Homeschool World Forum

I have dicided to homechool my children. I want to start now wdith my 5th grader because they are having sex ed in health class next week. I would like to know exactly what I need to do to pull her out of school now in the middle of the year. I live in Minnesota. I am wondering also if I will have to do the standardized testing this spring, or can it wait until next school year. Please help if you are able. Thank you.

A standard form you can fill out and send in, from MACHE:
http://www.mache.org/HomeEd.htm

A similar form, and more detailed information, from MHA:
http://www.homeschoolers.org/minnesota_law_and_forms

MN homeschool groups:
http://www.home-school.com/groups/MN.html

Basically, you only have to send in the basic form (by October 1) if you have a bachelor's or a teaching degree. If you have neither, you also have to send in quarterly report cards - that situation is covered in the second link above. There is a yearly standardized testing requirement, and you have to include reading, writing, literature, fine arts, math, science, history, geography, government, health, and physical education in your curriculum, but there are no attendance requirements.

Regarding when specifically you have to take the standardized test, I don't know - that's something you need to discuss with your local school superintendent. If you use the school's test, you'll probably have to follow the school's schedule for testing, but I imagine there are other test suppliers in your state.

Is it better to get a whole curriculum together, where all subjects are covered, or to just pull different things together. I am worried that I may not cover everything, or forget something improtant. How do you make sure that if you pull from different sources, that you are covering enough. How do you go about writing a lesson plan. Is one even necessary?

Hi, I'm Veronica. I live in Houston Texas and want to homeschool my two teenage sons. They are ages 13 and 15. I need to know what are the requirements to start? Do I have to fill out paperwork? Do they require testing like the taks? Do I have to go through some sort of background check to homeschool? Do I have to get authorized through my state to homeschool? I'm getting mixed reviews and information on homeschooling. I greatly appreciate any and all information.

Another MN homeschooler here! If you join MHA (Minnesota Homeschoolers Alliance http://www.homeschoolers.org/)) for $25/year, you get a great packet of information about homeschooling in general and homeschooling in Minnesota. Plus you get several other things like discounts, a quarterly magazine, mailing list of events in the area, etc. You can check it all out on their page.

Also, there are a couple of yahoo lists in the Twin Cities area. One is ECHO-MN which is a great list and HSAdventures which is generally strictly events and field trips for homeschoolers.

I don't do boxed curriculum. I pull my curriculum from a variety of resources. Do I miss stuff? Yeah, I never go long without realizing what I'm missing or could be doing better and I research available curriculum and add it to our day. I pull stuff from workbooks, the internet, online games and lessons plans, library books - literally everywhere I can find it. If there's something you think your DC should be learning, toss it in. As long as you're covering the subjects required by law, you should be fine. I find that most homeschoolers easily go well beyond the minimum legal requirements - it's not hard to do. I have a blast homeschooling my kids. We never have a shortage of things to do and we have time to do things that other kids don't.


It does sound overwhelming at first, but with a 1st grader, we cover reading, spelling, writing, language arts (grammar), science, math, social studies, science, geography, art, music, Spanish, sign language, French, and phy ed. That sounds like a ton but we do each subject in 10 min increments and we don't do every subject every day. Obviously you would be able to tweak that with a 5th grader as their attention spans are longer but I'm sure you'll find a system that works for you and don't be afraid to yell for help. We've all been there - we've all looked around and thought "what did I do?" but once you find your groove, you'll be fine.

I can't answer your question about testing, unfortunately as I have a year old. I haven't even had to fill out the paperwork yet as he has not reached compulsory age in MN - that'll happen this fall when he turns 7.

Oh, and if you decide to join MHA, take your MHA card to Barnes & Noble and get your Educator's discount card. You get 20% off school related books and 4 times a year they have Educator's Week with all kinds of sales and events. Borders may have a similar program as well. I don't have a Borders where I live so I'm not entirely sure on that one.