highschool

Homeschooling highschool

“I can’t teach a teenager”

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment

Can I really homeschool high school? I see this topic asked about, or commented on, over and over again on social media, or during one on one or group conversations. People think it is impossible to continue home education through high school and they need some other kind of diploma. People think it’s far too difficult to “teach” a teenager, or to provide them with “enough”. I have already graduated one child, who decided to go on to college, completed one semester, and did exceedingly well. He has a parent issued diploma and a parent made transcript. His college accepted his transcript with no issues and never asked for his diploma. I have currently a 16 year old in what public school would place her as 11th grade. I can only speak from my experience (but I do know there are many parents who graduated teenagers).

I hear this a lot, “I don’t have the patience” to educate my kids at home, or “I can’t get my child to do the work”. Also, I hear parents say their kid begs to go to public school and the parents either do it or consider it because they just keep butting heads with their child. They say their teenager refuses to get out of bed, complete work, doesn’t try, etc. Some seem to think people like myself that continue the journey must have some special skill or ability or never have those issues. I’m here to tell you, that is not so. My youngest began educating at home before she would be entering 5th grade in the public school system. She did not want to leave public school. The decision, however, was not hers, it was mine, I’m the parent. I decided what was in the best interest for my children, despite what a 5th grader thought. She came around pretty quick to the idea, but even if she hadn’t, she wasn’t going back to public school. So, do I have some special skill or ability to continue home education? No. Have my children always done what they were told? Absolutely not. Has school at home never been difficult to do? There are some difficult times. Have I never felt overwhelmed? Of course I have. Haven’t you considered putting them back into public school then? Not even once. That is the absolute truth. My reasons for taking them out of government school don’t change because I have a difficult time getting a child to complete work, or follow the directions or because my teenager gives me an attitude of anger, annoyance, or whatever else. For me personally I can’t imagine any scenario where I would put my child back into the government school system, willingly.

Continue reading →

What are Highschool Credits

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment

It’s the end of September already. My home education program for my remaining child has been in full swing for a month. That’s not to say she didn’t have learning happening prior to beginning her curriculum work, because going to the gym 3 days a week, working 4 days a week, and church/youth group 2 days a week all counts. That doesn’t even take in account the work she does at home. Segway into the topic I see come up frequently about how much time needs to be spent on school; what counts, is it enough?

There is a misconception that once they reach high school you have to change your approach, or you have to complete so many hours of work for it to “count”. I always direct people to the law text. There is absolutely no mention of that information that people are passing around in homeschooling groups.

You’ll find the law text below:

“(c)  A child who is enrolled in a home education program and whose education is therefore under the direct supervision of his parent, guardian or other person having legal custody shall be deemed to have met the requirements of section 1327 if that home education program provides a minimum of one hundred eighty (180) days of instruction or nine hundred (900) hours of instruction per year at the elementary level, or nine hundred ninety (990) hours per year at the secondary level:

(1)  At the elementary school level, the following courses shall be taught: English, to include spelling, reading and writing; arithmetic; science; geography; history of the United States and Pennsylvania; civics; safety education, including regular and continuous instruction in the dangers and prevention of fires; health and physiology; physical education; music; and art.

(2)  At the secondary school level, the following courses shall be taught: English, to include language, literature, speech and composition; science; geography; social studies, to include civics, world history, history of the United States and Pennsylvania; mathematics, to include general mathematics, algebra and geometry; art; music; physical education; health; and safety education, including regular and continuous instruction in the dangers and prevention of fires. Such courses of study may include, at the discretion of the supervisor of the home education program, economics; biology; chemistry; foreign languages; trigonometry; or other age-appropriate courses as contained in Chapter 5 (Curriculum Requirements) of the State Board of Education.

(d)  The following minimum courses in grades nine through twelve are established as a requirement for graduation in a home education program:

(1)  Four years of English.

(2)  Three years of mathematics.

(3)  Three years of science.

(4)  Three years of social studies.

(5)  Two years of arts and humanities.”

