Homeschooling in Kansas
Once you look over the laws of our state and know that you are able to follow them, you have taken the first step.
The second step would be to find out if you have a local homeschooling group in your area. One way to find this out is to call the public school board. They sometimes don’t like to give out this information, but they do have it. Make a call to the local representative for the group and request all information that they have.
I have found our group to be a tremendous help and we really work as a team to put together classes outside the home as well as numerous field trips and such each school year.
The third step is to find out which curriculum will work best for you. There are several companies out there, most of them having their own websites. A few of them are Abeka, Bob Jones University, Alpha Omega, and Saxon. It’s not necessary to use books from just one provider.
A fourth step may be to join an email community for homeschoolers. I belong to a great one through yahoogroups. Go to http://www.yahoogroups.com and put in homeschooling for your search. It’s great to be able to find out the different ways that each of them homeschool. Any questions? Just post them to the list and you will get several answers. It’s been a gift for me to belong to this list.
I would like to recommend that you check out my favorite homeschooling website. You will find it at http://www.teach-at-home.com There you will find all of the information that you will need plus so much more!
Homeschooling isn’t for everyone. It takes a lot of work and diligence. This has been a crazy year for my family and it affects how you do.
Homeschooling must be something that both you and your children want. If you force your children to leave public school they will resent you. They may not cooperate and learn as they should. If it’s the children that want to be schooled at home and you aren’t sure, your whole heart won’t be in it.
This year marks the start of my 7th full year as a homeschool mom. I am very proud of my children and the work they do. I’ve been blessed to meet other parents who share the same beliefs as me. I love the fact that my children and I are spending quality time together.
Notes specifically on homeschooling in Kansas:
Kansas is one of the most lenient states to homeschool. The only requirement is that you register your school with the state.
There is no testing required. I, myself, recommend testing to everyone. Our homeschool group recommends testing in 5th, 8th, and 12th grades. Testing enables you to see what your child’s strong points are as well as weak points.
Kansas does require that you do the same amount of hours that public school is required to do. This is 1,116 hours in a school year or 180 days. The fiscal school year runs from July 1 of one year until June 30th of the next.
