Definitions

This is a handy alphabetical guide to some of terms you may encounter on our site and throughout the homeschool community.

Attendance

This is the accounting of a child's daily educational experiences. If students are enrolled in brick-and-mortar schools, they must be present physically. Students in many distance learning programs count completed work or time spend online for attendance. Student-led or unschooling approaches may count any day that students engage in educational activities.

Charter School

This is a free public school that offers an alternative to your neighborhood public school. While some charter schools offer full-time programming, some have no brick-and-mortar facilities. Charter schools that are not site-based are commonly used for families that choose to homeschool through a charter school. Many of these charter schools provide education dollars as funds that are allocated to be used to pay for curriculum and classes that the families choose. Celebration Education is a vendor for most of these charter schools. This means that children enrolled with certain charter schools can attend our classes and their charter schools pay for it.

Enrollment

This relates to the school that provides educational services to a student, whether in person or through distance learning. This is the school that keeps the attendance records and grades of students. Legally, Individuals can only be enrolled with one school at a time. Everyone between the ages of six and eighteen years of age are required to be enrolled in and to attend school.

Homeschooling

This refers to students that learn primarily outside a traditional classroom setting. Homeschooled children frequently also take classes outside the home, attend educational events, and attend field trips. Approaches to homeschooling varies greatly and can encompass hybrid schools, online schools, and unschooling. Students can homeschool through a public charter school, a private school, or independently.

Independent Homeschooers

This refers to students that are enrolled in their own home-based private school. These students are not enrolled in a public school (charter or otherwise) or in another private school. Independent homeschoolers can set their own standards and they pay for all the curriculum and classes they use. Independent homeschoolers submit a private school affidavit with the state each year.

PSP (Private School Satellite Program)

This refers to a private school that homeschoolers can enroll in to satisfy compulsory education laws. These schools keep attendance records and grades on behalf of the students. Some PSPs do little more than keep records, while others also provide materials and classes. Students can enroll with Celebration Education's PSP for distance learning.

Registration

This is the act of signing up for classes. Students do not need to enroll with Celebration Education in order to register for our classes. Students that will be using charter school funds to pay for our classes must also register with us as well as request a certificate or purchase order from their school. A registration is not complete until Celebration Education receives both a registration as well as a payment, certificate, or purchase order for a student.

Unschooling

This is a homeschooling style that includes allowing children to learn through their interests. For some families, they count any learning outside of a set curriculum as unschooling. Others believe that true unschooling includes allowing a child to choose when, where, how, and what they will learn, without any outside influences. Some people compare Celebration Education's approach to unshooling because we do not use a set curriculum and because we allow students to set the terms of their learning. While Celebration Education does not have set outcomes for our students, we do provide (not require) a fair amount of learning experiences in the form of activities, projects, field trips, materials, and books.