Part time public -- your experiences

[Targhee]

Here's the background:

We are moving to a new state, smaller city (30,000) that's more remote - 50 miles from the next city and 200 miles from any major city. There's a chance we will move in 6 months to a town 15 miles further away with population 200, which uses the small city for schools, shopping, amenities.

 

It took us at least three years after moving to our current location (metro area) to establish any friendships and a community of people. And we tried - co-ops, meet-up group, sports, theater, other teams... That's too long now that my kids are getting older!

 

I cannot commit to a co-op (I'm a little burned out of 6 years homeschooling and 5 years co-oping), but there is a co-op. I found no drop-off groups in the area. I haven't the energy right now to create a park day group either.

 

So, we decided on part time public (for middle schoolers - 6th and 8th), and full time for my 4th grader. This may be temporary for the year, or possibly a second year. The point is to meet people and get connected to our community quickly. Mostly though, it's for my kids to meet and make friends. The middle schoolers will only go to school for elective classes.

 

I would love to hear from people who have tried the part-time public school--homeschool balancing act. What is your experience? Advice? How can I make this successful for my kids? How can I maintain some degree of flexibility at home?

 

Please don't ream me for putting my kids back in middle school. I know it sucks in a lot of ways (I used to teach middle school).

Edited July 24, 2016 by Targhee

[JennyD]

200, wow.  That is small!

 

Not public school, but my kids are go part-time to a very small religious private school.  They each go for about 1.5 hrs daily for foreign language immersion and religious studies.  It was sort of an experimental arrangement on both sides but has worked out very well. 

 

A few thoughts on our experience:

 

(1) Managing everyone's different schedules is a logistical nightmare, and we have definitely lost a lot of the scheduling flexibility that is such a benefit of homeschooling.  It's been worth it for us, but being tied to the school schedule is  a bummer, no way around it.

 

(2) My kids have their classes at the same time every day, except on Tuesdays when school starts later, and on Fridays in the winter when dismissal is earlier, or on days when their are field trips, or assemblies, or testing, or a classroom visitor ....  you get the idea.  I do not expect the teachers to remember to keep me updated about all of this - they have enough else to do - so I keep a close eye on all school announcements and regularly send quick emails to my kids' teachers confirming class times.  Overall, I think this works out well.  The teachers are always willing to respond quickly and I don't get frustrated by last-minute changes.

 

(3) I try to make sure that my kids can do some of the fun things at school, too.   I usually arrange for them to stay for lunch and recess once or twice a week and if they want to participate in some schoolwide activity -- for example, a holiday carnival, field day, math contest, etc. - I do my best to make it happen.  My oldest actually ran for student council last year and won (!), so then we had to rearrange our schedule a bit for that.  He plans to run again this year, so I'm already thinking about how we might make that work.  

 

(4) For what it's worth, as much as my kids enjoy their classes and have made friends, going to school part-time has made them completely uninterested in going full-time.  My oldest in particular has really become quite committed to homeschooling -- he thinks (correctly, IMO) that he has a great deal with this part-time/homeschooling arrangement and feels badly for his classmates who have to stay all day :)

 

I'll try to think of anything else.  Good luck!

Edited July 25, 2016 by JennyD

[mommyoffive]

I have thought about it, but haven't done it.

 

I have a neighbor who did and said it was just so hard with the different schedules for only 2 of her 4 kids. 

 

She didn't have a lot of positives to say about it.

 

Kind of made me not want to try it. 

[Joshin]

My high schooler takes a photography and an art class at the local public school. Only way we could afford to give him quality elective instruction at the upper levels (most homeschool groups in our area seem to aim for younger kids, and high school offerings only focus on college prep). Our rules are his electives have to be on the same day. In this case, the electives are only offered twice weekly, they aren't a daily class. I there is a down period between the electives, which the school requires he either leaves campus, sits in a study hall room, or studies in the library. For the last two years he has opted for a study hall that is run by one of the math teachers, this way he can work on math (his weakest subject) and have someone there willing to answer questions -- helps him maximize his day.

 

If you are going for part time, make sure that the classes have a social time sandwiched in them. For example, if it's morning classes, make sure your kids stay for lunch. Otherwise, there won't be much socializing going on. Not as much of a concern if it is an elective that is heavy on group work and in class socializing, though (like photography or a music class). I know here, at least, I also have to be very steadfast in defending our homeschooler status. They have, in the past, "accidentally" enrolled him in extra core classes, or called me insisting that he needed to take a state test or that I need to come in and show what he's doing at home during their conference weeks. I'm equipped with a copy of our state law and i have calmly told them no and stuck to it on all of these occasions.

 

 

[Mrs. Tharp]

I did it part-time this year with my older son. We moved to a new community in December and he was extremely anxious to make new friends. It's been so so. The school is a 20 minute drive away, so I was spending over an hour in the car each day for drop off/pick up. It completely disrupted hsing momentum with my younger. The shifting schedule was annoying, but workable. I found out from an older hser that making friends is just a slog when you are part time and that it is important to attend lunch. Sure enough, as soon as ds started to eat lunch there, more people started to talk with him. 

 

Even with all that, he did not make friends this year. He has made other friends outside of school. If we do it again this year, I will make sure that he participates in some after school clubs. The friendships we have made have been through an hsing class situation. The friendships weren't created during the classes, but happened when we encountered the same kids in non-school activities. Go figure. The same has not been true of middle school. 

 

My son was also tired out by school and didn't like feeling pressured to finish his hs work before he went to class. 

