Are you thinking of home schooling your child or children in Florida? Wondering what the requirements are and how to get started? It’s really not as scary as you may think. Florida is actually a pretty easy state to begin home schooling in.Home education, as defined by Florida law, is “sequentially progressive instruction of a student directed by his or her parent or guardian in order to satisfy the requirements of Statute 1003.21 and 1002.41.” Florida’s home schooling law is broad giving parents almost unending freedom in educating their children.Basically there are six requirements that must be met to Florida home school.1. Notify the District School Superintendent in your county of your intention to home school. The notice of intent must be filed with the superintendent’s office within 30 days of beginning your home school program.Currently there is no “official form” that is used to supply notice but your written (or typed) letter of intent should include at the bare minimum the following information; Name of child (or children), Birthday of each child named, Address and a Parent’s Signature. It is recommended that you send your letter of intent via certified or priority mail and file the receipt as proof in your child’s portfolio.2. Maintain a portfolio of records. While there is no proper or “official” way to record your child’s home schooling progress you must maintain a portfolio of records. The portfolio must consist of two main parts; Documented Records and Sample Materials. Documented Records is defined as “A log of educational activities which is made contemporaneously (the documentation should occur at the same time as the instruction) with the instruction and which designates by title any reading materials used.”Florida home schooling law does not require lessons to be planned or approved in advance. Sample Materials is defined as “Samples of any writings, worksheets, workbooks or creative materials used or developed by the student.” Showcasing your child’s “sample materials” can be accomplished in various ways. Keep in mind that whichever method you adopt to showcase your sample materials they need to be organized in chronological order for ease in showing educational progress. More elaboration on this topic in the future… hopefully.3. Keep your portfolio organized and available. Florida home schooling law requires you to make your portfolio “available for inspection by the superintendent or the superintendent’s agent, upon 15 days’ written notice.” The last thing you will want to do is be scrambling around trying to remember what you did when for the last 3 months and what was the name of those books you read again…. The inspection is only to make sure that the portfolio is legal; the superintendent cannot evaluate its contents.4. Submit your Annual Evaluation. The law requires an annual education evaluation by a Florida-certified teacher of your choosing. You are required to have your child or children tested annually and submit the evaluation to the superintendent’s office no later than one year from your letter of intent date.Alternatives to having an evaluation performed include; any nationally normed student achievement test administered by a certified teacher, a state student assessment test, a psychological evaluation or any other method mutually agreed upon by the parent and the superintendent.5. Hang on to those Portfolios, your going to need them. Florida home schooling law dictates that “The portfolio shall be preserved by the parent for two years.” Enough said.6. Submit your Notice of Termination. If you decide to no longer home educate under 1002.41, move from the county, enroll your child in a public or private institution or if your child graduates or completes the Florida home school program you must file a letter of termination with the superintendent. The notice of termination should include the same information as the letter of intent and should be filed within 30 days of the date or termination.7. Relax. Okay I know we said there were only six requirements but this one is worth mentioning. As long as there have been parents and children, “home schooling” has been happening. Today an estimated 1.6-2.0 million children are being taught at home by their parents. By grade 8, the average home school student performs four grade levels above the national average.Research has found that most homeschooled students are involved in a wide variety of outside activities, interact with a broad spectrum of people, and make positive contributions to their communities. Experience has shown that homeschoolers are well socialized and able to make lasting friendships across age and cultural divides.Painless right? We promised it wasn’t that bad and now that you have all of your legal bases covered you can concentrate on enjoying the home schooling experience and enriching the lives of your children through learning. Now all that’s left is to decide on a curriculum… Decisions… Decisions…
Why Blog? Two and a Half Reasons Your Small Business Success Depends on Your Answer
