Florida Homeschooling Requirements

We're only a few weeks away from our girls ending common schooling.   It has been an interesting journey thus far, and we (daughters, mom, and dad) are very ready to begin the homeschool in earnest.

As they leave the "system", I have the responsibility to ensure we are playing within the homeschool rules framework of our state.  Our state is a good homeschool state, being supportive of this freedom option, and even provides free resources to us including free online classes!

Our state covers homeschooling requirements primarily within its statutes (The 2016 Florida Homeschooling Statutes).  I've been studying them aggressively to ensure that we are doing this right.

The statues covering homeschool are very straight forward, and they don't seem overly onerous.  Here are some of the key things that I have to pay attention to:

1. "notice shall be filed in the district school superintendent’s office within 30 days of the establishment of the home education program."

2. "The parent shall maintain a portfolio of records and materials" that consists of a log of what was done and samples of what was done by the student.  The log is to be created as we go.

3. "The parent shall provide for an annual educational evaluation in which is documented the student’s demonstration of educational progress at a level commensurate with her or his ability."

The first one isn't a big deal.  It is a one time paper work filing that has the kids names, ages, etc.  Back in October of 2016, I had reached out to our county's public school system section leader to ensure that I our counties latest preferred form version.  This person (Toney S) was very responsive and got back to me with a cheerful note appending the form.

The second one, maintaining records as we go, is more a discipline issue than anything else.  I believe I will find and use some sort of online journaling software. Hell, a blog could do it.  That is, each day ensure that what we've done is chronicled in some manner that can be accessed.

The third one, the annual education evaluation, seems fair but brings back in the squishy area of subjectivity that I don't like.  However, our state is great in that the evaluations can be done in a number of ways.  According to the Florida statutes, we can do the annual evaluations by:

1. Having a teacher certified in the state of Florida review their work
2. Taking a Nationally Normed Student Assessment Test (aka Standardized Tests)
3. Taking our School District's Assessment Test
4. Having them evaluated by an Education Psychologist licensed in the state of Florida
5. Any other method agreed to between me and the School District Superintendent

Of these options, the one we shall be choosing is a Florida certified teacher yearly evaluation.  I've already found a fantastic link to a directory of Florida teachers willing to do the necessary evaluations.  Prices range from $25 to $50 or so per child per year.  Some of the teachers are earning extra money during the summer months, while others are homeschool parents themselves that happen to be licensed to teach in Florida.  You can find the directory at http://florida-homeschooling.org/evaluator/ 

If I combine the online journaling software with a digital capture of my daughters work, then that would mean all the information for the evaluation by a teacher could be done on-line!  And if the evaluator wants to talk with them, a simple Skype session could be established. That may be a great way to manage and handle all this.  By keeping it online, I could also easily handle the two years of records keeping required by the statutes.

Well alright all right! Here we go!

The Ole Switchero : Dude Transitioning To Domestic Duties and Daddy Afterschool School

Following our plan, 24 months before we were to begin homeschooling my wife returned to full time work.  This meant that we were both earning an income, but adjusted to live off what she earned.  At 18 months out, I left the working world behind and assumed the domestic duties life full time.  My wife was earning more than enough for us to maintain the quality of life we wanted.

It was very strange at first, being home all day in this new world of no meetings, phone calls, client ass kissing, no co-workers, and such.  I'd wake up with no pressure.  I'd go to bed at night with no pressure.  There were no deadlines to drive me any more.  After more than two decades of marching to the corporate world beat, I felt like I was in outer space, free floating.

With the kids still in their public charter school, I had plenty of time during the day to reflect, settle into my new role, think things through, and get ready for the homeschool phase.  There was a lot to learn, such as the regulations governing homeschooling in my area, what support groups were available, what program options I have, and what kind of learners are my girls.  

