Can homeschoolers still participate in public school activities?

[Raineyrocks]

Well, she won't be in the school, but all their bureaucratic papers will still exist. They can make it a hassle for her to continue on trombone, but you're paying for the school whether you use it or not.

Dawn or my wife would know more, but the private agency is the organization that is "certifying" your homeschooling. We use Tri-City Christian Academy, which is a wonderful organization, if you don't mind the religious background. (If you're calling HSLDA, I assume you don't.  )Here is a list of orgs:

http://www.nhhomeschooling.org/nonpubschool.htm

Hi Toowm,   

I checked out the website but it looks like it's a school that the kids have to attend, am I right?  I just want an agency that I can send the letter of intent to because I have my own curriculum for the kids.  Do you have any link like that?

You totally do your own thing when you file with TCA. They are just the keeper of your paperwork. Call and ask them to tell you how to use them as a participating agency. They'll hook you up with the contact person, Deborah Mears. And you do not need to promise anything on the religious front to use them, you just need to send them the proper paperwork at the proper time and you're all set.

Dawn, I did talk with Deborah Mears today she's very nice.  What I don't understand though is what papers will they be keeping, the letter of intent?  She said that Tri-City doesn't administer the testing at the end of the year but she can put me in contact with people that do but I think I want to do the portfolio option so do you know of anyone in the Campton area that does that?  I didn't find anyone close by on the website.  Does that mean that Tri-City receives the portfolio results instead of the superintendent?

Also when I mailed the letter of intent today I did it returned, registered receipt so that I have proof of the date I sent it because we've decided to pull her out of school tomorrow instead of Monday.  So Friday my husband is going to take the letter of withdrawal to the school, so does it sound like we're following New Hampshire's homeschool laws?  I don't have to wait until Tri-City receives the letter of intent to take her out of school, do I?

Sorry for all of the questions I just want to make sure we are doing it correctly.

[dawn]

I think you're supposed to submit curriculum the first time you homeschool in NH, then you don't have to again.

No, no, no! You NEVER have to submit your curriculum.

And I am so not into that other thing you teased me about! For those of you who don't know the story, please don't feel left out, but rest assured I am a one man woman.

[dawn]

Dawn, I did talk with Deborah Mears today she's very nice.  What I don't understand though is what papers will they be keeping, the letter of intent?  She said that Tri-City doesn't administer the testing at the end of the year but she can put me in contact with people that do but I think I want to do the portfolio option so do you know of anyone in the Campton area that does that?  I didn't find anyone close by on the website.  Does that mean that Tri-City receives the portfolio results instead of the superintendent?

Also when I mailed the letter of intent today I did it returned, registered receipt so that I have proof of the date I sent it because we've decided to pull her out of school tomorrow instead of Monday.  So Friday my husband is going to take the letter of withdrawal to the school, so does it sound like we're following New Hampshire's homeschool laws?  I don't have to wait until Tri-City receives the letter of intent to take her out of school, do I?

Sorry for all of the questions I just want to make sure we are doing it correctly.

No problem with questions on one of my favorite topics. Always glad to help.

Deborah Mears will keep a file of your letter of intent and your evaluation results. They have nothing to do with the administration of anything, just keeping the records that you provide them with. They also make sure that what you give them meets the letter of the law.

There are options for the end of year evaluation. You can do a portfolio review - I don't know anyone to suggest but I do suggest that you join some homeschool lists and post your question there to numerous homeschoolers. And get involved with a local homeschooling group to network on these ideas as well.

Or you can do testing. We do the CAT test with I buy through Seton Testing and administer ourselves at the kitchen table. You send it in, they grade it and then you send the results to Tri-City for your daughter's file.

When you file with a private school, you do not need to have any dealings with the local superintendent.

You DO NOT need to wait until Tri-City gets and acknowledges your letter of intent. You have 30 days within date of withdrawal to file your letter. Better to do it sooner rather than later, but sometimes you need to figure out who you are going to use, etc. so there is a grace period of sorts.

It looks to me like you're on the right track. But I still suggest that you double check the laws yourself to make sure you're in compliance.

Best of luck. And most importantly, have fun!

You may have heard about decompression time for kids leaving the public school? Since she hasn't been in too long, it probably won't be too bad, but she may need some time to readjust to doing things on her own schedule instead of the schools. So, have some fun, read some good books, go on a field trip or two, that kind of stuff.

[Rosie the Riveter]

We use Seton testing and the CAT test too -- It is quick and painless.

[Raineyrocks]

Dawn, I did talk with Deborah Mears today she's very nice.  What I don't understand though is what papers will they be keeping, the letter of intent?  She said that Tri-City doesn't administer the testing at the end of the year but she can put me in contact with people that do but I think I want to do the portfolio option so do you know of anyone in the Campton area that does that?  I didn't find anyone close by on the website.  Does that mean that Tri-City receives the portfolio results instead of the superintendent?

Also when I mailed the letter of intent today I did it returned, registered receipt so that I have proof of the date I sent it because we've decided to pull her out of school tomorrow instead of Monday.  So Friday my husband is going to take the letter of withdrawal to the school, so does it sound like we're following New Hampshire's homeschool laws?  I don't have to wait until Tri-City receives the letter of intent to take her out of school, do I?

Sorry for all of the questions I just want to make sure we are doing it correctly.

No problem with questions on one of my favorite topics. Always glad to help.

