*** Homeschool List ***

[Belle5]

My DH has to decide which of these cities to which he would be willing to relocate. Which of these places has the least regulations (I am spoiled in Texas) and the best support from other homeschoolers? Thanks!

 

[disnutt]

Thanks for the pixie dust. We had a voice message on our phone last night. It sounds like the job is going to be offered. If the salary/benefits are where we think they are going to be we'll be doing it. Then I'll be asking more questions about HS! One more sprinkle of pixie dust please!

 

[disneymom3]

Kienna--sounds like good news. Here is hoping you hear what you are hoping for!!

Belle5-I live in the Mpls area and it is great for homeschooling. It is semi-common hear. Well, let's go with not unheard of! Anyway seems there is a support group everytime you turn the corner and they all meet different needs. For instance, I have a friend who goes to co-op with her kids but the moms all spend time in a mom's room with fellowship, prayer time and a craft. They hire professional teachers to lead the classes and meet every other week. Another friend has a group that meets every week and you have the option of teaching OR dropping off your kids and leaving entirely. The group I am in has an entirely academic focus, all the moms teach or co-teach the entire morning and we meet every week. We are also in a group that just does field trips, plays, etc. We used to be in a group that meets weekly for playtime with a couple of light activities planned by the moms. So, there is a lot to choose from out there!

As far as laws go, MN is fairly easy. From the ages of 7 to 16 there is mandatory attendance meaning the superintendent of each district has to report where each child in that age range is being educated. There is a short form to fill out each fall and most school districts will send that out, but sometimes they ask for more information than they are entitled to so I don't use that one. I use one found here: www.mache.org We have never even had the school district call us nor have I heard of anyone being contacted by the schools in MN in at least 20 years. Rumor has it that the Minnetonka school district is the most likely to be difficult to work with, but I am not sure what that means. Basically, if you have a college degree (or DH does--you can always put him as the supervising teacher) you are home free. If you do not have a college degree, then you have to turn in quarterly report cards which you can make up on your own. We are also required to test annually, but the results of those tests are private and the school district has no right to the results. If asked, you need to tell them when and what kind of test you used. Any norm refernced test is acceptable.

Hope that helps.

 

[jaycns]

My DH has to decide which of these cities to which he would be willing to relocate. Which of these places has the least regulations (I am spoiled in Texas) and the best support from other homeschoolers? Thanks!

We used to live in WI. I homeschooled there only one year but it was a GREAT place to homeschool. Before posting this I did doube check with both a friend still living there who homeschools and HSLDA's website (although you should of course check this out before taking it as valid law still) BUT in WI all you need to do is write a letter of intent to homeschool and send it in to the school board by Oct. 15. That is the ONLY requirement. You do not have to test. You do not have to keep records. You do not have to have a college degree.

The only other requirements are you school for at least 875 hours each year and you teach "a sequentially progressive curriculum of fundamental instruction" in reading, language arts, math, social studies, science, and health; such curriculum need not "conflict with the program’s religious doctrines".

WI really was a great state to homeschool in. We now live in KY and we have to send in a letter of intent within 2 weeks of the start of a school year, keep track of the total number of hours taught (with a minimum of 1080 a year)and keep scholarship reports. Still no testing or need of college degree BUT it's more of a pain then just letting them know each year and the number of hours required is higher (still no problem at all to come up with that many).

Milwaukee is a very homeschool friendly area.

Good luck and pixie dust coming your way!!

 

[Praise2Him]

I received this on a HS email group I'm in. I've never done it, but thought some of you that are thinking about homeschooling might be interested.

Barnes & Nobles FREE Online Course: Homeschooling Your Children

Title: Homeschooling Your Children
Course Type: Online Instructor-led Course
Estimated Completion Time: 24 hour(s)
Session Length: 4 week(s)

Upcoming Sessions
a.. June 5, 2006 - OPEN


Prerequisites
a.. In order to gain the most from this course, all you need to bring with you is a curious mind and an open heart.


Description
One of the most important decisions you'll ever make as a parent is choosing which of the growing number of educational options is best for your child. Can the increasingly popular homeschooling option provide your child with the rewarding, successful learning experience you're searching for? This course offers a rare opportunity to receive the information you need to tackle that decision making process.

Homeschooling Your Children reveals how homeschooling diverges from traditional schooling, its benefits, and its potential challenges, including legal, time, money, and social issues. You will gain inside knowledge on how home educators build a solid support system and adopt the "learning lifestyle" you may have heard about. Whether or not you decide that homeschooling is right for your family, you'll discover what steps you can take to make your child's learning years as effective and enjoyable as possible.

Audience: This course dispenses equal doses of insight, information, and inspiration for potential home educators and others who want to be more involved in their children's education. Just curious about what homeschooling is? You're very welcome, too.


Objectives
a.. Appreciate how homeschooling differs from traditional schooling.
a.. Understand the potential challenges of homeschooling and appreciate its benefits.
a.. Express your personal educational philosophy.
a.. Build a support system that can help you succeed.
a.. Create a learning lifestyle with your family.
a.. Put your child's favored learning style to positive use.
a.. Help your child appreciate and enjoy learning.
a.. Begin homeschooling or pursue other educational choices confidently and intelligently.


