Sylvia Toyama

My sister is ready to try homeschooling!!!!! She's just moved to
Memphis and the mid-school her son attends is toxic.

I visited the HSLDA site to get the basics, and she could do this,
but I'm hoping to find local contacts for her. She's not online
yet -- later this month she will be -- so I told her I'd help her
find some local contacts. My first thought was to see if anyone I
already know is in TN.

Sylvia -- off to find hs info about memphis...

Pam Sorooshian

On Feb 8, 2005, at 9:02 AM, Sylvia Toyama wrote:

>
> Sylvia -- off to find hs info about memphis...

<http://www.geocities.com/unschoolersofmemphis/>
Unschoolers of Memphis

And - don't go to HSLDA for state laws - get it from the people who
live there.

Kay Brooks is an absolutely amazing resource person - go to her site:
<http://www.tnhomeed.com/>

-pam

Sylvia Toyama

Thanks, Pam. I'd only gone to HSLDA to see what the notification/degree/testing requirements might be. She gets easily overwhelmed and I wanted to see that it wasnt' something like, say, PA.

Sylvia


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[email protected]

In a message dated 2/8/2005 11:38:02 AM Central Standard Time,
pamsoroosh@... writes:

Sylvia -- off to find hs info about memphis...

<http://www.geocities.com/unschoolersofmemphis/>
Unschoolers of Memphis



~~
Second that. Give Mary Jo or Margaret a call, tell them Karen Tucker sent
you. :)

Karen

www.thanksmom.blogspot.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Sylvia Toyama

Second that. Give Mary Jo or Margaret a call, tell them Karen Tucker sent
you. :)

Karen

****

Thanks, Karen! I just called her and gave her the names & numbers. I'm sure she'll be calling them any moment now. She just contacted the school district office and was first told she'd need to ask permission for a waiver of the August deadline. She replied to them that she'd talked to someone who told her that since there's a 30 day deadline for newcomers to enroll in public school, she also had 30 days to register as a homeschooler. At which point the contact said, "okay, that makes sense -- I'll send the package to you."

Let me say, for my sis this is huge -- she's not the most pro-active of people, and often will take No for an answer.

She'd called the phone voicemail number for a group listed at TNHomeed.com as the Memphis Area Home Educators and reached a recording saying it was a non-published number followed by a busy signal, so she was worried about finding someone. From what I found online, it looks like most of the groups are church-based -- she's pagan/wiccan, so she really needs an inclusive group.

Sylvia


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[email protected]

In a message dated 2/8/2005 1:06:56 PM Central Standard Time,
sylgt04@... writes:

She'd called the phone voicemail number for a group listed at TNHomeed.com
as the Memphis Area Home Educators and reached a recording saying it was a
non-published number followed by a busy signal, so she was worried about
finding someone. From what I found online, it looks like most of the groups are
church-based -- she's pagan/wiccan, so she really needs an inclusive group.




~~~
MHEA is a Christian group, fyi.

She doesn't have to register with the school district. She can register
with a church related school. Mary Jo can help you with all that.

Karen

www.thanksmom.blogspot.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

soggyboysmom

--- In [email protected], tuckervill2@a... wrote:
>
>
> In a message dated 2/8/2005 1:06:56 PM Central Standard Time,
> sylgt04@y... writes:
>
>she's pagan/wiccan, so she really needs an inclusive group.
>---
> She doesn't have to register with the school district. She can
>register with a church related school. Mary Jo can help you with
>all that.
>
> Karen

How would registering with a church related school help someone who
is not church related? Or would they accept whatever organization,
if any, she is involved with related to her personal spiritual
choices?

Johanna San Inocencio

this is what I was talking about last week. You can register with the
local board of education wherever you live, but you have to meet certain
requirements. There are a few Church related schools that do not require
you to sign a statement of faith. do check out the TnHomeEd website, it
has a lot of good info, including what schools do not require a
statement of faith.

Johanna
" A man is as free as he chooses to make himself, never an atom freer."
The Raven, Lillith by George MacDonald
***********************************************************************
Come to the Northern Regional War Practice, March 5 2005
Cumberland Mountain State Park, Crossville, TN
Armored Combat, Youth Combat, Rapier, and Classes
Brought to you by the Shire of Easaraigh
www.easaraigh.org
**************************************************



soggyboysmom wrote:

>
> --- In [email protected], tuckervill2@a... wrote:
> >
> >
> > In a message dated 2/8/2005 1:06:56 PM Central Standard Time,
> > sylgt04@y... writes:
> >
> >she's pagan/wiccan, so she really needs an inclusive group.
> >---
> > She doesn't have to register with the school district. She can
> >register with a church related school. Mary Jo can help you with
> >all that.
> >
> > Karen
>
> How would registering with a church related school help someone who
> is not church related? Or would they accept whatever organization,
> if any, she is involved with related to her personal spiritual
> choices?
>
>
>
>
>
> "List Posting Policies" are provided in the files area of this group.
>
> Visit the Unschooling website and message boards:
> http://www.unschooling.com
>
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Sylvia Toyama

Thanks, everyone, for all the ideas and links. Sunny (my sis) got a call back from Mary Jo, with the Memphis unschoolers group, and was very happy to hear it's not as bad as she'd feared to homeschool in TN. The group has several outings/events coming up, so they'll show up for some of those activities and find their way around.

I am just so happy for her kids -- the description of their experiences in Memphis schools was a nightmare, and they only enrolled on Jan 21. I'm so pleased she's doing this for them, and of course thrilled to have them also homeschooling. I've always thought she'd make a great homeschooler -- and if she spends enough time with unschoolers, she'll see how easy it all can really be.

Sylvia




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[email protected]

In a message dated 2/8/2005 1:56:24 PM Central Standard Time,
debra.rossing@... writes:

How would registering with a church related school help someone who
is not church related? Or would they accept whatever organization,
if any, she is involved with related to her personal spiritual
choices?




