As we begin another Homeschool Co-Op year, I am often asked many questions about how to get started homeschooling, is Louisiana a Homeschool friendly state etc, so I decided to address some of these questions:

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Is Louisiana law favorable to home education?

Yes, Louisiana law is favorable to home education. Two options are available: (1) the Home Study Law or (2) the Private School Law. This constitutional liberty is protected by the Private Education Deregulation Act (Act No. 828 which amends Section 236 of Title 17 of Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950). However, as with all freedoms, it must be guarded.

Although home study has been recognized since 1980, attempts have been made to repeal that act or chip away at this right.


Who may home educate?

Any parent may home educate their child. A parent's constitutional right to home educate comes from the fundamental constitutional principle of the freedom of parents to direct the education of their children. Parents with religious convictions also have the right to home educate as a free exercise of religion. These provisions are in the Louisiana State Constitution as well as the United States Constitution.

When can home education begin?

Home education may begin at any time during the school year, but the application form must be mailed within 15 days after the home study program begins. Only those children affected by the compulsory attendance law must apply with the Department of Education. According to the Compulsory Attendance Law (Louisiana Revised Statutes Annotated @ 17:236), all children from the 7th birthday to the 18th birthday, or until graduation must be in school. The law also allows parents to notify the state as a private school with the Superintendent of Schools, Department of Education

How To:
Registration under the Home Study Program

When home educating under this option, an initial application must be made within 15 days after the beginning of the home study program. Initial applications must include a certified copy of the child’s birth certificate. (A clear photocopy may be sent if the notary seal is readable. When the child is 11 years old, the parent must submit evidence that the child has been vaccinated against meningococcal disease unless they have a waiver for religious, personal or medical reasons. The Department of Education is not responsible for lost or damaged birth certificates.) Send the application by “certified, return receipt” mail to: ATTN: Sue Millican, SBESE-Approved Home Study Program, Louisiana Department of Education, P. O. Box 94064, Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9064.

The Home Study Information Packet, which includes an application, may be printed from the Department of Education’s website. If you have questions or need further information, contact Sue Millican at 1-225-342-4776. Students enrolled in a SBESE-Approved Home Study Program may participate in interscholastic athletic activities at a public or state approved private school that is also a member of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association. Participation at a private school is allowed at the sole discretion of the administration of that school. (R.S. 236.3)

Note: This does not apply to home educated students enrolled under the Private School Option.

Home education under the private school law:
A letter is sent to the State Superintendent of Schools informing him that you are starting a private school. Do not send the "Application for Home Study Program" form. Write the letter on your school letterhead. Include the following information: Number of pupils, when the school starts, and number of school days. This must be done by the 30th day after your school session begins.

The following is a sample letter:

 Name of your School
Your Address
Date

Division Director
Division of Educational Improvement and Assistance
P.O. Box 94064-9064
Baton Rouge, LA 70804

Dear Director:

In accordance with LA R.S. 17:235, (name of your school) began classes on (the date you began class), for the 2012-2013 school year. Our total enrollment is (the number of children in school).

Very Truly Yours,

Your signature
Your name
Principal

This notification regarding your school should be sent within thirty days of the beginning of the school year. It is recommended that this notification be sent registered mail for verification of receipt; mail to: Division Director Division of Educational Improvement and Assistance P.O. Box 94064-9064 Baton Rouge, LA 70804

How do I withdraw my child from public school?

 It is best to inform the principal of the school in writing that you are removing the child from school. Avoid meetings or phone calls. Tact is required in presenting a good Christian testimony especially if a school official is not familiar with home study laws. If you are homeschooling under the private school option, you must notify the school in writing that your child will no longer be enrolled there, but will be attending your private school. The letter must be sent within 10 days and must include the child’s full legal name, birthday, race and gender.

If you are registering under the Home Study Program, this letter is not required by law, but is highly recommended. How do I renew my application for the Home Study Program each year? A renewal application must be made by the first of October of the school year, or within twelve months of the approval of the initial application. Renewal applications are approved when parents submit satisfactory evidence that their home school offered a sustained-curriculum of a quality equal to that of the public schools at the same- grade level.

This can be done in one of four ways: (1) Verification that the child has taken the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT), California Achievement Test (CAT) or another ap- proved standardized test and has scored at or above his grade level or has progressed at a rate equal to one grade level for each year in home study. A clear copy of the test results attached to the Home Study Application is sufficient. (2) A written statement from a teacher certified to teach at the child's grade level stating that the child is being taught with a sustained curriculum of quality at least equal to that offered by public schools at that grade level, or in the case of children with mental or physical disabilities, a sustained curriculum at least equal to that offered by public schools to children with similar disabilities. (3) Verification that the child took the State Basic Skills Test and scored at or above the state performance standard. (4) A packet of materials may be presented including a complete outline of the subjects taught, list of books and materials used, copies of the student's work, test results, statements by third parties who have observed the child's progress, or any other evidence of the quality of. Most parents choose to send in a copy of their child's test results.

