Deciding to home educate your child can feel like a huge decision.

And once you've made the decision, there can suddenly seem to be a lot to organise: telling the school, working out what you're going to teach, buying resources, setting up your learning space and somehow getting ready for your first day.

The good news is that you don't need to have everything figured out before you start.

Here's a simple timeline to help you work through the practical things one step at a time.

1 month before: Your intention to homeschool

If your child is currently in school:

• Contact your school's headteacher to notify them that you want to educate your child at home and agree a day that they will leave school

• You are not legally informed to notify them but it will avoid any misunderstanding of your child's absence

• They will inform the local council of your decision to home educate

• Some schools might offer flex-schooling where your child is educated at home for part of the week and attend school for the remainder. This can help with the transition and allow you child some social contact with their friends

If they have never been in school:

• You are not legally required to register them as being homeschooled

• Do notify your council anyway. Some of them do provide support and advice. Find your local council's homeschool support services by looking up your address here.

If your child attends a special school:

• If this placement has been arranged by the local council you will need the permission of the council to take your child out of school

1 month before: Think about what you're going to teach

Once you've dealt with the school, you can start thinking about the exciting bit: what will your child's home education actually look like?

You don't need to write a year's worth of lesson plans. In fact, I'd definitely recommend that you don't.

Start by thinking about:

• Which subjects do you want to cover?

• How often would you like to do each subject?

• Are there subjects where your child needs extra support?

• Are there subjects that your child is particularly interested in?

• Will you follow the National Curriculum, use another curriculum, or create your own?

• Are there books, workbooks or other resources you'll need to buy?

• Will you use online resources, museums, libraries, clubs or other activities?

Remember that home education doesn't have to look like school.

You don't have to recreate a classroom in your house or teach every subject in exactly the same way that a school does.

Your legal responsibility is to provide a full-time education that is suitable for your child's age, ability, aptitude and any special educational needs. You do not have to follow the National Curriculum.

2 weeks before: Organise your homeschool day

You will need to come up with a simple structure for you homeschool days. You need think think about what time you will start and finish and what breaks you will have during the day. Having consistent timings for homeschool days will help establish a routine with your child.

As a guide, the Department for Education expects British schools to have a minimum of 32.5 hours of school per week. This includes all breaks. Secondary schools tend to have slightly longer days because older children are more able to cope with this.

In your homeschool you are not required to meet this. You should tailor it to your child and your personal circumstances. If your child has SEND needs then you should definitely cater it to your child's abilities and what you believe they can realistically achieve.

You can simply try to follow the typical school day of 9am to 3:30pm or come up with your own start and end times. You can set them to suit your child or other commitments you have. If your child works better in the mornings you could start earlier. If getting up and getting ready is a challenge for your child, you could start later. Perhaps you have a school run or nursery run for another child to do or a part time job that you need to work around. With homeschool you have the flexibility to set times that work for you and your child.

Once you've set the start and end times and your breaks, you will know how much time you have to fill for lessons.

1–2 weeks before: Get your equipment ready

You don't need a classroom full of equipment, but there are a few things that are surprisingly annoying to discover you're missing on your first morning.

Have a quick check of your supplies and see if you need to get anything.

Stationery

Depending on what you're planning to teach, you might want:

• Pencils

• Pens

• Coloured pencils

• Felt-tip pens

• Ruler

• Rubber

• Pencil sharpener

• Scissors

• Glue

• Paper and notebooks

• Exercise books

• A whiteboard and pens

And don't forget that coloured pencils and pens aren't just for Art. They can be useful for diagrams, mind maps, highlighting, creative writing and all sorts of other lessons.

Your printer

If you're going to use worksheets or printable resources, check:

• Do you have enough printer paper?

• Do you have enough printer ink?

There's nothing quite like discovering that your printer has run out of black ink five minutes before the lesson you're about to teach!

You don't need to spend a lot of money just because you're home educating. Start with what you already have and work out what you actually need.

1 week before: create your basic timetable

Given the subjects that you want to teach, now think about how often you want to teach them

For example:

• Maths — 4 times a week

• Literacy — 4 times a week

• Science — twice a week

• History — once a week

• Geography — once every other week

• Art — once a week

These are only examples. Your timetable should work for your child and your family. Think about what time of day might be good to do certain lessons. For subjects that your child struggles with, you might want to get them out of the way first thing in the morning. Balance the challenging subjects with the fun ones to help keep them engaged.

How long will lessons last?

You don't have to replicate school lessons. A 45-minute lesson at school might take 20 minutes at home — or it might take an hour.

You'll learn a lot about the right timings once you actually start.

Where will the breaks go?

Don't forget to schedule breaks, lunch and time away from formal learning.

You might also want to leave space for things such as:

• Trips

• Outdoor learning

• Library visits

• Museums

• Clubs

• Practical activities

• Following your child's interests

3 days before: plan your first few lessons

Use your timetable and plan your first few days of lessons. Don't try to do the whole week.

For each lesson come up with 1 - 3 goals that you want your child to achieve in the lesson. Keep them small and achievable. This will help you focus on what you will do in the lesson.

I recommend planning a few days so that you build up a bank of lessons. If you just planned out one day then you will be chasing your tail every school night to get the next days lessons planned. Having a few days ready will give you some breathing space and you won't be stressing about planning every night.

One of things I found hard when planning lessons was trying to understand how long a task or lesson might take. If you have plenty of lessons ready you won't worry about not having enough to go through if something goes much quicker than expected.

1 day before: get ready for your first day

Tomorrow is the big day!

Check your lessons

Read through the plans for tomorrow so that you know what you're going to teach.

Get everything ready

Have you got:

• The books you need?

• Worksheets printed?

• Pencils and other stationery?

• Any equipment needed for an experiment or activity?

• Websites or videos ready?

• Devices charged?

Put anything you're going to need somewhere easy to find.

That way you aren't rummaging through cupboards looking for a ruler while your child waits for you.

Your first day

Try not to put too much pressure on yourself. Your first day isn't a test of whether you're going to be a good home educator. It's the beginning of figuring out how your child learns best.

Start the day by talking through what you're going to do. If your child is young, or likes knowing what's coming next, a simple visual timetable can be really helpful.

For example:

Maths → Break → English → Lunch → Art → Reading

You can cross things off or move them as you go.

And remember: things might not go according to plan and that's OK.

After your first day

You've made it!

You have now learned something you could not have known before you started: how your child actually responds to learning at home. Make a few quick notes about what went well, what you would change and anything you discovered about your child's interests, energy levels or learning style. You can use these observations when you plan tomorrow's lessons.

Try to get into the habit of reflecting at the end of each day. You don't need to write a detailed diary; a few sentences are enough. Over time, these small observations will become incredibly useful.

Things to note include:

• What your child enjoyed

• What they found easy

• What they found difficult

• Which lessons took longer than expected

• Whether the timetable was realistic

• Whether your child was tired, distracted or particularly engaged

• What you would like to repeat or change tomorrow