Half day schools in the United States

January 21, 2011 7:17 AM

My son is nearing kindergarten age and we're exploring our options for his education. We stumbled across this "Family School" in Albuquerque, NM, and we love the concept of half day public school and half day home school. Does anyone know of public (or private) elementary schools anywhere in the United States with a similar setup to this?
posted by iboxifoo to Education (6 answers total)

It looks like a great program. Have you tried contacting them to see if they know of others?
Or you could try to just start one yourself!
posted by mareli at 7:39 AM on January 21, 2011

There is a local tutorial group/academy close to my home that does a 2-days there/3-days at home program. I've seen other variations, depending on how much homeschooling is going in the area.
posted by jquinby at 9:30 AM on January 21, 2011

You might also look at home-school co-ops. You home-school your child, but the group gets together on a regular basis for field trips. Or there might be some classes which are taught as a group, especially in the higher grades for math/science.
posted by CathyG at 9:38 AM on January 21, 2011

I know a few families that do blended programs through private schools. Most of them aren't half/half though - it's more like "homeschooling plus one day of school, and we grade everything for you."

It seems to be most popular with smaller, independent Christian day schools. One of my friends has his kids (ages 7 to 17, over the course of the last few years) in one that covers K-12, in, I think Whittier, CA.
posted by SMPA at 10:10 AM on January 21, 2011

Many rural school districts are meeting budget gaps by offering homeschool curricula; other (not necessarily rural) districts offer a la carte classes for homeschool families, so that you can have your child take a formal art, or science, or music, or phys ed, etc., class with other kids in a conventional school setting once a week. These services, when offered by governmental school districts, are usually free; the benefit for the school districts in either case is that they get to add numbers to the official rolls that determine their level of federal funding.

In my experience, an active homeschool community will spawn small businesses that offer specific instruction for affordable rates - Latin, phys ed, music, science, etc. Parents will sometimes, formally or informally, pool their resources and expertise to teach each other's children in the co-op format CathyG mentions.

It would be vastly easier to answer your question if you gave us some sense of your geography. If you live in or near a decent-sized city, there is likely to be a local homeschool association full of parents who will have the relevant experience to help you. If you happen to be in Northern Colorado, MeMail me - I have a lot of local knowledge & contacts.
posted by richyoung at 11:00 AM on January 21, 2011

I've seen similar programs with Christian schools that cater to homeschoolers. Also, if you like the general concept look into homeschool co-ops. They are not formal, accredited schools, but the concept is the same. Kids get together and a parent competent in math runs the math class, a parent whose day job is a scientist at J&J runs the science classes, etc. You can usually pick and choose exactly what you want to do within the co-op umbrella, and you are usually expected to help out in some way too.
posted by COD at 12:33 PM on January 21, 2011