~~~

Some do, some don't. The ones that don't usually don't require testing,
either. There are far more restrictions on you if you are going through the
school district, and there's some discussion about whether high schoolers have
to take the benchmark exams that public school kids take. A parent also has
to have a 4 year degree to homeschool a high schooler, but not through a
church school.

It all depends on how she wants to play the game. It's good to know all
options. I second the recommendation for _www.tnhomeed.com_
(http://www.tnhomeed.com)

Karen

www.thanksmom.blogspot.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

soggyboysmom

Wondering/curious: would it be possible for someone to set up
an "organization" that would function as a "church school" yet not
be "Christian" in nature? After all, there are many many people of
all spiritual traditions who are homeschooling - what do Jewish and
Muslim and Buddhist and such homeschoolers in TN do?

Sylvia Toyama

Wondering/curious: would it be possible for someone to set up
an "organization" that would function as a "church school" yet not
be "Christian" in nature? After all, there are many many people of
all spiritual traditions who are homeschooling - what do Jewish and
Muslim and Buddhist and such homeschoolers in TN do?


******

She's found that there's a pagan/wicca group there actually organized as a legal church there in Memphis, and is hoping to connect with them and find out if there are any homeschoolers there as well.

She and I've heard from three different folks who recommended Home Life Academy, so she's probably going to go with that option. The whole parent education thing is also a question for her, because she got her GED, so she wasn't sure if that was considered to be a 'real' high school diploma for TN's purposes.

She'll figure it all out. They've only been there three weeks, she could just as easily announce she'd decided to move back to Ft. Worth, disappear for a month or two (she has family there, too) and come back under the radar. She's managed to connect with unschoolers there, so I'm confident she'll do just fine.

Sylvia


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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

soggyboysmom

>
> She's found that there's a pagan/wicca group there actually
organized as a legal church there in Memphis, and is hoping to
connect with them and find out if there are any homeschoolers there
as well.
>
> Sylvia

Cool - so there are ways to manage that. I was thinking there
probably was - otherwise you get into the whole church/state thing
as well as religious discrimination stuff.

Sylvia Toyama

Well, the church still has to be willing to set up a Church Related School under TN law, and from what she can tell Summerland Grove hasn't done anything like that. She is very happy to have found them, tho, since she's been affiliated with the UU-CUUPS in the past, but there's not one CUUPS group (don't know if there are UU's there) in the entire state of TN.

This is a major move for them -- her dh is Ft. Worth born & bred, all his family are there. She's been in Ft. Worth for 14 of the last 20 yrs. All their friends are in Ft.Worth, and they have no family nearby (for the first time in their lives) in Memphis. So, she's there in a very Christian place, with hostile schools, no friends and not even any family to turn to. This whole school issue could have really overwhelmed her (she tends to overwhelm easily) but instead she's turning it into a real triumph for her family.

Sylvia


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[email protected]

In a message dated 2/9/2005 9:35:00 PM Central Standard Time,
sylgt04@... writes:

Well, the church still has to be willing to set up a Church Related School
under TN law, and from what she can tell Summerland Grove hasn't done anything
like that. She is very happy to have found them, tho, since she's been
affiliated with the UU-CUUPS in the past, but there's not one CUUPS group (don't
know if there are UU's there) in the entire state of TN.



~~~

Yeah, and there are some serious requirements, including accreditation stuff
I mentioned earlier. I hope they make it happen, because it's a real need.

There ARE people in Memphis who can be like family. I hope she finds them.

Karen




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Johanna San Inocencio

My understanding of the law is yes someone could but it has to be a
"church related school", meaning it has some connection to an
established church in Tennessee AND be accredited by one of the
accrediting organizations listed.

Johanna
" A man is as free as he chooses to make himself, never an atom freer."
The Raven, Lillith by George MacDonald
***********************************************************************
Come to the Northern Regional War Practice, March 5 2005
Cumberland Mountain State Park, Crossville, TN
Armored Combat, Youth Combat, Rapier, and Classes
Brought to you by the Shire of Easaraigh
www.easaraigh.org
**************************************************



soggyboysmom wrote:

>
> Wondering/curious: would it be possible for someone to set up
> an "organization" that would function as a "church school" yet not
> be "Christian" in nature? After all, there are many many people of
> all spiritual traditions who are homeschooling - what do Jewish and
> Muslim and Buddhist and such homeschoolers in TN do?
>
>
>
>
>
> "List Posting Policies" are provided in the files area of this group.
>
> Visit the Unschooling website and message boards:
> http://www.unschooling.com
>
>
> *Yahoo! Groups Sponsor*
> ADVERTISEMENT
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *Yahoo! Groups Links*
>
> * To visit your group on the web, go to:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UnschoolingDiscussion/
>
> * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> [email protected]
> <mailto:[email protected]?subject=Unsubscribe>
>
> * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
> Service <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/>.
>
>


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