Hi all, it has been a looooong time since I've been here. My sis (Jennifer in S.C.) suggested I throw this question out to ya'll, because she knows that there are some from the PA area on here. We will be retiring from my husbands current job :shock: in Feb. 09 and we are trying to make some decisions of where to go from here (Upstate N.Y.). No, we aren't really retiring from life in general, just from the Air Force. Wellllll, part of my dh's desicion for a job is based on what will work for our son also. We don't particularly want to stay where we are (waaaaaay too expensive), but at the same time for the benefit of us in the situation we are in, staying in this "general" area may end up being a possibility until our son (he is 15) is "out of the nest". My dh would love to work with the VA (hospital, or something along those lines) and we see that there are several in the PA area. Sooooo, long story short, I was hoping to get some input on the regs and ideas as to how homeschooling "friendly", etc., they are. I know that it sounds realllllly frightening on paper to homeschool in this state, but in actuality it has not been that bad. I read that in the High School level only a certified teacher or pshychologist can test at the end of yr.???? What???? Also, do you seriously have to log every single thing you do every day, and submit it? I thought this state was tough, yikes!!!! This is just a general question at the moment, because like I said, things are still in the "works" for us, but I figure it can't hurt to get an idea of what we would be in for if it does come down to us moving to that area. Thanks so much!!!! Beth
You can go to www.hslda.org. They have all the information you will need to homeschool legally. Patty
The restrictions PA imposes on it's HSers are the one and only reason that I'm not moving home to Pittsburgh until after my children have graduated. They are strict. SUPER strict. And, imo, oppressive. Now, anyone who wants to HS in the state will find ways to cope with the restrictions. So it's doable, for sure.
Yep, that. :lol: Texas has a pretty low cost of living, and practically no homeschooling regulations whatsoever. *shameless promo*
I have no idea about PA, but Oklahoma is super easy for homeschooling! Good luck with whatever you decide. We will be done with the Air Force in 2009, too! Yippee!!!
Wow, crazy regs!!! I looked it up on the suggested site!!! WHAT?????!!!! Never will I gripe about this place again. I'm still (trying to find the right word!!) :shock: over the whole "testing must be done by a certified teacher or psychologist" side. Are the ps kiddos being tested by "certain qualified people" also, or is there some sort of slanted slam on the fact that maybe because our kiddos are homeschooled they need to also be evaluated psychologically. O.k., maybe I'm reading into that one too deep, but it really offends ME!!!! The reason we are even homeschooling here is because my son was diagnosed with PTSD at the school we enrolled him into after first arriving here, based on the issues of the move and the trauma he was dealing with after being personally involved in the Pentagon side of 9/11. Their way of "dealing" with our son was, "well, we don't have the means of helping him through this, so just take him home and teach him there, oh, and so sorry for your pain, and good luck." Our son was in a private school in Virginia until we got here. It has been five yrs. and no looking back. He is thriving in this setting, and we really want to be able to continue to help him to do so. So, we really don't want to have to "start over" in an area that has such ridiculous regs that we just put him (and ourselves) through trauma that is unjust and unfair, basically, we've been there, done that. I showed the regs to my dh and he just stood quiet for a moment. He then said that it sounds like something from another country, and that maybe it will not be for us. Duh, dear!!!! Sooooo, I'm thankful for the input so far, keep it coming, just in case it is better than it sounds....... Thanks so far all............. Beth
Wow, are you as nervous as I am??? It just does not seem possible that we are almost at the end. I will dearly miss it, yet, in some ways, the road has gotten a little long. I guess it is just time for a new path.....:cry: Beth
You don't have to share if it's too personal, but I am curious as to what happened??? Boy, how far-reaching that 9/11 was!
