Friday, May 1, 2009

Can Someone Tell Me. . . Why?

In reading over the county superintendent's acception letter for our homeschool I noticed that it said that we have to commit to 180 days of instruction at about 5 hours per day.

Okay, no problem. I agreed to that.

BUT. . .

Why is it fair that I start at the same time as the local public school, and I have to instruct more?

In looking over the public school calendar and my school calendar, I see several problems with this.

First problem: There are only 178 days on our local school calendar.

Problem #2: There are MANY 2 hour early dismissal and 2 hour school delay days.

Problem #3: There are 5 calamity days that do not have to be made up for acclimate weather.

Problem #4: Students are allowed to miss five days per grading term. That's 20 days a year that they are allowed to miss without being considered truant.

So, do the math, a public school student may only be receiving educational instruction for 153 days a year vs. the 180 days a year that I, as a homeschool instructor am committed to.

Now, I plan on schooling all year round, and as you can see, I even school on the weekends (mostly interest based), but it still seems like the state standards should be the same whether public, private, or homeschool.

What do you think? Do you summer school? What do your days look like?

3 comments:

AF Wife99 said...

Calina, Thanks for stopping by my blog and letting me know about your chore arrangement. It sounds like your girls are a little older than mine, 7 and 5. I will be interested to try anything that will work. Unfortunately, I didn't really have chore responsibilities while I was growing up, and now housework is really really _really_ low on my list!

Jennifer said...

Well, another problem I have (we are both in OH I think) is that I am required to teach things like art, music, foreign language PE and such all year. The schools don't teach those things all year and don't start foreign language until high school, but I have to teach it regardless of the level.

Calina said...

Jennifer-
I so agree with you! And don't forget fire safety! I would probably teach "specials" whether it was required or not. She enjoys art, music, outside playtime (PE)and that, so I use them as rewards for getting her schoolwork done.