[OneStepAtATime]

Did you confirm that the school allows part time enrollment for homeschoolers? (I ask because our area does not.)

Edited July 25, 2016 by OneStepAtATime

[Targhee]

Did you confirm that the school allows part time enrollment for homeschoolers? (I ask because our area does not.)

Yes, they do and other parents on the city HSing Facebook page said they've been friendly and cooperative. We'll see how it works out - we are arriving only 5 days before start of school (they start EARLY).

 

If for some reason there's a hitch I am fine to do full time homeschool. I just feel in a community of 30,000 that has only 100 families HSing (well that's the Facebook group number, who knows how many mom's of only preschoolers join it and how many seasoned HSers don't) we would up the odds of my kids coming in to contact with people they relate to by exposing them to the public school demographic.

[OneStepAtATime]

Makes sense. Along with classes does the school have any clubs the kids could join? They might have more social opportunities with a club than a class.

[Targhee]

If you are going for part time, make sure that the classes have a social time sandwiched in them. For example, if it's morning classes, make sure your kids stay for lunch. Otherwise, there won't be much socializing going on. Not as much of a concern if it is an elective that is heavy on group work and in class socializing, though (like photography or a music class). I know here, at least, I also have to be very steadfast in defending our homeschooler status. They have, in the past, "accidentally" enrolled him in extra core classes, or called me insisting that he needed to take a state test or that I need to come in and show what he's doing at home during their conference weeks. I'm equipped with a copy of our state law and i have calmly told them no and stuck to it on all of these occasions.

Very good point, thank you.

 

My kids'are interested in band, art, coding, speech and debate, creative writing, and theater classes. I've explained that when we get there to register the priority is time frame (i.e. the classes have to be available, contiguous, and at the same time as sibling's - preferable end of day). They're also interested in the FLL and Mathcounts teams, so they will likely do after school things.

[Targhee]

Another idea--does the larger town have a youth city or county council? Our small town does. The kids elect mayor etc. and then work on projects. They meet every other week and learn how different facets of city government work, such as the jail, finance, etc. My kids have made good connections there, though it tends to skew heavily hsed as my kids have recruited other hsers. It looks great on resumes--Mayor of the Youth City Council! They learn some public speaking as a bonus.

Although I am not sure my kids would be interested it sounds interesting to me. I will look into it - thanks for the idea!

[school17777]

I have done it with my youngest for the past three years. I really appreciate the opportunity and it has been a blessing for our daughter. We have enrolled her full-time for this upcoming year, but I would not hesitate to do the hybrid/part-time option if full-time doesn't turn out to be the best.

 

In order for it to work, I had to keep my calendar very organized. Her school uses a 6 day cycle, not a M-F cycle, so that was a lot to keep straight about what days she would go in. The times sometimes changed due to assemblies or other things, so communication with the teacher was very important. The day cycle is set in advance and kept up-to-date on the school website, but once winter weather hit, it was hard to plan in advance because the days would shift due to snow days.

[Targhee]

Thanks for all the input and advice from experience. We will be in our new city in 2 weeks, and school starts 5 days later. I suppose if it becomes too complicated or problematic I will just pull them out. But I want it to work - the friend-making/social aspect.

 

We have two of them registered for sports, and we are looking for an activity for the oldest. She's my most reserved, and it takes her a long time before she's comfortable around people. Anyone have other suggestions for a quick way to meet and make friends in a new city?

[Insertcreativenamehere]

My boys started in ps, so keeping them in part-time was sort of a compromise on a number of fronts. For three years, we had them attend music, art and PE classes at their former elementary school. It was a good diversion for them and ensured they had exposure to those particular subjects that are more difficult for me to teach at home. It also gave them a chance to see friends. Over time, however, it became a scheduling nightmare because the class rotation was based on a four day schedule and whenever there would be a day off, the days of the week they would attend would change. So some weeks, it'd be MWF, other weeks, TTH. They were also only there for an hour each and sometimes one kid would go for an hour in the morning and another kid for an hour in the afternoon. We only live about 10 minutes from the school, but that ended up being more driving than I wanted to do 4x a day. 

 

The school was very agreeable to it and worked hard to accommodate us. When my oldest wanted to go to recess with his buddies while his brother was in class, it wasn't a problem at all. It's just the schedule thing that made it no longer feasible for us. My boys have also lost interest over time as they realize what a good thing they have going with homeschooling. They got tired of having to sit in the hall for other kids' bad behavior and missing 1/2 of PE. We won't be doing it this year. They both play sports all year-round and are busy with neighborhood kids and church activities, so we don't really need it socially -- it was just something fun to do. 

Edited July 27, 2016 by poikar

[Ravin]

If I could send DD to public school for electives and keep her home for math--that could work very well. As it is we are fortunate to have a public district-run enrichment program available. DD is going 3 days a week this fall. In your situation, I would likely do much the same.

[Happy2BaMom]

We live in a state that has a public school enrichment program for homeschoolers (actually, it has a lot of meaty classes, too - not just enrichment). We love it. It does take more time than just doing things yourself at home (driving to and from, there are some reporting requirements, registration, etc), but my kids get to "do school" (without mom) for 1-2 days a week (depending on the year) and I get a break (even more valuable). Some years have been better than others, but, for us at least, it has been the perfect mix. 

 

Now, this is an enrichment program for homeschoolers, not a public middle school, so perhaps that will be different, but we have friends who do part-time high school at a regular public high school and they haven't had any issue. 

 

It doesn't hurt to try it is my thought.