Homeschooling in Georgia Do's and the Don'ts

If you have thought about homeschooling your child in Georgia, the first thing you need to do is educate yourself on what you can and cannot do. Every state has its own guidelines when it pertains to homeschooling. Here you will learn the do's and the don'ts of homeschooling in the state of Georgia.

1. Your child must have 180 or more days of attendance when home-schooled in Georgia. After 180 days, you are free to do whatever you choose. Either keep teaching or not. It is completely up to you.

2. A declaration of intent must be submitted to the superintendent thirty days after you begin the home school program. Once the first year has been submitted, you are required to submit a declaration by September 1st every year after.

3. Home-schooled student must have four and half hours of teaching. Parents must keep a record of everything that is done, whether it be hand written or type on the computer.

4. Parents must teach a basic academic program to their child/children. Subjects that must be included are math, reading, language arts, science, and social studies. You may choose as many subjects as you wish, as long as those five subjects are included. Other suggestions are art, physical education, religion of choice, music, and a language of choice.

5. Parents are allowed to teach their own children the curriculum they have chosen, as long as they have a high school diploma or GED. If you feel as though you need someone else to teach them or help you teach them, it is required that the person you hire have a high school diploma or a GED as well.

6. If your child is attending school and you plan on taking them out to home school them, you must inform the school of what your intentions are. If you do not, after 10 days your child will be considered truant. Remember to ask the school for your child's attendance record.

7. All parents must submit attendance records every 30 days to the local superintendent. When making these attendance records, use a calendar year of 365 days, starting on September 1st.

8. All home-schooled children must take the NSAT ( National Standardized Achievement Test) every three years. They must take this test by the end of the 3rd grade. You do not have to submit these to anyone, you do however have to keep a record showing that the tests were taken.

9. You do not have to submit grades to anyone when you are home schooling your child/children. Grades kept are only valuable if your child plans to attend school again, or begin college. Even then, they are rarely needed.

10. No parent is required to ask permission to home school their child/children in Georgia. It is your child, so there for you have the right to either have them schooled or school them yourself.

Although it seems as though it is a lot and overwhelming, if you put it all together, it is very simple. Remember to always document everything you do. Using the computer to do this is much more efficient. You can burn your files to a disk just in case something happens to the computer.

Make out a weekly school schedule for your child or children. Although they are not in school, it is better to keep them on a daily routine. If they are sick, be sure to document that they are sick and was not able to participate.

Join home school groups in your community. You can locate home school groups online by searching Google or Yahoo. These groups have many fun activities for children of all ages. Many times they have field trips, and group studies just like public school would.

Many children do not like school for the simple fact that it can get boring to them. Make the home school environment fun, exciting, and interesting for them to learn. If you make learning exciting, then the more your child will want to excel in learning and will succeed.