1949 Act 14 Section 1327.1 Home Education Program
Continue reading →

Free Forms

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment

If you haven’t checked out this entire blog, I wanted to direct you to a few resources contained here. I have a link to free forms that you can, and should use for your homeschool record keeping. You can take a look and use them or get an idea of how to create your own. I have not only renamed this area but I have updated all the forms I created. There you can find a free transcript, affidavit, evaluation letters, reading materials log, an attendance record (not required), and a simple report card if you choose to use one (if I use one it’s sole purpose is for keeping a record in their academic record). I have also included forms from other places (of which many I can’t recall from where or I’d link the source) for your generic objectives that are required to be included with your affidavit and alternate affidavit, as well as the PDE diploma and immunization record (if you wish to use it). Your 12th grade evaluator needs to sign the PDE diploma. The Pennsylvania Department of Education has approved this diploma to be the “acceptable” parent-issued diploma. My suggestion is to print it, get it signed and in the event a college or some other entity requires a copy of their diploma you’ll have it. This does not mean you can’t make and issue your own and provide your graduate with that one for them to keep, but they should keep the PDE one as well.

Below are screenshots of some of the items mentioned. Visit the Free Forms page to download them.

Below is what the home education law states about the diploma:

(d.1) (1) Notwithstanding any provision of this act or any other law or regulation to the contrary, a high school diploma awarded by a supervisor or an approved diploma-granting organization shall be considered as having all the rights and privileges afforded by the Commonwealth, a Commonwealth agency, including, but not limited to, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, a political subdivision, a local agency and an authority or instrumentality of the Commonwealth or a political subdivision to a high school diploma awarded under this act, subject to subparagraphs (i) and (ii): (i) In the case of a diploma awarded by a supervisor the following shall apply: (A) The student receiving the diploma shall have completed all
the requirements in subsection (d) while enrolled in a home education program that is in compliance with this section. (B) The diploma shall be awarded to the student on a standardized form to be developed by the department and which shall be made available on the department’s publicly accessible Internet website. (C) The diploma shall be signed by the student’s twelfth grade evaluator in confirmation of the student’s suitability for graduation. (ii) In the case of a diploma awarded by an approved diploma granting organization the following shall apply: (A) The student receiving the diploma shall have completed all
the requirements in subsection (d) while enrolled in a home education program that is in compliance with this section. (B) The diploma shall be awarded to the student on a standardized form to be developed by the organization. (2) The department shall establish eligibility criteria and an application process for approving diploma-granting organizations to award high school diplomas to students enrolled in home education programs. The department shall maintain a list of approved diploma-granting organizations and post the list on the department’s publicly accessible Internet website.

Home Education Law Text

You can do a search on topics such as curriculum, transcripts, reviews, portfolio, etc and find articles I’ve written since I began the blog in 2017. Please always make sure to follow the latest article for the most up to date information. There is a drop down list for you to select months/years of articles made as well as a tag block for you to click directly onto the topic of interest. Keep in mind that the blog may look different on different devices. You can always view the blog on your browser in desktop mode. I will be working on making the blog easier to navigate so keep an eye out for those changes. I plan to keep the blog current for as long as I have a child that I am homeschooling in the state of Pennsylvania. After that time remains to be seen. Rest assured though that I still have one remaining teenager with 2 more years highschool to go, so updates will continue, Lord willing. Everything I offer here is free to use, however as I am the content creator of the articles, I do retain the copyright to the articles I post. Please do share with others anything you find helpful but always supply the link to this blog. I receive no compensation for the information I have shared. My blog is only to help others navigate home education in the state of PA and perhaps my reviews can be helpful for anyone. Please do check out the other resources I have supplied for you in the Resources section of this blog.

9th and 11th Curriculum

/ Holly Stoner

Today I am going to attempt to give an update on how 9th and 11th grade is going in what is now our 5th year of homeschooling in Pennsylvania. My last post I gave my first impressions on our choices in curriculum. It’s been almost 2 weeks now using the courses. We cracked open the books on August 30, 2021. So far, so good. This is our first year not using anything from Master Books. I have nothing against the publisher. I really like Master Books, but they just didn’t have what my children were interested in doing this year or that I felt needed to be done this year to work on completing our course requirements set forth in by the PA homeschool law. As per my last post, we are using a writing and grammar course from Bob Jones Press, a Geography and culture course from Bob Jones, Marine Biology from Apologia, and CTC Math for Algebra 1 and 2. Those are the core subjects. Electives are Bible (which is required in my homeschool), Computer Programming (for my son), Home Ec (for my daughter), PE, and they are doing a literature book study (1 to start with) and possibly Art again. I do not use formal curriculum for PE or Art (though I have for Art).

Continue reading →

Homestretch…

/ Holly Stoner

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 reading →