At our last board meeting, we had a speaker come tell us about H.O.P.E (Home Option Program of Education). Our goal in having the speaker was to learn information and pass it on to our Support Group members, as always.
By the end of the meeting, we were all highly impressed. The program was started by--and is still run--by homeschooling moms. Most have kids that have either graduated, or are in their later years of high school, and love the program so much they are working in it.
It is publicly funded. Usually when those words are said, my ears shut down because it usually means a public school wants to "tap into" the money for homeschoolers but they don't really care what the individual family's needs and wishes are. However in this case, it's much different; the homeschooling moms were running a large co-op and found it was getting harder and harder to maintain it without funding, so they sought to tap into the state dollars.
We went to visit the school today. It's a 1 day a week program, a full day, and continues to be one day per week until the kids are in 9th grade, then it's 2 days a week for high school. Our school is held in a church (though there are 2 other locations, 1 is permanent with over 300 students)...a very beautiful church with great facilities! It's remains locked at all times and people have to check in at the main office to gain entry. The kids' classes are on the second floor and the lunchroom is a small intimate room with a kitchenette.
Those who register with the school get to sign up for what classes they wish the kids to take. That is, there's a list and you prioritize your list, then according to what the parents sign up for, the most popular classes are taught. It's the first time I've ever heard of parents getting to help select the curriculum. Of course, we still homeschool the other 4/5 of the time, so we are still covering the lionshare of the work, but it's nice to know we can select some of what the kids are learning by consensus.
The kids also do PE (group sports) every school day (Fridays), Science, Math, Writing/Reading, etc. Each family gets to choose their own curriculum to use (nothing specific, but whatever they want from an extensive list) for a year, then return and get new curriculum the next year. The lower grades also get 2 free workbooks each year (parents choice from the curriculum). For homeschoolers, this can save up to $500 a year!
There are so many benefits to this program and the only thing I have to "give up" is one day a week with Maisie in a class. Three of her friends will also be in the class, so it's almost as if we "hand picked" her class. I'm still hoping there will be other kids in her Kindy class she can get to know, but I'm elated her friends will be there.
Not to mention: the average class size is 1 teacher per 10 students. Kindy will actually be more like 1:7, which is wonderful! And since D works 10 minutes from the school, he will take Maisie in the morning, work a half day (his "lieu" day) then pick her up from school. My Fridays will be just me and the younger 3 girls, which will be really helpful, and a chance to be home, do laundry, clean and get caught up before the weekend and have dinner together (we usually don't on Fridays). D is also excited to volunteer in the classroom on some days that he takes that Fri off.
It's a great situation for us! Maisie gets a little independence one day a week in a safe environment with great teachers (most of them are only part-time retired or professionals in their field, homeschooling parents, and love teaching homeschool children). Not to mention the curriculum bonus!
She starts after Labor Day and we are all so excited!
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