About Carolina Homeschooler
Is Carolina Homeschooler an Option 3 association? Can I register my
homeschool here?
How can I join Carolina Homeschooler? How much does it cost?
Can I join if my association doesn't participate or if I live in
another state?
What do your trip registration fees and course fees cover?
Why are your trips scheduled around holidays?
Why do you have ads on your website?
How can I help with your travel fundraising?
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Is Carolina Homeschooler an Option 3 association? Can I register my
homeschool here?
Carolina Homeschooler is a support and information network, not an
Option 3 accountability association. You'll need to legally register
your homeschool with an association as the law specifies (see our
legal requirements area, and the
beginning homeschooling section of these FAQs
for more information). We work with homeschoolers through existing
Option 3 associations that
participate in our network.
How can I join Carolina Homeschooler? How much does it cost?
If you're a member of an association that participates in the
Carolina Homeschooler network (see our
associations page for a list), then you're already a member of Carolina
Homeschooler. You'll receive discounts on trip registrations, course
fees, and any other services and programs we offer in the future.
Your membership is already paid for by your association (be sure to
thank them!).
Can I join if my association doesn't participate or if I live in
another state?
Our primary goal is to
support South Carolina's 3rd Option homeschoolers. After trying
different approaches, we've found that the most efficient and
cost-effective way to carry out our mission is by providing
memberships through participating 3rd Option associations.
Homeschoolers in non-participating associations and in other states
can (and do) participate in our programs, but their course fees and
trip registration fees are a little higher. They may still get
discounts on our trip registration fees if they participate in our
fundraising projects, however. Our other services
(message boards, mailing lists, chats, etc) are free and available to everyone.
What do your trip registration fees and course fees cover?
Trip registration fees
help cover the cost of planning and organizing each trip, plus help
cover our overall operating expenses (printing, mailing,
long-distance, website, contest prizes for the children, etc).
Course fees (when courses are offered) also help to cover our
expenses. We hope to eventually build a surplus so we can introduce
more services and programs as we grow.
Why are your
trips scheduled around holidays?
There are
several reasons for this. Since most of us are one-income families,
incorporating a paid holiday into our travel time results in less
time off and loss of pay for fathers who'd like to travel with their
families. To make our trips even more affordable, hotel rates are
often substantially less during holiday periods in certain areas.
And sometimes there are just very good deals that are too good to
pass up. One reason I chose to go to Disney World in September 2006,
for example, was because they offered their wonderful dining plan
for free during that time (way too good to pass up!). I also try to
factor in anticipated crowd levels when choosing travel times. Using
Disney as an example again, the week of Labor Day is historically
the least crowded week at the parks (due to hurricane season and
children going back to school), so that's why I chose that specific
week for our 2006 trip. I'll eventually run out of holidays if we
keep planning more trips each year, but I do try to take everything
into account when I make our plans.
Why do you have ads on
your website?
I recently
added Google and Amazon ads to the website in order to raise funds
for our trips. Traveling is
expensive and I'd like to provide "travel scholarships" for all of
the children on the trips. All of the proceeds from these
ads, from Amazon purchases made through this website, and from
collected Box Tops will go toward the cost of our trips. I hope this will make our trips more affordable
for homeschooling families.
How can I help
with your travel fundraising?
Any help
will be deeply appreciated! We've already raised around $1,500 and
hope to raise a lot more. You can help by participating in all of
our
fundraising projects.
We hope this section of our FAQs has helped you to better what
Carolina Homeschooler is all about. If you have any questions or
concerns about the answers here, please
email us. Although we've tried to include the questions that new
homeschoolers seem to ask the most, we're always open to new
questions.
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