Question for Missourians

[mo2]

Does it matter when your "school year" starts? Since we have to keep track of hours, I thought it might be easiest if I just started recording hours on dd's birthday each year.

[Teresa in MO]

You need to have 1000 hours logged between July 1 and June 30.

[CheerMom]

I thought the school year started on July 1st and ended on June 30th of the next year. I found it somewhere when we started homeschooling a few years ago.
http://www.stlouiscatholichomeschool.com/law.html
But I found found this on HSLDA so I guess it has changed.
http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/hslda/200112031.asp
I just use July 1- June 30th just to be on the safe side!
I hate reccording hours!
This blog is more current.
http://missourihomeschool.wordpress....ear-revisited/

[mo2]

I thought this too until I looked at the HSLDA site again, and it says the requirements must be met within the term the parents establish, so I guess they must have changed it.

[Momto2Ns]

It is still July 1st through June 30th. There is one regional court that allowed a term other than that, but unless you are in that region (I don't remember which one it is. I just know it isn't mine , you still must abide by the law which reads July through June.

[Donna A.]

Originally Posted by Momto2Ns

It is still July 1st through June 30th. There is one regional court that allowed a term other than that, but unless you are in that region (I don't remember which one it is. I just know it isn't mine , you still must abide by the law which reads July through June.

It doesn't say that in the law, though.

http://www.hslda.org/laws/analysis/Missouri.pdf

1,000 hours of instruction. At least 600 hours must be in the five required subjects. At least 400 of the 600 must occur at “the regular home school location.” Mo. Ann. Stat. § 167.031.2(2)(b). These requirements must be met within the term (12 months or less) the parents establish.

[Momto2Ns]

http://www.moga.missouri.gov/statute...1670000031.HTM

section 4 states
4. A school year begins on the first day of July and ends on the thirtieth day of June following.

The court ruling was in the eastern district court. It allowed for the parents to choose their term. The western district still must abide by the July-June statute.

What you are quoting from the HSLDA is an interpretation of the law not a complete statement of the law - be careful. I love all the HSLDA does for us and if it were tested in western courts, the result would probably be the same, but I wouldn't want to be brought to court over it.

[Donna A.]

Thanks, Debbie!

[mom2abcd]

Spin-off...

So how do you guys record your hours? On the blog listed, she says:

<<Through the years I’ve learned since Missouri law doesn’t really define the word hour that there are two schools of thinking-
1. Track the actual time spent on the subject through minutes and hours, or
2. Track the subject as if they are similiar to college credit hours.
I prefer the credit hour method for myself simply because I have five children and it would drive me crazy to be tied to a clock. Instead I set aside an hour each day for that subject and check it off as we go. Others “log in” the time they started the subject and than “log off” when they are finished, noting the actual time spent. My suggestion would be to use whatever method works best for your family.>>


Has anyone tried her forms that you can download for $3?

I've heard The Homeschool Planbook by Sarah Crain is good.

Does anyone have a method and forms they could share?

The college credit method seems MUCH easier. Would it hold up in the state? (It should, since 1,000 hours at a public school would include a lot of time waiting on others, standing in line, lunch, recess, etc.)

TIA

[Donna A.]

Originally Posted by mom2abcd

The college credit method seems MUCH easier. Would it hold up in the state? (It should, since 1,000 hours at a public school would include a lot of time waiting on others, standing in line, lunch, recess, etc.)

TIA

To answer that specific question, you should probably contact HSLDA.

Meanwhile, how we do it at our house:

We used the Sarah Crain book up until I figured out an easier method using MFW. The portion of the Sarah Crain book where you log the hours is similar to the forms on that blog. But the Sarah Crain book also includes daily and weekly blocks for writing out your lesson plans, and I don't need that anymore with using MFW. I simply make a copy of the weekly grid for each child, and then write down at the top of the page the total time that we did school that day (i.e., 8:00-1:00). That's 5 hours of school in the 5 core subjects. Or if something happened and we didn't get all the subjects completed that day, I'd just check off what we did do and then write in the times for it. Then for the enrichment subjects shown at the bottom of the weekly grid, I'd add those separately as non-core subjects.

I don't count a 2nd grader's time the same way I'd count a 7th grader's or high schooler's. In high school, I plan on using the credit hour method. In 2nd grade, I would count a 20- or 30-minute math lesson as an "hour", for example.

I also count all field trips, outside classes, educational videos, etc. And you'll notice in the above example where I said 8-1 is 5 hours... yes, we'd have lunch during that time, and yes I'd include that time because a) my daughters are learning how to prepare and serve meals (home ec is not a core subject, but reading recipes and measuring food and nutritional info can be counted as either math or science), and b) we also do read-alouds during lunchtime.... so school is ongoing through lunch. The public schools count the entire time the student is "present", so I do too. (And they don't even have school/academics "ongoing" through lunch!)

When we've used textbooks, I would count each day's lesson in each subject according to what's suggested at the front of the teacher's manual. Most TMs will have a suggested schedule showing how long that "class period" or subject should take.