1) Find Out Your State’s Regulations — The first hurdle when choosing to homeschool your child is learning the legal requirements where you live.  Education laws governing homeschooling vary widely from state to state.  For the most part, no matter what your home state is, the bureaucratic details are manageable once you have the proper resources and know what you are doing.   For New York State regulations, click here.

2) Consider Designing Your Own Curriculum — You have many options when it comes to curricula.  The beauty of homeschooling is choice!  Many families decide to homeschool with Partners With Parents so that they can create their own curriculum, tailoring a homeschooling program unique to their child’s interests and aptitudes.  (more…)

If you are the parent of a child with a learning disability, you know the difficulty in understanding what your child is going through.  Even once you’ve begun to understand the “condition,” your child has probably already been stressed and overwhelmed for a while.  Fortunately, educators, and to some extent our communities, have started to create structures that help support children with different learning styles and needs. But we are a long way from knowing for sure what’s truly best for a child who is suffering in school.

Recently, Partners With Parents has seen a increase in the demand for private tutoring for use as part of a homeschooling program. In the past, homeschooling has had a reputation as a “solution” for parents who differed religiously or disagreed philosophically with how their kids were being taught in school. Now, particularly in places like New York City, there is a new group of parents who want, need, and are finding the vast benefits of homeschooling programs for kids with learning disabilities. (more…)

Over the last 10 years, we have seen a new breed of homeschooling family.  In the past, homeschooling was largely reserved for families who were devoutly religious, lived in secluded, rural communities, or resisted exposing their children to the local school system.  In this generation, the concept of the typical homeschooling family has expanded to include a much wider array of students and circumstances.  While Partners With Parents continues to provide full-year curricula for some homeschooled students, many of the families we work with are doing it to bridge a gap—a short-term solution for a temporary situation such as physical or mental illness, relocation in the middle of the school year, or suspension/expulsion.  Sometimes, given the nature of the academic calendar, families just need an at-home education for a few months so they don’t fall behind while figuring out their options for the next September.

Many of the homeschool families that work with Partners With Parents value the traditional school environment and have the eventual goal of returning to it.  We find the most successful transitions happen when the school that the student has left and/or will be attending can be involved in the process.   (more…)