Forrest Family Homeschooling

Resources

FAQ

Homeschooling in Framingham Massachusetts.

The Pennsylvania Law

In addition to the law, I have obtained a copy of a letter from Marion Gray, Basic Education Associate, PA Dept. of Education, explaining that the law does not require that a copy of the supervisor's high school diploma be submitted to a school district. Your affidavit is sufficient, so please don't let your school force you to do this or anything else not required by the law. Show them this letter if necessary.
Adobe Acrobat version (32k)
MS Word 98 for PC and Macintosh version of the letter (52k)
MS Word Rich Text Format (RTF) version of the letter (99k)
zipped version of MS Word 98 for PC and Macintosh version of the letter (34k)

Sample Affidavit

Download The Forrest's MS Word 5.1 for Macintosh version. (9k)
Download The Forrest's MS Word 6 version. (3k)
Download Carolyn Ellis' MS Word 6 version. (4k)

Sample Statement of Objectives

A note of explanation about these objectives is in order. We are using the minimalist approach recommended by the Pennsylvania Home Education Network, and articulated by Diana Baseman in The Pennsylvania Home Education Handbook. That is, we word the objectives in a very general way with few specific goals. You may notice that there are no claims that the student will learn any particular fact or concept. Even public schools cannot make any such claim. Remember, all the law requires is that the student show “overall sustained progress”—no more. Our particular spin is to cite some past progress as examples (this disqualifies us as pure minimalists) without promises of future accomplishments. This overall approach has several advantages:

1. It makes it easier to comply with the law, since you aren't caught at the end of the year trying to do the things you may have promised at the beginning of the year but didn't have time to do.
2. It makes it easier to write the objectives in the first place.
3. It reduces the burden of expectation by the school district for other homeschoolers. We can't all be super achievers, but those who are can make it tough on the rest of us by submitting large lists of difficult objectives; the school district may then expect the same of all homeschoolers.
4. Citing a few specific examples may result in less opposition from a cranky school official.

One final note: no matter what you write as an objective, the school district by law, cannot use that as a criterion for whether your home education program is out of compliance with § 13-1327.

Resource Groups

This is a very restrictive list of those groups that are culturally compatible with our homeschooling philosophy.

Pennsylvania Home Education Network

285 Allegheny Street

Meadville, PA 16335

Voice: (412) 561-5288

PANetwk@aol.com

Holt Associates/Growing Without Schooling

P.O. Box 89

Wakefield, MA 01880

info@holtgws.com

Waldorf Without Walls

Barbara Dewey is one of our favorite homeschooling resources, and our daughter has thrived under her gentle, patient guidance.

A to Z Home's Cool

Good info for homeschoolers all over.

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Last Updated 21 February 2009 Please send any comments about or problems encountered with this web area to David Forrest at [my first name] at davidrforrest.com. © copyright 1998-2009