Every week, in addition to the laundry, dishes, clean up, etc., I'd accomplish one exterior house thing, like pressure washing, or mowing the yard, or trimming the hedges, etc.  I've also been able to indulge in various interests of mine, ones that I never seemed to have time to do before such as concrete sculpting.  My love of Martial Arts has also seen a major boost as I can commit more regular hours to it.  I also get to read more, as well as listen to more podcasts of interest (space science, eastern philosophy, and so on).  The cherry on the cake is hitting places off peak hours, like the gun range.  LOVE IT!

The transition has been phenomenally smooth.  One area that I've still not internally found settled involves asking for money.  Now that I'm not the money maker, I personally find it tough asking for anything.  It is an internal hang up for sure, but one that I do face.  We have an auto deposit into a private account for me, from the wifie's paycheck, that we call the "Mad Money."  That is an amount of money that I can go crazy with and spend on anything I want, no questions asked.  It is my pocket money as it were.  It is more than enough to sustain my hobbies and interests.  However, there are times when I want to do more than my Mad Money will cover, and I have to ask, and I don't like to.

In preparation for the Full Monty homeschooling, one of the things I have practiced is to ensure that when the girls come home from school that they have an hour of academic work from me.  This is in addition to whatever they have from their public charter school.  Of course, what I'm giving them fits well with what they will be doing at their regular day school, mostly covering materials that I suspect they will need later in the school year.  This has paid huge dividends for all of us.  I've continued to learn how they each individually learn, how I can best serve as their learning guide, and they've gained mastery on subjects ahead of their classmates.

Not Sure You Can Do It? Do a Summer Homeschool first

Nope, I didn't breastfeed my kids. I'm not built to and, I don't want to.  In fact, until I watched a particular Family Guy episode, the thought never crossed my mind.  However, I do want to home school my kids and the question is, can I?  Can I serve as a perpetual intellectual lactation machine?

I'm not worried about if I can teach them.  What I'm worried about is being with my kids all day long, every day, providing providing providing.  I love my girls, but operating in this role, ensuring the nectar of education is flowing is definitely a sustenance providing role that has to come from some place very deep within.  Even with self-driven kids, which I have, every single day helping them along all day long may prove too much.  If you believe the commonly male/female role accepted history, it is the woman who stays with the kids while the man goes out to hunt down the food.... so maybe like breast feeding, I'm simply not wired for this stuff.

So, how did I test the waters? Glad you asked, because that's what this post is about: how to try out homeschooling before jumping in

I had learned from a different major family lifestyle shift that it is best you sample the new scenario for a prolonged period before you go for it (another story for another post, but it involves living on a sailboat!).  For homeschooling, what I decided to do was do school for an entire summer with them.  That is, put them in Daddy Home Summer school.  I wanted to see if I could handle their education for the entire period, 11 weeks.

I looked at it this way, worst case scenario is that it totally sucks and we were miserable.  If that happened, we could just stop and they would go into regular summer mode, knowing that they would be back to their traditional school with no interruptions.... no harm no foul.  Any case better than that, then at least the girls would have a good start on the next years school material. All this, and I got time with my kids.

In June of 2016, as soon as the school year ended for my kids at their public charter school, they entered Daddy Home Summer school.  This would be a trial run for all of us.  We knew that they would be going back to their regular public charter school in September (see The Middle Way post), but for the summer it would be daddy school all the way.

I had work packets ready, ideas for field trips, proposed daily schedules, cool projects, evaluation criteria, and more.  We would be attacking material from every area of study that they would face when they returned to their public charter school the next school year, 3rd and 5th grade stuff.

Over did a dune buggy engine once,
making long distance driving not feasible.

This test summer run provided a tremendous amount of actual feedback and, like the time I designed an engine for my dune buggy, I found that not everything worked as my mind had planned.  Some things better, some things worse, but that it was all about balance.

Doing the Daddy Home Summer school before going Full Monty tested the waters in a number of areas, allowing me to refine my operating model.  However, the most important learning and the main reason I even did this trial run was to ensure that I could, in fact, do this week after week after week.

So, nope ... I can't breastfeed, and I really don't want to.  I can, however, homeschool for weeks on end, and totally enjoy it and myself.  Wahoo!!