Today..

I had a relatively good day today. A lot of weight was taken off my shoulders yesterday, when I finally managed to get JJ's portfolio ready for portfolio review which I have to schedule soon. It's a lot of work tabulating assignment,test,project,etc grades for each subject, including examples of work from the beginning, middle and end of the year in each subject, course schedules and lesson plans and grades for every day of each subject...etc..and daily, monthly and year end report cards and that isn't all I still have to write a bit about our challenges and sucesses this year in each subject and how JJ and I both faired in our first year of homeschooling.
Tomorrow, I will catch up on housework that got behind on my two day grading and schoolwork organization frenzy. This fall for JJ's senior year in homeschooling will be so much easier I can't wait. First of all because it won't be our first year doing it, i know a bit more about what I need to do, and he will have less subjects this fall than he had this year. He also started homeschooling in Dec which means he had twice the homework to do in a less amount of time. Next year he will be starting out homeschooling forom the beginning of the year..

But the worst part of it is done and that was a huge stress reliever.. So today I was able to relax a bit. I went shopping with mom to Presque Isle. I bought a sample can of paint at Lowes to try in the livingroom. I also took some hard earned survey money and bought a desktop police scanner which is something I have wanted for a while. There is always stuff going on and now that we are in town there are police, fire and ambulance that go by often and it would be nice to know what's going on.

I plan on having a nice big cup of coffee in the morning painting a small area on the wall with that sample color for the livingroom and then get to cleaning...

Wow, here you just take your kids out of Public, say your gonna homeschool...and you are done. Our PD has the scanner online, live stream

Yep- easy peasy here. Mine are still working a little bit, a few days a week. Mostly to stay in the swing of things. But its so relaxed that they dont even realize its school work. Rayley begs to do it every day. LOL

I wana paint my kitchen. But I know the minute I tear it all up to start painting, I'll get 2 dozen cake orders. noone has the decency to order a week or two ahead of time. LOL actually some do- most dont.

And I had one ask for my prices, and everyone talked about how cheap I was, she wanted a double or so teir, black and pink zebra. She decided that walmart was cheaper so she is getting a sheet cake. ROFLMAO.

Here, just like anywhere else, you have to file a notice of intent to homeschool with the State Board of Education, atleast I believe you have to do that everywhere. But here you also have to make sure at the end of each year, you have to have a person who is certified by the state review a portfolio that you have to put together.
That way, they make sure you homeschool them the required 175 days a year (just like the public school is required to do), and that way they can make sure that you are you are having your child take the required amount of credits in certain subjects, there are numerous reasons they want it done. This way the person who certifies the portfolio then makes up a transcript at the end of each year and at the end of high school period that they have completed the States requirements and completed each grade successfully. That way when applying for college or whatnot you have a transcript, just like any student who had gone to public school would have to present to the college, or wherever.

I made my appt today for JJ's portfolio review for July 9th. I'ts about 6 hours south in Grey, Maine. Can't wait to get it over with!

NOpe, here you just take them out....And do your thing. There is noone really monitoring, or who really cares much.
I know people who homeschool, who actually homeschool, and a few who don't do anything, and noone cares either way.
I am glad some states care however.

It's the same here Kelly. There are requirements that must be meet in order to homeschool. Most homeschooled kids here go and take the state regents exams each year at the school. I thought it was the same everywhere. I can't imagine trying to get your kid into a halfway decent college without meeting the requirements and having the records. How does it work there Erin? Do kids with nothing just not go to college, do they stay instate to go to college? These days you can barely get a job at McDonalds without a degree of some sort.

I am not sure, Kristin got a full ride, which she opnly used one Semester of,and we have $$ set aside for Bay's. She will likely get a Scholarship also, an athletic on, for softball.

There is always financial aid, i guess. I don't HS, I am honsetly not a teacher, and frankly am counting the days till school starts and she is out of my ass.
I do know a few who do, some are good at it, some suck....there is supposedly some storing system, but several friends say they answer to noone as far as HSing.

