Has anyone tried partial homeschooling? For example, only attending school for half a day or a similar arrangement.
And/or does anyone have any advice on the wisdom of such an arrangement?

Breakaway

I have a friend who has done this with her kids and it has worked well. Mostly the school and teachers worked with her after she worked long and hard to establish good relations.

She pulls them out for specific subjects in which they need more challenging work.

I think the cooperation of the teacher is vital because special, fun things can be planned for when the child is in the room or NOT in the room, as the teacher likes. It can become punitive if the teacher is opposed to the arrangement. That's hard.

There is also the risk of the child becoming "neither fish nor fowl" and feeling out of place both in school and with homeschool groups. I suspect being mostly one or the other is best. (My friend's kids were pulled out for just an hour or so, I believe. That way they didn't miss much and they felt like schoolkids, not homeschoolers.) I think half-days might be too much. (But that's just IMHO...)

I think partial homeschooling or "dual enrollment" is a good option for some families. It just requires a lot of cooperation and communication.

The people I know who has tried this actually has ended up going back to school or going to full time homeschool. I think a lot of it has to do with the neither fish nor fowl scenario.

Having had a daughter in preschool last year while I was homeschooling DS, I feel like we felt a little of that. It was a good year, but now I realize our opportunities to feel like part of the homeschool community were limited by the 3 days a week we were committed to preschool. I feel like our opportunities are a lot broader this year. On the other hand it was a good transition year for us, and it helped cement the decision that yes, now we are homeschoolers. So it can be worth a try.

That being said, if either of my kids said they wanted to go back to school or go back to school part time, I would be totally game. This is working well for us now. But we'll see what the future brings.

I like Kriston's suggestion about either making yourself a homeschooler or a school kid. I do know someone who pulls their child from school one afternoon a week and does enrichment. That seems to be working really well for them. Definitely would help to have your principle and/or teacher on board!

We have dual enrollment written into my DD's IEP. She attended PS K-3rd. Then was HS the 1st half of 4th before we finally got an IEP. She attended 2nd half of 4th and 1st half of fifth for partial days. She would have ELA (English Language Arts), and some specials. This year it is Art and Music, plus she sees the social worker and has speech therapy services. As of Jan. 1st we took her out of ELA for the second half of the year to try an online class because she is beginning to get frustrated with the ELA. We are yet unsure what she will take next year, although we expect at least some specials at the middle school to go along with her other services. If her online class works well she will stay home for all her core subjects. If not we will look into something else, we have left the door open as far as the PS, and have maintained a good relationship there. We now have to forge a new relationship with the middle school. (My DD even rides the bus to school the two days a week and spends a 1/2 hour in homeroom before special so I don't have to drive back and forth. )

It is hard doing something outside the norm. Most who HS in our area will not even use the schools for services, let alone classes. They do not want their children in the halls, period.

The other hard thing for my DD, and the reason she is trying this online class is that they get used to the freedom of HS. So my DD got very frustrated with spending 2 hours in PS on ELA, when she knew how much time was wasted. She loves being able to have the extra time.

We have the opposite problem: homeschooled kids are not allowed to use ANY public school services in our district. We live just across the street from the public school, and I'd love the opportunity to take him over for recess, art, music, PE and library time. Maybe more if they would do a better job of working with us. And extracurriculars as he gets older would be lovely to get access too, seeing as we pay taxes and all...

But there's no flexibility there. Some districts around here allow it. Ours is as rigid about that as they are about grade skipping, subject acceleration, etc. No exceptions. *sigh*

So far we are the only ones to have this opportunity with the school district as far as the dual enrollment for any core subject. In MI they have to allow access to auxillary services if your child qualifies under IDEA and you register with the state. They also have to allow non essential classes, including AP. I am told these classes fill so quickly in the higher grades that the HS kids are effectively excluded. I am hoping that a good relationship with the district and continued conversations with them and the Director of Curriculum will smooth the way a little for the middle/high school years. Our school is still very rigid when it comes to the rest...

