Are your kids out in public during traditional school hours?

[melmichigan]

Not the norm in our little town either so I guess I can understand that. After answering the question the first dozen times it gets much easier. Now we do whatever we are going to do, whenever that happens to be. I second the playground, museums and the like when the PS is in session. I let me kids out in the neighborhood and we meet the bus (4 yr old also gets services from the county) every day before lunch. We still get looks often but I think people are just curious here because you don't see it.

[elegantlion]

We go out sometimes and sometimes ds will go out for recess. I did decide that if he's going to shoot his bb gun or paintball gun and I'm not out there he should do it in the backyard. I'm not paranoid but I certainly don't want to deal with the ONE neighbor that might be concerned about a child out with a gun during school hours. :D

[sandalwood]

Our library is FULL of homeschoolers during the day. I think you'd be surprised at the amt. of homeschoolers out during the day. We generally are in during school hours, but sometimes take a day off and we get out without hesitation. If anyone asks and I feel like chatting, I say we homeschool. Most people say "Oh, aren't you lucky" to my son and leave it at that. I also make all our appts like dental, etc. while other kids are in school and our dr's love homeschoolers because in general they are well behaved. I think you can relax.

[Peek a Boo]

well, I'm a bring it on kinda gal, so i thrive on doing things like this. :)

 

We're out and about during school hours a LOT.

 

My 15yos has been out and about on his own several times this past year training for Philmont. Traffic is much lighter during the day. Since he was hiking or biking for several miles at a time, i made sure he had a dated, written note about his activities and school status, my cell phone to check in often, and I would call and ask neighbors to drive by his route. :) When i knew his route would take him into an adjacent community w/ curfew issues, i called the police station directly and alerted them to his presence and route and my contact info.

 

There was no way i was going to drag other kiddos along or drive reeeeeaaaalll slow behind him. my 12yo was not ready for the rigorous pace oldest was setting, and I wasn't going to leave my 12yos in charge of babysitting when i couldn't be there ASAP. DH was often out looking for jobs, and would sometimes accompany ds. Not one single time did ds go out and I didn't get a call from someone in our little community about it.

 

in a different community? probably different take. ;)

[Orthodox6]

Thank you, Pamela-H. One of the two articles which I located yesterday specified that one of these "juvenile delinquents", if accompanied by an adult, is not subject to penalty.

 

An interesting flaw is that, unless the "adult" requirement specifies the young person's parent, there is a loophole for, say, a young "salesperson" hitting the streets with his/her drug supplier who is of adult age. :blink:

 

My under-18 children don't go places alone, anyway, so this is a moot point -- unless they are apprehended in the history section of the Borders' Books, while I am fifty feet away in the music section !

 

I did read that much of the opposition voiced to the Dallas City Council came from homeschoolers, and from business owners. The business owners felt it wrong that they, too will pay a fine simply because an unaccompanied, underage person walks into the store and the management fails to interrogate him.

 

 

 

Orthodox,

 

http://www.dallascityhall.com/juvenile_curfew_faq.html

 

I'm pretty sure there is no issue for accompanied minors. They are just trying to do away with crime. However, I was looking at a website that said that 82% of crime during the daytime curfew times are done by adults. Maybe ADULTS should not be allowed out during the day? LOL

 

Anyway, so don't worry. I *am* going to look up the law in my town, but my son will always be with an adult (at least within a block of an adult he knows) so I'm not worried about it. He's legitimately homeschooled. I did run through a scenario or two with him if someone asks him so he can be firm, assertive and respectful IF he ever needs to answer an adult about being out of school, but I really am not worried about it.

[Pamela H in Texas]

I found out from an HSLDA article that my county was the first rural county in Texas to enact a daytime curfew. It was also the first to repeal a daytime curfew! This was back in like 1995-1996. I also found it VERY difficult to find current info here as one of the men involved in the DISD situation has the same last name as my town's name.

[OhM]

We go out whenever. I've sent dd to the local market (the "little store" as we call it) to pick up bread, flour, whatever we're out of, or to the post office to pick up the mail without a second thought, so they go out from time to time unaccompanied

 

After 4 yrs of being home, it's harder and harder to be polite to the "Why aren't you in school?" inquiries. My knee jerk response is to sigh heavily, roll my eyes, and glance at dd with an "Okay, tell her" look. (And has anyone else noticed it's almost always a "her"?) Mostly I just try to keep a neutral look while dd says, "I'm homeschooled." Any response overly enthusiastic is usually met with a blank stare. Yeah, I know, we're not doing our part in winning the world to homeschooling. :D But we usually have things to do, kwim?

[sweetgeo]

For the most part we just go out whenever we want, but I have days when I'm just not up to the questions, and then I deliberately put off errands till 3ish or after! I will admit I have reflected recently that summer is relaxing in part because I don't have to think about whether or not I want to field questions...except for the perennial "Are you looking forward to school starting?" and then we explain that we've already started back part time...sigh!

[TravelingChris]

It depends where we are and what they are doing. THey have things like classes, sports, and doctors and dentist appointments during the day. We go to libraries without regard to hours. Unless we are stopping after one of the above, I try not to go to a store but not because of curfews or questions, but simply that I want them doing their work. In Florida, my older dd would ride her bike to the library where whe volunteered during school hours once a week. More often, I go off to the store and they stay doing their schoolwork.

 

Sometimes, my younger walks the dog during the day. I don't keep track of school hours and school schedules all that well. WE keep moving and in a place like we are now living, some go to public, some to private, some to some other district, etc.

 

In the fifteen years of homeschooling, we have never had a problem at all. Sometimes people ask questions but no arguments.

[Peek a Boo]

I found out from an HSLDA article that my county was the first rural county in Texas to enact a daytime curfew. It was also the first to repeal a daytime curfew! This was back in like 1995-1996. I also found it VERY difficult to find current info here as one of the men involved in the DISD situation has the same last name as my town's name.

 

Our mayor is a homeschool dad that shot this down before it ever came before council. :D

 

One nearby town's daytime curfew makes it illegal for a child to be out during school hours even with a parent. The only allowance is for with a school official. they then define homeschool parents as school officials ;)

[elegantlion]

Ironically I try not to go places during the hours of 7am-9am or 2pm-4pm. We have to drive through SCHOOL zone traffic to even get to Walmart and it slows me down. So if go anywhere during the day it's gotta be between 9-2 or wait until after 4. I hate dealing with the school traffic.

[Impish]

We go out without considering anything but the reason we're going out :lol:

I'm horrid about not paying attention to the public school sched. WE were actually out at the grocery store on the first day of school last year, and were pretty grilled by several ppl. One woman was particularly obnoxious, asking Diva if she didn't miss x/y/z about ps. Diva looked at her as if she were nuts, and told her she didn't miss anything about ps, and never wants to go back.