Wow, I wonder how that works? I know just from talking to a military recruiter (which is what JJ wants to do after he's done school) that even they want all of that documentation before letting him sign up. They want all of the paperwork from the portfolio certification and credentials of the certified person who processes his paperwork stating that he's completed the state educational requirements.

Not just financially, how do they get into college at all with no records? Are they limited to community college? We still need transcripts and grade reports to get into CC here. Unless you are taking advanced courses while in highschool (and a friend of mine HS and her daughter takes two college classes) admission requires a diploma or GED. I just don't understand how it works without a third party. I couldn't imagine someone applying to a college with nothing more than a note from mom saying oh yeah, I taught him/her.

Seems there should be some sort of regulations. Kinda of irresponsible of the state to encourage the next round of welfare recipients. Good jobs can be hard to come by. I would say if I were the employer or in college admissions and had two people standing in front of me... one from public school with a diploma and one that was homeschooled, perhaps smarter and better educated than the one from public school but with NO proof at all.... I would go with the one with piece of paper.

With any kind of college here, they require school transcripts and either diploma, GED, or something stating that they have completed educational requirements for the state in order to even apply.

Does Maine do regents diplomas Kelly? I know only a handful of states still do.

And that's what is bugging me I guess. I know quite a few homeschoolers and they all have followup and and checks on what they do. My hubby's aunt homeschooled her three kids (the last one went to public school for her last two years because she wanted to go to BOCES) they all went on the college but she had them in school in Jan and June every year to take the exams with the public school kids because she said it would be very difficult (and expensive if she wanted private testing) if not impossible for them to continue their education without doing so. They all took their SATs and had to go over and review their curriculum twice a year. (I don't know if it is required more than once or if she did it twice for just the documentation). They also all attended 3 hours a week at a Christian school for two classes that she just wasn't comfortable with her ability to teach them on her own. They are three of the smartest people I know and their mother did a fine job, no an excellent job.

I just can see taking your kids out of school, whether it's because they had problems or you felt you could give them a better education than the school could. Many of them are far better off for it. But not doing everything to ensure they can continue beyond what you do just seems like a huge disservice and irresponsible. I guess things are different in different places but what if your kids want to go elsewhere. Homeschooling is on the rise... which in a lot of cases is a great thing.... one the other hand in 15 years there will be a lot of 30 year olds living with mom and dad because they couldn't get a job. Kinda scary.

Maybe I am misunderstanding.... Is there NO requirements at all in Texas, or do some people just chose not to follow them. And without some sort of third party verification how many of these kids go on to college and what kind of college?

These are Maine requirements:

Required Days of Instruction: 175 days.
Required Subjects: Option 1: English and language arts, math, science, social studies, physical and health education, library skills, fine arts, Maine studies (in one grade between grades 6 and 12), and computer proficiency (in one grade between grades 7 and 12. Option 2: English (reading, writing, spelling, grammar), math, science, American history, Maine history and geography, and government (including the privilege and responsibility of citizenship).
Parents may either follow the home school statute or participate in a Non-Approved Private School.
Option 1: Homeschool Statute: A child is excused from attending school if instructed in a home instruction program meeting the following statutory requirements.
1. Within 10 days of starting home instruction for a student the parent must file a one-time notice of intent with both the local superintendent and Commissioner of Education containing:
a. name, signature, and address of the parent or guardian,
b. the name and age of the student,
c. the date home instruction will or did begin,
d. a statement of assurance that instruction will be provided for at least 175 days annually and will cover the subjects listed above, and
e. a statement of assurance that the parents will submit a year-end assessment.
2. Each year thereafter, by September 1 the parent must submit a letter to both the local superintendent and state commissioner of education enclosing the year-end assessment (see “Standardized Tests” below) and stating the intention to continue the student’s home instruction.
3. Parents must keep copies of items submitted under #1 and #2 above until the home school program concludes. They must be made available to the commissioner upon request. The confidentiality of all records is protected.


