Re: Re: How do I homeschool in PA?

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Posted by Christine S. on 1/31/2010:

In Reply to: Re: How do I homeschool in PA? posted by felicia on January 26 2010 at 21:51:46:

Public cyber charter schools are not the same thing as home education in the state of PA. Public cyber charter schools are basically public school, but online. The school, using taxpayer money, provides the curriculum, the computer, the teachers, even the schedule (some have a more strict schedule than others), etc. However, what you give up in that scenario is autonomy. I happen to work as a teacher for a cyber charter school, but my high school aged child is still home schooled. We like being able to choose our own curriculum, to choose our own schedule, to choose our own courses, etc. And, any public school in PA, whether brick-and-mortar or cyber, is going to be focused on the PSSAs (state-mandated standaridized tests) because so much is riding on the results of those tests.

The required testing schedule is quite different for home schooled students than for public and private school students, and not nearly as much is riding on the results. I did not want the focus on standardized testing to be such a huge part of my child´s education. So, we opted to continue home education, even after I began working for the cyber charter school.

There are several cyber charter schools in PA and somewhere on this website is a list of them. If you choose one (and it´s not too late to sign up for several of them), then the educational decisions will be made by someone else and your child will be a public school student who is being educated in your home.

If you choose to home school, there are laws you must follow. You will also need to buy your supplies, choose curriculum, etc. By law, you can have access to books from the local school. That´s just not an option that I ever chose in 11 years of home education. There are all sorts of quality curriculum available to help you. You will find that there are a variety of ways to home educate in PA. Some people use co-ops or learning cooperatives (pooling money to hire skilled teachers). Some people do it entirely on their own. Some are "classical educators". Some are unschoolers. Some bring a public-school-like setting into their homes. Some use a Charlotte Mason approach. I tend to take an eclectic approach as do many other people that I know.

You might find that going back to some of the older posts here might yield more valuable information for you as you make this decision.

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The Great Paper Chase
Cassandra Frear, 1/29/2010

"Our two greatest problems are gravity and paper work. We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paper work is overwhelming."

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quoted from Time Management for Unmanageable People

Where is the school room in your house? Are you happy with it? Does it work well for all of the things you and your children do? Does it tend to be messy? Can you find things when you want them?

If you are like us and most of our friends, homeschooling is messy. We had a grandmother who would stop by for visits and poke her head into our school room....