Homeschool?

1) There are different regulations for this in each state. In Georgia where I live, you don't need a college degree to teach at home, but someone with a college degree is required to administer standardized tests. The requirements are probably different for NY, but I think the HSLDA website has all the state laws concerning homeschooling here: http://www.hslda.org/laws/default.asp.

2) Yes. I've been homeschooled pretty much all the way through.

3) Here's what HSLDA has to say about testing in NY: File, with the local superintendent, an annual assessment by June 30; must be from a standardized test every other year in grades 4-8, and every year in grades 9-12; the child should score above the 33rd percentile or their home instruction program could be placed on probation; other years can be satisfied by either another standardized test or a written narrative evaluation prepared by a certified teacher, a home instruction peer review panel, or other person chosen by the parent with the consent of the superintendent.

4) There are several different curricula that I know of that use instructional videos or a satellite feed. I took a video math course one year; we would record the program each night off the satellite feed and then I would watch the tapes the next day. There were accompanying textbooks/workbooks and test forms.

As for how the whole process works...there are several companies churning out prepackaged curricula, but I've always used sort of a hodge-podge...textbooks from one company, supplemental material from another, extra books picked up from the library, etc. My mom generally makes lesson plans at the beginning of the school year for my younger siblings; for me, she generally tells me that she wants me at such-and-such a point by the end of the year, and I'm basically on my own to get there. She files attendance reports every month with the local school district (required minimum number of days in our school year is 180). I do a lot of my own grading, unless it's something like an essay or research paper, in which case either my mom will grade it or she'll turn it in to a friend of hers who's a college English professor.

In my area we also have a homeschool co-op that provides classes which would be difficult to teach at home (chemistry, biology, certain foreign languages, drama, etc). There are also several local "homeschool groups" which organize field trips, proms, graduation ceremonies, stuff like that.

Hope this helps!

1) Yes, anyone can home school. This had both benefits and disadvantages.
2) Yes, quite easily. I was home schooled for the first three years of my history (but that was between the ages of 7 and 10).
3) Sometimes, but not always. We had to, but I always thought they were very, very easy.
and 4) Dependent on the situation, it could be a feasible option, say for something like the Discovery Channel (science channel on cable TV) or something to that effect, sure. They do that a lot in public classrooms here anyway.

I remember being taught with my two brothers at the kitchen table in our home when I was a child. We were all bright, but regardless it does not take a bright child to be home schooled. This isn't just for smart kids, or kids with some sports talent or acting talent (who are very frequently home schooled). In point of fact, I do believe it's one of the reasons I am as deeply connected to my family as I am now.

Sorry, that was opinion. I don't remember you asking for opinions.

Now, there's this new movement in the home school sector lately called Unschooling. It's "child directed" learning. There are no teachers, curriculum or standardized tests, and the child dictates the learning process by his or her own interests. A lot of people believe this is a very natural way of learning, because it's what we do as parents from day one with our children anyway, so the consensus is "Why let someone else dictate to my child what they have to learn and when?" It's actually fascinating (at least to me) and I could give you some links if you'd like to know more about that.

Yeah, I googled around a little about unschooling, but haven't found any majorly helpful.

Any links you supply will be very appreciated.

Thanks

On regards to question 4, is it possible for a TV to completely substitute a teacher person?

Like, the kid would sit in front of the TV for 3-4 hours (in sessions), and then do his homework, before sending it off?

I know many more advanced courses, usually high-school classes have teaching videos. My algebra and geometry were this way. The nice thing was that you could rewind and review the stuff you didn't get, and my curriculum was so good I didn't have any problems where I did not get the concept or couldn't do the problems. However, the algebra did not have an in-detail book which explained everything, so you had to watch the video. I prefer reading, and my geometry course has a good textbook along with a computer cd with videos, so I usually use the textbook while my brother prefers to watch the videos.

I wouldn't sit in front of the TV for three to four hours before doing "homework," breaks or not. Maybe that has something to do with my attention span, but I've never really heard of anyone doing it that way, and I'm not sure what you mean by "sending it off."

The way we do it is we watch the video (or I read the book) whenever we get around to it, then afterwards do some practice problems provided by the textbook or workbook or whatever came with the course. We correct our own work and yes, we could cheat at any time, but don't. My public school friends can't quite comprehend that last bit. Usually (but not always) the course has tests at the end of every section. We don't do anything sitting down at the table for a certain period of time or anything, because my family has a rather hectic schedule and I would rather lay down on the couch. Sometimes it takes a few days to get done with a test because 1. we put it off, or 2. we're doing it in the ten minutes we spend running errands in the car.

