How do you count days of instruction?

[CatholicMom]

Some days, like today, I don't do our normal school day routine because I am unable to sit down and teach the kids, but I want to some *some* school, so I will have the kids do anything they can do independently... Teaching Textbooks, their normal reading/journaling, and add in flash cards, a science movie, and history audio CD.

 

So should I count days like today as "one of our days of school" (i.e. towards my 180 day requirement in NY state) or not?

 

We will be 1 day behind in some subjects but not the ones they can do independently, so if I want to finish those texts I will have to make up that day later anyway, but it's still not like we "didn't do school" at all. Ya know?:001_huh:

[d.g.]

I tend to count days like that as half days, with a make-up half day later on. I schedule a few 1-week breaks throughout our year (we school year-round) that can be used to catch up if needed.

[BugsMama]

If we cover our core (reading, writing, math) it's a school day, even if that is just 1/3 of what we normally do (grammar, spelling, science, history, art, music).

A field trip counts, because it counts in public school.

 

I don't count a day if we don't get those three done, even if we do a computer learning something, or read books.... otherwise almost every day would count.

[SorrelZG]

If we cover our core (reading, writing, math) it's a school day, even if that is just 1/3 of what we normally do (grammar, spelling, science, history, art, music).

A field trip counts, because it counts in public school.

 

I don't count a day if we don't get those three done, even if we do a computer learning something, or read books.... otherwise almost every day would count.

 

Same here.

[Ellie]

Some days, like today, I don't do our normal school day routine because I am unable to sit down and teach the kids, but I want to some *some* school, so I will have the kids do anything they can do independently... Teaching Textbooks, their normal reading/journaling, and add in flash cards, a science movie, and history audio CD.

 

So should I count days like today as "one of our days of school" (i.e. towards my 180 day requirement in NY state) or not?

 

We will be 1 day behind in some subjects but not the ones they can do independently, so if I want to finish those texts I will have to make up that day later anyway, but it's still not like we "didn't do school" at all. Ya know?:001_huh:

You don't have to prove what you did to count a day as a school day. A "school day" is any day that y'all wake up in the morning. :D

 

You're supposed to specify how many *hours* you did school. 900 are required per year. You divide that by 4, and report that many hours on your quarterly report, along with your description of what you did, and "a grade or narrative evaluation (the superintendent has no authority to judge the adequacy of these reports)..."

 

I have no doubt that your children are learning for *at least* 900 hours out of 8,760 hours in a year. Although NY's law has lots of words in it, it's not really all that difficult to report; don't make it harder on yourself by being more conscientious than the law requires. :)

 

Here is HSLDA's analysis of NY law. Read it carefully and you'll see what i mean. :)

[foxbridgeacademy]

If I counted all the days my children learned, it'd be in the 300's;). We are supposed to keep track here in NC. We are required to do 4 hours a day 180 days. They can not tell us what to do/learn that day. So unless your state requires you to cover particular subjects daily for a particular amount of time.... You may just be adding extra worry/work that's not needed.

 

So my answer is absolutly, it counts! I mean you did "Teaching Textbooks, their normal reading/journaling, and add in flash cards, a science movie, and history audio CD", sounds like a FULL day to me.

[SorrelZG]

I guess state of residence does make a big difference. I didn't think of that. :) .. I didn't know about the 4 hours/day in NC, either.

[Ellie]

If I counted all the days my children learned, it'd be in the 300's;). We are supposed to keep track here in NC. We are required to do 4 hours a day 180 days. They can not tell us what to do/learn that day. So unless your state requires you to cover particular subjects daily for a particular amount of time.... You may just be adding extra worry/work that's not needed.

 

So my answer is absolutly, it counts! I mean you did "Teaching Textbooks, their normal reading/journaling, and add in flash cards, a science movie, and history audio CD", sounds like a FULL day to me.

Actually, no, NC homeschoolers are not required to do 4 hrs a day for 180 days. You're supposed to do "nine calendar months, excluding reasonable holidays and vacations."

[Farrar]

I don't have to count and honestly, if I lived in a state that made me, I'd just make it up after the fact for the paperwork.

[mschickie]

In NY you do not count days but instead hours. For grades 1-6 you need 900 hours and for grades 7-12 you need 990 hours. I just have a calendar and jot down how many hours we did. I know many folks who just put 225 + for their hours on their quarterlies (elementary) since they know they exceed that number since you can count all educational experiences (Church choir, lifeskills, extra reading...) as part of your hours in NYS.

[SorrelZG]

Actually, no, NC homeschoolers are not required to do 4 hrs a day for 180 days. You're supposed to do "nine calendar months, excluding reasonable holidays and vacations."

 

I was a little concerned for a moment. :)

 

I have an attendance record form from the NC Division of Non-Public Education that says to check dates "on which academic instruction and educational activities were conducted." .... I just check the ones on which my child does formal lessons in core subjects until I get to 180 and then I stop. :tongue_smilie: If I followed those directions to the letter I would just be checking every day.

