Yearly Evaluation Information
Washington State law requires that each homeschooled student, age 8 and older, be evaluated yearly. The evaluation requirements can be met either through Standardized Testing or Academic Assessment. Standardized Testing Student should be administered a standardized test that is approved by the State Board of Education. (See Information on Washington State Board of Education and standardized testing) ALGER LEARNING CENTER offers both testing and non-test assesment. WASHINGTON HOMESCHOOL ORGANIZATION list of Assessment test providers in Washington state. FLO TESTING SERVICE The Family Learning Organization (FLO) offers a testing service which provides several options to meet the state law requirements for testing/evaluation. FLO Testing
Homeschool Park Day
Every Wednesday, rain or shine, Homeschool families from all around the county come together to play, socialize, and support each other. We rotate through the Bellingham parks, occasionally venturing out further in the county. The location is chosen each week by one of our moms and emailed to families usually on the preceding Sunday. Newcomers are always welcome and encouraged! To get on the list, contact Sara: saraadennis@msn.com. Alternatively, you can request to join our facebook group where it is posted weekly. Park Day has been an ongoing event for over 17 years in Whatcom County. It started with a mom
Helpful homeschooling links
By Meagan McGovern I led a workshop recently called, “Homeschooling children of different ages,” and some of the moms there asked me to sum up my thoughts and send them some links, so here it is! First: The easiest things to teach, or or to “do,” in a group of differently aged kids, are art, history and science. The little kids will get something out of it, the older kids will get more, and some kids will get a lot out of reading books out loud. There are a few different curriculum that lend themselves well to different ages. Story
Washington State Homeschool Law
The “official” statewide homeschooling group is the Washington Homeschool Organization, or WHO. They have a great website with links to all of the homeschooling laws, broken down for you. The basics: There are six parts to the law in Washington. It looks complicated, but in practice, to fulfill the requirements, once a year you have to write a letter to the school and do some testing. The law applies to ages 8 and up, you need to make sure you qualify to teach your child (and that’s an easy fix if you don’t qualify,) you have to tell the school
Building an education
By Meagan McGovern It’s funny, the second or third things that people ask about when they find out that I’m homeschooling my kids. They always ask how I do it — how I teach so many subjects, and how I’ll be able to teach chemistry, calculus, French — anything that’s hard. It’s just such a strange thing to ask that it always throws me — why on earth would I teach chemistry? I can’t even understand why they’re asking, and it takes me a minute to realize what the question means, and I know right away that they know nothing