Lexington Terrace Park from 9am-2pm
700 South Old Corry Field Road

Calling all 5th Graders and teachers…home school (children ages 9-12), private or public schools.

Bay Day is a day of fun filled educational activities with Environmental Professionals from the community. Some of the activities will include: Enviroscape , learning to protect your watershed; recycling games; sharks, rays, and such; nature walk; water safety and many more.

Information we will need is:

School or homeschool group name:_________________________________________________

Contact name and phone number:__________________________________________________

Number of students and teachers or parents:__________________________________________

Your school or group is still required to be on site and participate with the children. Parents are welcome to attend.

For homeschool groups, Bay Day is at Lexington Terrace Park, parents and other kids are welcome to come and play in the park during the activities.

For more information or to sign your class up contact:
In Escambia County: Dee Dee Green at 850-937-2159 or ddgreen@myescambia.com

Download Home School Support Workshop Flyer

Homeschoolers in Florida have a variety of choices in how to complete the school year and advance their child to the next grade level. If you are new to homeschooling it may seem a bit daunting to think of having your child “evaluated.” It’s not so scary if you take some things into consideration and look at an evaluation as a positive part of your child’s learning experience. Here are some facts that may help ease your mind.

EVALUATIONS:

First of all, an “evaluation” may sound scary but in fact an evaluator is only required to gauge whether your child has “improved” from the beginning of the school year or when you began homeschooling, to the end of the school year. In a loving environment where a child is given the opportunity to ask questions and guided to find answers to those questions, there is virtually no chance that they will not learn lots of things. Homeschooling gives you an opportunity to give your child an opportunity to learn much more beyond just the book work they do. An evaluator isn’t looking for a way to hold your child back, they want to help you stay on track. Choosing your evaluator wisely can make your homeschooling experience even better.

Most teachers will have some area of “specialty.” One teacher may be most interested in your child’s language arts abilities while another in math or science. You should choose your evaluator by your child’s strengths or weaknesses. If you want your child to improve in language arts then find an evaluator that specializes in language arts so that they can give you tips on new methods to try. But if you know that your child just does not have any interest in language art but feel ok about how they are doing in that area, you might not want an evaluator that concentrates on that area as they might miss the other things that your child does excel in. Basically, you can choose an evaluator that will have a positive influence on your child’s learning experience. That is one of the beauties of homeschooling.

But don’t give the evaluation too much power in your homeschooling experience. Evaluations are just one part of homeschooling that we must participate in if we don’t choose other methods. And there are other choices. But if you think of evaluations in a positive way and choose your evaluator wisely, it can be a wonderful experience for your child to show off their skills to someone outside of the family. You will need to provide a sample of your child’s work from the beginning of the school year to the end so that the evaluator can see that there is improvement. You can make this portfolio a pleasant experience by making it part of their learning if you like. Evaluators like to see photos of science experiments, artwork, and field trips along with some samples of book work. Whatever year-end process you choose, it’s a good idea to keep a portfolio in any case. You can treat it like a memory book to look at years down the road.

You can find a list of evaluators on our website. Any certified teacher is qualified but these teachers and psychologists that have shown an interest in offering this service to homeschoolers.

TESTING:

You can also have your child take a regular achievement test that is not the FCAT. Cathy Pascoe with Independent Thinkers in Gulf Breeze has been offering testing to homeschoolers for many years. You can contact Cathy about available testing dates if you are interested in this.

You do NOT have to submit your child’s testing scores to the school district if you do not want to. You can choose to have your child take the achievement test for your own information. But if you do choose to send the achievement test score it can be a replacement of the evaluation from the teacher. You do not have to send both.

Finally, you can also choose to have your child take the FCAT. I have not met any parents that have chosen this route though I’m sure that a few may have, maybe only because they think they have to. You do not. The school district may lead you to believe you do either because they are mistaken or because they are eager to get homeschoolers test scores for their school because homeschoolers tend to score higher and it helps their statistics.

