CHEC Independent School News and Information

December 23, 2008

I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.

A couple of news items.

The store will be closed Wednesday, December 24th at 1pm until Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 10am.

We will be holding a clearance sale of items that have been discontinued by the publisher or that we are not going to carry any more. Stop by early in January for the best choices. These items will be 50-75% off the original price.

I came across this website pertaining to Christmas. It might be fun to check out when things quiet down next week.

http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/ChristmasLesson/

I found a website that instructs and has samples for developing your own transcripts for your high schoolers.

http://www.donnayoung.org/forms/planners/hs-transcript.htm. I hope you find it helpful.

November 11, 2008- Today is Veteren's Day

Take a moment today and thank our Lord for the many men and women who have been called to protect our country and its freedoms.

Welcome, I have a few pieces of information to share with you and I would like to answer a few questions that have come into the CHEC office.

There is no deadline for joining the independent school for the year 2008-2009. The deadline was for closing out the 2007-2008 school year, we needed your paperwork by August 31, 2008 to finish last year. In that same light, we will need your paperwork for 2008-2009 by August 31, 2009 to finish out this current year.

As a member of the independent school you do not send a letter of intent to the school district. You are schooling under the private exemption not the homeschool exemption. I am aware that HSLDA sent out a reminder to send your letter of intent. They sent that to all of their Colorado members. HSLDA does not necessarily know who is under the homeschool exemption and who is under the private school exemption.

The question has been asked about the Iowa Test of basic Skills and the core versus composite score. Our understanding is that because the law requires a composite score of a nationally standardized test it is necessary to include the social studies and science in your testing when doing the Iowa. It is not necessary when using the CAT because the composite scores is obtained from the language and math scores alone.

There are new Dover coloring books in the bookstore. Stop in and check them out.

For those of you using Answers in Genesis for science. There are free study guides at the following website. http://www.answersingenesis.org/cec/guides.asp

Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving.

Nancy

October 14, 2008

Welcome to the first installment of the Independent School News (ISN). I have finally dug out from under the avalanche of applications that arrived the week before the enrollment deadline. (August 31, yes, it has taken us over a month) Thank you to all who got your information in on time and for your patience as we worked to process it. At this point you should have email confirmation of your acceptance. If you did not supply an email address then we mailed hard copies. There are a few families, I have already been in touch with those of you to whom this applies, that still owe me pieces of information, please get those in asap; test scores and immunizations especially.

For those of you who love numbers there are 771 families enrolled in the school this year. I am looking forward to being available to you over the course of the next year. Please feel free to call or email anytime. 720-842-4852 or independent@chec.org.

One thing I would like to make you aware of for the 08-09 school year. We have made a change in the Actual Hours requirement.

This last year there was a bit of confusion over the "average of 4 hours" requirement. We have adjusted this so that as long as you have 172 attendance days and at least a total of 688 attendance hours your hour sheet will be accepted. You no longer need to worry about the "average". For those of you who were confused or frustrated by this requirement this year (07-08), thank you for persevering and working it out. FYI: Sick days are not attendance days unless instruction took place.

Another question that I have encountered is "what counts" when reporting hours. In describing what is homeschooling the statutes read; the sequential program of instruction for the education of a child which takes place in a home, which is provided by the child's parent or by an adult relative of the child designated by the parent. Sequential suggests a plan that develops over time; (line upon line, precept upon precept). It does not mean it has to be in a book. So piano lessons, martial arts, Bible Study programs, etc. count.

For those of you with pre-schoolers hanging around check out www.starfall.com. There are coloring and writing sheets for free.

Signing off for today. Back in touch soon. Nancy