It is state law here to allow partial homeschooling. Although districts and schools vary widely in how cooperative they are. Some better schools have long waiting lists, so they probably don't feel particularly compelled to jump through hoops to help a partially homeschooled child.

I'd actually love to utilize our neighborhood school's art class, but the schedule is so erratic it would drive me crazy. There is a jr. high a block from us. I'm keeping that in mind for language classes, because we haven't found anything that works for us in the homeschool community. I'd love for the kids to take another language.

We plan to try it. The school district to which we are moving seems pretty flexible, and it is a statewide requirement that they allow dual enrollment. So, since DD wants to go to school, I think we'll start by enrolling her in the extras (music, art, and gym) and see how it goes.

Our state doesn't allow p/t homeschooling so we cannot use our public school. DS5 and DS7 attend a small private school 2 afternoons/week. The afternoon program includes lunch, recess, art, music, theater, story time, and such.

It works pretty well for us. The kids get to be around other children on regular basis, do things they wouldn't get to do at home such a theater, and I get a few hours off. It also takes care about all the annoying questions regarding homeschooling and socialization

We're not permitted to use any public school resources here. I can't really see the logic behind it, except for an irrational fear that we will "infect" the school population with the desire to homeschool.

Several years ago I really wanted my twice-exceptional son to have the opportunity to attend public school part time and I made the mistake of talking about this at a homeschool 4H meeting. I had no idea that other homeschoolers in my area were so against this. My son and I were shunned by several members of the homeschool group and we felt so uncomfortable around these people that we dropped out of the group for a few years.

Recently I rejoined the homeschool group. It had more than doubled in size since I left. I met a few other homeschool moms that also felt part time homeschooling might be good for their kids, but it still isn't allowed in our public schools and I don't think it will be any time soon.

After hearing stories about how things are in our public school, especially the bullying and the focus on sports, I now wish there were more homeschool classes available in our area so my son who is the only child at home could be around other kids while he learns. I think he misses being around other kids. He really enjoys his circuitry class and musical theater class, but most of the time it is just the two of us. At least he can go on facebook and keep in touch with the other musical theater kids.

Isn't it sad that no matter where you go people find it necessary to be judgmental and exclusionary? You would think that people who are enough off the mainstream to HS would understand and accept others different wants/needs etc.

I think if I hs DD she will miss the other kids. DS may but I think sports or classes would fulfill that need for him as he is a lot less social.

Thank you again for all the input and sharing of experiences from everyone!

Ds6 is having a tough time in K. I'm concerned he has sensory integration issues, possibly ADD and I think he is bored out of his mind at times. I decided today to just write a note to the teacher telling her we would do school at home this afternoon and I picked him up at 1. We had a great afternoon learning about food chains (his idea) and then we had recess and built a snowman. I found out he can stay focused and engaged for a whole hour if the topic interests and challenges him. We might need to start doing this on a regular basis now. Our school allows partial homeschooling which I am thankful for.

We go to a public school, that IS a homeschooling program. These schools are opening all over the country and are so awesome! We love it here is a link. http://www.cvchs.org/
On the website It all talks about Highschool for some reason but they also do elementry school.
So What happens is we homeschool through this public schools program. They provide us with all his books and work, free. They adapt it to him. For example my 5 year old DS is doing all first grade work. His head teacher says she'd like to test him again soon to see where he his now so we can continue to adapt is work to HIS needs. On top of his homeschool work, they also offer optional classes at the school on Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:00 to 12:00. He has 2 other kids in his class that he loves. and 3 different teachers for his different subjects there: Math, English, and Science on Tuesdays, PE, Art, and a Writing photography class on Thursdays. They also offer karate for 6-12th graders.

At the end of each section (month really) we have to turn in his work. And our head teacher asks him some questions to make sure he understands the material. They don't check for every assignment, but that it looks like the did a good amount of work. So if i think an assignment looks stupid or too easy. I can just do something else. Or do an assignment in a more fun way. I love that we can homeschool and he can go to school and have such a fun time with his friends. His classes are small. But they do get bigger, and the school is new. The teacher said the classees will never be bigger than 10 or so kids. I recommend looking into this in your area, they might be hard to find, they don't advertise so well in my opinion.

