Florida Homeschool Rules

Amanda runs the Time4Learning Florida homeschool support group. She writes:

It is very easy to begin a home education program for your child in Florida.  First you need to send the district school superintendent of the county where you live a letter of intent like the one found here on FPEA within 30 days of beginning homeschooling. According to Florida Statute 1002.41, once you begin homeschooling, you need to maintain a portfolio of records and materials to be kept for 2 years consisting of:

“1. A log of educational activities that is made contemporaneously with the instruction and that designates by title any reading materials used.

2. Samples of any writings, worksheets, workbooks, or creative materials used or developed by the student.”

This is one of the great things about Time4Learning. Time4Learning records all of your child’s online activities for you. All you need to do is print what they’ve done on a regular basis, every week or so, and store it in a folder or binder. You can also print out some of their tests or quizzes as examples and save a few of their worksheets as examples of their work.

The next step is to choose how you will have your child’s progress evalutated each year. Florida gives you 5 options for evaluation

1. You may choose to have a Florida certified teacher evaluate your child’s educational progress upon review of the portfolio and discussion with your child. Then have the teacher write an evalutation letter, like the one found here on FPEA.

2. You may have you child take any nationally normed student achievement test administered by a certified teacher

3. You can have your child take a state student assessment test, such as FCAT

4. You can have your child evaluated by a psychologist

5. You may choose any other way to evaluate your child that is mutually agreed upon by the district school superintendent of the district where you live

If you questions for Amanda, try the Florida homeschool parents forum.   Other great sources for Florida homeschooling information:

Florida Parent-Educators Association
Florida Department of Education 
Homeschooling In Florida

California Cancels School This Summer

When the kids hear that summer school has been cancelled, they must rejoice.  However, for many it was an important step in making their education work.  So, parents now must scramble and figure out how to “homeschool” this summer.  Fortunately, there are many wonderful online resources that they can use.

For instance: Time4Learning offers two programs to address the summer school children’s needs; Time4Writing.com and Time4Learning.com. Time4Writing.com provides teacher-supervised online writing courses in eight-week courses for elementary, middle and high school students. This program builds writing skills through one-on-one interaction with a certified teacher. Parents have real-time access to view and monitor their child’s progress at anytime. At less than $12.50/week or $99/course, the program is extremely cost-effective compared to most teacher-supervised tutoring programs. Parents can view course material online at Time4Writing.com

Summer School Alternatives

I just read this and since I think their program is great, I thought I’d share it. it’s about a great alternative approach to homeschooling for the summer.

Your child works hard during the school year and needs a summer vacation in order to come back refreshed. The sensible part of you knows that it would be foolish to waste the summer months, since a long vacation without study can result in backsliding. The sensitive part of you feels guilty about asking your kids to do work while their friends are spending their vacation doing other things.

Are your kids excited by the idea of summer school, summer courses or summer study? Ours certainly aren’t. They want to enjoy their summer and not worry about the pressures of school, standardized testing and subjects they might have had trouble with. They don’t want Summer School. They want a summer break.

So, is it possible for kids to enjoy their summer when they know they have to study? With Time4Learning, the answer is “yes“.

Preschooling in Maryland & Alabama

I live in Florida which is awash with signed for FVP. Free Voluntary Preschool.  I’m not sure if it’s for everybody or just those below a certain means but I’m curious. I’m also curious about the quality and whether the program is available nationwide or just in Florida.

I started thinking about htis after I realized how dramatically different the states are in terms of homeschooling laws. I just read a few writeups and they’re totally  differently. I read about homeschooling in Maryland, homeschooling in Alabama, homeschooling in California, and homeschooling in Florida.

Homeschool city is one cool blog. Check it out. It’s where I started to think about state differences.

Homeschool and math forums

Math Goodies: There are 2877 Posts in 833 Topics and 681 Users 
Homeschooling discussions: Total posts 12142 | Total topics 2204 | Total members 3292

 

Oct 23, 2008 – repeat of, need to update

First search: Homeschool forums and per google:

http://homeschoolspot.com/ #1 Threads: 14,919, Posts: 221,610, Members: 1,795
Mary Prides http://www.home-school.com/forums/ #2 on google 16677 articles,  3389 registered users
http://chfweb.net/ 119842 messages inside 13367 topics.  2533 registered user(s).
http://forum.homeschool.com/forum/default.asp

 29447 Posts in 3924 Topics 5243 Forum Members
About’s http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=messages&webtag=ab-homeschool A different type of stats
Christian homeschoolers at #6 on big G: http://www.christianhomeschoolers.com/hs_forums.html  – they list other lists, no inhouse forum
Google #7: Time4Learning’s homeschool forum, perhpas the best for online homeschooling issues. 6221 articles, 2314 registered users
CrossWalks homeschool forum is number 8 – http://forums.crosswalk.com/ It’s a huge forum that covers the overall intersection of faith and life: 93545 Registered users,  1707181 posts in 78 forums, 31759 topics. The homeschool forum has 492 topics and 23,343 topics.
Justmommies http://www.justmommies.com/boards/index.php?showforum=15 is a mega forum with 2,660,108 posts and  37,252 registered members.  There is an education section with a homeschooling subsection. It shows: 6363 topics and 45,704 posts.http://donnayoung.org is the 10th site listed on google for homeschool forums. It doesn’t have a forum.

