Before I begin: Thank you to all of you who shared information on Florida, when I asked about it last year. It was so appreciated and very helpful. However, I thought I saved the umbrella school for homeschoolers information and I can’t find it now. If you live in Florida and homeschool under an umbrella school, could you share with me which one you use or which one you recommend? I’m looking for one with very minimal involvement. You’re welcome to leave it in the comments below or email me at email@darciisabella.com. Thank you again!
So here we are on New Year’s Eve and I’m feeling a little out-of-sorts. Then it dawned on me. I miss homesteading! These photos are all from this past summer, about a month before we sold our house. So I started reminiscing…
January is the month I ordinarily start making my lists of seeds to purchase and design and sketch my gardens. The reason I haven’t started yet is because the two states we’re trying to decide between, have very different climates. And neither match the climate I currently live in. 😊
Happy New Year to you and yours! 💕
Hi Darcy, I really enjoy your posts and videos. We’re in Sarasota FL and I thought I’d let you know about Gulf Coast Homeschool Fine Arts. My husband has been an instructor there for years. They offer 4 levels of band, orchestra (including beginning strings), recorder, and choir. If you’re considering the Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice area and want more info, please let me know. We also have many umbrellas in the area, some associated with churches (and I assume you already are familiar with Classical Conversations). If you’d like to know more about this area (the best spot in FL, haha), just ask.
Thanks for all that you give of yourself,
Blessings,
Carol L.
Thank you for all that helpful information Carol! My in-laws lived in Bradenton for over 30 years and I agree, best place! 😁
We live in AZ, not FL but we recently started to consider moving out of state and FL is on our list. I’d be really interested to find out more info as you find it too. Is that piggybacking? Lol
Of course! 🤗 I don’t know if you homeschool but if you do, I received an email sharing the umbrella school http://www.cheerfulheartacademy.com.
Thank you! Yes, we are Catholic homeschoolers. 🙂
We used http://www.allendaleacademy.com/
We live in one of the fastest growing areas in the state, Hillsborough County – Riverview and south of the Alafia River, much of the land has been taken up by development. I am so pleased you have found something.
Please feel free to reach out to me for ANYTHING 😊
Thank you so much Wanda!🤗 I really appreciate it.
Hi Darci
I found you on YouTube yesterday when I searched 1 ingredient grocery shopping.
I love your simple way of life and your family seems so joyful and have the love of God!
I am married and have 4 boys who eat a ton!
I already cook pretty much from scratch for everything and don’t buy many prepared foods.
This month I challenged myself to not buy any foods with added sugar. ( which for myself I have already eliminated a lot of sugar, my boys find it harder..)
I wanted to challenge myself for the month of February To buy only 1 ingredient foods!
How was your transition to this? Any tips!
Hope you get to plan your garden soon.
We are in Canada and had a nice garden last year, and I hope to go bigger this year!
We also have our own layers and meat birds!😊
Welcome Mary! We’ve been eating this way for years and my children were still young when we started. So young that there wasn’t a big push-back but we weren’t eating tons of processed food before that either (we also didn’t buy sugar). But we still eat out on occasion (Panera, Outback, chipotle, etc.). 😁 I talk about this way of eating a lot in my videos. If you do a search on my channel, you’ll see them. That’s awesome about your garden and chickens! We’re excited to get back to them after we move.
Maybe you are looking for “florida unschoolers”?
Thank you for you blog. I love following your YouTube channel.
I have lived in Florida 42 years and am a certified teacher that homeschools my 6 kids. I’m not sure why you would opt for an umbrella school? The home education program in Florida requires that you have a yearly evaluation with a certified Florida teacher or a psychologist. This eval is just a review. I do lots of evals in our area ( Hernando county) it’s mostly just doing a portfolio review and talking with the homeschool family and signing a piece of paper to send in to the district you live in. It’s very generic and easy imo. I’m curious to hear more about the umbrella school. Seems to me that’s for record keeping? The district just keeps a copy of your yearly review and that’s it not a lot of paper work at all. Florida is very homeschool friendly 😊
Actually Florida offers three options for homeschooling and an umbrella school is one of those options. I agree, the evaluations do sound simple but not necessary for families who don’t choose that option.
Florida unschoolers is the umbrella school that I use for my two girls. My son is registered with the county because he plays basketball in the Florida athletic association. My family just moved to Florida in September. I hope your family enjoys Florida.
Fantastic! Thank you for sharing! I’m signed up with another umbrella school but it’s similar to the unschoolers and makes life super simple. Since coming from Illinois, I was used to a very hands-off approach from the county and looking for something similar. Grateful that so many suggested an umbrella school. ❤️
Acerage*
What town did you guys end up in? Did you get a lot of average like you were hoping for?