I was curious how many here were able to take advantage of partial homeschool through a private school....our county does not allow homeschoolers to take part in public school programs other than after school programs (so a child can do sports/clubs after school)...a lot of people here in Florida don't realize that many children are considered to have completed a full day by 11:30 so they can remove their child at 11:30 and they are counted as attending for the entire day....we attempted this plan with our local school at the beginning of the school year where I took DS7 out at 11:30 and then homeschooled in the afternoon but it was a disaster because the teacher refused to allow him to work at his level and the school refused to accelerate in any way, shape or form...so he was bored silly out of his mind all morning and then was able to explore everything as soon we got home...he got very angry and did not want to go to school anymore because he was allowed to work at his level all afternoon but at school he wasn't allowed to...so we went back to full homeschooling.

We were wondering if private schools would be more flexible allowing partial access but didn't even know if we should ask!

Belle,

We do p/t homeschooling through a private school (see my post on the previous page). It's worth asking. I suggest small private schools as they may be more interested in your money and also more flexible than a bigger school

Hi,

I'm refreshing this topic to see if anyone else has experiences with part traditional school and part homeschooling or alternative education.

Our state says public schools allow homeschoolers to partially attend... but in practice the public school we would like DS to attend from K-5 is usually full, he likely needs to start in K in order to have a place, I don't believe they've ever had homeschoolers at this particular public school.

Looking at the homeschool resources in our area I found a one-day-a-week program that looks wonderful. Interesting subjects, flexible age ranges allowed, etc. Seems like it might be a nice antidote to the K-2 classes at our local public school, where real enrichment opportunities don't start until 3rd grade. Our jobs could manage a one day a week plan too.

Has anyone been successful having a early elementary child go to public school 4 days a week and also have them spend a day at some alternative educational facility? (other than a child going to a MS or HS if the elementary's offerings were exhausted).

How did you approach this with the public school? Did you wait until your child was enrolled and then approach the teacher? the principal? a counselor or gifted coordinator?

Also if you are reading, LMom can you tell a little more detail about how you arranged with the private school to have your child attend some classes... did they adjust tuition significantly? What classes do your children go to? How is it socially for them to attend part of the time?

Belle that is really interesting about the 11:30 time... I wonder what other states rules are? That's definitely a fine print item, thank you for posting about it as I wouldn't have even thought to look into that.

Polly

Polly,

I would suggest that you examine closely the state board of ed's language concerning this issue to see if there are any requirements of you. For example, in Illinois, you must notify the school in writing the by April 30th of the preceding school year in which you wish to partial homeschool. And the child should be already enrolled, I believe.

We are on our second year of doing this and it's working okay now, but we had a few bumps along the way. We take out for an entire subject, which means taking the child out the same time every day and being responsible for that entire subject whether it be math or language arts.

Our best experience was when I met with the principal and explained what I was attempting to do and why and said: "I have a few ideas. I was thinking along the lines of...." then presented plan A, plan B and plan C. At that point, I asked him to see if he thought any of those plans would work out without being too disruptive to the teacher and class and set a meeting for 2 weeks later to have them weigh in on it.

I felt the approach I used engendered less of a feeling of attack and more of a feeling of a team approach. Plus, I had no idea what was realistic in terms of scheduling, the principal and teacher have that info.

They came back agreeing to the schedule I was happy with and the teacher has been amazing this year!

One objection I can already forsee with your proposal is that once per week the child will miss all the material for the day, yet at public school the teacher is going to feel on the hook for state and district testing requirements. You and I know there wouldn't be a problem, but I can see the teachers/admins maybe getting nervous about it.