State by State Information

I’ve been watching how one homeschool curriculum company – Time4Learning.com, provides a network of help to homeschoolers. I think it’s great. They’ve established experienced homeschoolers as state reps to orient and help the new homeschoolers. To connect them to resources and to give advice and community. I give this program an A plus. Here are the states that they’re up and running in.

• State Homeschool Overviews
  • - Alabama
  • - Alaska
  • - Arizona
  • - California
  • - Connecticut
  • - Colorado
  • - Florida
  • - Georgia
  • - Idaho
  • - Illinois
  • - Indiana
  • - Iowa
  • - Kansas
  • - Kentucky
  • - Maine
  • - Maryland
  • - Massachusetts
  • - Michigan
  • - Minnesota
  • - Nebraska
  • - Nevada
  • - New Hampshire
  • - New Jersey
  • - New York
  • - North Carolina
  • - North Dakota
  • - Ohio
  • - Oklahoma
  • - Oregon
  • - Rhode Island
  • - Pennsylvania
  • - South Carolina
  • - Tennessee
  • - Texas
  • - Virginia
  • - Vermont
  • - West Virginia

Tinkering

I just listened to five academics talk about education. They’re right but I’m not impressed. They are exploring the possibilities for more free form education and are in rampant agreement with each other that:
A – It’s really important for science education and
B – It’s not happening in the schools but it should.
IT seems like none of these guys have heard that five percent of Americans, the homeschoolers, are in the throes of wild tinkering and exploration. They’re unschooling and deschooling and innovating in all sorts of ways and styles. (check out the homeschooling glossary). Yes, we talk about it, but mostly, we’re doing it !!!

Summer School Programs

Homeschool and traditional students alike share some ideas about summer study. Mostly, the kids are against it. They want a break. A fun summer break. Yet all parents need to weigh the benefits of letting them relax with how much academic backsliding can occur over the summer. One solution might be to try an online summer study program. And I quote….

Have you noticed how much your child enjoys using the computer? If you haven’t, you should. Kids are constantly surfing the web. Whether they’re checking out a video game or chatting with their friends, they are (without a doubt) online. So, it makes sense to turn to the web for a fun alternative to summer school. Time4Learning’s website offers just that. A web based summer learning program that they won’t mind using. In fact, they might even like it!

Time4Learning’s Web Based Summer Learning Program might be your answer. Our learning materials take advantage of today’s technology by providing a convenient and web based interactive learning resource, helping children from preschool through elementary and middle school excel in their studies. Our web based summer program takes school-year curriculum and continues it on through the summer so that your kids can retain what they’ve learned, catch up on what they haven’t, and get ahead for next year.

OH, and I thought I’d mention a new blog that I just noticed with info on preschool activities.

Vocabulary Flash Cards

I read an interesting article contrasting how students learn vocabulary. In yesteryear, the flash cards dominated for learning vocabulary. Today, online flash games if not facebook or Iphone apps, dominate for teaching vocabulary. Yet I’m pretty sure that vocabulary flash cards, old paper cards, are not about to fall into total disuse.  What do you think?

And I quote:  Vocabulary flash cards are the traditional method for learning vocabulary. But today, interactive online vocabulary games are often used instead of flash cards to improve vocabulary for SAT, ACT, GRE and FCAT tests. 

The interactive vocabulary games are enhanced flash cards for vocabulary. They teach and drill on vocabulary like flash cards but in an engaging, entertaining format. Being more fun than vocabulary flash cards means the online interactive vocab games are more effective at engaging and teaching than vocabulary flash cards. English speakers and English learners alike build word power with interactive vocabulary games.

An interested alert vocabulary learner is a fast vocabulary learner.  Any vocabulary student will agree. Any teacher of English–or any other subject–can attest to this, and educational research confirms it: Vocabulary SAT, ACT, and GRE scores (marks) reflect this.
————-

The Vocabulary Learning Fun website has some more interesting learning articles about vocabulary:

Expand Your Vocabulary
GRE Verbal Tips
Improve Through Active Learning
Analogy Vocabulary
PSAT Vocabulary
Synonym Vocabulary
Connotative and Denotative Vocabulary
ESL Vocabulary

Spelling Resources

I would definitely suggest spelling site to help with compound words is SpellingCity.com.  Also, that spelling website can help with sound alike words.  Time4Learning teaches spelling as part of an integrated language arts program.  The English Vocabulary Learning Fun site also helps students learn to spell.