Despite this, everyone usually ends somewhat on time at the end of the school year, and if not, we either carry over work to next year (good review) or do it during the summer. Usually if anything carries over into the summer, it will be one or two subjects (usually the most hated ones). I know I'm going to be doing physics for a while after July, but I won't have any summer reading to worry about.

1) Like they said, it varies from state to state. In my state there aren't any regulations if you go under the church school religious exemption, which most of us do. Otherwise you have to do the whole certified tutor, umpteen hours thing. I do have an education degree, but it certainly isn't necessary. A love for your children and a basic ability to read a text and explain it are all you really need. Or at least, knowing someone who can explain the things you can't. :)

2) Any age can be homeschooled. My oldest is just finishing up kindergarten.

3) NY is one of the pickiest states. I know a previous poster addressed it a bit, but in case you need more, check out www.hslda.org for the laws and stuff, and try googling homeschooling + new york for more local information.

4) There are DVD and online courses, more and more every day. You'd still need an adult supervising, though, just for child safety rules. :) Can't leave your 7 year old home alone with the TV for school! If all your courses are online it can be just as rigid as public schools because you have to do everything on their timeline, so I hear. If you're just doing a few courses, like the DVD ones, you can be more flexible. They all vary.

Most states have organizations for homeschoolers, and they'll do book fairs for curriculum so people can browse. And there are lots of places to order from, plus many teacher and religious bookstores will carry homeschool materials. There's a lot out there. Every style is different. My son does workbooks for phonics and math just so I can be sure we don't miss important steps, but for history and science and literature we're very hands on and 'real book' oriented. Other people do it differently.

Never mind, most of that info someone else already shared. :)

I was homeschooled. First, yes, in most states anyone can homeschool, no need for degrees except you need a high school diploma. That's it. I'd suggest staying out of California with your topic, since they're going through some spats about it.

I was homeschooled by a computer program. They have a huge array of different companies that put out a different subjects - nearly everything offered in school (though I don't know if chemistry is apart of that. I went to a community college for that).

Any child can be homeschooled, at any grade.

There are mandatory tests. They're the same as the ones in regular school. CAT tests in 3rd and 8th grade, SATs if your going to college. There's two different diplomas you can get - a college prepared one or a regular one. At the end of each year, you go to an evaluator who makes sure your really doing the work you say you are. Evaluator has requirements that you have to fill. Once he approves you, you submit a letter of approval he gives you to your local school, and they record that you are being schooled proper and that you're okay.

I'm not sure what you mean by tv, but if you mean programs on a tv, then I'm sure you can. As I said, there's many curriculums out there that teach by many different means. I never tried it, but I'm sure there are video curriculums as well. A tutor and/or parent are not required to teach at all, just make sure your following your schedule.

I hope I didn't repeat too much, I didn't read everyone else's replies. That's just my take on what I experienced.

I used to be homeschooled and one of my brothers and one of my sisters are homeschooled.

1) Depends on the state (in the US). In my state (Washington State), the parent has to have a certain amount of college credit or a certified teacher has to oversee. My mom and dad both have master's degrees, so that's not an issue in my family. I don't know a lot about that if your parents weren't and I don't know how much credit it is. I don't think it's even a full bachelor's degree.

2) Yes. My little sister has always been homeschooled. She's eight.

3) Depends on the state. In my state, yes, my siblings have to take exams at the end of the year.

4) Can be, but in my family, my mom would teach us. She buys textbooks and curriculum from textbook printers or she writes the curriculum herself. For literature and history, she uses a lot of primary source documents, and history and literature usually coincide. Like, we'd learn about the colonization of America through mostly historical documents, but then some literature things as well. For example, if we were learning about the Salem Witch Trials, we'd read The Crucible. When I as learning about the Middle Ages, we read St. Augustine Confessions, Ivanhoe, Arthurian Legend. When I was learning about the French Revolution, my English would coincide by reading Voltaire, and fictitious renderings, such as A Tale of Two Cities. My little brother LOVES history, so my mom will sometimes not even assign anything, but let him find something he wants to know about and write a paper. Recently, he's taken an interest in templars and Ronald Reagan's presidency ( a little unrelated, I know), so that's his history right now. Math, my mom bought textbooks. Saxon Math. We use them from about Pre-Algebra to about Pre-Calculus. That's Algebra 1/2, Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Advanced Mathematics.

My little sister, my mom bought curriculum for her, and she also uses McGuffy's Readers and Dick and Jane (though I think she's done with Dick and Jane...not sure though). She memorizes poetry and stuff as well.

