I, too have had it with both public and private schools and the constant battles both with the schools to accommodate my son and the homework/esteem issues. I spoke both with my son's psychiatrist and behavioral psychologist and they thought homeschooling would be great when I mentioned it. I went to the ACE's curriculum page. They have free testing to determine your son's current level. The url is: LCAED.com.
I am homeschooling all 3 of mine next year with this program and I got plugged into our local homeschooling club. Good luck.
Have any of you ever thought or do any of you practice homeschooling or unschooling or any of the other at home teaching ideas that are out there?
I have just had it with school and constant IEP meetings and never making any progress. My son - age 11, always scores high on state testing and even on regular in-school tests, however, he is a C/D student because he can't keep up with turning homework in. Then with the homework he gets, we spend an additional 2+ hours a night (this when the meds are wearing off and he can no longer sit)of crying screaming, constant frustration.
I'm starting to think I would be better teaching him at home where he can be more active as he learns and I can cater to his needs.
Am I nuts?
That sounds like a great way to get started. I'll definitely try it. Thanks so muchWe're in our second year of homeschooling, and don't miss homework wars, IEP meetings, etc. one little bit!I also do not homeschool and never would, not enough patience here either. I have found when dealing with public schools that will not follow plans, light a fire under their a$$es, for IEP's file a state complaint, for 504's OCR, gets them going.
Hi,
I don't homeschool and never would, not enough patience. I figured if teaching was my calling I would have obtained my degree in education and become a teacher. That said, I know wonderful children who are homeschooled. It is a huge but I am sure worthwhile endeavor. One family I know is extremely successful, the other not so much. The family that struggles relates to sibling issue. The older girl is very bright, mature, organized, talented and I could go on and on. The second daughter has many struggles and is not developing into her "own"person. And then, the youngest daughter, is the baby and always catered to. The daughter caught in the middle of two "perfect" sisters is eating at her self-esteem. She can't do anything right. She needs her own friends, her own life. Being around her sisters most of the time is not good for her. Granted, this child does have other issues but it's still a less than ideal situation. The doctor recommend the middle daughter be sent to a traditional school if possible. They live is a top school district but they homeschool for religious reasons.
One other concern about ADHD homeschooled children is they need to receive lots of socialization with children. So if that can be accomplished I am sure it can work well for some families.
I also do not have the patience, and my children are doing fine socially at school. That and working full time . I know several homeschoolers though. There (around here) are lots and lots of programs for homeschoolers. Local science centers, most places like gymnastics gyms and YMCA's all have something. I do think you have to put that sort of EXTRA effort into their socialization, but good for any of you willing to give it a shot. A family member had a son having severe social issues at school. she pulled him and homeschooled him for two years, then enrolled him in a different school once he was "ready" and he is thriving. Those of you that are doing it, it CAN be temporary, especially fi you're doing it for social concerns.
The criteria that they use to grade is not really in sync with evaluating knowledge alone. That's why an ADHD kid can sink if they know everything but are unorganized (can't get the homework home, can't turn it in, etc). It really feels unfair. I have thought about homeschooling. All of the IEP meetings hardly seem worth my time, I focus on him passing the tests and teach to those at home, and I'm not sure the services in the IEP are even helping him. I think that what I do at home helps him pass the tests, and those tests correspond to the report card. Sometimes I think that I'm doing 70% of the teaching, so what's another 30%? But I'm not sure I want to devote that much time. That's a big committment. What if you start it and don't like it? I'm afraid to do it b/c I'm not sure.
Can you turn in the homework at the office daily? Can a classmate remind him daily? Maybe you need nighttime booster to stop the homework battles.
I'm glad I'm not alone and also much more optimistic to hear that many of you have tried homeschooling and have been successful. I'm definitely going to give it a try and have started searching for a cirriculum. I think for my initial attempt I should use a cirriculum until I get a better handle on it.
Thanks to all of you for sharing your experiences!!
We homeschool and it is working very well. My son was being picked on and was bored to tears at school. I took him out of school in the middle of 4th grade and we now in 6th grade. It has been wonderful for all of us.
