Splashin' With Homeschoolers

                             8th Annual SPLASHIN’ with HOMESCHOOLERS
                             Exclusive Rental of Discovery Island Water Park including Flowrider,
                             limited to 300 people

Event Date: Saturday, JUNE 23, 2012

 REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Friday, May 25, 2012

Time: **Arrival time: 5:30 pm**
Water Park play time: 5:45 – 7:45 pm

PLEASE arrive by 5:30 for check-in, so that height checks & wristbands, life jackets for little ones, and paid attendance for all attendees can all be checked and completed BEFORE the gates are opened – so that ALL of us can PLAY for the whole 2 hours! This is very important!!! PLEASE arrive by 5:30 pm.

Sign Up at www.familytouch.org (“Public Calendar” located on left-hand of website.)

 Location: Discovery Island Water Park (at Southside Park, between Mauldin and Simpsonville) 417 Baldwin Rd., Greenville, SC 29607 -- 864.963.4345 See Greenville Recreation District website for directions or info about park greenvillerec.com

AGES/GRADES: ALL – This event is open to all homeschoolers and their families, NOT just Family TOUCH members Family TOUCH members will be given first chance to sign up, for one week, before this event is opened up to the wider Homeschool community.

COST: - Ages 2 and under are free. Children age 3 or older AND all non-participating adults must pay. Cost is $ 6 per person age 3 or older.
This is MUCH cheaper than the park’s regular full-price admission!!)

 ** DRESS CODE: DRESS CODE for this event is MODEST SWIMWEAR ONLY – girls and ladies, MODEST, ONE-PIECE suits only - guys, NO speedos please. Every year, despite this request, a few girls show up in bikinis. ANYONE, of any family or any age, who violates the dress code policy WILL be asked to COVER UP with a hip-length tee shirt immediately or LEAVE the event. This is a Family TOUCH sponsored event, and we WILL follow the Family TOUCH dress code policy. This dress code is in place to promote Christian values in our young women and to support our young men in their efforts to remain pure. Please take this seriously and cooperate. PLEASE do NOT put me in the position of having to enforce this policy AGAIN this year!!!!!

OTHER INFO: WEATHER - In case of park closure due to severe thunderstorms, event will be rescheduled. NO REFUNDS will be given if event must be rescheduled.

LUNCH or MEAL PLANS - ON YOUR OWN before or after event – NO outside food allowed.

New for this Year: life jackets required for guests under 42” Must be US Coast Guard approved. Guests are welcome to bring their own or use one of the park’s.

ACTIVITY PLANNER Name: Jeanie Burrell Email: marlanaburrell@att.net Cell Phone: 864-350-2258

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Friday, MAY 25, 2012 Family TOUCH members will be given priority until Monday, April 30, and then this event will be opened to the wider, regional homeschool community. Sign up early to ensure your spot. This event has sold out EVRY year and most years there has been a long waiting list. Event is limited to 300 people TOTAL, including non-participating adults or siblings.
 ** Cost is $ 6 per person age 3 or older. Infants and children age 2 and younger are free, all children age 3 and older AND all non-participating adults must pay.
 PAYMENT INFORMATION: PAYMENT MUST BE RECEIVED BEFORE THE REGISTRATION DEADLINE of Friday, May 25, 2012 IF payment is NOT received by the deadline, then your reservation will be cancelled, and the spot opened up to the next person on the waiting list. I will send out reminder emails, to any who are still unpaid, about a week before the deadline; and then, if still unpaid, cancellations will be done on Friday, May 25, 2012. We have only a few weeks in which to collect all money and pay GCRD, or we will lose our reservation. Payments must be in on time. PLEASE include a valid email address with your sign-up information! Adult or Child age 3 or older - $ 6 per person PAYPAL: Log into your own PayPal account and send payment to paypal@familytouch.org. CHECKS: Checks payable to Family TOUCH. Payment must be RECEIVED BEFORE May 25. - Mail to FT Treasurer at 805 Dills Farm Way, Greer, SC 29651 NOTE THE EVENT NAME ON THE MESSAGE LINE OF YOUR PAYMENT.

Why Do We Need To Test?

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As we had anticipated, there have been many concerns regarding the new rules on testing.  We have had questions sent in (see some here!) and have been guiding people through the answers to the best of our ability.  This post deals with one of the big issues: the whole reason behind the rules themselves.  So stay tuned and hopefully concerns may be mitigated.

Question

My husband and I started standardized testing with our oldest daughter last year. This was the first year she was old enough for a test to be valid. We firmly believe that we should do this, so that we have a baseline of knowledge and so that we know that we are on the right track. However, we are concerned about others asking for her scores. We believe that as her parents, we are the ones who are ultimately responsible for her education. This is why we chose homeschooling and why we chose this group as our third-option support group. We were very grateful that you did not ask for these details about our children and respected our privacy. I am confused about your new policies. Are you going to ask us to send in our children's grades and test scores, or are you just asking us to continue to personally keep up with our children's grades and are adding a testing requirement—where we keep the results. 

