The 2020/2021 school year is over for my teens, but it has been since May 11, 2021. That brings grade 8 and 10 to a close. I will be starting the 2021/2022 school year with a 9th and 11th grade teenager. It’s hard to believe that my oldest has just 2 years left of school. Because I’ve loosely planned out both of their 4 year highschool years I knew for the most part what area they would study in which grades. Choosing the actual curriculum is always a challenge though. However, I’m well on my way to completing the purchasing of their course of studies. Each year is different and this year is going to be very different as we use a publisher we’ve never used previously and sadly won’t be using one of our go-to mainstays. If you search through my previous posts you will find what texts we’ve used in the different grades and some reviews of them. Sometimes the curriculum just doesn’t work and other times it’s wonderful, but then also sometimes the curriculum is great, and my kids love it, but it’s not challenging enough for me as the parent supervisor, and so I am often then trying to add to the course. There is nothing at all wrong with doing that, and you should if something just isn’t getting deep enough. My kids are teenagers and I expect more from them than I did when there were in the elementary years. That being said, I am not focused on making it so overwhelming that they hate it. Unhappy kids don’t learn well. Overwhelmed kids also don’t learn well. On the flip side, you also don’t want them to not be challenged at all, especially if their future plans include furthering their education at, for example, college. So we had our state law required evaluation on June 3rd. That following week I got my affidavit notarized and mailed 5 pieces of paper to the school district. Those would be, my notarized affidavit for 2021-2022, 2 evaluation forms (for 2 kids), and 2 sets of secondary academic objectives. That same week I got my return receipt that the school got my packet. I don’t expect to hear from them, but they do send out confirmation letters eventually. If you are new to my blog, or to homeschooling in Pennsylvania, please see the resources link to find a link to the PA Homeschool Law and be sure to follow it, and ONLY it. Don’t give more than the law requires no matter who tells you to do it. We follow the law and the districts need to also. Evaluation letters are due by June 30th and your affidavit/objectives by August 1st. If you’re a new homeschooler you only need to file your affidavit prior to beginning homeschooling and then August 1st every year after.
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Living as a Christian
Homestretch…
The 2020-2021 school year is almost complete. We officially have just one day left to meet the required 180 days. We probably won’t be done until next week though. It’s been another interesting year. I would have liked things to go a bit different than they did, but we did the best we could, in the world in which we live. There were no field trips. They have been involved in church and youth group weekly. There have been other social events, but no trips other than one to a nearby arcade complete with mini bowling. Hey, that’s problem solving skills right there. Now that we are wrapping up its time to get prepared for evaluation. If you missed my post on that, you can see it here. Please do read it, especially if you are new to homeschooling in Pennsylvania. I see so many questions about this online. The law is clearly written. Follow what it says and you are good. Don’t add to it and don’t take away from it. Remember that you signed a legally binding document (the affidavit) before you began your homeschool program. That document isn’t just a formality in PA. It’s a legal document and if you are suspected and found guilty of not abiding by what you attested to in that document, you broke the law and there will be consequences. Not to harp on this topic, but as an example, as I said in that post, you are not required by law to show your evaluator any “proof” of completing your required “time”, as in, days or hours. You already attested to that in your legal document. No other form of “proof” is proof at all and is just a matter of trust, however, you signed a legal document stating you would provide education to your children for the required amount of time. If you don’t, you broke the law. I see nothing in the law that states an evaluator gets to determine if you did that by showing them any sort of paper with checked off boxes. Keep track of days/hours for your own records. Likewise, they don’t get to determine if you provided health services or if you in fact hold a highschool diploma. These are things you attest to in your legal document.
Moving on.
Continue readingA different end this year…
I pray all my visitor’s / returning readers are doing well. It’s been a very long four months. I hope you are all holding up well through this interesting time of events, we possibly never thought we’d see in our lifetime. My last post was in January before any of this pandemic stuff began. Back then my biggest issue was changing math programs for my 9th grader. I wanted to post today with an update to my homeschool situation and add, I hope, some encouragement to all the new families partaking on this adventure.
As a reminder, I decided to homeschool when my children were starting 5th and 7th grades. You can find my journey throughout this blog and I encourage you to read through my posts as they may help you. I currently homeschool in the state of Pennsylvania in the United States. I’ve lived in this beautiful state my entire life. I am a private Christian school graduate. My children just completed, in May, 7th and 9th grades in our 3rd year of homeschool. We are now entering our 4th year, so long as this continues to be with the Lord’s blessing.
Continue readingA time of thanksgiving…
” Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. ” – James 1:17
It’s one week until Thanksgiving and I thought I’d try writing another post. This time of year always seems to be so hectic, so full of busyness. The big gathering of family and friends around piles of food has been a tradition in my home since I was a child. Each year my Mom’s family would come to our house and we’d set up long tables that stretched through our living and dining rooms. There was always so much food and so many desserts but the best part was seeing people you didn’t get to see very often. When my parents split up, these gatherings ceased. I remember there were attempts to continue in other family members homes. We all grew older, and moved on and got busy or had our own families after that.
I’m not sure how many years I’ve been hosting my family in my home, but for at least as long I have lived there, so about 18 years. Typing that just now was like, wow, 18 years! My table wasn’t as full as the tables back when I was a child. It would be my parents, my grandmother, my siblings, our partners and later our children. I never take these moments with my family for granted. These are precious memories being made. Over the years things tend to change. People move away, or they swap holidays between 2 families or even pass away and your guest list gets smaller. This year my table will be full of familiar faces and I know good times will be had and bellies will be full.
Continue readingOn teaching science…
I want to talk about why we need to avoid secular science textbooks. I’ve talked about worldview before but this topic came up again and this time it was at my church. How important is a Christian worldview when we are picking curriculum or educating our children; whether that’s in a homeschool environment or a Christian school? I can’t mention secular public schools cyber, or even alternate charter schools because most, if not all, are not teaching a Christian worldview at all. Let me give you a background here. After our church service was done there was a presentation about the localish (not entirely local to my area but the only non-Catholic Christian school option) Christian school. During the presentation it was mentioned how the school uses, for example, secular science books to teach their students about science in order to teach them the difference between worldviews. The idea here is that the teacher’s would be adding in Biblical principles as they come up. This is absolutely backwards if you want my opinion and if you don’t, than stop reading right now. It is far more appropriate to teach from a Christian worldview and include the secular ideas for comparison in order to equip your child for the world. I suspect one reason they choose to teach from a secular science book is solely based on college prep because if you do not intend on going to a Christian college and you are pursuing a career in the sciences you will be learning secular science which includes evolutionary theory presented as fact.
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