We try to keep our schooling reglated, it keeps my kids thinking school if its school time. We are regimented so to speak. There are "school hours" and "after School" something to look forward to, this way kids don't play during school working time, at least not with thier non educational stuff.... though I find everything we have is educational in some way or another, I like to think of free play as a side thing, not learning time, just for fun.... as far as they are concerned? I usually keep a time schedule for them to do thier book work during even... lately I am lazy about it but we still keep the work done right amount of time for the most part.
We also consider the hours roughly between 7 AM and 3 PM as our "school day". And the kids know not to even ASK to watch TV or play anything uneducational on the computer during that time. Phillip will ask, "Is school out yet?" because he'll want to play a certain game on the computer, lol. Then, if we need to, I can always tell them that they will have to finish it later that evening.
That's kind of how we are, too. Except for us, it's from 10 to 3 or 4-ish in the afternoon because we're not early starters! The state requires 4.5 hours a day for 180 days a year. I make a lesson plan that covers all the essentials, and some days they finish work in an hour, other days they're at it for six hours or longer. I wish we lived in a state where you didn't have to report anything, but I am fairly relaxed about the record keeping. As others have said, some of our most educational moments happen when we're not "doing school". After teaching art for a while at a private school, and getting an idea of how few hours of the school day are spent in meaningful instruction, anything we do at home is going to add up to more than they would get in PS. Unless we have a weekday totally devoid of anything educational, I count it as a school day. Because when you add up all the bits we do on the weekends, etc. over the course of year, we've more than met the requirement.
Here's a question: When you report, is it how long it took YOU and your kids or how long it takes in PS? If ps can take 50 minutes for a math period, but your kids finish the same amount in 20---can't that count as the 50 minute class period, but they just happened to finish it earlier? That doesn't sound like "cheating" to me, it sounds like fairness in scheduling!
Our state courts have ruled in no uncertain terms that 1 hour = 1 whole hour of actual instruction. You can't round, you can't say, "well, 1 lesson = 1 hour" or, "well, it takes 1 hour in public school, so that's an hour." Of course lying can and does happen. And there's really no way of knowing if a parent has stretched the truth. But if you're going to be honest about it, then 1 hour = 1 60 minute block of time.
I think anything you can reasonably justify is not cheating. After all, most state laws are written to the affect of: "comparable to public school." I personally don't do it like that though. I do math for a solid 45 minutes per day. . .if they finish early they either go on to the next lesson or play math games. I am supposed to go six hours per day. . .but I count other things that people would consider "cheating". So I count making lunch or dinner as home ec, I count transportation to and from classes down town as "school time" bc it is part of the school day in ps when they have to transport kids for p.e. and such. I count transportation on field trips as well as field trips--even if they're done on Saturday--bc that would count in public school. If kids finish all of their lesson before 6 hours, I would consider that prime time for art, an impromptu trip to the park (which counts as p.e.) or playing things like chess or labrynth.
So do you count it when one kid is helping you make dinner as math, or reading aloud before going to bed as reading, or brushing your teeth/taking a bath as health?
I don't have a minimum number of hours per day, and boy am I thankful! I couldn't imagine trying to fill in time with structured activities. But I'm in the "that's not cheating" camp. I only document full hours as hours (well, really, I document minutes and divide by 60) because that's what our state has specified. They've been quite clear that a 50 minute class is not the same as an hour.
But sitting at your desk with your head down for 15 minutes because everyone was too loud and the teacher got mad IS.....? Or spending 10 minutes talking with a neighbor and throwing airplanes while the teacher is down the hall, disciplining some kid IS....? Or twenty minutes while everyone goes to the bathroom IS....?
Wow, so if 1 hour of actual instruction is nessacary for home school, are they trying to tell you that ps students get an hour of a teacher teaching them??? WOW< I mean if I sit with my kid and talk out each question with them asking them what each problem is, how to do it etc, explaingin all that I don't think I could 'instruct' them for a whole hour... so how does that work??
That's a pity that you are kept away from your hometown by our restrictive laws. I've gotten the impression that you are a certified teacher from some of your other posts. If that is the case, then, it is possible to homeschool under the tutor law in PA and be free of the reporting and testing requirements. However, in recent years, they have made it mandatory for teachers including tutors to get Continuing Professional Education hours/credits. (I think it is the equivalent of 5 college credits every five years.) Of course, tutors who are not directly employed by the school district must pay for their own credits, so the "private tutor" homeschool option comes with its own hassles and expenses.
Helping with dinner goes under health (for nutrition)--that's how I list it on my IHIP. Reading out loud counts as literature study (because we have to teach English and reading separately. . .or list the separately on our IHIP rather) and brushing your teeth and/or taking a bath doesn't really count. ;-) Really, I don't count hours like that bc we're not required to count per subject. What I do is start about 45 minutes after we get up and all is calm. . .and go until 3 pm unless there are classes. Then I count from when we start until the end of class. Anything after that is just bonus! ;-)
I'm a substitute teacher. Not certified. I'm working towards my Masters in Theatre so I can teach college, but it only took a couple of education classes my freshman year of college to determine that I had no interest in making teaching k-12 my profession.
Sitting with your head down is character education! Talking to the neighbor is socialization (we wouldn't realize that right away bc you know, our kids don't get any) And throwing paper airplanes is totally a study in physics. :roll:
Yeah, see, that's what I'm getting at. Why can a public school use those hours considered school hours for standing in line, and the other things you mentioned. It just doesn't make sense to me. If they HONESTLY count it as school hours, why is it DISHONEST for us to count it as school hours??? Like I said, I don't have to count hours, but I'd like to know how they can justify making homeschoolers teach that whole time if they themselves do not?!!! Just curious I guess.
I should clarify that we have 900 hours per year. . .if you follow a school schedule, that works out to 6 hours per day. This is another reason we school year round--makes it easier to fulfill the requirements so that I can get away with 2 to 3 hours per day if need be. In the early days the twins were newborns and I needed to not be doing school all day.
That's why we count by the minute. HS Tracker Basic is GREAT for that. I put in how many minutes we spend on each assignment and it keeps a running total of hours spent per year. If I wasn't clear on the definition of an hour in MO, what I meant was that you can't spend 50 minutes on math and call it 1 hour. It's only 50 minutes. So the first 10 minutes of the next day's math lesson will be added to that to make 1 hour. I'm not required to teach a certain number of hours in each subject, just 600 hours overall for core classes (the 5 basics) plus the extra 400 hours (which can also be core class hours). But again, HS tracker helps me with that because I put each assignment under a subject heading broken down by the core classes (and our electives). So I just have to add those 5 numbers together to see where we are on our core classes.