Oh boy, ask my sis, nothing is too personal to me, I love to gab. Just kiddding. No, I really don't mind talking about it, we are of the phiosophy that talking is a good healer, but the people up here looked at us as if we were from Mars when we told them our experience. For us it was not far-reaching it was almost literally in my front yard......... We lived on a base in DC at the time, the Pentagon was two blocks and a 2 second boat ride away from my front door. It was a little over a mile from the school my son was attending. My husband was supposed to be in the building that day. By the grace of God he wasn't, yet I found out recently that the guilt has hugged him that he was not, he thinks if he had been there maybe he could have done more to help. We personally lost friends and neighbors in that building. Our base housing had a lot of people that worked not only on our base but in that specific building. My son had to go through the smoke (I'm sure you can imagine what it smelled like) at the end of the day to get home to me. Thank God he did, there were rumors that our base would be in lockdown for up to two weeks. Meaning that I could not get my babe for that long if it happened. When the wall of the building fell that morning, we thought that downtown D.C. had been "hit", that we would not see our children for a month, my son was so close it knocked him down in his school hallway. They replaced our riverwalk with surface to air missiles. The playgrounds were bunkers. Our children walked to the bus stop with armed guards driving by with weapons "locked and loaded". They thought it was "cool", us moms thought it was hell. We chose a "special duty" assignment the following summer hoping to give our child a better situation. They had put up guard towers and our children were playing in the bunkers, "playing war". We just felt that it was not a good life for our son, we lived in chronic fear!! We arrived in this area thinking that the good country people would be helpful. Someone forgot to tell us that a good share of Ithaca, N.Y. is verrrrry anti-military and that my husband to this day cannot wear his uniform to work for fear of the crude/possibly physical consequences. I don't mean to say they are all this way, it is less now, people are finding a new thing to protest besides war. Needless to say, my dh was told not to wear his uniform to drop off my son to school when we first arrived. The teacher (in front of my son) told the whole class (fourth graders) not to talk to Thomas about where we were from because it might "scare them". Gosh, the list goes on and on...... By the third week the principal said to take our child home if he could not conform to their ways. Are you kidding? We requested for him to skip a grade they were way behind up here scholastically. We requested for our child to talk freely, it was a healing tool. Granted we talked to him about how some things were not appropriate to tell, some things WERE too scary for them to hear. God forbid my son had witnessed it!!! They treated him like HE had committed a crime, not that he was a victim. My son became afraid to go to their school, because he assumed that if they did not understand 9/11, then how would they protect him like they did in D.C. if we were to get "hit here". We have homeschooled since. It still hurts, it still bleeds for us. We have come a long way, but that to us was almost as painful as the actuall day of 9/11. We came here for healing, and instead were cut deeper. Ironically it was not the kids, it was the adults. I do believe fear is a much greater weapon than other things sometimes. Just writing this makes my hands shake and my heart crack a little. Some day I will sit down and write out the whole story, the longest day of my life. A beautiful and sweet southern friend of mine stood in the middle of our street (they told us to go there, it would be safer in case another attack were to happen) that day and said to me, "honey, I do believe that someone forgot to close one of the gates of hell, and a little piece of it has leaked on up in here". That, hon, summed it up. I don't hate these people here for their ignorance, but frankly, the damage they did to my son's soul was further reaching than some fanatical fools who bombed our front yard.:cry: We quite frankly still live in fear, wondering when the next one will come, will these people know what to do, yet, who would want to bomb an area that has more cows than people!! I hope to some day find the right place for us, a place of healing, a place of forgiveness..... Until then, we do our best, I teach my son all the goodness I can find. Yet, we do not lie to him, his daddy is a soldier, we can't make guarantees. This will be a looooong year for us until he retires, and we will use it to try to find the best place for us to live when we are done here. The best for our son and his future..... Well, that is it in a nutshell hon, are you sorry you asked? Yup, maybe I will right a book some day, when this is "easy" to talk about, and my hands don't shake. For now I put it in a pretty box and tuck it away on a shelf in my mental files, I don't want to be bitter and angry at these people here. Well, I wouldn't mind taking them by the shoulders and shaking them a little!!!!! I'm glad I asked though, it does not sound like PA is the place for us, we do NOT want to relive our first experience here....... Beth
Beth, that was close, I am so sorry to hear all the troubles you and your family had to go through. I know Sommer is from PA and when she gets on maybe she can tell you some of the laws there.