UMBRELLA SCHOOLS:

There is one more option that a family can choose to take. There are a number of umbrella school options. Some provide the curriculum and even grading. Of course that will cost more than the schools which only require you to keep attendance and you provide the education. I won’t go into detail here about umbrella schools. While umbrella schools are a great resource for many homeschoolers, you aren’t technically homeschooling but are considered a private schooler by the county. But umbrella schools are a great option for some families especially for those that perhaps both parents work and the child uses FLVS for their studies. You can find a short list of umbrella schools on our website. If you know of other umbrella schools, please let us know so we can add them to our list.

If you have pre-registered for Russia Day for Homeschoolers you’ll need to be able to find UUCP where the event is being held! It can be a little tricky to find if you aren’t familiar with the area. We should have a sign out by the road to mark the driveway but the church actually two driveways you can pull into. One is an exit but if you miss the first one it’s fine to come into the next one. Below are the directions from the church’s website and a map.

UUCP is located on Hwy 29 (Pensacola Boulevard) just north of 9-Mile Road, on the right side of the road. The church sits back from the road, but look for the sign at the road, just after the beauty shop.

Less than a week away until our exciting opportunity to set sail for Russia with The Global Corners!

Response to this opportunity has been phenomenal! I just want to express my gratitude to everyone who registered early so we were able to get the bulk of the registrations lined up ahead of time. We have filled all of the available slots and we’re looking forward to this event.

Please watch for more Global events in the future!

Image from: artblob.blogspot.com

Teen homeschoolers in NW Florida have had the wonderful privilege to interact as peers with a group of high school students at Escambia Westgate Center over the last couple of months. Teens from various homeschool groups are participating in this opportunity. “We haven’t been volunteering there very long, but I already feel very welcome there,” said Lila Brustad of Pensacola Secular Homeschoolers.

More teen volunteers 14 years old and up are needed so when the current volunteers are unable to be there there are still enough to help out with the clubs.

The volunteer experience is more than just “getting your hours in” for service project credits. The teens involved have had good things to say about the experience. ”Westgate is fun, you get to work with a lot of great kids, and it’s satisfying to know how happy you’re making them. Volunteering at Westgate makes me feel like I’m really making a difference, and I love seeing the kids smile when they come in for clubs,” said Brenna Morgan, also of Pensacola Secular Homeschoolers.

Volunteering has given the teens the opportunity to relate to teens that they may not have ever had the chance to meet before since the students at Westgate Center are phycially or mentally handicapped. “I love volunteering at Westgate. It has been such a great experience getting to know and relate to the kids. Being able to connect with these kids has been an amazing experience for me and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I love that there are certain kids that know my name and hug me every time I come in on Friday, and getting to see them getting more confident and improving in their skills is so rewarding,” said Alex Morgan, another Pensacola Secular Homeschoolers member and sister to Brenna.

Alex and Brenna’s younger sister, Jessie Morgan, also volunteers at Westgate though she is not yet a teen. Jessie and Lila’s younger sister Daisy spend time interacting with some of the younger students while their older siblings participate in the teens after school clubs.  ”Westgate is really, really fun. The kids I’ve worked with are super sweet, and I feel like I’m getting a better understanding of kids with special needs. I love volunteering at Westgate,” said Jessie.

There will be an additional volunteer opportunity this month for homeschoolers of all ages to volunteer with Escambia Westgate Center students. On October 28th, Escambia Wesgate will be hosting a “Spooky Reading Trail” in conjunction with a Fall Festival. The event will be from 9-12 on the school grounds nature trail. “Volunteers will be stationed along the nature trail where they will be reading/performing spooky, not scary, stories for our students,” said Beth Thead, behavior coach at Escambia Westgate Center. “All ages of volunteers are welcome!”

Interested volunteers should contact Thead by Friday, Oct. 21st at (850) 494-5700 ext. 280.