Hi - I'm new here. I'm married with a very supportive hubby. I have two boys, 11 & 9. My situation is my oldest son has been zoned to a not so good ps for 6th grade so of all the options, we have decided to HS him for AT LEAST the middle school years but evaluate the situation year to year. All of this is sooo overwhelming to start with. I have been researching for a while and I think I have made a few decisions. This has calmed a substantial amount of the stress. First, we are leaving youngest in ps for now, as I have no major issues with the elem. school he is attending. We are going to start a 6 week keyboarding curriculum this summer with a little business communication thrown in. I have almost completed the Lesson Plans. I have decided to vary next year's curriculum between several options for the core subjects - I will be designing two subjects myself, sign him up for Virtual class for one, and purchase a curriculum for the last one. I am thinking this variety will let me know which way he will learn best. I am going to try going by the state standards somewhat at least for the first year. The only one he will really be stuck with is the virtual class. A couple of my questions are - 1) In Florida there is no restriction on when your letter of intent must be filed - only within 30 days of establishing a homeschool. Should I go ahead and send my letter of intent now or wait till closer to fall? If I send it now he can use the keyboarding he is learning this summer but evaluation will be due when everyone else is looking to get theirs done also. 2) Is it a good idea to try different approaches for the core subjects? I have asked my son and he thinks what I make for him would be best? That's my baby! 3) Does anyone know how I would go about choosing a curriculum that would be close to state standards? - Just look at what it contains I suppose? Thanks in advance - and thanks for all the other posts, I have already learned a lot.
Hi and welcome. For #1. I would check with a group from Florida. This one seems to be closest to the WPA in Wisconsin that protects my rights to homeschool and gives me the best advice on legal issues how to maintain those rights. http://www.fpea.com/ They may have suggestions for #3 also. Different approaches? HHmmmm... Math is math, but does your son need more of the oral teaching, or will he do well with reading it himself and doing the work, or does he need to visualize the problems? The answer to that would be where I would look for his math. The same with other subjects. My oldest is such an avid reader but she excels at learning when being orally taught. Hoping you find success in this venture. Homeschooling is good.
Thanks Smiling Dawn for the info. Found the answer to #1 on a website I've read 10 times over. Duhhhh. I think it is an off-shoot of the FPEA you suggested. It's PPEA (Pinellas County). I'm definatly joining this fall and already have the orintation date on the calander. As far as different approaches, I meant making my own curriculum for some, virtual class for one, boxed curriculum for one. Is this common? My son is more of a hands on type learner but absolutely hates the mechanics of writing. Not good for note taking. But he also loves the computer. I hope I didn't come across in any way that I'm opposed to hs because I accually think, generally speaking, homeschoolers excel over ps counterparts. I'm just very nervous, but very excited! I am feeling better as I get more & more done. My sons and I ARE also going to be the homeschoolers that excel over ps students. I know we can do it. Thanks again for your help!
