Homeschooling in Georgia

Hi, my name is Katie and I am the Time4Learning state representative for Georgia. I am a computer loving, BlackBerry addicted, video game playing, TV watching, soccer mom. I am happily married to my best friend and we are parents to 2 amazing boys, ages 10 and 5. Even though I consider myself to be a kind of "anti-June Cleaver" (you won't find me standing at the stove with a clean house behind me every evening at 5:30 pm on the dot), my children and my family are my life..

If you have any more questions or comments about homeschooling in Georgia, contact the Georgia Parent Forum.

Georgia Homeschooling Laws

Legal Disclaimer: This section is one family’s story and how they meet the mandatory school attendance laws in Colorado. It is not intended and should not be used as definitive legal advice. In most states, parents find a variety of legal methods to pursue the educational approach that they prefer for their child.

Fortunate to be Homeschooling In Georgia

Homeschooling in Georgia is quite comfortable. I find that I am able to provide a wonderful homeschooling environment for my children without having to stress myself out over a great number of legal concerns. When I hear about legal struggles in other states, and I research the more stringent requirements that some other states have for their homeschoolers, I feel very fortunate to be in Georgia.

Georgia does not require parents (or "teaching parent" as they refer to you) to have an educational degree. You do have to have a High School Diploma or GED. You can also obtain a private tutor for your children, provided that the tutor has a High School Degree or GED. In Georgia, the compulsory attendance ages are 6-16 years old. Some additional requirements by law are: 1). Submitting a Declaration of Intent to Homeschool by September 1 of every year, 2). submitting an attendance record to the school board by the 10th of each month for the previous month, showing that our school day consists of 4.5 hours each day (the school year must be 180 days long) and 3). our school program includes (but is not limited to) a basic academic educational program of Language Arts, Math, Reading, Social Studies and Science. I write an annual progress report and I keep all of our school work (this includes worksheets, printed reports, projects or pictures of projects and experiments, field trip brochures, etc) in files for 3 years, as required by the state. I also fulfill the requirement of testing in Georgia by administering a national standardized acheivement test every 3 years, beginning with 3rd grade. The test scores are also required to be kept by the parents for at least 3 years. All of the test scores, school work, progress reports, etc., that I keep are not required to be submitted to my state school board. We are simply required to keep them on file in case they are requested by the local superintendent.

Local Library and Other Support Systems

My family belongs to a local support group where we get together and have play dates, go on field trips, do special events/parties for holidays, etc. This is strictly for support and play and is not a Co-Op, although there are some great Co-Ops in the area. I find a lot of information online, from sites like the T4L forum, from websites like www.hslda.org (home school legal defense association), www.ghea.org (Georgia home educators association), www.homeschoolingingeorgia.com and more. Honestly, the one resource that I relied on very heavily when we started homeschooling was the local libraries. They were able to provide me with local groups that met there, they knew popular reading trends for young children and were excellent in helping me obtain reference books that I needed; even if they weren't available in our local regional libray system.

Our Laid Back Homeschooling Days

We are a very laid back homeschooling family. Strict schedules were a lot of added pressure to all of us, and we found that if we let the day simply plan itself, we got much more accomplished! We enjoy flexibility. This means that if we want to go bike riding at the state park on Wednesday (free parking day at all Georgia State Parks), we can easily make up school for that day on Saturday. Our homeschool day revolves heavily around our computers. Each of us have our own computer (children had computers before they knew how to hold a crayon!!) and we try to utilize them to the fullest. T4L is our core curriculum and it has worked very well for us, for going on 3 years. We are a definitive example of "accidental homeschoolers" and we were seriously struggling before I stumbled upon T4L. My oldest son is about to start 5th grade and my youngest son is enjoying the Pre-K program. We supplement our T4L with another online program called BigIQKids, as well as some workbooks for things like handwriting and arts and crafts. We do experiments (be it something we got out of a handbook or from watching Mythbusters) as often as possible. We do make sure to incorporate reading time each day with books of their choosing. My oldest son has decided to institute a "Google-a-day" program for himself. This means that each day, he will Google (supervised googling of course!) something that has peaked his interest.

Homeschooling with Time4Learning

Time4Learning is used by homeschool parents both as a primary curriculum and as a supplemental program to other materials such as Saxon, Alpha Omega, Five in a Row and A Beka. Some of the features that make Time4Learning so successful include:

Time4Learning appeals to a wide range of learning styles. Our online learning materials are especially well-suited to children who are visual or kinesthetic learners. These children can take advantage of Time4Learning's interactive, multi-media materials.
Children like using the computer to learn. It's a convenient, interactive homeschool resource that provides a welcome change each day to paper-and-pencil workbooks and textbook-based lessons.
Parents like that it tracks progress and helps children advance by clearly presenting and reinforcing the each lesson.
Time4Learning's self-paced, modularized lesson plans allow you to move forward and back through the materials whenever you want. You can skip lessons that teach concepts your child has already mastered and repeat those he or she has not. The choice is yours. With Time4Learning, you are always in control. Time4Learning is proven effective with homeschoolers, has a low monthly price, is easy-to-use, and provides a money-back guarantee so you can make sure that it works for your children, <a href="http://www.time4learning.com/program/faq.html#guarantee">satisfaction guaranteed</a>! Sign up for Time4Learning as part of your overall homeschool program.

If you have any more questions or comments about homeschooling in Georgia, why not contact me on the Georgia Parent Forum at: bailbrae.