Welcome to the Southern Galveston County Home Schooler's website! This site is maintained by SGCHS but access is not limited to just members. Our goal is to provide a meeting place for all people who wish to better their children's education or just to "talk".
When you register on the site you are NOT requesting membership to SGCHS but you will enjoy some benefits that casual visitors will not. To join SGCHS (after registration), go to "Community", "Groups" and click on the "Join Group" link for Southern Galveston County Home Schoolers.
Once again, Welcome!
Texas is one of the best states to homeschool our children. These rights were not easy to come by but over the years organizations such as Home School Legal Defense Association and Texas Home School Coalition, with Texas homeschoolers have battled for and won those rights.
In a nutshell, Texas law states that homeschools are to be considered private schools as long as there is a written curriculum that covers the following subjects: reading, spelling, grammar, math and good citizenship.
Texas Home School Coalition has an excellent Home School FAQ and Home School Legal Defense Association has an analysis of the law and the courts' decisions.
There are many support groups in the Texas Galveston Bay Area so if SGCHS cannot meet your needs, just let us know and we will help you find a group that can.
1. Turn off the television, game system, computer games, ridiculous computer videos, and any other media that may be more entertaining that academic pursuits.
2. Run your house like a benevolent dictator.
3. Make taking care of the house part of the educational process.
4. When well meaning people start to discuss your choice to educate your child at home have rehearsed combacks that fit your personality.
5. Don't buy curriculum until you have met children that have used it successfully.
6. Use trickery, love, deceit, praise, manipulation, compassion, bribery, hunger, and any other strategy that you can to transfer knowledge from outside the brain to inside.
7. Don't educate your child Monday - Friday between 7:00 and 4:00. Educate your child from now until he leaves your home. Don't be in a hurry. Slow and steady wins the race. Don't start in September and stop in May. Education is like food. Manageable portions provided regularly are much more easily digested.
8. Use any and all means to avoid leaving your home to educate your child. Most classes offered exist because someone is trying to make a living. Textbooks exist for this reason as well.
9. Do everything in your power to tolerate those which are intolerable. Homeschoolers are an odd mix of people that represent the fullest spectrum of humanity. Everyone has something to offer. Everyone has something that will offend you.
10. Just because there is a large group of people participating in something does not mean that it is worthwhile. Just look at how many people participated in the Holocaust.
11. Search the archives of this group and others because the information that you seek will already be there many times.
12. Try to avoid asking people like me for advice because I will never hesitate to share it. You are the expert. You know your child. If you do something that does not work, then stop and do something else.
Used with permission via loop email:
If you believe they are of value, then pass them along to anyone you like. I find homeschooling to be a huge challenge every day. Sometimes I wish it was easier. However, that which is easy is rarely worthwhile. Every day there is something new, exciting, and boring. The challenge is to get past the boredom. Once the boredom goes away there will be something new and exciting again. Children are just rarely given the opportunity to get past the boredom.
DW
Signing up on SGCHS is very easy. Just click on the "Sign Up" button to the upper right or click on the "Sign Up" link to the right. Fill out the form and submit it. You will receive an email that will provide a link that will "open up" more of the site to you. In addition, it provides a verification that you used a legitamate email when you signed up.
Please add "admin AT sgchs DOT us" to your whitelist as email from this address may end up in your Junk or Spam folder. All communication from this website will come from "admin AT sgchs DOT us" or an email in the "sgchs.us" domain.
When you fill out the registration form, your first and last name, email address, city, state and zip code are all mandatory. In addition, you may provide, if you wish, your address, phone numbers and links to your twitter, facebook and other online items. You have complete control over who can view your information. The default view is your first and last name and your city and zip.
The plans are to add additional fields to capture the number of children and ages to make it easier to "hook up" with other home schoolers who have children the same age as yours.
If you have any comments or questions, you can post in the forums, send a private message or email the admin.
We are an inclusive homeschool group. Our purpose is to offer activities and homeschool support in greater Galveston county area. We require no statement of faith and offer membership to any potential member who is either homeschooling or investigating the choice of homeschooling. Activities include Park Days at parks near the Interstate 45 corridor from Hitchcock to Webster, fieldtrips to various locations in the Houston-Galveston area, classes and holiday gatherings.
All are welcome!