Homeschooling Conference

June 12, 2009 in Homeschooling | 4 comments

Wow!  I actually learned quite a bit at the conference yesterday.  First, I learned that god is everywhere.  At least, he is at one of these events.

Religion aside, I really got a better feel for how to start tackling the homeschooling thing.  First, there was a workshop on understanding Virginia homeschooling law.  I had read the law itself and a couple of summaries, but the hour-long presentation really answered my questions about small details.  There were also a couple of “how to begin” type courses which ranged from mind-numbingly boring to mildly helpful, and a course on the major types of homeschooling: traditional, classical, unit studies, “the living book,” the principle approach, and unschooling.  None of the categories struck me as exactly what I want to do, but it’s nice to have a framework when searching for materials to use.

The exhibit hall was 90% Christian.  I know a huge amount of homeschoolers do it for religious reasons, but I was still shocked.  I managed to find six or seven interesting vendors out of the hundreds there.  I also got a great tip from a woman selling a grammar program.  When I joked that it would be a long time before my 2-year-old would be ready for grammar, she suggested that I buy a set of those accordion files that are numbered 1-12 for the months, but use them to file away ideas for each grade level.  I thought that was a great idea, as I’m quickly outgrowing my current system of pasting ideas into a single Word document with no organization whatsoever.

I managed to buy only one thing: a book called Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June R. Oberlander, which is just a collection of weekly activities for birth to age 5, using common household items.  I doubt that I’ll follow the week-by-week structure of it, but I’m always looking for ways to do fun, challenging things with Sam.

  1. Rational Jenn on June 12, 2009 at 11:14 am

    We have Slow and Steady and it’s a neat resource for activity ideas. Which reminds me I should pull it out and see if there’s anything interesting in there. It’s been a while.

    What are the homeschooling laws in VA like? Do you have to report anything to any official? We have “attendance” reports to send in monthly, which is just ridiculous, but I do it to stay off their radar. We also have to tell them once a year what our school year is and which kid(s) is in the home study program. We also are required to do standardized tests every 3 years, but we are not required to show the results to anyone, just keep them on file. Weird, but mostly non-intrusive, so I’m not complaining. This was our first official year, since Ryan was 6 as of last Sept 1.

    I know of many secular homeschoolers in VA, and my impression is that there is a fairly large (or vocal anyway) secular/inclusive presence in VA. I can send you at least one link privately if you like. I’ve been to our large homeschool conference here in GA a few times and most of the vendors are religious, but I’ve been pretty pleasantly surprised with the number of non-religious materials available. Science–life science that is–seems to be the most difficult to find good homeschooling materials for, but we’re not really there yet.

    Thanks for sharing your experience!

  2. Amy on June 12, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    Jenn, yes, I’d love that link. I do belong to a couple of more secular (as far as I can tell) local homeschool Yahoo groups, which was how I found out about this conference and another one I’m attending in July. But maybe what you have is new to me.

    The law in VA is generally twofold: eligibility/notice and reporting of progress. The most common way to be eligible is to use the VA homeschooling statute, which allows anyone to homeschool if either parent has a high school diploma (but not GED), is a certified teacher, or if you provide a description of the program of study. So if you can’t meet the first two, you can certainly meet the third. The gov’t is not authorized to judge your program of study or approve it – you just have to give notice. Oh, and if you can’t do those three, you can just provide evidence that you are able to provide an adequate education, which means you write a letter explaining how you will do so. You must give notice every year and you don’t have to give any other information, although apparently some school boards try to trick you into giving more info. And if you still can’t do those things under the statute, you can also homeschool if you are a certified VA teacher or you can use the religious exemption (those are outside the statute).

    If you do use the statute, you must annually file evidence of progress which is either a standardized test score (math and language only, greater than 23rd percentile) or get an evaluation from a qualified person, usually a teacher.

    It sounds cumbersome, but I suppose it is moderate regulation. The notice of intent to homeschool form is basically your names and checkboxes, and you can get the tests done for $25-$75/year. I don’t think many kids would have a problem reaching the 23rd percentile even when not teaching to the test. Then if they do, you just don’t file the test score and you get an evaluation instead.

    The law also says something about homeschooled kids needing to attend school for the same number of hours as the public schools, but there is no provision for enforcement and nothing that requires reporting of attendance, so it’s meaningless and ignored. I’m glad that I don’t have to report attendance or do one of those notebooks which includes all the work the child does all year. THAT would be a huge hassle. GA sounds pretty moderate, too.

  3. Kim on June 12, 2009 at 1:42 pm

    Sounds interesting. Another friend of mine recommended one of the really big religious conferences (she’s secular too) for getting a good look at curriculum before buying and also taking away some of the more general ideas from talks. I can only hope that being above the Bible Belt will allow me to find more secular resources.

    Glad you found something good and got a good piece of advice.

  4. Rational Jenn on June 12, 2009 at 4:15 pm

    Yes, GA isn’t too bad. Mostly annoying. Our “attendance” reports are utterly pointless, although I hope nobody in our government notices, lol! The statutes requires 180 days with 4.5 hours of instruction. I know many families who time it out, but I’m of the mind that A.) learning happens all the time, frequently throughout the days, and on weekends and in the summer, too B.) I hate nickel-and-dime-ing people and refuse to do it to my kids, especially on behalf of the State, and C.) it’s none of the State’s business anyhow. So I put an X on the form for the days my kids (well, Ryan) were “present” at our homeschool and make it more or less match up with the school calendar and send it in. And then they are happy because I filled out my form and I’m content to remain in compliance with their silly law.

    We recently hit our 180 days, so we’re relieved of school and paperwork duties until Sept 1–yet somehow, reading, math and history remain things we are talking about and working on around here. Imagine that! :o )

    I’m very glad we are not subject to reporting test scores, being held to a minimum threshhold on the tests, or have to get a teacher to review a progress report. But that is less restrictive than some of the portfolio reviews that residents of other states must submit to. Although your comment reminds me of another statute I ought to comply with–we are also supposed to write up an annual progress report. Again–we don’t have to show it to anyone, but we are required to have it. (The only time you’d get in trouble for not doing it is if for some reason you were in trouble with DFACS and they asked for proof that you are in compliance with the home study laws.) However, I’m willingly going to do this one because it will help me keep things straight. I think I’ll make it into a blog post–maybe.

    I don’t think it’s so hard finding secular homeschooling stuff (but again, haven’t really checked out science yet), especially if you’re near a large city. We’re in the Bible Belt, sure, but being so close to Atlanta means that we are part of a very large (several hundred families) secular/inclusive group. Although when I go to our homeschool conference, I can’t help but be reminded about how much in the minority I really truly am.