Homeschool

All my posts about homeschooling are here which includes how I homeschooled, what curriculum we used, how to graduate your home educated child, and how to read the Pennsylvania education law.

Home Education Encouragement

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment

Just a little post today to encourage anyone on the fence about their ability to home educate their child or whether or not is doing so-called, “enough”. If you doubt your child will be successful, please do not. If you hear people tell you that your child won’t be able to get into college, please do not listen. If others tell you that you’re child will be too sheltered and not be able to make it in society, tune them out. The proof is in the pudding as they say.

A home educated child has just as much opportunity as a public or private schooled student. My now 21 year old who was educated at home by me, a mom who never went to college and graduated from a private Christian school in 1995, not only went to college but is nearly completed now with almost a 4.0 GPA. He is motivated and studies hard and also maintains a part time job. He does still live at home but his life may soon change.

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Graduation 2025

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment

Last month (May) my last child completed her home education and had her final law required evaluation. This has been a case of mixed emotions for me. I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to facilitate education of my children at home using the materials we wanted to use and what they wanted to study. I’ve enjoyed the freedom we had to shape our days any way we wanted and allowed them to explore topics they were interested in, all the while checking off the requirements in the law text. I got to watch my children grow and teach them my values and from our Christian worldview. I never minded the sacrifice of my time or money to do it. It was way beyond worth it to keep them out of the public school system. My children never suffered academically or socially. But now that chapter is over, so what’s next for this former homeschool mom? I just don’t know. Not yet. I wish in some respects that I was qualified to be an evaluator for other home educating families, but I wouldn’t meet the law requirements. I want to keep the resources here on my blog for however long they are relevant for anyone needing help or forms to print out. But, I also want to transition my blog into something more relevant to where I’m at right now. I have other blogs floating around the internet that I just am not going to resurrect and not ready to let this one go. For now, nothing is going to change but posts may cease until I decide on a direction to go.

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Future of the Blog

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment

Just a quick note today to say that I have some ideas for the future of this blog. I don’t necessarily want to remove the important information contained here for anyone looking to homeschool in Pennsylvania (USA), or remove the free documents you can use to comply with the law, but I will no longer be homeschooling after May of this year (2025). My last child is graduating. I will probably not keep up to date with future changes to the home education law, but if I do, I will try to report them to you. The name of my blog is probably going to change and I will likely move homeschool related topics to a different section of the blog. I will most likely remove any posts that don’t relate to staying in compliance with the home education law or don’t contain advice/tips, for example, on preparing a transcript. Reviews of curriculum will probably be removed as curriculum gets updated from the publishers. If I can not keep the information current, than other articles are likely to be removed. I will be starting a new chapter as my time of being a homeschool mom ends. I’ll be waiting on the Lord to know what that is. For now, please read, and share, and use the resources I’ve provided to you for free. Keep in mind nothing in this blog is legal advice and is of my own opinion from my own experience and extensive research into the topics I cover. Download the free documents I’ve provided and feel free to share them on your blog or with others you know. As long as this blog stays up, crediting me is appreciated.

The final year

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment

After 7 years of homeschooling my children I am down to my last 7 months and my remaining child will be finished with her 8th school year at home and officially graduated. She began learning at home at the beginning of her 5th grade school year while her brother began at the beginning of his 7th grade school year and has been attending college since last fall. It’s a strange place to be in and if you’re a veteran home education parent you probably understand. This has been a journey and its been wonderful. There is some relief in being done as well as…what now? I’m excited and maybe a bit sad at the same time. Even brick and mortar school parents feel this way, except my job for 7 years has been that of home educator, supervisor, instructor, counselor, administrator, etc. My job is ending. My children aren’t leaving the nest yet, and that will be a whole other experience. My son attends a somewhat local school so he’s able to live at home to help him save money. My daughter is still undecided what she wants to do post graduation, and that’s okay. Right now she is thinking of working for now and decide on school or whatever later and not rush in to anything. Even her brother ended up changing his mind in college by changing his major (completely normal).

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True or False

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment
Homeschool Logo

I’ve made many posts at this point on what is required to educate your children at home in the state of Pennsylvania according to the law passed by the PA General Assembly and signed by Gov. Casey in 1988 (Act 169-1988) with is various changes through the years (2014, 2019, and 2023). Unfortunately, there are still a number of people who refuse to actually read the law and instead just keep passing false information around to other parents. I recently covered many of the questions I see from new parents with factual answers, but today I want to address a bit more. I am following a number of state homeschool groups and the number of times I see the same questions is staggering. What’s worse are the wrong answers. Without further ado: (remember these are in ADDITION to questions I already answered for you)

True or False :

  • Someone told me that you must complete 80% of curriculum in order for it to count or for your year to be complete. FALSE I don’t know where this person got this information but it’s incorrect. The law never mentions curriculum. Curriculum isn’t required to homeschool. Curriculum usually is referring to text books and text books are not required. There are required courses to complete within grade levels, but how you accomplish that is up to you. I don’t understand this term of “counts” in the first place. If your child learned something, would that not “count”? Stop thinking like a public school. Your year is complete when you have completed the required number of days or hours if you choose to count those instead, it doesn’t matter how much workbook or textbook work you did.
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