Deborah Mears will keep a file of your letter of intent and your evaluation results. They have nothing to do with the administration of anything, just keeping the records that you provide them with. They also make sure that what you give them meets the letter of the law.

There are options for the end of year evaluation. You can do a portfolio review - I don't know anyone to suggest but I do suggest that you join some homeschool lists and post your question there to numerous homeschoolers. And get involved with a local homeschooling group to network on these ideas as well.

Or you can do testing. We do the CAT test with I buy through Seton Testing and administer ourselves at the kitchen table. You send it in, they grade it and then you send the results to Tri-City for your daughter's file.

When you file with a private school, you do not need to have any dealings with the local superintendent.

You DO NOT need to wait until Tri-City gets and acknowledges your letter of intent. You have 30 days within date of withdrawal to file your letter. Better to do it sooner rather than later, but sometimes you need to figure out who you are going to use, etc. so there is a grace period of sorts.

It looks to me like you're on the right track. But I still suggest that you double check the laws yourself to make sure you're in compliance.

Best of luck. And most importantly, have fun!

You may have heard about decompression time for kids leaving the public school? Since she hasn't been in too long, it probably won't be too bad, but she may need some time to readjust to doing things on her own schedule instead of the schools. So, have some fun, read some good books, go on a field trip or two, that kind of stuff.

Thanks Tons!   I don't know if you read my problems with her under whining thread so yup I am going through some difficult things right now.  I thought with tomorrow being her 'first' day we'd go out to lunch, play some cards and have a little fun shopping.  

[Raineyrocks]

We use Seton testing and the CAT test too -- It is quick and painless.

Thanks that's the test HSLDA recommends (CAT).

[mackler]

Forgive me for opining on this subject, since I'm not a parent, but I can tell you what I would do if I were.  If I were in your situation, I would go out of my way, bend over backwards, and make a great effort to find a non-government band for my daughter to play in.  Many towns have them.  I'll bet Manchester does.

When I was in public high school, I was in the school stage band.  After I while I learned that in my town was also an amateur stage band open to anyone who wanted to join.  The difference was remarkable.  For one thing it was all-ages, not just high school.  There were guys in there that had been playing for decades, many super talented.  It was a lot more encouraging, since they were happy to get new blood and welcomed young members.  Musically it was just a whole lot more competent and challenging, but always supportive.  It didn't cost anything, it didn't pay anything, and every few months or weeks we'd play a show somewhere around town.  Best of all, it had nothing to do with the city government.

Of course, you may have other goals for your daughter's experience, such as spending time in a group of people her own age.  From my own experience, considering the time I spent in the High School Band and the entire rest of my school experience with kids my own age, I got nothing out of it socially.  If I had spent all my "music time" with the local amateur band instead of the school band it would have been a much more valuable experience musically.

Adam

[Raineyrocks]

Forgive me for opining on this subject, since I'm not a parent, but I can tell you what I would do if I were.  If I were in your situation, I would go out of my way, bend over backwards, and make a great effort to find a non-government band for my daughter to play in.  Many towns have them.  I'll bet Manchester does.

When I was in public high school, I was in the school stage band.  After I while I learned that in my town was also an amateur stage band open to anyone who wanted to join.  The difference was remarkable.  For one thing it was all-ages, not just high school.  There were guys in there that had been playing for decades, many super talented.  It was a lot more encouraging, since they were happy to get new blood and welcomed young members.  Musically it was just a whole lot more competent and challenging, but always supportive.  It didn't cost anything, it didn't pay anything, and every few months or weeks we'd play a show somewhere around town.  Best of all, it had nothing to do with the city government.

Of course, you may have other goals for your daughter's experience, such as spending time in a group of people her own age.  From my own experience, considering the time I spent in the High School Band and the entire rest of my school experience with kids my own age, I got nothing out of it socially.  If I had spent all my "music time" with the local amateur band instead of the school band it would have been a much more valuable experience musically.

Adam

Thanks for the great advice!   I forgot about even starting this post and I feel weird and guilty about writing how the end result to homeschooling her went.

  I was all ready to do it, I mailed in the Tri-City application with the $40 and was ready to start homeschooling her  but then me and my husband talked for a long time during the week I kept her out of school and was homeschooling her; we decided to let her finish this year. I never handed in the withdrawal letter to her school just the letter of intent to Tri-City that's why when we decided to let her go back it was easy, she was just marked absent for that week.

We've been so wishy-washy about this decision because of how well she's doing in school and how much she loves it but with me it was more of how her attitude was changing which in part could be school/puberty so I was more for homeschooling her than my husband was.  As we thought about it more and it wasn't just my decision alone we did end up deciding to give her one more chance with the attitude and letting her finish this year out.

So anyways she's been doing really great with her attitude and handling peer pressure stuff well so she's still in school.  I'm sorry I didn't follow up on this so that everyone knew what was going on because I feel like I wasted a lot of people's time asking questions even though when I was asking the questions I really believed she was going to be homeschooled right away.

So for right now only my son is being homeschooled and Tri-City let me switch his name in place of hers onto their records, (I guess that's what you call it), since I already paid the money for her to be homeschooled.

I hope this isn't confusing or rambling sounding, I'm tired.  Thank you for the suggestions again and I will probably need them next year so I will save them along with all of the other information everybody else gave me in a word document.

[tonks001]

I think that homeschoolers can still participate in public school activities, that is if they are under the admin of a public school. They can also participate in other activities of the community or you can start a certain group of homeschoolers to create your own activities. Good luck!

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