Why Blog? Do you like to eat?Kidding aside, here’s why leveraging your product or service with a great blog is the easiest way to build your following. You want your clients to get to know you so they know what you are selling. Competition is raging in nearly every field as thousands of people displaced from their careers are giving online business a try.As a small business owner, coach or author you have to do things differently to be noticed. That is old news. What’s new is that you have to be even more client savvy than ever before. People are being awfully careful about hitting that buy button.As John Hiler of Microcontent News says, “Just log onto the web and you’re in the Blogosphere. Geography has become irrelevant. The Blogosphere is increasingly global, and as more and more countries come online, it will become even more so.The Blogosphere is nearly free–both for bloggers and for readers. For less than the price of a cup of coffee, you can take part in the global conversation with some of the smartest and most informed people on the planet. What are you waiting for.”1. Google LOVES Blogs: Blogs are dynamic websites. Adding content every week is what makes the site get Google’s attention and gets it ranked closer to the first page.. Traditional websites are static. New material is not added every week and so even though they may be beautiful, they are not as attractive to Google.2. Your clients use Google and they are typing something into the search window that could be pointing to you. If you have enough presence on-line and they can find you! The more pages you have on line, the higher your internet presence is recognized by Google.Each blog entry is a page and you have complete control of when and how often those pages are published, you don’t have to have a web designer publish for you. (Awesome for all the control freaks out there, just sayin’)Blog Angel Tip: Don’t over do it though, two a week is considered polite in cyber-land, if you slam with 4 a week, it is considered rude and you never want to be perceived as rude on-line, it’s a neighborhood after all.3. Do you really need a number 3?Blogging is simply having a pen pal relationship with your clients or customers. The key is to have an easy format for posting. I use WordPress and have since I wrote my first blog in 2007. Once you open the door, your followers will come right in and they will let you know what they are looking for. Seriously. Nearly all of my list building is done through my blog.My blog tells me exactly what people type into the Google search window that brought them to my site. Then I write articles with that very issue, sometimes the exact question that was searched. (Google: “I Just Had Ex Sex. Now What?” and you’ll see what I mean.)I operate my entire business from a blogsite. I have a separate site for the LOAinLoveClub.com I work at getting two blogs posted a week. Some weeks I make it, some I don’t. I also send notices through Facebook and Twitter whenever I post a new blog. I have met the best people this way…clients, colleagues and mentors.If your blog experience hasn’t been fun for you, yet…. please don’t give up! It is possible to learn a few basic skills and be enjoying your blog time in no time! If I can do it…you can do it too!
Text Publications for Home Schooling
Anymore, home intellectual acquirement is swiftly becoming the cotemporary rage in intellectual acquirement. In any case homeschooling has been at hand since the takeoff 20th century, it is not until now that it has elevated in fondness, with more and more families concluding to have their youngsters experience homeschooling. In the United States, it has been suggested that at hand there are 3 million young people are involved in homeschooling programs.There are large amounts of principles that may explain why Dads have adopted the method of educating their children at home. Arrays of dads are agitated with their youth’s safeness, in particular because of the incessant amplification of evil in the junior high school encompassment. Interests about doctrinal standards, customs, and disgruntlement with the junior high school structure, are to boot some of the conditions that are affected in making this choice. School kids who are home schooled are expected to understand an assortment of subjects. Pupils who are applying oneself at home sweet home are armed with the components that they need for their schooling.There is an opulence of text publications that are especially designed to adjust to the needs of home schoolers. Those pupils who are engaging in unit studies are armed with unit study publications or guides. This is a strategy of knowledge that is centralized on one theme at a time. This will have all of the pointers that they will need while they are being trained on a distinctive lesson or issue.Another way of intellectual acquirement is to forge use of prepackaged curriculum. This primarily incorporates the general education that is used in society schools. Text publications of this kind often give instructions that are step by step, so school kids will not have any questions following the lessons. A great abundance of youth who are home schooled to boot borrow their text publications from libraries. This is a very sensible way of procuring all of the tips that they’ll need.Books are an integral part of a student’s knowledge. For those pupils who are studying at home, homeschooling publications turn into an vital aid that supports them in their mission of course of study.