Homeschooling day with TN laws

[Sub01]

Hello, my husband and I are considering moving from IL to another state. We aren't sure but we're considering TN (where were originally from). I'm curious what a day for kindergarten looks like for other people while complying with the homeschool laws. If I'm right, you are required to "do school" for 4 hours a day in some states such as TN. That seems like so much for a kindergartener. If we stayed in IL I would probably spend 1-1.5 hours doing kindergarten using LHFHG and probably wouldn't "do school" every day- probably 3-4 days a week. In IL you are required to teach certain subjects each year but there is complete freedom as far as how much time you spend. My goal is to give my children a good education but especially in the little years to keep the days very short and spend lots of time outside. Any insight would be great!!

[StephanieU]

We don't have to track hours, but we are required to track days for our state. But I have seen questions like this many times. Here are some options for complying:
1. Count things that are educational but not seat work. Play games that have educational value. Do some puzzles. Go for nature walks. Do an art project. Do something for PE. Watch an educational show. All of those are "school."
2. Round up to the nearest half hour per activity. They don't expect you to keep a minute by minute log. Counting things as 30 minutes even if they are only 20 is fine!
3. Count field trips! And trips to the library!
4. Count any time you read aloud. That is education!

Really, you can get to the 4 hours fairly easy without making the real school day long.

[Sub01]

Is it hard to get in 180 days? I was planning to do LHFHG half pace.

[StephanieU]

We do more than 180 days. We normally do a guide a year. The guides from LHTH through Bigger are 34 units, 5 days per unit. So that is 170 days, plus we have MANY days we don't get everything done (eating up those extra 10 days). For Preparing and up, it is 35 units, 4 days per unit. That is only 140 days. But, most weeks we split Day 4 over Thursday and Friday. So, again we get about 170-175 days naturally. And then there are the light days we do math or a field trip or something like that.

[Samuel'sMommy]

I live in TN and have homeschooled from the beginning with my son who is now 6th grade. TN is actually super easy to homeschool in. You are supposed to do 180 4 hr days. You do not have to turn in what curriculum you are using or a detailed description of what you did those 4 hrs. I registered with the county for the first few years and you just full out an intent to homeschool form at the beginning of the year and send it in along with a copy of your diploma/degree. They send you back a calendar if the school year, you check off each day you school, and send it in at the end of the year. When we did kindergarten/1st grade and even a little older we did not do 4 hours of seatwork. I still checked off my days. So much learning at that age is not done formally and in reality they are learning all day long

Currently we are register with an umbrella school so the rules are a little different but still super easy. I can give you more info on that if you are interested.

[daybreaking]

Wow! You guys are lucky! We have to do 180 days and they have to be 5 hours long for K-6 and 5.5 hours long for 7-12. We have to send in a complete plan of all of our curriculum in the beginning of the year and then we have to send in quarterly reports outlining what we covered for each quarter, along with standardized test results at the end of the year. Hmmm ... maybe we should move to Texas!

[Sub01]

what state are you in?! Sounds stressful! The only really great thing about Illinois is you have basically complete freedom to do whatever you want! Otherwise Illinois isn't the most desirable place to live ever...

[daybreaking]

We're live in New York. According to HSLDA, we're one of the most highly regulated states when it comes to homeschooling.

Sometimes it does feel a bit much, especially with the regulations outlining exactly what subjects we must cover and how many units of specific subjects we must have from 7th grade on up, but it's worth the extra work to be able to homeschooling our children.