5 Things Homeschool Evaluators Recommend for a Strong School Year

Judging from the 72% increase of home schooling in Pennsylvania since 2019, new homeschooling parents can rest assured that they are not alone as they start the sometimes intimidating journey of educating their own children. We retired homeschooling moms at Eagle Mom Squad reached out to a number of Pennsylvania homeschool evaluators for their top five recommendations on how to have a calm and joyous homeschool year.

1. Evaluators advise parents to read the homeschool law each year to keep compliance-goals in mind while you focus on the important part of the day, growing your child’s skills and knowledge in a way that organically fits with your family. These compliance-goals include keeping a concurrent log of learning days. (This can be as simple as a checked-off calendar or as detailed as a diary entry of what was studied each day. For the high school student, the latter is may be useful in documenting studies in his or her high school transcript.) You will also need to keep work samples showing your child’s progress, and a representative list of resources you’ve used.

2. Evaluators also encourage families to keep a copy of the state law, printed and highlighted, to easily access it for reference. The Christian Homeschool Association of Pennsylvania (CHAP) offers helpful resources for this on its website chaponline.com. 

3. Make sure that you are covering the homeschool law’s list of required subjects and logging at least 180 total days of instruction. The law does not specify the manner in which these subjects are to be studied, that is up to you as the homeschool program supervisor. Not all of the required subjects need to be studied every year. (The exception is fire safety and of course you will want to study English and math every year during the elementary grades).

4. Evaluators caution parents to comply with the law, but not spend time worrying over it or trying to over-comply, because that could take your focus off of your children. Advice from another PA evaluator noted that, “Over-compliance (providing more to your school district than the law requires) makes things difficult for everyone in the long run.”

            5. Home educators may feel unnecessarily restricted by mere education recommendations that are not actual requirements. The PA Department of Education offers suggestions for ways to expound upon the simple law expectations, however, they are not laws with which home educators must specifically comply. For example, the school code requires that students must complete four years of English, including language, literature, and speech composition. It does not specifically say that teaching listening skills is required. In another example, the state law requires three years of science teaching, without making any mandate on what type of science must be taught. Science may include many different subjects, such as Geology, Anatomy, Astronomy, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and numerous more. Limiting the home educator to “life sciences, physical sciences, or earth sciences” may greatly reduce the wide range of possible scientific studies that would otherwise be possible windows of discovery for the student. Following the Department of Education’s recommendations can limit the creativity of the educator, and the opportunities of the child. It may cause educators to feel confined as to what subjects they are allowed to teach and the way in which they are to be taught, whereas education can happen in many different ways and is not to be constricted.

Parents love their children and desire to educate them well. The laws are intended to help parents stay on the right track and not leave any gaps in their children’s education. When these are harmoniously balanced, your child will have the best chance of success. We hope that you have a wonderful homeschool year and we are here to help if you have questions!