We're also a very religious family, so they have religion that they do. Old Testament Studies, words of the prophets, church history, Book of Mormon and stuff.

They also do art, music and that sort of stuff. My mom's really into drawing, so she teaches that, and my little brother plays the cello and the piano. I play the piano and the violin, so I help teach music. Languages, I teach French and Latin (I had to learn from a book when I was homeschooled), and my brother takes German through tapes, and books and stuff. My mom was a secretary when she was in college, so she taught me shorthand. My dad teaches my brother woodworking and stuff like that, and my mom also teaches them home arts.

The idea behind our homeschool was that we were getting an education, a good one, in a way that wanted to, while drawing closer to each other at the same time. I cried when I went to highschool, but my mom felt that it'd be easier for me to get college acceptance if I went to highschool.

Any questions, I'd be happy to help. Oh, and just for information, my parents are both engineers. My dad is electrical, and before children my mom was civil.

Well, really, in the interest of full disclosure, I *was* actually unschooled until I was seven, and I didn't suffer any because of that (I suffered from other stuff, lawl). I didn't know that was what it was at the time; in point of fact, I didn't realise that's what it was until very very recently. So, yeah, I'm pretty biased, I guess.

For information on Unschooling, I would suggest library books, actually. Anything by John Caldwell Holt, John Taylor Gatto or Grace Llewellyn. Try How Children Fail and How Children Learn, both by Holt, or Growing Without Schooling, a later work by the same author. Gatto wrote a wonderful series of speeches which he compiled in Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling. Llewellyn wrote things like Guerrilla Learning: How to Give Your Kids a Real Education With or Without School and Real Lives: Eleven Teenagers Who Don't Go to School Tell Their Own Stories and runs the Not Back To School Camp; www.nbtsc.org .

http://sandradodd.com/ The website of Unschooling proponent Sandra Dodd.

http://gracellewellyn.com/ Grace's site (warning, beware of hot neon magenta on the homepage!). She has a lot of links to other Unschooling sites too, including stuff that's about J. Holt's Growing Without Schooling.

http://www.unschoolingamerica.com/ Needs little explanation. Dayna Martin has a series of videos on YouTube, too.
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To clarify your post, there were mandatory tests for the curriculum you used.

Many states don't have mandatory testing, and for those that don't, it'd probably vary by style of teaching and curriculum.

1. Anyone can be homeschooled. You can even go somewhere else to get homeschooled.
2. You can be homeschooled from 1st grade to college. Some courses have tests called CLEPs (there's another type I don't remember) that give you college credit taken by most colleges, so even after high school a student can sort of be homeschooled.
3. Yes. All states require students to take aptitude tests and placement tests. The ones I took were called CAT (California Aptitude Test). They show what grade level the student is really at. In most places (Oklahoma, Georgia, and Kentucky I think) - tests only have to be taken every three years for placement.
4. Yes. Videos are used instead of a tutor. Parents/tutors still have to be around to regulate the schedule/curriculum/etc. and submit the paperwork for everything (such as a schedule that shows what days the student worked and which days he/she took off).

Other than the CAT tests and the paperwork my mom filled out every month for the schedule I had worked, there wasn't much either of us had to do according to the government. But that was in Georgia.

There are some programs that have a set curriculum, but most people set their own curriculum and select certain textbooks and videos and stuff for their students. The curriculum that I use for science was a christian textbook from a college, BJU, which came in a whole "kit" kind of thing with a textbook, a grading book/teachers manual, and a set of tests for me to take. Almost all textbooks are set up that way, but some courses don't require tests or anything (such as history, english, etc.).
The way my mom set up my curriculum generally had me reading classics all the time. If I finished one, I'd start another. We didn't really do grades (when she had to set up my transcript, she made up grades).
Overall, the requirements for homeschooling are very lax. The only problem is coming up with a transcript. The student can read any book on the subject, it doesn't have to be a regular textbook with tests (though, that's the easiest since there's proof of completion for the colleges the student applies to). Also, for colleges, a student has to have a complete lab book to show to colleges for actual high school credit in four classes.
Also, most homeschoolers teach themselves. Videos generally aren't even necessary. The only time I needed help was in math and math-based

If you have any other questions you can PM me.

Again, correcting ... all states do NOT require testing. Some do, some don't. :)

i'm homeshcooled, so maybe i can help.

1) Can you get homeschooled by anyone? Or do you need some kind of degree? Like a 7 hour tutor?

anyone can homeschool you. you can even homeschool yourself, if you wanted to. that would be cool.