Option 2: Non-approved Private Schools: Parents of at least 2 unrelated students may form a Non-Approved Private School Pursuant to the Commissioner of Education and Cultural Services’ memo, “Guidelines for Equivalent Instruction in Non-Approved Private Schools”, to be “recognized” as providing equivalent instruction, the chief administrative official of the NAPS should:
1.
Annually by Oct. 1 file a letter with the Commissioner stating that the school:
a.
Complies with applicable state and local safety fire and health laws; will report the names, addresses, and grade levels of all students to the superintendent of the school system in which each student resides;
b.
Operates at least 175 days or 875 hours;
c.
Provides instruction appropriate to the grade level in: English (reading, writing, spelling, grammar), math, science, American history, Maine history and geography, and government (including the privilege and responsibility of citizenship);
d.
Has examined and approved all teachers for competence;
e.
Will furnish parents with at least 4 academic progress reports annually;
f.
Will inform parents of methods of assessment, grade level of assessments, and results;
2.
Annually notify parents in writing of the school’s commitment to follow these guidelines, stating the essence of each guideline. (Parents do not need to file anything with state or local officials.)


Standardized Tests: Option 2—none (but school must provide 4 progress reports to parents annually—see above). Under Option 1, annually submit to both the local superintendent and Commissioner of Education the results from among the following options:
1.
official results of any national standardized achievement test; or
2.
results of a test developed by local school officials; or
3. review and acceptance of progress by: (a) a Maine certified teacher; (b) a homeschool support group that includes for this purpose a Maine certified teacher or administrator who has reviewed a portfolio of the student’s work; or (c) an advisory board the superintendent appoints composed of two homeschool teachers and one school official (must be arranged before school year starts).

Tara, this is my first year homeschooling, so I don't know what a Regents diploma is. I know that if I want to pay $500. next year Royal Academy will provide him with a diploma, or we can just have them do the transcripts along with certified paperwork saying he completed the state requirements for the years I homeschooled him and thats $125.

I am sure they do need records, transcripts etc. Frankly, you are not getting into a good colege with a GED, or no SAT scores. Some people are idiots though, and basically do nothing..and the kids suffer I am sure.

There are requiments, but depending on the school district, noone is going to check on them....it'a money issue

I hear you, Tara! We had one hell of a time helping the kids with mathematics after middle school. Hats off to all the homeschoolers. I would not try it. I'm generally comfortable with English, but still - I could not diagram a sentence to save my life, let alone try to teach it with any sort of confidence.

Years and years ago my eldest wanted to be homeschooled. It was her sophmore or Junior year of high school. We tried it but it was like everyone else is dealing with.. TONS of documentation.. plus I had to buy all the books, design a curriculum, test, etc. It was awful and when Chelle decided to homeschool, I remembered all that and cringed for what she was going to be taking on.

She is very lucky in that TX doesn't have those stringent requirements and I think she is doing an awesome job of homeschooling.

Now here in Idaho.. it is SO much different these days. I really and truly wish I had known about this system before Katie ever started school. Now they have online public school. They send you the workbooks, a computer, the whole nine yards. All of the schoolwork is done at home but it is all documented through the system.

The kids all graduate with HS diplomas vs GED's and there will be no problem with college admission, etc. I have a few friends who are using the K12 system now and love it!

I don't mind all the paperwork really. It's just this year was a bit overwhelming because it was my first year, we started homeschooling part way through the year and because we were house selling/buying and moving in the middle of it. Now that I know what's to expect I will have my portfolio ready without so much fuss next year...

Connie wrote:Years and years ago my eldest wanted to be homeschooled. It was her sophmore or Junior year of high school. We tried it but it was like everyone else is dealing with.. TONS of documentation.. plus I had to buy all the books, design a curriculum, test, etc.