No, Beth, I am NOT sorry I asked! It MAY be a good part of the healing process to write that book! That's a good title too (The Longest Day of My Life), if it's not already taken! I guess one GOOD thing that came from it is that you have your ds home with you, and have a good relationship with him! I hope all of you can deal with the PTSD! That's tough, it seems that all of you have it to a certain degree! There are probably hundreds, amybe thousands, of people dealing with those same issues! Have you tried to find some support group? Maybe they don't have any near where you are now? We live in a Navy town, and there are people here that deal with PTSD from wars and the terrible things they've been a part of or witnessed! Look up info. on the HSLDA site! There are many states that are homeschool friendly, and much easier to deal with, it sounds like, than PA! (You've already heard from Texas and Oklahoma, and I'll throw Washington State in there as well! ) You should come here more often! We'll support you and your dh and ds! (((((HUGS!)))))
I can honestly give a thumbs up to Missouri, as well. Especially SW Missouri. There are literally hundreds of home school organizations around here. We have a whole organized home school sports team (well, lots of teams. Basketball, baseball, football, soccer, volleyball, etc.). We do have to log hours, but the gov't never checks those logs unless there is a problem. And we have no mandatory testing. There are other great states in this country for home schoolers. Look into them all. lol.
Our laws are not that bad.. they are just there to make sure we are actually teaching our kids. Yes they seem horrid at first, but honestly they are very easy to deal with. www.askpauline.com is great!
Okay, I can't see for the tears!!! Man, that was a rough day for us! We (Beth and I) lucked out and were able to maintain phone contact most of that morning and it was horrible to be here and know that I wasn't there with her. Anyway!! Sommer was the main one I was thinking of. I think Krista's babies are to young to matter yet but Sommer has a son a little older (aka Crazy Mama).
I so wish my brain would work right now.. I have so much I could share.. but right now it's just not happening. Anyway.. the laws are scarey when you read the law itself.. and also it is very hard to understand. You need to go somewhere where it is broken down to understand it. It isn't that hard to homeschool here.. I promise it isn't! ask pauline is great in making the laws make sense. I think the law was written by someone who wanted to scare us into sending our kids to the public school system, but it is very easy to work with if you understand it from a homeschoolers perspective. ETA... I will come back and share a bunch of links when my brain is working better... we are trying a new thing here.. getting up and doing school at 6, so we are done before the little ones get up.. it didnt' go so well, as the little ones heard us and were up too.. now they are tired and cranky and I'm tired and cranky right along with them..lol
O.k. sis, now cut it out, you are gonna make me fall out ballin' if you don't. Yup, my sis would definitely be a whooooole chapter of that book, she was a lifeline that I can never figure out. See, our phones were down, and I mean DOWN, but for some freaky (we know who was working overtime THAT day) reason, Jennifer and I were able to get through to each other for most of the day. I can still hear her saying to me, "you wiiiiilllll get through this, your baby will make it home!!!" Oh yeah, is there such a thing as guardian phone angels? Thanks sis, we love ya!! Beth
ETA... I will come back and share a bunch of links when my brain is working better... we are trying a new thing here.. getting up and doing school at 6, so we are done before the little ones get up.. it didnt' go so well, as the little ones heard us and were up too.. now they are tired and cranky and I'm tired and cranky right along with them..lol[/QUOTE] I did not read 6, like as in a.m.!!!???? Wow, good luck, I don't think the cows are even up that time of the morning here!!!! Coffee alert!!! I would love to have some links when you can get them to me. Like I said, we are just trying to throw out ideas right now, but all of the input we can get would be wonderful!!!! Yup, they make the regs sound terrifying here, yet when it comes down to it, they are really simplistic. So, go get some coffee (or a nap), and thanks ahead of time for any input!! Beth
You are in NY right? I think your laws are actually harsher than our laws.. for some reason I think someone told me that at one point. Yes.. we got up at 6.. usually I get up with hubby and send him off to work either at 4 or 5:30 am.. and then I go back to bed till the little ones get me up at 8 or so, but Garrett has ADHD and the kids really make it hard for him to concentrate, so we figured we would try this to get our work done when it was quiet in the house... haha.. yeah right! We will try it again tomarrow and see what happens.
Sommer, We managed to do that last year, and it worked well! And I know Jackie still does that. It takes some adjustment time! You can't go by only one or two days! I think it's a great idea, and could work if you give it time! It certainly would help relieve some stress, eh? You'll have to get to bed earlier, maybe.
