Look what came in the mail!

We are officially members of a South Carolina legal option 3 homeschool accountability association! We chose Palmetto Homeschool Association (PHA). From the information on their website, I thought it might take over a month to get our membership finalized, but they got the papers out to us within a week! This means we can get started. Actually, we started Friday with a field trip to the children's museum for Ivey's birthday. Today was day #2 toward our required 180 days.

We are officially, legally doing kindergarten and getting credit for it! Yes, it's still sinking in. I'm just so, so, so glad I went to that awesome homeschool conference, because thanks to the levelheaded ladies I spoke to there, I am not freaking out right now. Two down, 178 to go!

We joined an option 3 association!

We finally decided on a homeschool accountability association to join (for South Carolina legal option #3). After much thought, we signed up and sent our paperwork off to Palmetto Homeschool Association. We should be all set to start counting days soon! We are signing up a bit late--could have started counting days in mid-June or July. But if my calculations are correct, doing only weekdays and not taking breaks, we'd have the opportunity to count about 210 days before the cutoff in the middle of June. We only need 180. Field trips--anytime we go to the children's museum, zoo, theatrical/musical performances, botanical gardens, and similar places, even on the weekends--count. There's a Saturday science lab that Suzi is now old enough to attend! Anyway, it made me feel good to see that we have plenty of days to get this done!

I found a planner book at Goodwill for cheap. It's really for a schoolteacher and not a homeschool mom, so it has lots of places for info I will never fill in--like contact information for 30 students and directions for a substitute teacher. But it'll work great for writing down a loose idea of what we're doing each day and keeping track of how many days we've completed. As long as it works, I'll use it! More detailed descriptions of our days and samples of Suzi's work will be kept on this blog and also in a binder.

Joining a homeschool accountability association

There are three legal options for homeschooling in South Carolina. I won't go into the first two options. Let's just say they require more work and offer less freedom than the third and most recently legislated option, which is what we are going with. Option Three states:

In lieu of the requirements of Section 59-65-40 or Section 59-65-45, parents or guardians may teach their children at home if the instruction is conducted under the auspices of an association for home schools which has no fewer than fifty members and meets the requirements of this section. Bona fide membership and continuing compliance with the academic standards of the associations exempts the home school from the further requirements of Section 59-65-40 or Section 59-65-45.

The rest of the detailed requirements are listed here if you want to read them. Basically, the association is the middle man between the homeschool parent and the state. We pay the relatively small annual fee, and they send us membership cards or a certificate stating we are members. We send them the required records and reports (which isn't too huge a task) and they report to the state on our behalf. I will not have to report to the school district or have my children tested. For me, choosing option 3 was a no-brainer.

Then I started trying to figure out which association to join. There are lots! Some of them require the bare minimum in accordance with state law. Some want more. One of the associations holds semi-annual "check-offs" at which the teaching parent must physically bring her plan book or journal in to be inspected. Jordan agreed with me that that wasn't for us; it reminded him too much of notebook checks in elementary school. So that one was an instant, unanimous no. I had narrowed it down to Palmetto Homeschool Association and Insights on Education and asked for advice in a Facebook homeschool support group. People started suggesting other ones, like my favorite so far, School's Out Support Accountability Association. It caters mostly to unschoolers and relaxed homeschoolers, which is what we are, over here learning in our PJ's. I love the trusting, positive tone of the School's Out website. People have wonderful things to say about their director. Overall, I just have a warm, fuzzy feeling about it!

So why haven't I joined yet? While the other two associations offer a transcript and diploma service, School's Out doesn't. If we end up homeschooling through high school as I'm hoping, will my children be better off applying for colleges and/or jobs with a diploma from an association? I'm not sure.

Homeschooling affords a kid all kinds of free time. I'm pretty sure that by the time Suzi is 17, she will have a portfolio of projects and accomplishments that will speak for itself, and hopefully her SAT/ACT scores will also be good. I know most colleges value and accept homeschoolers, partly because they usually do have something unique to offer to the academic community. My kids will probably be fine without an association's transcript and diploma. I think. Of course, Suzi is only five, so I could go ahead and join School's Out and then switch later if I really need to. I'm doing a little more research on this before I decide.

Have you faced a decision like this? Do you think the official transcript from an association is important? I'd love to know what you think, especially if you have older kids!