Whichever option you choose, proofread for spelling and grammatical errors; and be sure that all required information is included.

How do I renew for the Private School Option?

Send a letter according to the instructions given for the initial registration under the Private School Option, updating the information to reflect the new school year.

I hope that this helps answer a few of your questions regarding getting started homeschooling.

So how do you organize everything!?

I feel the key to great homeschooling is good organization.

Here are five of my favorite organizing items.

1. Binders, Binders & more Binders. I can not say enough about binders. You can buy these real cheap. I put my lesson plans, attendence records, calendars, and Bryleigh's finished work in binders.

2. File Folders...File Folders are great. You can use them to make Mini-Offices & Lapbooks and they make a great filing system for all your lesson plans for the whole year. Here is a picture of the way I organize my school year. I have 36 file folders. One folder for each week that we homeschool. I put all the lessons I want to go over for the week in each of the folders. The Saturday before the week begins, I pull out all of the lessons for that week and place them in the folders labeled Monday-Friday. This really works for me and I always have lessons on hand.

3. Labels!!! I label everything! Things are much easier to find if they are labeled. I recommend buying Avery Labels, if you have a printer. If you do not have a printer, you can purchase a label maker. The picture below is of a Brothers Brand Label Maker. It costs around $20 on Amazon.com.

4. Laminator.... I love my laminator!! I bought it for around $20 and I laminate everything from my homemade educational games to my educational posters! It is great!

5. Boxes...yes, boxes...every size & shape!! They make wonderful organizers...You can store paper, pencils, markers, crayons and many, many other things!

Just how do you do it??

I love when I tell people that I'm a stay at home mom & that I also homeschool because the expressions on their faces are priceless! When people find out what I do they always ask the same question "How do you do it?" I begin to explain to them how easy it is to stay at home & homeschool, however many times I don't have enough time to explain just how easy it really is. So I will begin to explain a few ways in my blog of how I am able to stay at home & homeschool as well. First thing I'm going to cover is finances. That is one of the biggest issues that people have. Well, God has blessed my husband & me. When I was in college, I ran up $32,000 worth of debt because I had no clue about how to manage my money. These credit card companies were sending me all of these pre-approved credit cards but, I did not understand the consequences of interests or paying back the money plus interest. I had to learn the hard way!When I met my husband, we decided to go to a Dave Ramsey course that was being offered at my grandmother's church.

I had never heard of Dave Ramsey so I was really amazed at the knowledge I gained through the course. He offers great money management information based on Godly wisdom. Every topic he discusses is backed up by a biblical reference. And he offers great products to order to help maintain a credit card free life. I highly recommend checking him out. I can honestly tell you that Dave's course changed our lives forever! You will not regret it and if you are considering staying at home, this will help you get off on the right foot.

We need Grammar in the House!!

So I was looking for a good Grammar program to start Bryleigh on and I didn't really want to spend a fortune on books. As I began to scan the internet for a good 2nd grade program, I ran across Scott Foresman's Grammar & Writing webpage. The site has online workbooks for 1st graders through 6th graders and the workbooks are absolutely free to download! So of course I am going to start printing these off and using them!

http://www.sfreading.com/resources/ghb.html

Looking for a good Reading Program??

Did you know that Chuck E Cheese offers free tokens for stuff such as good manners, sleeping all night, tooth fairy, etc.? They also reward kids for reading! All the child has to do is just read (since there're no guidelines on how long, I would just assume at least 15 minutes) each day. Complete the Reading Rewards Calendar as your child reads and bring it to the nearest Chuck E Cheese. They will then give you 10 free tokens with the completed calendar and a pizza purchase.

http://www.chuckecheese.com/promotions/rewards-calendars.php

Everyone loves Free stuff!

The first concerns that many homeschool parents have are I don't know anything about making lesson plans or planning schedules and how much is homeschooling my children going to cost me? Well, let me just say, lesson plans are easy to create and scheduling or planning your homeschool day is as simple as waking up in the morning. You do not have to search long and hard for lesson plans on the computer. They are everywhere and many of them are absolutely free! Here are just a few examples of the websites I have found that give away free stuff! Hope you enjoy them as much as I do! Enjoy!

