Question about attendance

[mytwomonkeys]

In my state I keep attendance for 180 days. We are starting school tomorrow, but we aren't going full-in until next week. This week my son will do math on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday. Thursday & Friday we will add Science to our Math. Then next week will begin all subjects.

 

I figured easing in would be nice, plus I know public school is just reviewing the syllabus and reviewing expectations here.

 

My question is since we are easing in, can I count any of the days this week toward attendance?

 

Thanks for any help.

[happypamama]

I'm required to count 180 days as well.  I count any day they do anything that is one of the portfolio subjects.  If they read a book, it's a school day.  If they did math, it's a school day.  If they went to martial arts class, it's a school day.  It doesn't matter in my mind if they didn't do ALL the subjects.

[Elizabeth86]

I am easing in and counting. The way I figure the school goes 180 days, but how many kids will have perfect attendance. Really?

[mytwomonkeys]

Thank you! I will count them :-)

[cbollin]

I'm in a 180 day state.  and our days are supposed to be 4 hours of learning to be counted.  If I did only one subject, I'd make sure we were at least doing a fun field trip or nature walk, plenty of PE, chores,  or something in the learning category to feel comfortable calling it an attendance day.   But not all states with the 180 days count it the same way.   We don't have to do all subjects every day to count.

[mytwomonkeys]

I'm in a 180 day state. and our days are supposed to be 4 hours of learning to be counted. If I did only one subject, I'd make sure we were at least doing a fun field trip or nature walk, plenty of PE, chores, or something in the learning category to feel comfortable calling it an attendance day. But not all states with the 180 days count it the same way. We don't have to do all subjects every day to count.

We don't have a set amount of hours. He will definitely have other things I could count as educational though... I was mainly thinking about the other subjects we will be postponing & wanting to make sure counting these days toward attendance seemed reasonable to others too.😊

[Ellie]

In my state I keep attendance for 180 days. We are starting school tomorrow, but we aren't going full-in until next week. This week my son will do math on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday. Thursday & Friday we will add Science to our Math. Then next week will begin all subjects.

 

I figured easing in would be nice, plus I know public school is just reviewing the syllabus and reviewing expectations here.

 

My question is since we are easing in, can I count any of the days this week toward attendance?

 

Thanks for any help.

 

I count everything. In a classroom, the moment a child's foot crosses the threshold of the school, he is present, no matter what goes on in. End of year party? Present. Field trip? Present. Clean the chalkboards? Present.

 

If I had hsed in a state that required keeping attendance, I would have taken an attendance calendar at the beginning of the year and checked off Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays, up to 180 (or whatever) days, and filed it away.

 

Attendance for homeschooled children is silly. You get up every day and there they are.

 

So, yes, of course, count all of the days this week.

[OneStepAtATime]

Agree with above.  

 

And FWIW, I have a lot of family members that are teachers and I used to substitute teach or volunteer at the school.  I guarantee you the are many days where there isn't a ton of education going on in PS.  Holiday parties.  Birthday parties.  End of year parties.  Teacher is dealing with a difficult student and never actually finishes the lesson.  One month long period some horrible stomach virus was ripping through the school.  Teachers sick, students sick, administrators sick.  Hardly anything got done and most of it had to be repeated because so many were absent.  They still counted those as official school days and while the kids had to keep up with the work, they were not penalized for missing school.

 

So if you are not required to track hours then just start the calendar on the date you began any sort of educational lesson and you should be fine.  

[knitgrl]

My state requires 180 days, and so many hours. I count it as a half day if all we do is math and some sort of language arts. It's a whole day if we do math, la, and anything else. Field trips count as a whole day, because that's how ps counts them.

[kiwik]

The first week of b&m school not much gets done. Label books, learn routines, get to know each other, assemblies etc take up a lot of time.

[NotesFromTheParsonage]

I count it. Where we live, it is 180 days, each day being at least 4 hours. On any given day, not just school days, I can find at least 4 hours of "education" my kids are getting. I also count my field trip days as school days, since the school would count them. 

[tdbates78]

I count any day that we do work as well. If we only go to an aquarium or the zoo its counted. I figure there are plenty of such days at PS with field trips, parties, field days etc. I also feel like, as homeschooling parents, we teach our kids daily whether its a true homeschooling day or not. We do plenty of learning over our summer break and on weekends that isn't accounted for on our attendance sheet so I don't fret much about low key schooldays.