I think there should be! It shouldn't be "easy" when you decide to homeschool you are taking on the job of not just a teacher but several teachers. If you aren't willing to educate yourself... because lets face it, how many of us remember everything we learned or were so proficient that you are qualified after years and years of being away from it to teach it? Or willing to do the documentation to ensure that your kid(s) have a fair shot after the schooling is done, you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. That's just me. I believe we have a responsibility to our children to help them reach their potential- that would (if you homeschool) include doing the work required to ensure their education is recognized when it's done. If you don't, I don't see the point in homeschooling at all. Seems like a lot of work on the kids part, and the parents for nothing. You might as well just pull them out of school, forget about it and let them be idiots.

I am in no way bashing homeschooling, I admire parents that are willing to and do it for the right reasons. I wont say never, you never know what the future brings, but at this point I personally don't think I have the patience. I have a couple of friends that do it because they have gifted and or special needs (and if you have a gifted child- you know it IS a special need) children and the school system just can't give them what they need. It works well for them.

On the other hand I worked with a woman years ago... a religious nutjob who homeschooled because she thought the bible was the only thing they need to know.... last I heard, a few months ago her 26 year old and 20 both still live at home, never went on to college and can't get a job to save their lives because, well to put it blunty, they can quote you verses and bible stories but are morons. The daughter actually worked at the store... for all of two days, she was fired because at 17 she lacked even basic math skills. And it's their parents fault. I get religion is extremely important to some people... they have private schools that go along those lines while still teaching the basics. She just felt "that stuff isn't important" So sooner or later they (the parents) will die and the adult children will have no means of being independent and supporting themselves because they can't find their way out of a wet paper bag.

I totally agree, and that is why I do not HS. I cannot balance my checkbook, how am I supposed to teach my kids Calculus? Bay is taking AP classes, and IPC( integrated physics and chemistry) is not my thing, not in the 8th grade, not ever.

The hard part is not doing the paperwork and jumping through hoops.
The hardest part is making sure they are getting the same if not better than they were in public school. If I thought the public school was doing a bang up job of teaching JJ then I would have left them to it.. They were equipped to handle special needs children, but were not equipped to deal with JJ. JJ is a gifted child, very smart, he was tested by the school and his scores found him to be in the 3rd and 4th year college level on all subjects but math, where he scored a little below average...the problem is his ADD.

When he completes an assignment, test or project he is a straight A student. The problem lies in his ability to focus and his organization. He would work hard on a project but forget it in his locker, or home instead of remembering to bring it to class and end up getting either a 0 or 50 for not being prepared for class. Or he would mix up which assignments were due on which day, etc.
He would also get bored. His english class would be given a book to read over a 1 month period, JJ would have read it in a couple days. He would get frustrated waiting for weeks while the class caught up to where he was. His teacher just thought he was being a smartass, what she didn't realize is that he really DID read the book and could answer any question you could throw at him. She just thought he didn't want to read in class, and thought he was just hurrying through the papers she assigned each week. That would be like someone giving you a paragraph to read over the course of a few days. Do you really need a few days to remember the content of a paragraph? They would not put him in advanced English because in order to qualify for it he would have to have gotten a 95 or higher in English last year. The problem is he had the same problem in English last year and did poorly due to not focusing and poor organization and so they would not let him sign up for Advanced.
It's a catch 22. I felt I did not have a choice but to homeschool him. We tried all of the different ADD medications to no avail. Anyway the point is that the school had no clue how to help him.

The difference between me and the school is this. I can keep reminding him to have a certain assigment completed at a certain time. The work is all done here and never leaves the house so it doesn't get lost or have to be brought from one place to another. Teachers don't have time to do that type of thing for each individual student.
Second, if he is done something more quickly than I scheduled, then he can start right on the next thing instead of having to wait for the class to get to the same point he is. If there is a math problem that is taking a little longer for him to figure out, I can take that time with him to make sure he understands it.