Interestingly, in our case, my kids have told me that they get pulled to take all the district evals for the subject I take them out for!!! I think 2 years ago I would have been LIVID about this! But now I take it as part of the deal. Because my children are enrolled, they don't want to be on the hook if something goes wrong. To put it in perspective, my 7 y.o is currently doing what the district is testing for in 5th grade, so I'm not really concerned that the school will get concerned, KWIM? They just want to feel covered. Perhaps you can even take the lead and suggest this to them in the meeting as a fail safe for them. You can couch it as an assurance that child is on the right track and that you'd be appreciative of the evals so that you could also feel assured that the child is proficient in the area that they are missing at school.

Good luck with your meeting.

I just started homeschooling part-time TODAY! I pick him up at 1:30 so he misses the last 2 hours of K at school. I considered doing a few afternoons a week but I felt it would be too confusing to have him there some days and not others so I decided to do every afternoon for the sake of consistency. So I just need to cover math/science/social studies. But it is K which isn't even required in Iowa so we can really do whatever we want which is great - that means lots of science experiments, field trips and studying the human body, multiplication and whatever else he loves at the moment.

In hindsight, I really wish they had a half-day K program here because that's what we really needed from the beginning of the year and it's taken me this long to get the courage to do something about it. The school isn't very excited about what I am doing saying that they are worried he won't be ready socially for 1st grade. What is it about us needing to socialize our kids so they can handle school? It seems more about learning how to be in school than learning. I suppose that is necessary with the large number of kids in the classroom.

Polly - Good luck with your decision!

Ladysbugmom,

Interestingly, some of the *social issues* the schools are concerned about were actually much alleviated by having her(DD7) out of school part of the day.

I wonder whether they are doing this because they want to check up on you or whether they want to boost their school-wide scores.

Well, it's not the state achievement testing. They actually aren't allowed to do that via NCLB. That's meant to measure the teacher and if the kid isn't enrolled for a particular subject they aren't allowed to administer that.

It's the district assessments. That's an idea I hadn't thought about, though, that if their high performance helps boost their *rep* within the district.

Perhaps they're checking up on us, I don't know why they would.

Oh well, it could be for a variety of reasons. At some point both the parent and the admins/teacher have to have trust in one another in order to make partial homeschool or dual enrollment successful for the child.

I think partial homeschooling requires patience and flexibility on both the part of the parent and the school.

The school had an ad in the local hs newsletter. While the ad didn't mention homeschoolers I thought it was worth asking about. They were open to the idea even though they tried to sell me a full time enrollment first, of course The tuition is adjusted almost proportionally. Last year we paid 1/5 of the tuition, this year is a little bit more as they lowered the f/t tuition.

We chose the days based on the class schedule. Most of the academics are done in the morning. The afternoons are reserved for drama, art, dance, PE, music, story time, etc. The kids go there for lunch, recess, drama, music, art, snack, another recess and a little bit here and there. It works pretty well for us.

The school is very small. There are only a few children in the k-1 and 2nd-3rd classrooms which I think helps. One of the schools top priorities is making sure that the kids get along well. So far it has been working fine socially. I do worry that this may stop at some point but so far so good.

PM if you want more details.

We considered making a similar arrangement with a private GT school. They were low on enrollment, so they were happy to work with us. We chose to go another direction--a co-op, and then ultimately part-time with the school for homeschoolers--but the GT school was quite willing to work something out with us that would suit our needs, with the tuition to be prorated.

I suspect a school that had a waitlist wouldn't be interested. But if numbers are low, I'd bet a lot of private schools would consider partial enrollment.

Our state allows for dual enrollment. Mine attended just for the gifted pull-out program in 5th grade (mostly for social reasons; it wasn't that great a program). Next year my children will be taking a foreign language (hopefully Chinese, but I'm not sure yet) and band. I'd consider sending them as much as half-time, but honestly, there's nothing else offered at their level. Which sounds kind of snotty in general conversation, but I assume y'all would get what I mean.

We are having the same problem. I finally came clean with the counselor when I figured out her DD is gifted in one subject area. She told me to look elsewhere for anything but specials.