Here is my favorite webpage for lesson plan examples.

http://donnayoung.org/f11/apologia-f/gen/dy-g1-2.pdf

You can find History & Science lessons on this website and they are absolutely free!! Love it!http://www.prontolessons.com/asian_americans.html

Now to answer the next question, homeschooling can cost as much or as little as you want it to cost. Many homeschooling forms, planners, lesson plans and charts are free, you just have to look for them.

This is one of my favorite websites! I could spend all day on it because you can find tons of information on just this one site. You can find many different homeschool forms on this page, as well as free Lesson Plan forms!

http://donnayoung.org/forms/planners/index.htm

Forms, Forms & More Forms....absolutely Free!! This is a wonderful site full of homeschool forms that you can download absolutely free! http://www.newbeehomeschooler.com/moreplannerforms.htm

I absolutely love this webpage! We are constantly looking for paper to write on!!! So now we have to look no further than this page....Free Notepad & Notebook Paper
http://www.fuzzimo.com/free-hi-res-notepad-and-notebook-textures/

This one is from Five J's and it is awesome! If you need a gradebook, look no further. This is from her site: "Gradebook+ is a free gradebook and record-keeping spreadsheet template for homeschool." http://fivejs.com/gradebook/fivejs-gradebook-plus-v1-excel.xlt

Free books are everywhere! The greatest resource is your local library, however, here's a great link for online audiobooks that I found!http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/genre/Children/all

Finally, here's a website you can not pass up!! You'll find here a directory of free homeschool curricula, literature and text books organized for the use of homeschooling families. http://oldfashionededucation.com/

Our Daily Schedule Revised! New Lesson Plans are coming....

Our Daily Schedule Update *Tenative* - notice I said "tentative" because although this is my goal - life happens LOL! =0 ) We are trying something new...we are schooling year-round this year. So far, I am reallying enjoying schooling year-round! It seems to be a lot less stressful and less demanding.

Mon-Fri
Bible Reading - 15 mins every morning- We read a story out of the Beginners Bible or a lesson out of the book, Leading Little Ones to God.

Mon-Thursday
Spelling - 20mins-30mins- We go over Dolch words for her grade level & complete one worksheet out of the Scholastic Week by Week Homework Packet Spelling workbook, Grades 1 and 2.
Grammar-10m- We go over a Grammar Rule each day and Bryleigh has to write the rule in her composition notebook. Not only is she learning the rule, but she is also using her handwriting skills and spelling skills as well. She also works Grammar/Phonic worksheets that we bought from Sonlight.com.
Writing - 10m- We write more than 10 mins a day, however, I do not require her but 10 mins a day. She volunteers more time because loves to write.
Math - 40m- we do visual Math. She watches the Mathtacular video that we got from Sonlight.com and then does worksheets that correspond with that days' lesson. We also use real life events to enforce math skills. Ex. Grocery shopping & cooking

Monday and Wednesday
Science - 20 mins- 30 mins - we also do visual Science. She watches the Discover & Do video from Sonlight. com and then we do experiments & worksheets using real life events. She loves learning Science in the Kitchen. I also just received new Science Lesson plans that I will be intergrating in with her current lessons.

Wed- Thursday
History - 20 mins - 30 mins- We acquire History Readers from the library. And we read a book each day about a current event that is going on. I also print out worksheets from Enchantedlearning.com to help with the lessons.

Tuesdays
Piano Lessons - 30 mins
Library time- 20 mins- 30 mins

Weekend
Art - 1 hour

Home Economics - daily- She folds clothes, dusts, vaccuums, and helps me cook each day. I have bought a curriulum called Keepers at Home. When I get that in the mail, I will begin the lessons in it. http://thegreatestcallinginlife.blogspot.com/2012/01/keepers-at-home-little-keepers-at-home.html

Quiet Time- I will begin to implement a quiet time for 30 mins to an hour each day. During this time, Tracee will lay down for a nap or go in her room to play while Bryleigh goes to her room for required reading, to finish up any work that she did not complete or to have some playtime. (Also I found some great audiobooks that I thought she could listen to while she plays). This will give the girls a break from me & each other - you know we are together all the time and we all need breaks! lol This will give me time to get my lessons together for the next day or finish housekeeping.

Mon-Wed-Friday
Piano practice -10mins- 15 mins

Co-Op
We have 40 days of CoOp each school year (We actually attend 2 Co-Ops, one on Tuesdays & one on Wednesdays). Bryleigh is learning Phonics, Geography, Art History, Reading, Kitchen Science & Magic School Bus Science on CoOp days. Also she is learning social skills & is able to interact with other children during this time. Let me add this: When we have CoOp days the CoOp lessons will replace the lessons on the days indicated above.