Homeschooling In {Montana}

Hi Everyone!

Today i'm continuing with my "Homeschooling In..." Series. I've already talked about Idaho, Alaska, Oregon, and Washington; so today i'm going to talk about my current state of Montana.

Here are some things you should know about homeschooling in Montana.

1. All children are required to be educated once they are 7 years old and up until the age of 16. Anything before 7 years old or after 16 years old is not required.

2. Grades 1-3 are required to do 720 hours per year, and grades 4-12 are required to do 1,080 hours per year.

3. You are not required to test them.

4. You have to send in a yearly intent to homeschool letter to your county superintendent.

5. Must keep attendance records and immunization records, which have to be available for inspection from the county superintendent upon request.

6. You can use any curriculum you like.

Here are some great resources for homeschooling in Montana:

1. http://www.mtche.org/  – Montana Coalition of Home Educators

2. http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/MT/ – HSLDA

3. http://www.home-school.com/groups/MT.html  – Montana Homeschool Groups

Once you have decided to homeschool your child and you have looked into all the laws/rules, what comes next is picking out what curriculum you are going to use.

Best place to start with that is by checking out what curriculum other homeschoolers are using (and loving). In other words Google search “homeschooling blogs” and start reading what all the other homeschooling families out there use. You can also check out my homeschool curriculum picks.

Another place you could go is HomeSchoolReviews, they offer reviews on all the curriculum out there and those reviews are written by other homeschoolers.

Keep in mind, when picking out curriculum, your child’s learning style!

After you have the curriculum all picked out, all that’s left to do is start planning your school year.

A lot of homeschoolers like to keep with the same school year outline as our public schools, (start at the end of August and go until the end of May), but you can do whatever you would like. We just recently decided to school year round and take more breaks throughout the year. It’s really up to you to decide what will work best for your family.

Now all that’s left to do is dive right on into it. The first year is going to be full of bumps. You’ll make some mistakes, you’ll have some rough days/weeks, but *hopefully* you will learn from your mistakes and in the end it will all be worth it.

Good luck with the journey ahead of you!!