[Ellie]

I was a little concerned for a moment. :)

 

I have an attendance record form from the NC Division of Non-Public Education that says to check dates "on which academic instruction and educational activities were conducted." .... I just check the ones on which my child does formal lessons in core subjects until I get to 180 and then I stop. :tongue_smilie: If I followed those directions to the letter I would just be checking every day.

You are not required to use that form. If you use that form, you are not required to send it in. Not ever. And if *I* chose to use that form, I'd check off 180 days as soon as I got it, and file it away.

[SorrelZG]

You are not required to use that form. If you use that form, you are not required to send it in. Not ever. And if *I* chose to use that form, I'd check off 180 days as soon as I got it, and file it away.

 

I'm just using it because I'm supposed to keep some record on file and yeah, I realize I could just check off 180 days and file it. I just haven't made it to full system rebel status like you, Ellie. :lol: I'm working on it!

[Ellie]

I'm just using it because I'm supposed to keep some record on file and yeah, I realize I could just check off 180 days and file it. I just haven't made it to full system rebel status like you, Ellie. :lol: I'm working on it!

Hang in there--you'll make it eventually!!!

 

Honestly, "attendance forms" for homeschooled children are silly. You get up every morning and there they are. :lol:

 

And think about what happens in school: the instant the children's feet cross the threshhold, they are present, whether it's the day before Christmas vacation and all that's happening is partying and cleaning the classroom so that you know not an iota of Official Education is happening, or the first day of school, where no one really wants to be there and no brains have actually been engaged yet, or even a normal school day, which includes half an hour (or more) of lunch, and time lost while changing classes, and everything else...every.single.minute of that day, the children are "present." I see no reason that homeschoolers should have to account only for the time that their faces were in school books.

[MinivanMom]

If we cover our core (reading, writing, math) it's a school day, even if that is just 1/3 of what we normally do (grammar, spelling, science, history, art, music).

A field trip counts, because it counts in public school.

 

I don't count a day if we don't get those three done, even if we do a computer learning something, or read books.... otherwise almost every day would count.

 

:iagree:

 

This is how I count days. As a matter of principle we could count every day, but I am partially keeping attendance for myself (we don't ever have to submit the records to the state, we just have to keep them). It helps me to track days where we got our core schoolwork done. We always do far more than the 9 months we are supposed to do.

 

Hang in there--you'll make it eventually!!!

 

Honestly, "attendance forms" for homeschooled children are silly. You get up every morning and there they are. :lol:

 

And think about what happens in school: the instant the children's feet cross the threshhold, they are present, whether it's the day before Christmas vacation and all that's happening is partying and cleaning the classroom so that you know not an iota of Official Education is happening, or the first day of school, where no one really wants to be there and no brains have actually been engaged yet, or even a normal school day, which includes half an hour (or more) of lunch, and time lost while changing classes, and everything else...every.single.minute of that day, the children are "present." I see no reason that homeschoolers should have to account only for the time that their faces were in school books.

 

:iagree:

 

There's no need to overthink the attendance thing. Keeping attendance is silly and homeschoolers often wind up holding themselves to a much higher standard than the public schools. The real question is not how many days your child warmed a chair, but whether your child has acquired a thorough education. :001_smile:

[momto2Cs]

Thank goodness I live in California and file as a private school! I am supposed to "keep attendance", so what I do is print off a school calendar (from Donna Young) for each child, and then mark on it that all absences are marked with an x. That's it. And we don't have absences! I figure yes, we have some sick days and all, but over a year's time, they "attend" plenty of school, and as far as I can tell, there is no minimum time requirement for private schools in CA. IF you use a public school, it is 175 days per year. IF you use a tutor, it is a minimum of 3 hours per day, 175 days per year. But a private school seems to not have that same target.

 

Truthfully though, I still aim for 175-180 days a year just in case.

[edelweiss]

I don't have to count and honestly, if I lived in a state that made me, I'd just make it up after the fact for the paperwork.

 

:iagree:

[Ellie]

Thank goodness I live in California and file as a private school! I am supposed to "keep attendance", so what I do is print off a school calendar (from Donna Young) for each child, and then mark on it that all absences are marked with an x. That's it. And we don't have absences! I figure yes, we have some sick days and all, but over a year's time, they "attend" plenty of school, and as far as I can tell, there is no minimum time requirement for private schools in CA. IF you use a public school, it is 175 days per year. IF you use a tutor, it is a minimum of 3 hours per day, 175 days per year. But a private school seems to not have that same target.

 

Truthfully though, I still aim for 175-180 days a year just in case.

You don't have to worry about "just in case," because (1) you don't have to show those attendance forms to anyone, and (2) there are no minimum number of school days required for private schools in California.

 

Also, your dc aren't ever "absent," because if they're sick, you're not doing school, right? Well, no school = no absence. :)

[*Lulu*]

Hang in there--you'll make it eventually!!!