Even JJ's Dr was frustrated with the school, he deals with kids like JJ all of the time that are smart kids with ADD. Dr. Panesar said that schools are under the misconception that ADD or ADHD kids are less intelligent. Therefore a child that has ADD cannot be smart. So if JJ's grades were poor but the tests proved he was intelligent then they assumed that must mean he didn't care and wanted to do poorly on purpose.
What?? Yup that's what they thought. Dr. Panesar was enraged, he sent letters to the guidance counselor, principal and JJ's teachers explaining that it wasn't a matter of JJ not caring it was his ADD that caused his inability to focus. But there again, the school did not know how to deal with him.
So I had enough..I figured I couldn't do a worse job then the school was doing. And let me tell you, he is flourishing now doing extremely well. It makes me angry though because I was talking to someone I know the other day. I ran into her at the grocery store and she asked how the homeschooling was doing. I told her that JJ was doing wonderfully. She said, " Well since you're his teacher of course he's going to get good grades." She wasn't complementing me on teaching him well either. She, like many people think that if you're giving the grades that you can just ace them through it. You probably could I guess, but I would think the state or the certified teacher who does the portfolio review would catch on to it. Even if they didn't you would only be harming your child to do something like that. It pissed me off anyway. I told her that it's not as easy as everybody thinks and that JJ does far more work at home than he ever had to do at school. I told her if she wanted to come look at his lesson plan sometime to compare the work her daughter did this year compared to what JJ had to accomplish in less time. He started homeschooling in Dec. Everything he did in public school up until then didn't count. So he had to do a full year of work (which is more assignments than public school to begin with) with 4 less months to do it. She gave this BS ass kissy reply like, "Oh, I didn't know it was that involved." But even though she said the words you could tell she thought I was yanking her chain, she pissed me off big time.

We have zero requirements here. You can write out your 1st grader a high school diploma if you want to and no one will do squat about it. But like Erin says, that also means that it's hard for homeschooled kids here to get into a good college because they have no way to document their education. The parents who do actually want to give their kids an education usually join a homeschool group (which seems to kind of defeat the purpose to me, but whatever) and they make sure their kids take the ACT or SAT. They also seem to hire someone to train their kids to take the test a lot, or that's how it seems to me.

But there are a lot of folks who do nothing and I guess their kids are just screwed.

Wow.

That is just sad and so unfair to the kids. I would love to see the statistics on what becomes of the kids who don't have any sort of documentation.

A lot homeschooling parents switch it up and teach other kids and vice versa on different subjects. I think that is a good idea. If someone is a math whiz while you can't add a fraction to save your life, and your a history buff it makes sense to help each other out. Many also do most while sending the kids to a class or tutor for certain subjects.

It's pretty common here for homeschooled kids to attend the high school for selected classes. Higher maths may be part of it, but languages are required now for most colleges, and band classes are another big draw.

Tara, Erin, Kelly, Karen and the rest that I missed.. I completely agree with you.. That is why we did it ONE semester.. I couldn't keep up and my dd missed her friends...

That was kind of my point.. I am THRILLED that they have this new program and I WISH they had it back then. It takes the guess work out of it for the parents who DO want to homeschool. When I did it.. there was NOTHING.. no guidance.. nothing.. it was HARD..

I think that is what makes me so proud of Chelle right now.. She is in the same situation I was back then.. I had ONE kid to worry about and she has three at this point and soon four.. (if Im counting right).. The big difference is that she has found a logical way to make it work. I truly wish I had been able to make it work like she has.

However I wasn't in the same situation she is in and I wasn't able to make it work and thank goodness that my dd wanted to go back to public school. (I was working 12 hours a day and was a single parent trying to put this all together).

On the other hand.. I WISH I had known about this public homeschool option for Miss Katie.. If I had started her out on it.. I wouldn't be dealing with the "condoms for 1st graders" problems.. I wouldn't be dealing with the 5th and 6th graders who are on the playground with her making "BJ" motions.. I wouldn't be dealing with whether or not to let her continue public school or if I should pull her out and homeschool her so she can have a "childhood".. but would miss her friends..

It's a tough call either way.

What type of ADHD does he have Kelly? There is no ADD, but ADHD with subtypes....Innnattentive, hyperactive, combined, ring of fire etc.