2) Can primary school kids get homeschooled?

what is a primary kid?

3) Are there any mandatory tests that need taking? The setting is NYC, although any info would be good.

SAT is mandatory, but in my state it's almost optional.

4) Can a TV be used to substitute a tutor/parent in homeschooling?

yes.

Home School Legal Defense Association will tell you what is legal for your state, and this varies sometimes from year to year, but just get the basics for what is legal.

If you are looking for authenticity, you can check for NY laws on the HSLDA site to determine what qualifications the "teacher" must have in NY to teach (HS diploma, college degree, teaching certificate?) and if standardized testing is mandatory or not. (CATS testing or other achievement testing).

Depending on how involved your parent for the Main Character is there are 2 types of options I know of:
1)"Switched on School House" by Alpha Omega offers curriculae entirely on CD's for your PC-

it isn't "TV" but it could be feasible for your character, because the programs allow the parent/guardian to program in their customized or standard school schedule, then the program sets due dates for and makes assignments in each class for the student(s), issues grades for all work completed (unless it is a writing or "open response" question or hands on project--these Mom still has to grade herself), so this type program works out well for your MC's mom who is absent/busy/distracted.
and all MOM has to do after it's all programmed in, is check the computer after the work is done daily. It will even tell you how many hours the child spent in each subject. an entire year can be purchased for about $350

2) There is actually a satellite TV curriculum from Bob Jones University called HOMESAT that requires subscription, but only a parent with LOTS of energy and time can use it, because they have to continuously be recording and labelling the next classes, and physically grade the work the kid does. ****You CAN pay a larger sum and enroll the kids with the HOMESAT program so that teachers at Bob Jones University actually grade the kids work when you send it in.
I believe it is about 1200/year to recieve the sat service alone, and I am guessing here but somewhere near 2-3 times that for the benefit of real teachers to grade your child's work.

otherwise, if the parents choose, they CAN call almost anything curriculum, depending on the individual states laws, and as the author, you get "artistic license" to make things how you wish.
NOTE: both of the above curriculums are heavily Christian in nature and inherently conservative. This might not fit your family.
Another place to look FOR OTHER VIEWPOINTS, if your MC's family is not Christian, is VEGSOURCE.COM--they have a bunch of homeschool forums on different topics from unschooling to classical education, and represent a wide variety of religions and value sets as their chief binding thread is vegetarian or vegan lifestyle--not religious beliefs. They might be able to tell you of other programs available that are more suited to your characters.

Good luck!

1) yes, you can be homeschooled by anyone. usually it is the parents that do the homeschooling though.

2) yes again. Any age but college. ( even though there are online colleges, I don't think that they are considered homeschool)

3) during the corse of homeschool all tests are optional. The teacher decides what tests you take. After Highschool you must take a placement test to get into college. There are optional end of year tests, which are usually the SAT's.

4) Definately!!! I am homeschooled and I use the TV for pretty much everything. There are some companies that ofer courses on DVD, and the are very good.

The processes vary. Some have no homework, some have none. There are also co-op classes, which is a group of homeschoolers learning in one place, and some schools offer some classes that homeschoolers are able to attend. Those classes are the ones that have the most homework. The Cirriculum, for us, is based on what local schools are doing, and the requirements to be accepted in colleges. If you know what college you want to go to then that is even better. Most schools will have a website, so go there and find the cirriculum and use that as a guideline for your own. Often enough there will be an organisation to join and there will be different classes and activities for those in the organisation. That is all I have for now. I have probably repeated other people, but I am hoping you found this useful :)

I'm not really "homeschooled" but I was in high school, preparing for early college, and I withdrew from school a couple of months early to study for AP exams etc (this year). I live in Virginia, and I was very surprised at how lax the system is... all my parents had to do was prove they have a high school/college degree (I forget which) and send in a curriculum guide of what I'd be learning. I believe you have to send in a portfolio every year by August if you start homeschooling before/in September, as well as take an achievement test (for unrelated reasons, I took the California *something starting with A* Test last year, which works, and it was very easy; I finished in about half an hour) at the end of the year, appropriate to grade level.

In my case, both my parents work full time, so I studied from books etc on my own. I also take a couple of courses online through the Johns Hopkins CTY program. Soon, I'm starting some courses at a nearby university.

My understanding is that homeschooling is pretty flexible, and you can make up the program to fit whatever you're doing.

A good website that I used a lot to find out about what to do is: vahomeschoolers.org - it's very helpful and presents everything in a very simple format.