[Tarreymere]

I refuse to even deal with attendance. My kids live with me, and their idea of a fun summer day is being curled up indoors on the couch, reading. No day passes without reading. They read at the breakfast table. They read over lunch. They sometimes read over dinner. Yes, I realize that's a parenting issue, but I'm usually reading too.

 

I had an actual, "highly qualified" state-certified teacher once tell me "Kids hate to read", so I guess that reading must be considered educational, if public school kids hate it so much. 

 

I made a pdf with 180 boxes. I put a check mark in each box. I used that weird little function that allows you to put your initials on a pdf file and put my initials in each of the 180 boxes. Each year, before our evaluation, I print out one of those sheets for each child. I've been doing this for three years now. 

[Ellie]

Regarding "attendance:"

 

Campus-based schools, public and private, have a specific number of school days each year. They are open regardless of how many children actually show up each day. They keep attendance because public schools are paid based on daily attendance; because children who are frequently absent may be truant; because children who are frequently absent are at risk for failure. On the other hand, when we're homeschooling, we only teach if our children are, you know, actually there. It is not possible for children to be "absent" because there is no school if the children are not there, and it's silly to say they "attended."

 

When government officials are trying to come up with ways to keep control of homeschoolers--I mean, when they're looking for ways to make sure that homeschooled children are actually educated, they cannot think outside the campus-school box. They could specify a specific number of instructional days, which would make more sense, but they can only think of "attendance."

 

Homeschoolers who feel compelled to keep records that are not required by law can keep a journal, or check off the days they did actual school, but those are not "attendance." We don't need to use school terminology, or even to think in terms of "attendance." We are not schools. We are parents teaching our children in our own homes.

[YodaGirl]

We're required to record 180 days of attendance, 10 of which can be teacher-planning days. Instructional days must be 6 hour days. (Sidenote - My daughter attended public school for kindergarten. There's no way there were 6 hours of straight instruction time. They were there for 7 hours. 30 minutes was opening & work stopped 30 minutes prior to end of school. That leaves 6 hours without discussing travel time, potty break, lunch, & recess.)

 

We also eased into school. The first week or two, we only did have days. In the past, I would've counted each half day as a half day. This year, I just recorded the second half day as one full day while ignoring the first half day, if that makes sense. It's just easier.

 

When counting instruction time, if the suggested length of math is 1 hour, I log 1 hour. If they finished early in public school, they'd be killing time while waiting for the class to finish. Our first year, I tried to time everything that we did. That became very confusing, very quickly.

[justasque]

Attendance, or counting "school days", is a really poor method of quantifying whether "enough" instruction/learning is going on for a particular home educated child.  Do not agonize about fitting your child's education into this framework.  It's paperwork, pure and simple.  The best evidence that your child is getting a decent education is the child him/her self.  A portfolio of work, test scores, and so on are all more useful and accurate evidence should anyone raise questions about the adequacy of your child's education.  Know your state law (read it for yourself!), do what it requires, but don't stress over the details of a "days" paperwork requirement.  Focus on giving your children a good education and the rest will follow.

[boscopup]

I'm in a state that has recently (a few years ago) said they don't want to regulate non-public schools at all, so I have zero requirements, but... If I lived in a state that required attendance, I would have no problem taking out a sheet with 180 days and checking all the boxes. Homeschooled children learn every day. Attendance tracking doesn't really make much sense. And I certainly would not do 6 hours of instructional time with an elementary student. I would mark the day present and say yep, we did 6 hours of school. That 6 hours may have included lunch, recess, PE, nap time, potty breaks, home economics, and intro to video gaming. But it does not have to include math, English, science, and social studies for that amount of time. That's just ridiculous. For a high schooler, sure. For a K'er? Nope, nope, and nope.

[RootAnn]

I live in a state that wants home schoolers to meet a certain number of instruction hours per year. A certain number are required for K-8 and more for 9-12, but they don't require you to turn in your records.

 

I plan out enough days to more than exceed the minimum (except for Kindergarten- no way do we do that much "school" - but I've always filed a waiver for K so I don't have to promise that many hours). I do count lunch as instructional time. In my house, it is home ec!