Legalize It

So, recently friends from Oregon, the Carolinas, and a new member on our Arkansas Unschoolers list had some questions about home schooling regulations in Arkansas. So I thought I would answer what I can and include some useful links, instead of responding to all the lists, etc.

First, I want to point out that homeschooling is legal in all fifty states.

In the state of Arkansas you do not have to be a certified teacher to homeschool.

Intent to homeschool must be turned into your district superintendent's office by August 16 The link to that form is here.
http://www.arkansased.org/about/pdf/schools/hs_waiver_intent_10-11_051810.pdf .

If it is your first year home schooling they require you to drop it off in person, every year thereafter you can mail it in.

State law requires that home school students in grades 3 through 9 test every year. Parents/legal guardians that are registered for the current school year will receive written notification of the test dates, times, and site. Testing for grades 3-9 will be held April 5-16, 2010.

As in public schools, parents have the right to wait to enroll their children in homeschool kindergarten.

You have the right to choose your child's curriculum. You have the right to learn as a family in the way that best serves your family's needs.

The link to the Arkansas Department of Education's Homeschooling Page is http://www.arkansased.org/about/schools/home.html

The Homeschooling Legal Defense Association has put together a pdf file summarizing the homeschooling laws in AR. It can be found here. http://www.hslda.org/laws/analysis/Arkansas.pdf

Arkansas has many support groups! here are e-mail lists and playdays for everyone from religious homeschoolers to unschoolers (whole life learners) . Google your preference!

In Northwest Arkansas there is a cooperative day program for homeschoolers that icludes fun classes and lots of social interaction. My kids took ballet, spansh, knitting, acting, literature, etc. It is called The Treehouse and the link is http://www.thetreehouse4kids.org/

If you are so inclined, there is more of a free school approach provided by the Headwaters Community in Red Star, Arkansas called The Headwaters School. I have enjoyed their Halloween gatherings and Junebug Jams for years. They offer two days a week of unstructured learning with amazing teachers who facilitate the kids own natural curiosity. their link is

http://headwaters-school.org/

I hope i have answered some of the questions you all have been asking! Also I would like to point out that Barnes and Noble, Hastings, Office Depot all give teacher discounts to homeschooling parents! Make a copy of your intent to homeschool and they will hook you up!

Please contact me if you have any tricky questions and we will sort them out!

OH! And my favorite home schooling magazine is Home Education Magazine. You can find them here

http://www.homeedmag.com/

They have a great getting started section, with a printable phamplet, and if you are new to or curious about homeschooling they will send you a complimentary issue!

Anyhow, happy learning!

Shakespeare and summer camp

So the older two have returned from summer camp, where Sol focused on rocketry and archery, while Ivy enjoyed the trapeze and horsemanship. There were also tidbits of other little projects, Ivy's Chinese writing, Sol's wooden painted airplanes and other toys for Arlo. I love the energy that fills the house when they return, skin golden with just a little sunburn, stories and laughter and reconnecting with their younger brother and sister. suitcases dumped into the laundry and squeals of joy that we have the movie Ponyo which they have wanted to see for so long.
We have begun reading Usborne Stories From Shakespeare, as that is a general interest. We started with Hamlet at Sol's request. Then we looked up facts about Hamlet from a little book we got called 101 Things You Didn't Know About Shakespeare....did you know that Shakespeare most likely had a cameo in the original production of Hamlet, playing the ghost of Hamlet's father? Or that having ghostly apparitions appear onstage may have been a way to calm down the notoriously rowdy Elizabethan crowds, get their attention, and cause them to shut up and watch the play.
Hamlet should be Netflixing it to our house soon, so I thought it would be good to read the middle school level story first, so we could follow the plot together without too much help.
Free range learning...it's a wonderful thing!

Imperfectly

So we are dog-sitting our beloved canine friend Louie. He is super sweet and super big. Arlo and Aley have already had a tussle about our Harry Potter cloak, all I have accomplished is pouring two bowls of cereal and cutting out a a hand drawn jet for little Mr. And then, they are off in orbit, totally enthralled in their game, bellies full, dogs off cavorting in the woods instead of barking at each other by my door.

I am not perfect. Homeschoooling, especially radical unschooling, is a messy, zany pursuit on the best day. Today is a day for trust and music and LOTS of coffee!

So i leave you with these thoughts....

As machines become more and more efficient and perfect, so it will become clear that imperfection is the greatness of man.
Thomas Carlyle

Even imperfection itself may have its ideal or perfect state.
Thomas de Quincey

Imperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere.

The fact of storytelling hints at a fundamental human unease, hints at human imperfection. Where there is perfection there is no story to tell.
Ben Okri

Attack of the were-poodle

The older two are away at camp, so Arlo and Aley have been spending tons of time in imaginative play. They have been cracking me up left and right. First they took the bubble pipes and played "sherlocks". This was followed by pretending to be on a roller coaster similation ride, like the one at Chuck E Cheese. Somehow this evolved into a game where Aley was a werepoodle. As in werewolf/poodle. With no irony.
Sometimes my life is too sweet.
If I sit still and pretend to read my book, they just keep going and I observe the whole thing.
Perfect.
Did you know were poodles travel in colonies?