resources for teaching ASL in your homeschool.

Signing Time. Videos for children and online classes for older people.
ASL for Free (from Gallaudet University). Note: Online courses cost money, but many videos are free.
Sign School. Online and app-based learning.
StartASL.
Signing Online provides online classes for grades 6 through adult. (Save at the link here for savings from the Homeschool Buyers Co-op.)

Life Skills as a Part of School

I remember that my own high school provided a “consumer math” class that taught us how to balance a checkbook, calculate and understand interest rates, and so forth. Learning to cook, learning how to do basic household tasks such as laundry, and learning to maintain a car are also subjects that are seldom required by the states but can be easily incorporated into a homeschool curriculum.

See some of the suggestions, links, and curricula below for some options available for homeschool life skills.

Driver’s Ed. Local communities often have classes. Save up to 40% on DriversEd.com when you purchase it from the Homsechool Buyers Co-op.
Cooking. Raddish is a subscription service cooking club for kids. Culinary Schools has kitchen safety information as well as cooking lessons, as does the Young Chefs Program.
Typing. Check out Dance Mat Typing for fun and free typing lessons. Full review coming soon!
Sewing. Check out A Simple Start in Sewing from You ARE an Artist.
Home Economics. Learning how to do laundry, clean, and otherwise take care of a house is important as well. See tips on how we learn home ec skills in our home!
Vehicle Maintenance. See the Auto Upkeep homeschool curriculum. Virtual and online options are available.

Wow, there are so many life skills to learn! I also make sure regular errands can be educational. What other interesting electives am I forgetting? Let me know and I’ll search for a curriculum for it.

More Extras for Homeschoolers to Learn

Other extracurriculars can include cultural or religious experiences, Scouting, performing arts, training at a paid job, community service hours, or debate or public speech competitions, or training. Students can learn logic skills (or join a chess club), or focus on any new skills through a class or a club.

All of these learning opportunities can count into a child’s education because they are important parts of the child’s life. As a homeschooler, it stops mattering which things they learn are a part of “school” and which ones are “extra” and outside of school. The important thing is that students are learning.

More in This Series

There are so many things children can learn. Parents have a unique oportunity to teach when they decide to homeschoolTruly

Go to the first post in this how to get started homeschooling series.

Have another “how to homeschool” question? Contact me and I’ll write about it too. Send me an email if you have specific questions, or ask me directly on my Facebook page.