rpaul

Hi, Helen!

We live in New York, and for reporting purposes (and assessment purposes)
we use Clonlara School. Some unschoolers loathe them, others love them.

We have found them to be helpful to us.

They offer a curriculum, but they suggest families modifiy it to their own
needs. Also, they do believe in a child led learning, and learning through
life experiences. They do not "believe" in text books (per se), but
respect a families choice to use them.

Clonlara not only assists homeschoolers, but has a private accredited
school as well, which gives them some credability.

They offer a high school diploma (which some recognize, others don't. But
for answering relatives, and the world in general, you can say they are
graduating through a private school. As for colleges, you may still want
to go for the GED, or just take those SAT's - depends on the school.) Your
children can even tell folks they are enrolled in Clonlara school, without
lying, if they are being hassled. (we have always told people that we are
homeschoolers, and our son says it proudly. We are thinking of just saying
we are enrolled with a private school, because we have already had busy
bodies report us to social services, because we homeschool! We're getting
tired of the hassle.)

Lastly, IF it becomes important for your children to attend a graduation,
Clonlara has a graduation each year, for their graduating students. I've
heard wonderful things of it. I've heard some unschoolers denounce this
practice. Personally, I feel it depends on the child's desire. I have a
friend who has her children enrolled in Clonlara. So far, one wants to go
for the ceremony, the other has no desire for it.

Anyhow, if your interested (or just want to inquire), Clonlara's phone
number, addres, and web page are:

Clonlara School
1289 Jewett, Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-769-4511
FAX: 734-769-9629
Email: clonlara@...
WEB SITE ADDRESS: www.clonlara.org

You can ask them to mail you a packet of info.

Hope some of this is helpful or useful to you.

Diane

____________
Message: 11
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1999 19:11:19 -0700
From: Helen Martiniuk <plumplus@...>
Subject: Re: highschool diploma?

I'm trying to examine all the options. My main concern is how to deal with
inlaws, friends and other curious people who all seem to need answers. As
I said,
my girls are 13 and 15, and I'm starting to feel the pressure.

The way it looks, our only options are public school (NOT),
correspondence(WAY to
much paperwork--I could go on and on about this one), and GED, or--
nothing.

Did you do anything special to prepare your boys for the GED?

Helen
> My two older boys took and passed the Ged this past summer but they
> wanted out of high school. They were past the age where they wanted to
hs.
> They just wanted out.
>
> Laura