Anyone Else Currently Homeschooling?

[tortoise]

This subforum doesn't get much activity - I wonder if there are other homeschool families here? I'm homeschooling DS9 over here in WI. He's a fantastic puzzle and most of my homeschool questions I direct to a different specialized forum. But hey, I'm here and always willing to talk schooling and homeschooling. I have a particular interest in educating children who are statistical outliers.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I LOVE talking homeschooling! I am just starting with my 4 year old daughter. I am actually a certified teacher, left public schools a year ago and haven't looked back! I was a special education teacher, specializing in autism and behavior disorders. I do miss the kids sometimes, but this is where I belong now!

 

[tortoise]

Oooo! I might just have to pick your brain sometimes! My DS9 has ADHD and has been exceedingly oppositional in the past/recent past. I had his ADHD med switched right before starting to homeschool him and accelerated him 2 more grade levels. He has been AWESOME ever since.

His previous school would not pay for electives unless students were doing well in core classes. That was a vicious spiral, especially since he had to repeat material he had self-studied over summer just to prove he knew it. He refused to participate in school at all. I had to request an extended excused absense to avoid truancy trouble. Now he's doing 5 - 7 hours of schoolwork a day, because he wants to. It's amazing! I love that I can register him as an "ungraded" student and not stress out about his "asynchrony."

 

[NH Homesteader]

I love hearing stories like that! I have major issues with the way public schools function, and kids like him struggle so much when they really need to learn their own way! I'm so glad you are able to do what's right for him and that he's doing well!

I worked with many kids with ADHD and I spent a lot of time teaching kids self regulation. And probably just as much time convincing teachers that they could teach this student if they were willing to change how they teach a little.

You're welcome to pick my brain anytime. It's fun for me!

 

[Britesea]

My Aspie son is 27 now, but I home schooled him- with a few abortive attempts at putting him in public school. First time was when I got tired of the school calling me up within a couple of hours of dropping him off (every...single...day), telling me to come get him because he had thrown up. Apparently the stress of dealing with a classroom situation was just too much for him. Later, the school system talked me into trying again, but I eventually realized that their so-called "special education program" for him involved parking him in a classroom with the Downies and similar extremely handicapped; the teacher was actually using him as a teacher's aide, lol, but he wasn't learning anything. In fact, that time caused serious problems because everything was so easy for him that he decided he didn't want to learn anything if he couldn't "get it" immediately.
The last time we tried was high school. After 1 quarter, he admitted to me that the bullies in his class had decided he was gay, and they were so merciless that he was eating his lunch in a classroom of another teacher that worked through lunch. That one really got me mad-- even the coach of his PE class was joining in the bullying apparently, because he's simply not athletic. The teacher who was letting him eat lunch in the classroom apparently didn't see the need to report the bullying, and when I called the counselor I left a message for him to get back to me about it. When I didn't hear from him after 2 weeks (I gave him PLENTY of time to return the call!) I finally pulled him out of school. A week later is when I finally heard from the counselor, asking me why he wasn't coming to school .

I didn't follow any fancy curriculum or anything while I was home-schooling him. We read books together a lot- my favorite history books were the "Don't Know Much About..." series. I used a tutor for higher math because I'm not good enough to teach it. We watched documentaries about everything under the sun (and beyond). When he finally took his GED, he passed with honors. He's going to college now, studying Accounting, although he hopes to get the money together from a job in that to go on and study Cosmology. It took a while to convince him to try college, because he had gotten such a bad taste in his mouth about education because of his experiences, but I think he's enjoying it now.

I may not have been a professional educator, but by the time he was old enough to start school, like most parents I had already taught him language, how to feed himself, dress himself, and the rudiments of the scientific process and to not be scared to ask questions or express personal opinions. I figured if I had taught him that much, I could teach him the rest.

 

[NH Homesteader]

That is so awful, I'm sorry he had that experience. I worked with a student with aspergers who had a similar situation until I started working with him. Not tooting my own horn, I made a lot of people unhappy aggressively going to bat for him. And his guardian and I pulled him out of classes where the teachers were practically bullying him and I taught him 1:1, he only went to classes where the teacher was interested in helping him.

I'm glad your son is doing well now, schools forget that parents know their kids much better than teachers do!

 

[lcertuche]

I homeschool my 12 year old and 15 year old boys. I decid ed to do it for a year and see how it goes. Right now they are rebelling about it. I homeschooled the 12 year old for a couple of years when he was in 2nd and 3rd grade. The school was having behavior problems and put him in alternative classroom but finally just ask me to keep him at home. When I started teaching him he was way behind and it took most of the first year to catch him up to the grade level. I enjoy it for the most part but am getting tired of the stubborn angry attitude about their new school situation. I just threaten to keep them until they graduate, lol. I think they just miss the social part of school, even though they still see their friends and my older son is still on his basketball team, but now as manager. This summer they will play baseball and they are in 4H.

 

[NH Homesteader]

The school asked you to keep them home? What the heck kind of school is that?

 

[tortoise]

Icertuche, google "counterwill" and see if anything sounds familiar. DS9 has ADHD and counterwill / oppositional defiant disorder. It was rough! My son had problems with academic fit and not getting to do any non-core classes. He has been doing 2 electives an 1 core class with academic match. Opposition is gone. A medication change helped a lot too. His angry/frustrated/lazy/sloooooooow/vindictive behaviors directly correlate with how well (or not, rather) his ADHD medication is working for him.

Homeschool is extremely difficult when children aren't feeling cooperative!

 

[NH Homesteader]

I've never heard of counterwill, a different title from ODD for the same thing? I've worked with many kids with ODD. I imagine it's very hard to homeschool when your child doesn't want to do it! And we all know kids behave worst for their parents!