Answer

We completely agree with you on who is responsible for the education of children.  We have a good group of parents who understand this, do the research to know what they need to do to effectively home school and just do what they should.  Unfortunately, we also have quite a few families who don't see home schooling that way.  More and more, we are getting families for whom home schooling is just another educational option to use when they think it will benefit them.  They jump around from public to private to home school and back again. They do not know and do not read about what they need to do to make this work.  We send them information but they appear to never read it!

The motivation behind asking for test scores comes from the difficulty we have experienced over the past 5 or more years as we process the senior scholarship applications.  We find that most parents do NOT do standardized testing with their students.  By junior year of high school most kids should have taken the SAT of ACT at least once, but on average about 20 out of 130 actually do this.  When we do the scholarship application we have to base the nominations on the grade point averages (GPAs).  We get students with either no test scores or very low test scores (300-400 range out of 800 possible) with GPAs that put the student at the top of the class.  This is the disconnect that was talked about in the PHEA letter.  If we wait until the senior year to collect this information, it is too late to sort out any discrepancies or to help families that for some reason just didn't know that they needed to do this.  We are asking for this information beginning in 8th grade as most home schooled students are advanced and do high school level classes in 8th grade.   In order to be able to calculate the GPAs we need all the high school classes and grades.  To do the scholarship submissions, we are required by state regulations to rank ALL eligible seniors so we have to collect the information from all our families.  (The only exceptions are special education students who do not do this kind of testing in public or private schools either.)  Until this year, we have asked for this information at the beginning of senior year, but as was said above, we are finding this is not early enough so we are now asking for the information year by year for those high school years.  

[When we do the scholarship submissions, the only things we send are the student name, school district (not address) the GPA and any test scores.  All of the information we receive to allow us to generate this stays in our files and no one besides the one or two people that do the GPAs and transcripts even sees it.]

This is what the home school playing field is looking like these days and we have to make our plan of action accordingly.  We want the best for our families and we work hard at smoothing this process for them - but we depend on you too!  Here's a shout-out of thanks to all the people who sent in questions: your questions and hopefully our answers will help other home schooling families.  As always, send us more questions if you can think of them!  

Testing Questions - Answered

Image from Google

Questions – we get questions!

Since we mailed out the renewal forms and included the requirement for students in 8^th-12^th grade to do standardized testing, we have received many questions about the policy.  Here are the most common ones.  If you have others please let us know and we will post answers to those as well.

1)        Why did PHEA institute the testing requirement?

Our goal in the testing requirement is not to penalize the home school family with extra requirements.  It is to ensure that we all know the approximate range the student is testing in.  We are looking for test scores that match what the parents expected and what is within a normal range for their grades.

2)       Will I have to have my high school senior take achievement tests or will taking the ACT be sufficient?

The SAT or ACT is actually the preferred test in the sophomore, junior and senior years.  In addition, if the student scores in an acceptable range in his junior year, we will waive the senior testing requirement.  Our goal in the testing requirement is not to penalize the home school family with extra requirements.  It is to ensure that we all know the approximate range the student is testing in.  We are looking for test scores that match what the parents expected and what is within a normal range for their grades.

3)       I have a disabled son that is under PHEA that would not do well in that type of environment or that kind of testing.  Will he have to do standardized testing?

Any PHEA student who is registered as special ed will not be required to do the testing.  In addition, for students who are not specifically listed as special ed but do have a documented learning disability we would like a brief explanation of the disability to keep with the records.  We will waive testing on a case-by-case basis for these students.  Many of these students still go on to college and will need the test scores – perhaps with accommodations or perhaps without.  That depends on the long-range goal of the student.  On occasion, by the time the student is a junior or senior, having the LD label attached is not helpful for them to pursue the goals they want to reach.

4)       Where can we do the testing?

Bob Jones testing services have a number of choices available.  These include:

a)      A list of approved testers who will come to your home and do testing with your students.

b)      Options to become a tester and do the testing at home yourself.

c)      On-site testing – this is in classroom size groups of like grade range.  Individual testing is available for students who need accommodations.  This test comes with a half-hour session with a counselor who will explain the test scores.  Please visit  their testing center online for more information on this option.

Again, if you have any other questions, drop a comment or an email our way and we would be happy to help clarify these requirements.

Mothers' Day: Color Clay Cafe!

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Recipients of our former Digest will recall that almost every issue had something to say about Greenville's Color Clay Cafe.  Color Clay Cafe is a fun, homeschool-friendly way to turn pottery into an art anyone can enjoy.  

The upcoming Homeschool Days for Color Clay Cafe are May 4th and 18th.  Don't miss them!  Participants will be making terracotta pots for new spring plants.  For more information, visit their Homeschool Days page on their website.

If you are new to the Color Clay Cafe, visit their Workshops page to get an overview on the sort of crafts they are offering.  From mosaics to glass fusion, parties and lessons, the Color Clay Cafe is bound to have something interesting scheduled for you to enjoy. 

Hint-hint: Mothers' Day is coming!