We're Official!

In Ohio, the compulsory school attendance laws require that we notify our school district of our intent to homeschool and at the end of the year submit an assessment. At the beginning of last week, I completed our notification form and sent it in. I got my reply from the school district today that our notification met the requirements and my son is excused from compulsory attendance. Yippie!

The Home Schooling Notification Forms that you submitted to educate your child at home have been reviewed. We have determined that the information provided in this notification form meets the requirements of the Rules for Home Education as stated in Chapter 3301-34 of the Administrative Code of Ohio. Therefore, Aleksander is excused from school attendance for the 2008-2009 school year. This excuse from school will end on June 4, 2009.

It's pretty funny, because the notification form I sent in included a rough unschooling curriculum and materials list another mom on a list somewhere wrote years ago. It's been pretty much making the rounds and we're all using it verbatim as it's vague enough to work quite well without edits. Here it is, if you're interested:

Brief Outline of Material to be Covered:

1.Language, Reading, Spelling and Writing
a.Reading books will be chosen by our family throughout the year.
b.Spelling words will be gathered from reading books.
c.Grammar, punctuation and sentence structure will be learned by reading well-written works.
d. Writing will be incorporated into the entire educational process.

2.Geography, History, Government
a.Study of basic world geography
b.Detailed study of history focusing on specific topics chosen by the family throughout the year, this will include Ohio history, U.S. history and world history.
c.Study of cultures and cultural differences (including comparative religion)
d.Comparative study of different types of government and their development through the ages.

3.Mathematics
a.Number puzzles and games as a means of learning
b.Use of manipulatives for concrete operations
c.Computer Science at an age appropriate level

4.Science
a.Hands on experiments to teach physical, chemical and electrical science
b.Visits to science centers; COSI, Great Lakes Science Center, etc.
c.Nature study, especially during camping trips and hikes
d.Biological science, physics, geology as desired by family

5.Health is part of everyday life and is handled as such

6.Physical Education
a. As an active family we feel our children get plenty of exercise and this category is just a part of living. We also participate in weekly gymnastics and swimming.

7.Fine arts, including music
a.Visits to various museums and art institutes
b.Exposure to almost every type of music through our family collection, music borrowed from local libraries, and online radio.
c.Hands on exposure to many art mediums, including clay, drawing, painting, textile arts, woodworking and basic crafting

8.First aid, safety and fire prevention is part of everyday life and is handled as such


Materials List:

Our books will be chosen from a wide selection of books as we proceed through the year. In addition to the large selection of books we own, we also have access to many other families' collections. We have library cards from several libraries in the area and are such frequent visitors that the librarians know us.

We have educational computer programs in many subjects, including science, math, language and history.

We have a wide variety of music and stories on CD as well as the ability to obtain more through library loans.

Our family owns many educational kits, manipulatives, games, and workbooks for the kids to use throughout the year.

Access to the Internet provides supplementary material (including worksheets and games) on many subjects as well as many interactive sites geared toward my child's age and abilities.

We make frequent visits to museums, zoos, and science centers as well as field trips to various types of factories, farms and other interesting sites.

Above all, the most important basic teaching material we intend to use, is the knowledge in our own heads. As educating parents there can be no more readily accessible source than the knowledge we have gained over the years and the ability to pass it on in a one on one environment.

In fact, I just realized that I kept in gymnastics and swimming, which we don't actually do. Oops.