Hi, I am excited about beginning our homeschool journey officially soon. My ds just finished ps K. I am trying to get everything in order and have read the laws. Our law as I understand says you just have to send in a letter stating your plans to hs. Also you must keep an attendance record. The law says 175 days and 6 hours per day. So do I need to actually keep a record and do school 6 hours or just keep daily attendance? I have been told by several people that the person we have to deal with here is terrible and tries to make it hard for you. I just want to make sure I do everything right. If there is anyone on here from Ky I'd love to hear your input about what you have done and what you have dealt with. Thanks so much!
Hi ! I'm brand new to this board and homeschooling in general but I had to respond since we have a few things in common ! I'm from Kentucky and I plan to start homeschooling my son this fall, possibly sooner if I ever figure it all out LOL. He also finished Kindergarten this year in public school. He's still really behind though so I'm not sure that's he's ready to start with 1st grade curriculum. Since this will be my first year I'm not sure what to expect and I don't have any sage advice to offer but maybe we can help each other figure it out. I plan to keep an attendance book marking the days we homeschool but I'm not sure I'm going to keep a record of hours. The Christian Home Educators of Kentucky site suggests you keep a grade book and/or a portfolio of best work to show if you ever need to. We'll do our work and hopefully the proof will be in the pudding if ever questioned about it. I know we have certain subjects we have to teach and we plan to cover all those and then some. Public school goes from 8-3 every day and they cover more than those subjects. I think it's absolutely bizarre that science isn't on the list of required subjects but we plan to cover it anyway. They also have art and music and computer lab, p.e etc, so I figure we'll do all that too and hopefully we won't have much trouble getting all the required hours in !
In most places, you can fill up hours with no problems at all by being creative in your descriptions. Hours spent "in school" doesn't necessarily mean sitting in a chair doing paperwork! Some things are obvious, like a bike ride around the neighborhood = PE. Some things not so much: shopping = practical economics, math; discussing where the produce comes from could be geography, while deciding what to buy could be health/nutrition; housecleaning = health/safety; cooking = life skills/home ec, health/nutrition, or science; keeping an appointment = practical lesson on clocks and calendars. Sick today and don't feel up to doing school? Watching PBS educational programs while lying on the couch could be science, language arts, history, depends on what the content of the programs is that day. Read-alouds? Language arts! Listening to the radio in the car while running errands? music! Noting directions, places of business, jobs people do, etc., on the way to those errands = social studies, communities/careers. Museum, park = field trip. Making a card for someone, or drawing a picture of something learned today, or a specific craft project is obviously art! Playing legos could be "using manipulatives to explore structure and space in three dimensions"!
Hello, I too am looking at homeschooling in KY. We are currently in FL but my husband has interviewed for a job in KY and so far it looks good. I will most likely keep track of attendance but like the previous post so much counts as life sklils and learning. As far as curriculum one of the benefits of hs is schooling to your childs level not necessarily grade level. I plan on using a variety of curriculum covering all the basic subjects. Math, Reading, Writing, Science, History, Spelling, LA, Health,. Just thought I would add to your post.
I've been homeschooling in KY for 4 yrs. I do send a letter of intent every year, and mark our days on a calendar. No one has ever asked me anything. Children in public school do not sit in their desks and learn for 6 hours a day. Perhaps they are covering 6 subjects though. I think as long as we are teaching 6 subjects (math, reading, writing, science, history, geography, art, music, life skills, Bible, character, spelling, phonics, comprehension, PE), then we're fine, no matter how long our days are. There are also plenty of 1/2 day kindergartens. where in KY do you live? we're in Louisville. If you're close, CHEK is having an awesome conference June 25-26 in Louisville. It's $25/yr to join CHEK and the conference is free to members!
GypsyStar, I'm so excited to have someone new to start this journey with! Have you chosen any curriculum or anything yet? I'm using a variety of things. I thought it was strange that Science wasn't required too! Anyway, thanks for responding and let's keep in touch! Lindina, I love all the points you made. So much can be considered schooling and I hadn't thought of a lot that you mentioned. Marcy, I am in Morehead which is about 2 1/2 hours from Louisville (east). I may be interested in coming to the conference anyway. What exactly is it? I have never heard of CHEK. Thanks to all of you for your replies.
Maria, I saw that you are in Morehead. I live in Grayson. It's nice to know that there are people close to where I am who are also homeschooling! I have looked at a lot of different websights, and Lindina is so right! Kids can learn anywhere! It just takes some imagination on our part as parents and teachers. We can teach them reading while driving with the street signs, math in the grocery store, the possibilities are endless!
