First, wipe out your expectations. Assume you’re starting with a blank slate, and think of any skills you identify right away in your child as bonuses. This is not to say you should expect your child will be unintelligent, but chances are that he will be behind, will have learned things differently, and in the case of international adoption, will have limited English skills.

Second, don’t worry too much about doing formal “school” for the first few months. Just play! Read together, sing, dance, go for walks, plant flowers, go shopping, visit the park, go on picnics, cook, do art projects, play games, draw pictures, watch movies and just get to know your new child. In our case, because we didn’t want to get out of the habit of school for the other kids and wanted to introduce the concept of homeschool to our new daughter, we did many of these activities during the school part of the day and were sure to call it “school.” We also bought a few simple preschool and kindergarten workbooks (the kind you find in WalMart) for our daughter so she could feel like she was doing “real” work without the pressure. Over time, we were able to add in more structured and academic activities as appropriate, but we didn’t introduce anything formal until she’d been home six months.

Third, if possible, have your child evaluated, either by an early intervention program, or by an educational psychologist (for older kids). This will give you a picture of your child’s strengths and weaknesses, and will give you an idea of where to start. Your local school district can provide you with their “scope and sequence” for the curriculum at each grade level, and you can use this as a general reference (but don’t get too attached to keeping up with what the schools are doing, otherwise you’ll just be doing “school at home.”)

Fourth, once you’re more familiar with your child’s needs and learning style, start reading. There are some great homeschooling books that describe different approaches and curriculum types, but this article outlines the basic types.

Our family uses an eclectic approach, with a heavy emphasis on literature and unit studies.

Fifth, once you have a feel for what type of homeschooling feels to fit your family best (especially taking into consideration the needs of your new child/ren), you can start curriculum shopping. You can spend next to nothing, up to many thousands of dollars, depending on your choices. An expensive curriculum isn’t necessarily the best, so don’t be scared away from the idea by pricey programs.

This year we used a combination of Liahona Academy (an LDS program) and Sonlight, but next year will use only Sonlight. Sonlight is a literature-rich program with “cores” that can be used with a wide age range, meaning that if you happen to have a large family like mine, you can group kids together in the same core, and add the age-specific components like math as appropriate. What I love best about Sonlight is the fabulous instructor’s guide that comes with each core. The IG tells me what I need to do each day without requiring lots of prep time, but it’s flexible so we can tweak it to suit our needs. It’s a nondenominational Christian program, but I do omit a few of the books that have a heavy evangelical slant. Most of the materials are secular or neutral, and the whole program promotes a broad worldview and supports a variety of beliefs and cultures. There are many LDS families who use it, as well as some Jews, Muslims and even atheists! :) Their “Eastern Hemisphere Explorer” core is absolutely fabulous for a family with internationally adopted children.

Sixth, once you get going, don’t set the bar so high that you can’t reach it. Especially during your first year with your new child, it’s important to just take the time to learn about each other, identify what works best and tweak as you go. Don’t be afraid to adjust or abandon anything that isn’t working. That’s the great thing about homeschooling – you aren’t locked into anything and you can cater to the individual.

Please join me for part four: Homeschooling: Adoptive Moms Weigh In