If you are just now looking into homeschooling, we are proud of you for getting this far. It's a big step! There are dozens of 3^rd Option groups across the state of SC. Many 3^rd Option groups only require a fee and an attendance sheet sent to them each year. Foothills wants to provide personal, meaningful support to your family.

Some of you may be wondering, Why on earth would I choose a group that requires face-to-face checkoff meetings? Isn't this just a bunch of hassle and a waste of time?

Taking the education of your child into your own hands is a serious and sacred responsibility. We want to make sure you have guidance along the way and all the information beforehand. As a volunteer Administrator, I’ve served homeschooling families for over 20 years. I’ve had the joy and privilege of having the 2^nd generation of families return to Foothills because they trust us to serve them faithfully. Please take the time to look over what exactly our organization’s accountability entails. We want you to make the most advised decision when choosing your 3^rd Option group.

Foothills believes in mutual accountability where all members are answerable to one another in honesty and in love. As a mother of 7 I have witnessed exhortation firsthand. It is not always easy, but it has made me a better person and a homeschooling parent along the way.

Foothills is a ministry, not a business. We care about homeschooling. We homeschool our own children. We want to preserve homeschooling so that our children can homeschool our grandchildren.

What Face-to-Face Accountability Provides:

• Immediate feedback on your homeschooling methods and goals—these are your children, God’s blessings, your life’s work. They deserve the very best homeschooling has to offer.
• College, tech school, and career counseling, the ins and outs of high school transcripts, and scholarship filing—mistakes are found frequently on transcripts-we catch the errors before the scholarship committee does.
• Help setting goals for your homeschooling—no family is perfect, no homeschool is perfect. Life can get busy and even a little wild. We have seen it happen. It is easy to let things slip. Before you know it, small short cuts add up to be large education cracks. Preparing for someone to look at our work motivates us to keep on track. This is essentially what accountability IS.
• Acknowledgement of your hard work as a parent and teacher. A pat on the back, a ‘well done’ goes a long way to an overworked, unpaid homeschool parent who pours her love and time into her children. We want to see you leave checkoff re-energized and happy, having received a blessing from the encounter.
• Sharing ideas and strategies for overcoming learning and behavioral challenges.
• Encouragement and prayer regarding issues families face such as separation, divorce, and financial difficulties.
• Every Foothills Volunteer is passionate about homeschooling. We are in this for the long haul and we see the value in your commitment to provide and educate.
• Encouragement and prayer regarding issues you will face with your children regarding spiritual and disciplinary problems, learning challenges, rebellion, unwillingness to persevere through difficult subjects, and unwillingness to do chores—sometimes the only person who would understand is another homeschool mom.
• Holding each other accountable to homeschool diligently keeps us in favor with God and Man (the state). When we police ourselves, the state of SC has no reason to get involved. Only another homeschooler will understand your methods and goals, and will support you.
• Every effort is made to hold meetings at convenient dates, times, and locations, and to accommodate those who are too sick to attend or busy with a newborn or taking care of an elderly parent.
• Staying unified with a group that cares about the future of homeschooling will increase our ability to make needed policy changes—or prevent unwanted changes from occurring. We stay on top of political issues and laws affecting homeschoolers and will let you know if this affects your family—and what to do about it!
• We can vouch for you! This is possible because, to us, you are not just a name and address. You are a family we know and care about and pray for. We’ve seen your records, we’ve seen proof of your academic work.
• Input from veteran homeschoolers on how to choose curriculum, how to make your curriculum work for you, and when to switch to another curriculum to suit best suit your child’s learning style.
• Encouragement for large families.
• Encouragement for families having to be a caretaker for an elderly/sick parent and how to make that work with your homeschooling schedule.
• Encouragement for pregnant homeschooling moms trying to ‘do it all’ and get ready for a new baby—we’ve been there and we know the challenges.
• Help to combat pride and apathy in our hearts by holding each other mutually accountable for our homeschools!

What Face-to-Face Accountability DOESN'T Provide:

• The ability to just fill out a form, send it in and go on with your life - Members are required to drive out to a church twice a year and wait for approx. 30 minutes to have records checked off.
• A Blind Eye - Our volunteers won’t overlook subjects that are missing or require more attention. However, you may be encouraged to tackle difficult subjects that your child doesn’t like (or that you don’t love teaching) with more gusto to get the job done in your child’s long term best interest.
• Bookkeeping - As the homeschooling parent, you will be responsible for ensuring that your child’s records are stored at the end of a school year for safekeeping.
• The easiest route to completion. Parents who do not teach their child will have a harder time getting by with educational neglect. This is a hands-on organization, and you will have to be hands on as well.

“But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin”

-- Hebrews 3:13

Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

-- Proverbs 27:17

"Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do."

-- Thessalonians 5:11

"Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished. "

-- Ecclesiastes 4:13

Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour. "

-- Romans 13:1-7

"From the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love."

-- Ephesians 4:16

"And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another."

-- Romans 15:14

"All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not."

-- 1 Corinthians 10:23

"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. "

-- Ephesians 4:29

"And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."

-- 2 Timothy 2:2

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."

-- Colossians 3:16