Any Homeschoolers Here?

[toowm]

We use a private (Christian) school that is extremely supportive of homeschoolers. Very few folks use the local school district unless they recently came out of the public schools.

There were a number of homeschoolers that used the Department of Education, but that is being actively discouraged (and the folks here would shudder at the thought).

One thing we are working on is getting a private, non-religious, liberty-friendly school (maybe Pathfinder Academy) to provide participating agency and other services to homeschoolers.

Keep in mind, there are also a number of homeschoolers that do not comply with any of the rules for religious or liberty reasons.

[Kat Kanning]

I thought Pathfinder was working on that.

[Money Dollars]

Very few folks use the local school district unless they recently came out of the public schools.

hahaha....how long have you been in NH?
From the nh homeschool email lists I have seen, I would guess that the majority use the local district.

There were a number of homeschoolers that used the Department of Education, but that is being actively discouraged.

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

The DOE is rejecting letters of notification, asking that parents use their local school district.  The DOE has also, for lack of sufficient information, rejected a large number of homeschool evaluations.

Most homeschoolers use their local school district as the participating agency.

[Kat Kanning]

I used TCCA before.  They were nice.

[Kat Kanning]

Only til 16.

[toowm]

Yes, we use TCCA

Very few folks use the local school district unless they recently came out of the public schools.

hahaha....how long have you been in NH?
From the nh homeschool email lists I have seen, I would guess that the majority use the local district.

The largest homeschooling "community" is still the Christian anti-humanist/public school group. They use Bible-based curricula, tend not to frequent email lists, and don't join larger groups, except possibly the HSLDA. I could be wrong about the relative #s in NH, but there is clear distrust of local districts from homeschool "leaders;" even if they like an existing superintendent, they realize things can change fast.

[Money Dollars]

The largest homeschooling "community" is still the Christian anti-humanist/public school group. They use Bible-based curricula, tend not to frequent email lists, and don't join larger groups, except possibly the HSLDA.

Most of the people on the email lists I have seen are christian homeschoolers.....

But the ones you are talking about sound freaky....

[toowm]

Most of the people on the email lists I have seen are christian homeschoolers.....

But the ones you are talking about sound freaky....

Compared to those of us on this forum?

[dawn]

I'm not sure how many homeschoolers use the DOE, their local superintendent or a private school for a participating agency.

I do know that the DOE is discouraging people from filing with them, sending notifications back to people, telling them to use their local super instead. I have also heard that the DOE can be overly picky when it comes to annual evaluations. IMHO, they are the last option I would choose.

We have used TCCA and have been very happy with them.

People have varying experiences with local superintendents. Some are reasonable, some can be more difficult. At least their are choices.

[celticdreemer]

hello everyone-
we have recently signed our letter of intent/joined the free state project and will be moving to greenville NH next month...
i homeschool our 9 yr old daughter and 7 yr old son and am very much looking forward to the (from what i understand) looser regulations for homeschoolers that NH has compared to massachusetts(where we are coming from)~
i am very much an unschooler at heart and have actually wondered if anyone out there has tried to get away with just not reporting in to the school district at all?
anyway...i look forward to meeting other liberty minded folk out our way....we have been completely miserable here in mass. and can't wait to get the heck out of here!!

[dawn]

I wouldn't recommend it, but I'm sure there are some homeschoolers out there who don't report. I do know of one who was very open about it because the constitution does not give the power to control homeschooling.

We unschool (with a smidge of forced learning thrown in at random times for good measure!) too. We file with a private school and my kids take the CAT test and have done very well on it. There are other compliance methods, which it seems like you are probably already aware of.

I would suggest ordering a copy of the newly updated New Hampshire Home Education Guidebook put out by the NH Homeschooling Coalition at www.nhhomeschooling.org/guidebook.htm. I am on the board and helped with the revisions. It contains the law, the administrative rules regarding the law and lots of other good info.

[Rosie the Riveter]

Hi and Welcome -- I hope to meet you in NH soon.

Happy Unschooling 

Dawn is right http://www.nhhomeschooling.org/ is the best source for informantion about homeschooling in NH. The homeschooling requirements are pretty easy to meet here so everyone I know does comply. I think I am right in thinking it really is a simple as submitting one letter and one test score per child per year (my kids attend private schools now so I'm a litttle out of the loop).

Good Luck with your move and I know you'll find a lot of homeschoolers in the area to pal around with.

~Kate

[celticdreemer]

i'm sure i'll end up notifying...
i am just jaded and cranky about some truely horrific crap that the school board in my current town put me through..
i had made the mistake of putting the children in the local school when we first arrived in town because i had heard
"they were the best"...
well, when i chose to pull the kids out the completely bonkers principal made it her personal mission in life to make my life a living hell~~
we even had child protective services called(i have never been so happy in my life that i am a good housekeeper and my kids are healthy and well groomed!)the case was closed and all turned out ok, but i have a bit of an attitude now....

[Rochelle]

Not homeschooling yet, but I plan on it when I have kids It's great to know there are a lot of other homeschoolers in NH at large, too, that can help with that sort of thing.

[eques]

gawd, celticdreemer... karma to you for putting up with that crapola.

if I ever have children someday, I'd like to think I'd home/unschool them... give them a better shot than I had.

[Edit] - oops! liberty ladies forum!?