Hi! So you've decided to homeschool and don't know where to start. Well, you've come to the right place. We are the Hawaii division of a larger email group of Homeschooling Jehovah's Witnesses on yahoogroups called hsjws (Homeschooling Jehovah's Witnesses) If you would like to subscribe to our Hawaii email list, you first need to subscribe to the main list. To subscribe to the list, please send an email to subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Then to subscribe to the hsjw-hawaii list, please send an email to hsjw-hawaiisubscribe@yahoogroups.com. We've put together an online "packet" of the essentials needed to get started on your homeschool journey here in Hawaii. First of all there are two different options you need to choose between before you proceed. The first option is to homeschool through a local public charter school called Myron B. Thompson Academy.

Let me first briefly explain what Myron B. Thompson Academy (MBTA) is all about. Parents homeschooling their children in grades K-6 would be able to receive an allotment of $1,500 per student which could go towards educational purposes such as curriculum, music lessons, physical education activities/lessons such as swimming and internet access just to name a few. Parents with children in grades 7-12 would have their children attend the online part of the charter school. Students are each assigned a laptop in which to do their schoolwork. There is assistance available through the teachers should the students require help. Please go to the website through the link provided above for more detailed information on both programs.

The second option would be to fill out a Notice of Intent to Homeschool form and submit it to the local school in your community that your child would attend if they were to go to school. You would need to send the form in to the school with a self-addressed, stamped envelope to ensure that they send it back to you once the principal and Superintendent sign the form. Once you get this form back after it has been signed, you need not submit another form unless your family moves or if your child reaches the age of either middle school or high school. At that time, you would need to submit another Notice of Intent to Homeschool form to the new school. For more details on what procedures to follow, please see the Hawaii Department of Education web page on Homeschooling.