Our schools here is Florida are driven by federally mandated standardized testing. After the large blocs for reading, writing and math, they have about an hour a day to cover all the other subjects. I was able to develop a program where we spent 4-5 hours a day and covered about 9 subjects a day. We can do a lesson on reading comprehension in 15 minutes and move on to the next subject instead of the 90 minutes they had to spend on it at the public school .We are able to study history, science and geography everyday along with other things. You can turn everything you do into a learning adventure. You can teach them life skills as part of their education (cooking, shopping and cleaning). Cooking is a chemistry lesson and shopping is a math lesson.
Socialization is not a problem. Enroll them in a sports program, go to church, do scouts and let them play with friends in the neighborhood. You will find they have plenty of opportunity to socialize. My son has actually become more mature away from the public school enviroment.
My area has a very large homeschool population. We have lots of groups. The benefit of the group is they can offer services to you such as field trips, activites, support for parents, testing and instruction on record keeping and other things. Our city even has programs (many of them free) that service the homeschool population. We have a big homeschool convention (3 day event) every year that has vendors and classes.
Best advice, go to your local library and check some books on home schooling. Ask around and find some others and talk to them, the public library might be a good source once again. Call your school district, they will have a department that takes care of homeschooled students. They can send you or tell you where you can find the rules that pertain to your area. My district gives 5 different ways to handle the annual evaluation.
It does take some organization but most books are setup in a logical sequence. I an ADHD myself and I can do it. Keep your record keeping system simple.
We spent 4-5 hours a day, Monday thru Thursday doing school work. Friday is makeup day. He has the option of working until his work is done and having Fridays off or ending school at 2:00 p.m. and working on Fridays if his work isn't done. My son most often chooses to do all his work everyday to get Fridays off. One one the nice things is we don't do homework at night, so we have family time instead or other activites.
Homeschooling allows me to go in more indepth on some subjects. Example- last year his history book had very little about the pilgrims. I was able to go online and expand his lessons and go more in depth on the topic. Instead of just knowing they showed up here, we learned about their beliefs, why they had problems and about their trip and the early days of their settlement.
With my older child, we homeschooled during middle school. We were able to study Shakespeapre, World Religion and Medieval history through Literature. She went back to public school for High School and was able to get into a college prep program.
One of the hardest things I had with the early days of homeschooling was training my neighbors that we were in school during the daytime hours. I had one neighbor that like to stop by and visit during the school day. Homeshooling gives us the flexibility to take breaks and to stop and start when we want.
Jessica N
If you are spending 2 or more hours a day helping with homework, then you are already homeschooling your child. Go to the public library and look at some homeschooling books. They can give you insight into what it will take. Also, your state standards should be online and these will tell what he needs to know by the end of the school year. Check with your State DOE.
For us it was a no brainer. School is much more relaxed now. We aren't up early and rushing out the door to school. I wake my son and give him his meds and let him go back to sleep. He wakes up about 30-45 minutes after that. We eat and do a couple of chores then start our day.
Our dining room became the classroom, with his school stuff organized in a basket on the side. Our classroom became self directed, he was given options that he could chose from. Of course we had a few times when we were still doing school at 5:00 pm because we decided we needed to spend 1.5 hours doing what should have been a 15 minute worksheet. This only happens in the beginning when you are setting up the routine. We don't do homework because I know if he understands the concept during the day lessons. Our lessons sometimes diverged on tangents because of our discussions. If an interesting topic came up, we could take a break and google it.
You can also take breaks/vacations when you want to. You can call school off to spend a day catching up on housework and other errands. These are important life skills that can help them become more organized. Think about putting toys away, that is a sorting activity for young children. Legos in one bin, blocks items in another. Or you can turn on the music and let everyone dance for a while. You are in control.
Some of the homeschooling books tell you to simplify your life before you start, which is good advice. Do a good house cleaning and eliminate the clutter.
Yikes. I think I already am homeschooling.