With only three months until our next PCS, my eyes are on the horizon. I’ve searched Tampa realty, church, school and homeschool websites ’til my eyes glaze over, and like most internet junkies, it takes a very very very very long time for my eyes to glaze over.
Since we’ve been in Kansas less than a year, the last move is still fresh in my mind. As in: didn’t I just unpack all this sh*t?
But seriously, I had another thought:
What information do I wish I had found online, when I was preparing for Fort Leavenworth?
This question is particularly important for those attending college here, because most are short-timers, only here for a year. With the constant rotation of winter and summer classes, this large military community has a very real amnesia problem.
I have run into this problem a few times, when we homeschooling moms stumble into one another and share information. Some Army wives are familiar with the area, and they say stuff like: “There was a huge group here a few years ago, but now it seems to be gone. What happened to CHALKline?” Some are brand new and say, “What? There is a Yahoo group? But I searched Yahoo and didn’t get any result.”
So, without further ado, here is all the information I have compiled thus far:
1) The on-post School Liason Officer should have local homeschooling information. Jessica Brushwood is currently holding this position, and she has worked hard to compile homeschool info and statistics.
2) The PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel) Ministry has a chapter on Fort Leavenworth, and (this year, at least) they provide to participants both nursery care and a “homeschool room” with supervision for the school age children. Here is the Fort Leavenworth PWOC Facebook page.
3) There is a Facebook page called “Fort Leavenworth Homeschoolers,” but it’s a closed group, so I can’t provide a public link. Find it on the Facebook and request membership, if you are a homeschooling family on your way here.
4) There is a Yahoo group called “ftleavenworthhomeschoolgroup,” and it has been a very active group for the 2011-12 school year. Field trips, playground meets, and mom nights are planned regularly. One mom coached an “Odyssey of the Mind” team. Some overlap exists between the Yahoo and the Facebook groups, but they are different enough to warrant signing up on both.
5) The Child, Youth and School Services (“SKIES”) on Fort Leavenworth has gymnastics and swimming classes for homeschoolers. They are scheduled during school hours, which is pretty awesome.
6) There is a state-funded “virtual school” off-post: the Leavenworth Virtual School. I understand that technically (particularly in the legal sense), signing up for this program means you are not homeschooling. The curricula are state-approved. The staff keep a loose track of school hours and academic progress. Also, the children complete state assessments twice a year, like the rest of public school kids.
Still, I recommend Leavenworth’s virtual school. I have no idea what other public-run “virtual schools” are like. Principal Kevin Lunsford, however, runs a brilliant program, with monthly field trips and weekly “Fun Fridays” that the kids–all ages–really love. He is both encouraging and accommodating to us parents, and boy does that help a newbie like me.
The fact that Mr. Lunsford and his wife homeschooled their (now-grown) children might have something to do with it. After all, if the idea of homeschooling is alien to the guy in charge, how can he be expected to encourage the enterprise?
7) The Fort Leavenworth Lamp recently featured military homeschoolers in a lengthy article, and of course this newspaper could serve as an ongoing source of information.
Okay. I hope this helps some folks out there. If it does, please make my day by telling me. And if anybody has additional info, please add it in the comment section.
UPDATE: 8) There is a greater-Kansas City area homeschool co-op called Clay-Platte Home Educators: “We provide support to new homeschools via email and in person, individually and in groups with our monthly New Homeschool Orientations.”
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