Cape cod home schooling?

Question

Wanting to home school second grader. I can not take the public school system any more. I need info on how to start.

any sugestions? Its for my awesome seven year old girl.

Who is always getting picked on. She is really a bright smart busy kid. I want her to have a good chance in life education to me is really important but so far we keep getting negative feedback from the school. They are over populated stressed out of there minds and the poor kids really It breaks my heart!

I just want my daughter to have a positive attitude towards life and her education. It is not going to happen as long as she is in that school. I would love any input as I am really new to all of this. I am excited and scared at the same time. I have no idea where to begin? We live on the cape cod ma. Thanks a million.

Answer 1

I highly recommend unschooling.  From what you write, it seems like it would be ideal for your daughter.  

Find a local group for your state regs.  I understand that MA is one of the strictest for homeschooling, but it is done by many.  

Good luck :)

Answer 2

For the laws and regs in MA, please see this site: http://www.hslda.org/laws/default.asp?St...  It has both a chart of what to do and a link to a .pdf legal analysis.  The regs in MA are pretty tight, so you'll want to make sure you go "by the books" on this.

You will need to notify your local school committee or superintendent and get approved in advance.  I don't live in MA, so I'm not sure what all is involved in this; I would really recommend you get in touch with the leaders of a couple of homeschool groups in your area and pick their brains.  They will know the processes, the ins and outs, and what to do if you hit a wall in the process.  Here are some I found by googling "Cape Cod homeschool groups".

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CapeCodHom...

http://geocities.com/coastalfreelearners...

http://mhla.org/ This one looks like your best bet for navigating the process, it's an info clearinghouse and advocacy group.

You should also start looking into curriculum while prepping to do this, I'm not sure if you have to notify your school district of what curriculum you'll be using or not.  You can get a huge (phone-book sized) catalog of curriculum choices for free from http://www.rainbowresource.com/index.php...  This will give you a good idea of what's out there, and you can google your curriculum choices to find the company itself for further research.

Due to the tight homeschooling laws and letigious nature of MA, I really suggest joining HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association).  For your annual membership of something like $80 to $100, they will handle any problems that may come your way (from a school committee asking for info they shouldn't, to litigation in court) for free.  They take care of everything that may come up.

On the "oh my goodness, how do I do this" side of it...it's normal :-)  Pretty much everyone feels that way when they start out, especially if they are pulling kids out of school.  The main thing to remember is that it's ok not to replicate the school room at home - it's ok to let your daughter follow her interests and love learning.  I'm not saying to completely disregard a chosen curriculum or anything, but there is so much that she can learn outside of the workbook page.  Once you feel a little more comfortable with it and you've got the legalities down, look into some of the different methods of homeschooling and see what will work best for you and her.  Some of the different methods are:

Charlotte Mason

Eclectic

Classical

Unit Studies

Unschooling

And any combination thereof :-)

Hope that helps!