I have a friend who is seriously considering homeschooling her soon-to-be-schoolaged daughter. She was wondering if anyone has any experience with the Texas Tech University Independent School District and if anyone knows of any schools that work WITH homeschool families in our area.
One caveat: any education program she gets involved with must be secular.
I don’t know if I have any info specific to north TX. I’d have to dig around a bit. How old exactly is the child? School-age means different things to different people, which is why I ask.
Does the family have internet access? There are lots of resources out there if they do. When I was in high school (and no longer home schooled at that point) I took two math classes (calculus BC and statistics) through internet-based programs. This is probably a bit advanced for the kid, but there are things out there for younger students.
I can recommend some books and teaching plans if you like.
I saw this topic (TTISD) on a GT board recently (like, 2 days ago or so) . Have her look here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/texastag/
No experience with it myself, though.
This question can be answered much better at a homeschooling forum. E-mail me, and I’ll give you a couple.
It is now very common for public school districts to have some kind of independent study program for people who want to homeschool. Such programs generally offer supervising teachers (you meet once every couple of weeks), group classes for some subjects (esp. art/music), and so on. Some even give you money to buy curriculum within an approved list.
Many consider this to be a win/win situation; the schools make a profit, since they keep the ADA money and spend less on each student, and the parents give the individual attention and so on. Independent homeschoolers are wary of such programs, feeling that once you’re signed up, the school can change requirements and tighten control without warning, and that states may try to change homeschooling laws to require participation in such programs.
But homeschooling laws vary with each state, and local policy on ID programs with each district. Don’t worry about the availability of secular programs; homeschooling has attracted such a wide variety of people that it is no longer possible to say what the ‘average’ family is like. Your friends will probably have some company. And there is tons of secular curriculum out there.