 

Honestly, "attendance forms" for homeschooled children are silly. You get up every morning and there they are. :lol:

 

And think about what happens in school: the instant the children's feet cross the threshhold, they are present, whether it's the day before Christmas vacation and all that's happening is partying and cleaning the classroom so that you know not an iota of Official Education is happening, or the first day of school, where no one really wants to be there and no brains have actually been engaged yet, or even a normal school day, which includes half an hour (or more) of lunch, and time lost while changing classes, and everything else...every.single.minute of that day, the children are "present." I see no reason that homeschoolers should have to account only for the time that their faces were in school books.

 

Speaking to the bolded sentence above: I totally agree. I keep a record so I can say, with a straight face to my educator mother, that we have surpassed the state requirements for the year. I also have turned it into one of the ways I teach early calander skills. (We keep track of our days on one of Donna Young's 12 month calander pages.)

 

If we hadn't gotten our days in already I would have counted our PJ Day yesterday. Even PS kids get parties! :tongue_smilie:

[ItoLina]

I don't have to count and honestly, if I lived in a state that made me, I'd just make it up after the fact for the paperwork.

:iagree:

[MerryAtHope]

If film strips and assembly days count, I don't see why you couldn't count things like this.

[d.g.]

If my stepson's HIGH SCHOOL math class could watch The Devil Wears Prada over two class periods and get credit for it, then I'm not going to feel bad about how I count my days and "qualifying" school-time assignments.

 

We had a day recently where DS8 did his WWE/FLL, completed three math review sheets, watched a Bill Nye episode online, and then took his free time to read books about the 13 colonies ALL afternoon. I counted it as a full day, even though it looks rather light.

[Dmmetler]

I count days we're home and do at least some structured school, independent or mommy-led. I don't count days that we're traveling, even though those are often more educational than days we're home (last week included visiting caves and a geology museum, for example, but will be entered as "vacation"), nor do I count anything done on weekends, or days DD is at camp all day. We had 223 days of "school" last year.

[JennyD]

My state requires 180 days of at least four hours each. I keep track of what we're doing for our own records, of course, but for the form I just check off a set of 180 days that roughly corresponds to the conventional school calendar.

[mschickie]

If film strips and assembly days count, I don't see why you couldn't count things like this.

 

 

In NY you can count it all, as long as it is "educational" in some fashion. It is so easy to meet the required hours in NYS.

[MissKNG]

In NY you can count it all, as long as it is "educational" in some fashion. It is so easy to meet the required hours in NYS.

 

I'm counting a visit to an indoor water park as a field trip for PE! (NYS resident here! First year reporting too:D)

[boscopup]

Definitely counts as a day in my book. Agree with others... Field trip days, Field day, Christmas Party day, and all those movie days the last 2-3 weeks of school (or in some cases, from end of standardized testing to the end of the school year :tongue_smilie:) all count as full school days in the public school. I see no reason why your ACTUAL educational days shouldn't count fully. Public schools do not count hours working on academics. They count hours that children are physically in the school building, no matter what they're doing. Your children are physically in your school building (home) for so many hours a day that you could technically get that in about a month and a half, even if you left the house for 4 hours each day to do errands and field trips. :D (and yes, sleeping counts, since in public school, Kindergarten nap time still counts as part of the hours they are being educated!)

 

My state (Alabama) only requires absences reported, but my cover school has me report number of days schooled with a minimum of 160. I have HST+ count it as a day if we do anything that was on the assignment schedule. I easily get over 200 days each year just from that. We get more done than a public school does, so even if I did have to report hours and such, I would not feel dishonest doing it the way I do it.

[momto2Cs]

You don't have to worry about "just in case," because (1) you don't have to show those attendance forms to anyone, and (2) there are no minimum number of school days required for private schools in California.

 

Also, your dc aren't ever "absent," because if they're sick, you're not doing school, right? Well, no school = no absence. :)

 

I know, I know! There's just a tiny bit of me that is paranoid, but in the last two years that we've filed the PSA, no one has ever approached me and asked for anything, so I am getting less and less concerned as time goes on.

[Joyofsixreboot]

I count almost anything but begging in front of cartoons. Seriously, cooking, swimming, hiking, library, church group, etc. it's all part of it. Obviously we focus on academics but an occasional day of reading, hiking, documentaries, educational apps etc counts IMHO.

[NotSoObvious]

I don't have to count and honestly, if I lived in a state that made me, I'd just make it up after the fact for the paperwork.

 

:iagree:

[MeganW]

If we do phonics, math, & handwriting, I count it. If we miss one of those, I don't.

[kb44]

Hang in there--you'll make it eventually!!!

 

Honestly, "attendance forms" for homeschooled children are silly. You get up every morning and there they are. :lol:

 

And think about what happens in school: the instant the children's feet cross the threshhold, they are present, whether it's the day before Christmas vacation and all that's happening is partying and cleaning the classroom so that you know not an iota of Official Education is happening, or the first day of school, where no one really wants to be there and no brains have actually been engaged yet, or even a normal school day, which includes half an hour (or more) of lunch, and time lost while changing classes, and everything else...every.single.minute of that day, the children are "present." I see no reason that homeschoolers should have to account only for the time that their faces were in school books.

 

We live in NC, and this is my philosophy on attendance/schooling, as well! What if you unschool? You couldn't only count book work days.;)