In my last blog, I started to answer the question of how to keep good attendance records. In New York State, not only are homeschoolers expected to keep track of the days their child attends school, but also the hours spent in instruction. While this blog was written with homeschoolers in New York State in mind, I do hope that those of you who have to keep attendance records will find some of the information useful.
The technical and legal answer to what does and doesn’t count as school is in your IHIP. If you’ve listed something in your IHIP–it counts. If you don’t have an IHIP, then really it’s up to you. I know that some of our home schooling bloggers count church as ‘school time’ because they are reading, doing crafts, and sometimes even doing community service. But of course, it’s not always quite that simple.
Educational Moments
To borrow Chele’s term, what do you do with all of those little moments that are educational, but aren’t technically part of your school day? Do they count? If so, how do you document them?
My answer is I don’t. I cannot possibly document every little conversation, every little moment that goes on in the evenings which are technically educational but fall outside of our ‘regular’ school day. This doesn’t mean they are less educational. It means that I don’t want to clutter them with thinking about what subject they fall under and how many minutes we’re spending on them. It is likely that you spend tons of time on school–far more than 225 hours anyways, so don’t worry about it. Just enjoy the moments.
Field Trips, Camps, and Other Extracurriculars
I count all of these when I’m considering hours for home schooling. I even counted my daughter’s week at camp. I didn’t count it as 24 hours for 7 days, but I did count 8 hour days for each day she was gone. It counts as P.E., art, and practical skills. She even took an ecology class while she was there so it went under science too.
Field trips count too–even if they’re not during the regular school week. If your child was in school a trip would count–so why wouldn’t it count when you do it? Indeed, field trips are a vital part of any home schooling curriculum.
I also count extracurricular classes: art, dance, gymnastics and any other after school activities my kids enjoy all count towards their school hours. Granted, after school activities don’t count as ’school’ if your kid was in school but I use their classes as means to fill in art, music, and physical education requirements. It’s on my IHIPs, therefore it counts! Other moms have talked about using scouting, pageantry and other extracurricular activities.
What About Lunch, Traveling Time, and Errands?
I do count lunch as part of a school day as well as park time. It counts in school. I do not tend to count traveling time or errands but that doesn’t mean that you can’t. I don’t count them because honestly, it’s not worth the effort. When I’m running to classes or to do an errand I often take one child and to keep track of which child went where and for how long–well, I’ve just contemplated my life.
Come back for practical suggestions on how to keep track of all this.
Make sure to check out the blogs on what is required to homeschool legally in New York State:
Quarterlies and Attendance Records