Please note that an official “Parent Handbook” will be given out to families. These are some general expectations to participate in the STAR Homeschool Community.
Please note that an official “Parent Handbook” will shared with families. These are some general expectations to participate in the STAR Homeschool Community.
- Agree to and sign the Statement of Faith and the Family Expectations.
- Pay application fee upon application.
- Pay Tuition on time.
- Pay Building Fee on time.
- Show up to classes on time. Participating in hymns at 9 am is a requirement of this community.
- Show up with appropriate materials. Forms 1-3 will need to bring a show & tell item, a snack, a lunch, a water bottle and a tea cup. High school students will need to bring their curriculum, pencils, paper, and any projects or assignments they have to turn in.
- Contribute at least $20 worth of supplies to the community supplies listed on the sign up list in the summer.
- Stay on campus with students in grades K through 6 and help in class as needed.
- Moms are in class to help, not to do other things. Connecting with other moms is wonderful! But please be sure to save your chatting for before and after class and not during class time.
- Please keep cell phones and other electronics put away during class.
- Keep babies and toddlers in the nursery or with their mom or dad at all times.
- If a baby or toddler is distracting a class, please take them out of the classroom.
- Parents help by filling teapots with water for the Literature, Tea & Poetry time and wash teapots at the end.
- Contribute to potlucks when we have them.
- Maintain a peanut free environment for students with anaphylaxis.
- Be kind, courteous and respectful.
- Students stay in class the whole time unless excused for a bathroom break.
- Wear modest clothing that covers all private parts as well as the belly, back and undergarments on community days and at community activities outside of class. Avoid clothing with coarse speech or scary or inappropriate images.
- Participate in Bible reading and chapter book or picture book at home. This is flexible, but please do something when you can. (Listen to audio books in the car as needed).
- File a Notice of Intent with the division superintendent by August 15 or file for another kind of exemption.
- Provide evidence of your child’s progress with the division superintendent at the end of the school year.
- Homeschool well. This can look different for every family, and this community does not have any standard of “how to homeschool” for you. Just that-if you say you are a homeschooler, make an effort to homeschool well.
- Respect the building we meet in. The leaders of the church we meet in are kind and generous and we need to respect them and also be good stewards.
- Respect the community’s property. We will have art supplies, books and other items that belong to the community. All of these add up. Please respect these items.
- Train your children. We believe it is necessary and beneficial to train children properly. Everybody has children who will slip up sometimes, and likely right when we don’t want them to. There is grace in this! (We’re all mamas, we get it!!). What we don’t want is a totally wild community of unruly children. A church may never invite us back if we show up this way.
- Participate in community activities as often as you can. Families are busy, it’s true! We are trying to create a close community here, and activities will help build that community. Try to get these on your calendar early in the school year, after the official calendar comes out, and then do your best to make this community a priority in your family’s schedule. (Again, there is grace in this! Just do your best.)
- Help pick up after projects and at the end of the day. “Many hands make light work.” We don’t want one or two people staying late every single week and cleaning up without help. Join in, chat together as you work, and make the clean-up time a fun time!
- Students need to keep electronic devices and screens put away. While students may have a phone for emergencies, there is no reason to use it during the community day. Each family has different standards about screens and content, and the way we have chosen to handle this on STAR Homeschool Community Days is to keep all screens out of sight. Students in Forms 4 & 5 may request an exception from their tutor if they need a device to show a slideshow presentation or to do their schoolwork properly. Social media, videos, memes, etc. will not be accessed on community days nor shown between students.
- Stay for lunch & get to know the community.
- Help with cleaning the facility and straightening classes after our Wednesday meetings. Cleaning teams will be assigned particular dates throughout the year.
- There are some obvious expectations: no smoking on campus or at community activities, no drug use, alcohol use, no sexual activity, no physical affection between sexes, no cheating or plagiarism, no vandalism, no illegal activity, no assault, no pursuant of a relationship with someone of the same sex, no coarse language.