Course Materials
a.. The First Year Homeschooling Your Child
a.. Homeschooling Book of Answers: The 101 Most Important Questions Answered by Homeschooling's Most Respected Voices


Course Creator(s)
Linda Dobson
America's bestselling homeschooling author, Linda Dobson has written seven books, including the classics The Homeschooling Book of Answers and The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child. An internationally respected conference speaker, Linda is also the early years advisor for Homeschool.com and Prima Publishing's Home Learning Library editor. She has been a Home Education Magazine columnist for more than a decade.


CLICK HERE:
http://educate.barnesandnoble.com/educate/bn/home/catalog/overview.jsp?productId=25320&z=y&nhid=bn

 

[disnutt]

Praise2Him-Thanks for the information. I'm going to give it a shot its free and I could learn something!

 

[jaycns]

Just wanted to share a good find...WE LOVE QUARTER MILE MATH!! It's been awesome for all three of my ds (9,6 & 5). Sylvan uses them at their centers, I had heard great things from many other home schoolers but after buying our own and the boys using it and seeing their math speed go WAY UP I was just so excited I had to share...make sure you check out Quarter Mile Math if you are looking for a math "add on".

 

[Denine]

Hi everyone. I have been MIA with our 2 week vacation to WDW and getting life back together once we got home. Not to mention that this was a really busy weekend. We are going back to WDW in 8 days for 4 days with friends.

Today is the first chance I have had to look at anything homeschool related, but haven't gone to read what I missed on the thread.

I did find a new homeschooling resource at work. Tish has been homeschooling her boys for 6 years. Her insight wil be most helpful.

I am still looking forward to beginning preK with DD in the Fall.

 

[jaycns]

I said I would work on a Walt Disney unit study...and although it took longer than I thought (but I had more fun than I thought in gathering it all together too) I am finally done!! It turned out to be more of a list of suggested activities...but hey, it's not like anyone is grading me, right?

Books:

1. From the Childhood of Famous Americans series, Walt Disney: Young Movie Maker by Marie Hammontree. The card catalog describes the book as "A biography concentrating on the boyhood of the cartoonist and film maker who created Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck." AGES 9-12 are the reccomended ages. However, both my 6 yr. old ds and 5 yr. old ds love hearing it read aloud to them. My 9 yr. old ds loved reading it to himself.

2. Discovering Walt by Jean-Pierre Isbouts. The suggested reading level for this book is grade 4-8. My 9 yr. old ds enjoyed this book. My younger two ds's didn't have near as much interest. Although many photographs/pictures are included it is more biography than a story and thus not as riveting for the younger ages. THIS IS A GREAT BOOK!!

3. The Story of Walt Disney: Maker of Magical Worlds by Bernice Selden. Another biography about Walt Disney...this one has the suggested reading level of grades 4-7. We have yet to read this book but my eldest ds will be starting soon.

4. The Man behind the Magic : The Story of Walt Disney This book is rec. for grades 5 and up.

5. From the "I Like Biographies" collection: Read about Walt Disney by Stephen Feinstein. This book is suggested for grades 4-8.

6. From the "Community Builders" series: Walt Disney: Creator of Magicial Worlds by Charnan Simon. Suggested for grades 4-8.

7. Walt Disney: His Life in Pictures by Russell Schroeder. Suggested for grades 4-6.

Although all of those books are suggested for my 9 yr. old ds's age group I have found that reading them to my younger ds's works well.

A great site on the internet is: http://disney.go.com/disneyatoz/familymuseum/collection/childrensguide.html

Those are all of the biography books.

Ideas for study/discussion/writing projects:
-animation (tons of good how to draw character books out there...also lots of good history of animation books)
-imagination
-business (how Walt worked his way from the poor house into the "Castle")
-following your dreams
-create your own cartoon character
-write out movie story boards and then act out your characters adventures
-food for thought: What do you think Disney would like most about WDW today? What do you think he would like least? What would he be most proud of?
-design your own theme park layout
-design your own theme park ride (build a model)
-Why do you admire Walt Disney?
-make a Sculpey clay model of your very own cartoon character

Okay, not so much on the organization front...but that's my jumbled folder of ideas/finds.

Of course this all ties in with "Walt Disney: One Man's Dream" at MGM and also would work well with The Magic of Disney Animation.

Enjoy all of your Disney days!!

 

[mello]

Our boys, ages 9 and 12, read the Childhood of Famous Americans book on Walt before we went on our vacation last September. They both really enjoyed it and said it was the best book they read all year. One of them says he's going to re-read it again this summer just for fun. I'll definitely have to look into the other books you suggested, and I love your ideas for discussion, writing, & further study!

This is exactly the type of stuff I was hoping we could share on this thread when I first discovered it! (of course I didn't do anything about it lol). Thanks again for pulling this all together

Let's all brainstorm some more!

 

[adventuretink]

just testing this out this was the first thread i came to so...i know off topic right? I just had to try out my new siggie!

