Our WA homeschool privilege...

I've been getting those concerned questions about homeschooling as I do at the end of each year with parents considering the fall. Just like schools, we MUST plan ahead as we make decisions about our childrens' futures. I ponder and go back and forth in our own homeschool convictions. I realize more nowadays how unique each child is and what each one needs, wants, and requires.
So I thought I'd post some current thoughts.

High School - I've seen this lovely lady speak at conventions. She sums up my heart in just this little YouTube video & her 5 points listed underneath. I enjoy her blog too! Her most recent "Never Compare" is so timely!http://www.thehomescholar.com/5mistakessignup.php

Homeschool/ home-based instruction vs. Alternative Learning Experience Implementation Standards
After 1 yr. in our local parent partnership - I can now have an opinion:
We were off-site with 1 child and on-site with 2 - one took 3 classes the 2nd semester, and the other quit classes after the 1st semester. We had excellent homeschool moms as teachers of the classes the boys took. We chose them for that reason! Our son who took the 3 classes has some friends he really enjoyed while there.

A student's status in the district changes once enrolled in a parent-partnership and are no longer considered BY THE STATE OF WA - homeschooled/home-based. If you were to take a class like band or choir you file the same enrollment form with them. There are other forms with our PPP, though I signed one (which I think may have changed now,) saying we homeschool 99% - it gave me home-based freedoms and we were not subjected to testing ie WASL, but children are enrolled in the school district. Parents are listed as the primary teacher and you set up a yearly Student Learning Plan including learning goals and books/materials used for each child's year of school. Then monthly you report your child's progress in each of those classes you are teaching, affirm that hours spent learning both on-site and off-site were met. Weekly you are under the direct supervision of a certificated teacher for each child and the individual weekly contact method that you 'surrender' to. You must meet these requirements in order to receive state funds. Those monies were appreciated but here is where my opinion becomes just that. Freedom comes at a cost. Though we pay almost $40,000 in property taxes - could I be effecting the outcome of homeschooling and it's future in the state of WA? Maybe this will have no effect to the overall changes that our SPI may have in mind. But I am reminded that we are so blessed to have the freedoms we do in our state.

For us - I am glad to be "free" once again.

My favorite part of our homeschool day...

I love reading to our children. It is amazing how a book brings in a 'presence' that calms a PMSing mama or an upset child. Here are some great quotes about reading I enjoyed this AM.

"Today a reader,
Tomorrow a leader."
~ Margaret Fuller ~

When I was about eight, I decided that the most wonderful thing, next to a human being, was a book. ~ Margaret Walker ~

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~Anna Quindlen ~

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.

~ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu ~

There is no substitute for books in the life of a child. ~ Mary Ellen Chase ~

A room without books is like a body without a soul. ~ Marcus T. Cicero ~

Never judge a book by its movie. ~ J. W. Eagan ~

Books are not men and yet they stay alive.~ Stephen Vincent Benet ~

Books are not made for furniture,but there is nothing else

that so beautifully furnishes a house.~ Henry Ward Beecher ~

What are you reading to your children?

Beatrix & JOY!

Yesterday as many of us began our homeschool 'schedules,' some of us just weren't ready to go at it with all our hearts. Great joyfulness each AM, is how I wish to start each day, so looking for new ways to inspire my weary hands and old 'homeschool' mom mind, God does give small incentives - if I open my heart to them.
Over the holidays, I "re-fell" in love with Beatrix Potter as I watched the movie, Miss Potter. (Oh, she was a grand woman!) Then yesterday our local homeschool newsletter came and had her following quote below.
Thank goodness I was never sent to school;
it would have rubbed off some of the originality. Beatrix Potter

- I will face today with joy in each one of my originals God created!

Thankful for homeschooling FREEDOMS!!!

This fall we began a new program for our boys that is funded by the public school system. Since we've been homeschooling for 20 plus years, there was a dramatic war that went on inside of me deciding to do this.
We'll begin to lose our freedoms to the government because I'm entering into this.
We haven't...yet!
Our 13 year old is what the program calls "off-site" - not taking any classes they offer. We have to reply (report) to an advisor via email each week, along with the other curriculum planning/reporting of hours/progress reports. It hasn't been too much of a biggie except they do try to "suggest" what you should do, how to "grade," how to etc....

So in light of this month's Social Studies focus they are asking us to email about,I must share how God orchestrates our homeschool. (I can't really share that with the district office!) We very loosely study where ever our read alouds take us. We began an adult biography last spring called Nine Lives & Running and will be finishing it this week. This fall, I got an excellent Christian kids historical fiction titled Escape to Liechetenstein at a convention because a little girl at a vendor said it was good. (She didn't tell me what it was about.) We just finished that terrific book! As we looked at Grace's curriculum in August, we found it calls for her to read The Hiding Place this year, which I'm very eager to read for the 4th or 5th time.
Now this past Tuesday before Thanksgiving day, we were privileged to hear a local Jewish woman speak of her life during the Holocaust; being taken as a young girl; losing her mother, baby brother, younger sister, and grandmother to their murder as they were separated and she was pointed to the Auschwitz line; her life in captivity; escaping; then her escape from Hungary with her husband & 2 boys to freedom in the U.S.
This is a God-given opportunity & blessing we get to experience time & time again as homeschoolers. It's not coincidence that our natural studies and being open to flexing our schedule are reasons we are thankful for homeschooling today - learning everyday.