Home-school laws for Virginia; textbooks and curriculum

So, I know I announced a while ago that I was officially home-schooling Cooper.  Well, I sorta did a 180* when an English Teaching job opened at his prospective school.  I thought I could "be there" for him in that way.  Then I found out about the discipline policy of the administrators, which is NOT appropriate for discussion in this forum.  If you are local and have questions feel free to email me.  Ask for my email in the comments section.  This new information explained A LOT of what I had experienced there as a substitute teacher, and I deemed it a hostile work environment, as well as a hostile learning environment and I withdrew my interest in the job and mailed in my "Intent to Home-school" form to the Superintendent.  So it's a done deal.

Virginia's Home-schooling laws are VERY restrictive.  Each state has their own laws, and most states offer a "religious" opt-out loop-hole.  Virginia requires that parents that intend to home-school their children provide the district Superintendent with their "qualifications", and curriculum.  Then the Superintendent looks over the information and makes the final decision.  There is no Unschooling here.  If you only have a GED, forget it, unless you have one heck of a curriculum, or have proof of enrolling your child in an online school.  At the end of each year a portfolio or test results must be submitted to prove the child has achieved objectives that are grade/age appropriate (those are two entirely different things, but go with it).  Luckily for us, we have www.soarathome.com because we are military.  If you don't have that, you can request that your child be tested with the public school kids on the state test (I am not sure of the cost of this, but I think it's free), or you can look into the CAT.  I think they run between 30-50 dollars.

Online schools you can access would be the Kahn Academy, which is free, or K12.com which may cost (depends on where you live), and I'm not sure how much it costs.  I know these two are VERY reputable.  I know there are others, but I'm not comfortable recommending them because I have little knowledge of them.  Feel free to add to this list in the comments section if you can vouch for your online school.  I know that both of these schools provide licensed teachers and are well respected.  On to curriculum.

I suggest using a curriculum if you are comfortable TEACHING your child.  I am in love with the texts I have chosen.  They will allow my son to self-guide his learning, which is important since he is almost 12 and not to into me hovering over him (insert angsty, 'maahh-oooohm' here).  I chose the grammar series by Michael Clay Thompson..  With my background as both an English teacher, and Special Education Teacher specializing in Dyslexia I must say that this process is the ONLY way to teach language to all kids.  He really breaks down language, and exposes the purpose of learning each segment and the relationship between the "ladder of Language" as I call it, or the micro to macro fro phoneme to essay!  The kids learn that words have functions (parts of speech), and the function determines a words place in sentence, and sentence punctuation relays a message and so on.  It teaches them the functionality of language instead of having them memorize the definition of a clause, comma, etc.  This is especially important for dyslexic kids.  The purpose of comma's, the function of suffixes, and their relationship to parts of speech, things that are often over-looked when grammar is taught in most classrooms.

I am getting my literature text from Kendall-Hunt.  I'm not using them for anything else, because Cooper has done their math curriculum before and not liked it.  I love their literature text because it provides kids with RELEVANT, age appropriate literature and analytic rhetoric.  It is by all means a Classical approach to literature.    I want him to think critically about what he reads.  This year I want him to learn to see the relationship between the author's life experience and the material they wrote about, as that will help him endure the boring biographical informational power point that will precede all literature he will read in public school.  I want him to be able to understand why the authors biography matters, before I send him back to public school.  Other wise he will be a very bored student.  There is often a disconnect, for students, when it comes to the purpose of the information they are receiving from their teacher.  They often think they are learning information so they can answer questions on a multiple choice test.  The Kendall-Hunt Language Arts texts, because they follow a Classical model, ensure the purpose of imparted information is clear.

I am using Challenge Math for Cooper.  It takes the student through each grade level math objective in baby steps.  This will allow Cooper, for whom math is quite the challenge, to self-guide his math instruction.  I also like Math-U-See.  Again, Cooper doesn't like this curriculum.

Science and Social studies are not as closely monitored by Superintendents, at least not for students in the Lower grades.  I will be providing him with lists of possible "units" for each subject and letting him research and teach me about the topics he's decided to learn about.  Each unit will be "tested" with his choice of project and demonstration, research paper (simple notation), or writing and grading a test he gives to me.  He will also be participating the Ft. Eustis Home-Schooler's Association T/Th PE class/get together.  No 12 year-old boy wants to hang with his mom 24/7/365!

I hope this information helps those of you who are thinking about home-schooling  in your journey to a decision.  If you are a home-schooler with valuable information to share, feel free to do so in the Comment section below!  Thanks!