TUTORING CENTERS.......heard of "SCORE" ?

It's good not to feel so alone in this, Brookelea.  I swear if I could afford it, I'd find someone to homeschool him.  Notice how I didn't say I'd do it myself! LOL!!!!  I have absolutely no patience at all, and my son and I battle over homework enough as it is.  It's the worst part of my day.  Well that and when I have to read more e-mails and handwritten notes from his teachers.  Oh, I wish there was an affordable way to get him through this problem.  I'm totally overwhelmed by it, and as a result, kind of paralyzed in my ability to make a move since there are so many options (and they all involve large amounts of money).

Leigh, I have not heard of Score, but I have used computer programs with remedial 6th grade kids, and they enjoyed them.  Don't ask me now which ones they were .  The school provided them, so I don't know. 

My son was in private tutoring, 3x a week, for a year to get additional help for his dyslexia.  He hated the tutoring, but it worked wonders for him.  He now reads on level, which is fantastic considering he was in 3rd grade and basically illiterate when he came to live with us.  He doesn't like to read and will not voluntarily pick up a book, but he can read on level.  I, therefore, believe in private tutoring, but be prepared for a battle from your kid, if he does not want to go.  I explained to my son that it was like braces, temporary, and the harder he tried, the sooner it would be over.  Good luck!

Leigh,

Is there a homework club or supervised after-school study hall at your son's school?  That's where my son will be going starting next week so he can do most of his homework before he gets home.  Or could you hire a neighborhood high school student with similar interests to your son's to sit with him for an hour every afternoon and do homework?  It sounds to me as if you need to "detox" the parent-child relationship with regard to homework.  I know my son and I do.

[QUOTE=Brookelea]
i know a woman who has 6 kids and every single one of them love to learn, love to study, love to please their mother.. 


[/QUOTE]

Oh, I CRAVE that.

Hmmm.  I haven't thought about cognitive behavioral therapy.  I'll look into that.

Smallmom, I feel the same way you do about the homework.  I think it's CRAZY for the kids to have to turn it back in correct!  But his "small group" teacher told me that the teachers need the children coming back to school with their mistakes corrected, so they think it's very necessary that the parents or tutor make sure to point out the errors to the children.  Her reasoning is that the teachers can't go back to each individual child to explain everything again because they have more work to cover.  This comes from a special ed teacher.  She did say that she's at an advantage because there are only five other kids in the Reading and Language Arts class, so she can afford to slow down to make sure all the kids get the concept, but she says a "regular class of 25+ students is not going to wait around for two or three kids to catch up."  <<<<<<sigh>>>>>>>

Lillian, It's definitely above grade level.  You are right.  Fourth grade, and last week he had an extensive test in which he had to explain the following : The three gasses in our atmosphere, the four layers of our atmosphere and their differences, the names of the four types of clouds and what they look like and do, how a "front" is formed, various tools used for measuring moisture, temperature and air pressure, the water cycle......the list goes on, but that's all I remember.  LOL! I am shocked by what schools expect their kids to know now.

Brookelea, I relate so much to what you are saying.  And good for you for doing something nice for yourself.  You're right when you say at least you'll appreciate it.  Getting my son to read is like pulling teeth.  He HATES it.  And although he reads at grade level, he doesn't focus on the topic at hand.  So I can listen to him read with no problem, and then I can ask him questions about what he just read out loud, and he's basically all....."I don't remember."  It makes me a crazy woman!

Lillian, is private tutoring as expensive where you are?  The tutor my son had last year and the year before was $30 an hour.  My son loved her, but getting him to her was a huge ordeal (you mentioned the "battle" I'm all too familiar with).  I'd have the car waiting at the bottom of the driveway as the bus stopped in front of the house, and my son would take one look at me and either insist he wasn't going or he'd burst into tears and cry and scream the whole way.  I'd always take him to Burger King first for a snack, but he was still very upset.  This year, I'm looking into a special ed teacher from his school who would come to our house, but she's $40 per hour.  I'm told that's cheap.

Smallmom, I had looked into that, but there's nothing really like that at his school where anyone would check to see if what he did is correct.  His teachers want the work to come back to them correct.  As it is, if he does his work alone, it's usually mostly wrong.  I'd have to do it over with him.  I have considered paying someone to do homework with him.  Just haven't figured all that out yet.  I think I mentioned to Brookelea in a previous post, I'm so overwhelmed by the choices and the costs, I've become sort of "paralyzed" in my ability to get the right thing started.  Maybe I'll call the highschool in our area and see if they can suggest someone. 

It's just all so crazy.  The school my son goes to (a public school) is THE REASON we moved here.  It has won all sorts of awards for excellence and can boast some of the highest test scores anywhere.  It's run like a private school, and everyone loves it there.  So here we are facing paying thousands a year in tutoring to help him pass his way through the public school.  I pray this doesn't happen with my younger son who will be in kindergarten next year.  I can't handle this two times.

That doesn't make sense.  Homework shouldn't have to come back to his teachers correct.  It is PRACTICE on what they should have learned in school that day.  If he's getting it wrong on his own, that should show the teacher he's not learning it in school.  Our teachers tell us NOT to help our kids do homework because it's the only way they'll know if the kids are truly absorbing the curriculum.  You may need to have a chat with the teachers about this.

Oh, Leigh, we could have sent my son to Harvard for the amount of money we have spent on private tutoring, neurofeedback, and private school.  Yikes!  It's outrageous.  Once he finishes neurofeedback at the end of November, we start on vision therapy.  Will it ever end?  I hope so.  I think vision therapy is going to be the final one.  It better be because I'm going to have to start cashing in my retirement, if it's not. 

The schools in our area are just like the ones in yours.  Keep in mind, these schools have the children working above level.  Most likely, your son is not doing 4th grade work, and you will find this out when he goes to tutoring.  He may be on level, just not above. 

Hair is soaking wet now.  LOL!!!  I'm going to have to sign off and take care of things.  I also have a sick preschooler home today.  I promised to buy him lunch out and pick up a movie at Blockbuster.

Lillian, yes!  He has trouble with writing, too.  He hates it with a passion, and for as long as I can remember, he always has.  He's capable of writing well (I've seen him do an awesome job), but he'd rather rush through it.  He absolutel hates having to write.  I will ask about what you mentioned above. 

Dang.  It's no wonder I feel so paralyzed in what to do next.  There are so many issues with my child and so many possibilities for each. 

Lillian, he's basically just labled ADHD.  He's on an IEP under "OHI" for ADHD.  The school did a pretty extensive series of tests on him in the spring.  He came back grade level for everything.  IQ was average (I think it was 101).  He DID, however, show major signs of motor visual integration (can't copy things from a board to paper, and has trouble matching up answers on standardized tests, etc.)The thing about the small group setting is, I know he'd rather be in the large group.  STILL, the small group class is the only one where his grades are acceptable.

BTW, if you moms saw me right now you'd burst out laughing.  I'm on the laptop in the kitchen, wearing a towel with my hair matted in a ratty mess of a $6 box of hair color!  LOL!!!!!  I want to go with Brookelea to get my hair done by a pro, too!  LOL!!!