I just recently came across Gifted Education Mandates by state on Hoagies Gifted website. I noticed that one of the options is part time home school. Do any of you do this? I would LOVE to hear how this works for your family. TIA!

We haven't tried it yet, but it is pretty common in our area. I've heard of families only sending their kids for specials or only sending their kids during specific times. The schools around here are very flexible but I know that is not the case everywhere. I'd recommend starting with your local school to see if it is even an option, and how they do it if it is.

My son did one year of half homeschool then after lunch he joined his class for the rest of the day. It was what he needed that year but there were some glitches. For example, if she gave them time to work on an afternoon subject in the morning or if she combined a project to be both a writing/Language Arts project/grade and a Social studies grade and he was only there for one of the subjects. We worked around those glitches as best we could.

Is there a list of states that allows this?

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/mandates.htm

Well it doesn't say FL allows, it but they do, sort of. Here is how it works. There is a "Tim Tebow" provision that says homeschool students can participate in after school activities. If those activities also require a class, then the school has to allow the student to take the class and participate. For example, marching band after school also requires an in school class. FBLA requires a business class, etc. Also, an ESE student who is homeschooled and needs therapies or other services is allowed to come to school and get speech or OT or whatever they need.

So then you start asking if this is allowed then what about other part time situations. What I was told was that each county had to address this in their Pupil Progression Plan that they register with the state. And as long as there was nothing in the PPP that disallows anything beyond what I listed above, then you can attend part time.

Also, FL has the big FLVS (virtual school) and many kids take a combination of FLVS classes and in school classes.

When my son was part time, there were a few things he didn't qualify for because he didn't generate FTE funds...like he was considered "adult lunch price" because he wasn't a student and couldn't get a student ID...this only mattered once or twice during the whole year so it wasn't a big deal because he was eating lunch at home before he went to school. And a few other odd things.

Funny . . . I just e-mailed FLVS last night to see what they do with a kid who needs a different grade level for each subject.

Have you used FLVS? How was it?

Well FLVS has two different parts. There is K-8th(??) grade that is contracted with Connections Academy (not sure what grade it actually ends). I have no idea how they deal with acceleration. I do know that my particular county virtual school coordinator says that you have the ability to place your child in the appropriate level for each subject (because I was inquiring about it once)...how that really works out I don't know, do they placement test or take your word for it or do they just give lip service and place you according to age anyway?

My son is taking a middle school class not from Connections part but from the FLVS program that goes 6th-12th grade and doing fine...but he isn't PG. It is nice because you go at your own rate/pace. Some people say virtual classes have a lot of busy work. His class has the meat of the lesson (reading, listening, and sometimes some little flash activities), a practice worksheet (which is ungraded so I feel like a PG kid could just glance at that and skip it if he/she didn't feel like they needed the practice), and then an assessment or two. My son's class is a foreign language so some of the little assessments are written and some are recordings of him speaking the language. Some lessons have one assessment and some harder lessons have had up to 4 assessments (they aren't long).

When we were still in summer he was flying through the class. He had to go back to school and he hit harder concepts in the class and he has slowed down.

I think it has been a positive experience.

Hi Camille ~ We've been doing partial homeschooling for the past few years and absolutely LOVE it! It all started with needs not being met in the regular classroom or in the pullout gifted program. After a WISC, an SB5, an achievement test, plus lots and LOTS of paperwork, documentation up the wazoo ... The principal and teachers all agreed it would be best to partial homeschool and it has been the best. When we started, I had him in the mornings for math, science, social, language arts... Then I would drop him off in the afternoon for all the specials such as art, gym, music, lunch, recess...This year he got subject accelerated in most subjects (different school) but I still bring him back home for an hour in the afternoon to work on some online classes he's taking through a university. I also bring him back to his younger grade to participate in most of the field trips, orchestra, and sometimes art or math if it falls on a particular day. He has very close friends at both schools and has the type of personality that can handle all of the different schedules. As you can probaby tell, I spend A LOT of time in the car driving him back and forth between his two schools and home. Luckily, everything is within minutes of each other. If I didn't have the distance luck or the support of staying at home to do this, I honestly don't know what I would have done. Both schools are unbelievably flexible and understanding of everything, BUT I had to have all the back up with test scores and several emotional meetings, where I'm crying and well...you get the picture! My child is thriving and everyone is happy. True, it's a pain in the butt at times with the driving back and forth and remembering all of the different schedules (my phone has about a million alarms set!) There are days when he has to miss out on something because a class or whatever is more important at the other school or other scheduling mishaps, BUT it is so worth it. It's the best of both. I look at it as my full-time job and wouldn't have it any other way