 

[jaycns]

I think my next topic I will try and research will be something to do with The Pirates of the Car. I will post it whenever I get something together!! I am actually having a whole lot of fun doing this. I get to dig up info that relates to Diseny stuff AND feel productive while doing it cause it's tech. educational!

Yo ho...yo ho...a pirate's life for me

 

[mello]

I think my next topic I will try and research will be something to do with The Pirates of the Car. I will post it whenever I get something together!! I am actually having a whole lot of fun doing this. I get to dig up info that relates to Diseny stuff AND feel productive while doing it cause it's tech. educational!

Yo ho...yo ho...a pirate's life for me

What a fun subject that would be for my boys!!!

I've been thinking of doing more with Epcot - we did a little for our trip in Sept, but there's a wealth of possibility for study there. And AK as well. Wonder if I could get myself motivated to do some work on those subjects this summer?...

 

[disnutt]

We're gonna do it!!

It took my husband almost a week to decide but he's taking the job in PA and I'll get to stay home and homeschool!!!

Now, I'm scared to death! Any recommendations on where to start? I'm doing that B&N on-line class starting today. Anyone out there from PA? We'll be moving to the Beaver County area.

Thanks!!!

 

[jaycns]

We're gonna do it!!

It took my husband almost a week to decide but he's taking the job in PA and I'll get to stay home and homeschool!!!

Now, I'm scared to death! Any recommendations on where to start? I'm doing that B&N on-line class starting today. Anyone out there from PA? We'll be moving to the Beaver County area.

Thanks!!!

CONGRATS!! How wonderful for your family! Good luck with all of the wonderful new things to come!

 

[dizneydiva2005]

I don't have the time at the moment to read all of the pages so I hope I'm not posting way out there...

But I do homeschool my 3 children. We're finishing up our 6th year. I actually school year round. We change grades in Oct.

I use Landmark Freedom for the 2 older ones... and A beka for the youngest.

I also using an online reading program HeadSprout. It's awesome to teach young ones to read!

I'll try to read over the entire thread later!! OK, I just relized there are 66 pages. WOW! Not sure when or if I'll ever find the time.

 

[dizneydiva2005]

We're gonna do it!!

It took my husband almost a week to decide but he's taking the job in PA and I'll get to stay home and homeschool!!!

Now, I'm scared to death! Any recommendations on where to start? I'm doing that B&N on-line class starting today. Anyone out there from PA? We'll be moving to the Beaver County area.

Thanks!!!

congrats!! You're doing the BEST job in the world. IMHO

Next, you'll have to find a program ~ I use Landmark freedom baptist and each subject is $30? It includes 38 lessons, daily quizzes, quarter test, and teacher answers.

I also use A beka for my youngest. That's a lot more money... but works better for him.

Good luck, if you have any questions... just ask and I'll try to help. I feel like a pro, I've been doing it for 6 years.

 

[nuzmom]

disnutt - I'm from PA - Washington county. Homeschooling in PA varies greatly by the school district. I love this website http://home.comcast.net/~askpauline/index.html for PA homeschooling. Another is the PA homeschoolers webpage... http://www.pahomeschoolers.com/index.html

Both of those will get you in the right direction.

I haven't caught up on all these pages - what are the ages of your children? PA has a pretty high starting age before you have to submit documents to the school. Anyway, that's all explained on both of those sites.

I definitely recommend getting the "guide to the PA homeschooling law" from the PA homeschoolers webpage.

You can PM me if you need specific help.
Welcome to PA

 

[disneymom3]

We're gonna do it!!

It took my husband almost a week to decide but he's taking the job in PA and I'll get to stay home and homeschool!!!

Now, I'm scared to death! Any recommendations on where to start? I'm doing that B&N on-line class starting today. Anyone out there from PA? We'll be moving to the Beaver County area.

Thanks!!!

How exciting for you!! My suggestion would be to check out a bunch of books from the library about homeschooling and getting started. It can be kind of overwhelming. I would also actually strongly encourage you NOT to hurry into choosing a particular curriculum. They can be very expensive and I have known an awful lot of people who have skipped from one curriculum to another hoping to find the perfect one. I don't think there is a perfect one out there, but there is a LOT of good stuff. To start with you might want to think about what levels your kids are at for the three Rs and get some basic books about that. Then think of or chat with your kids about a time period in history and a topic in science that you want to learn more about. Make a list if everyone can't agree and then get some books and resources and go from there.

Check out www.rainbowresource.com and request a catalog.

 

[THESCHULTZFIVE]

Wee all, it's official for us. As of 12:00 today(the time DD9 gets out of school) she will be a fifth grade home-schooled student. Of course we won't be doing any school for awhile, but it just feels good to be done with her school. It's a little sad b/c she's been with veryone there since 1st grade, but I think she wants to stay in her girl scout troop so she can still see them every other week. I'm so happy. Her dance recital is this weekend too and then it's time to relax for awhile. I made a pledge that I was not going to take off my pajamas for the entire month of July, then I remembered there's a Raven concert at Six Flags so there goes that. Oh well, I will be getting some rest even if I can't stay in my pajamas.