homeschool – Renton Community Update

The Renton School District has been a leader in partnering with homeschool families to provide a flexible and rich educational envronment for homeschooled students. The District runs the H.O.M.E Program, which offers classes, tutoring, P.E., Music lessons, College Running Start enrollment, and even Renton School district high school diplomas for Homeschooled youth.

The program benefits families and students by providing experiences that can’t be duplicated easily in the home or elsewhere in the community; and the program works well for the district because in addition to helping students, the School District receives the normal state allocated student funding for every H.O.M.E. child that keeps a journal of their studies.

The program is a huge hit with the parents as well. Parents provide both assistance and teachers to the H.O.M.E classes, and can effectively homeschool and traditional school simultaneously if they wish. Many long-time friendships have been developed through this program, and I recommend it to anyone who has explored homeshooling for their children.

We homeschooled our children K-12, and were first-year members of this program a decade ago; My children that have reached college age have marched right on through to their college diplomas with “straight A” averages.

Homeshool families generally try to adhere to the same schedule as the local school district, so that our kids are on vacation the same days as their friends. We even take snow days, to keep everything in harmony. There is a myth that homeschooled kids lack social skills, but that is far from accurate. The social opportunities for students and their parents are immense, as they all get together to plan, study, and take classes, and go on countless field trips together.

Renton is a great city for kids to learn in… whether it’s in one of our beautiful public schools (which have nearly all been rebuilt in recent years), in one of our highly respected private schools, or out in the community as a homeschooler, with all the help a parent could ask for.

Here are a few shots of some H.O.M.E. Program families at our home for a book club/planning meeting/social event, as the year gets kicked off. (Note: That’s GINGER ALE on the table, although most of the parents will drink socially occasionally like everybody else )