Help with educating 13 year old.

[tireesix]

I have a thread somewhere in parenting (help my step son is coming to stay) which will give you some back ground).

Anyhoo, we have been sent work by his school for him to complete only for us to discover his spelling, comprehension, maths, everything in fact, are all really poor.

We are in the UK if that makes any difference.

Can anyone help us with useful links to work sheets, interesting educational websites etc that will help him improve?

[heatherdeg]

Here's your thread from the other forum (it was buried)

You say that you currently hs, but I didn't see the ages you're working with already. Do you have any resources from that you could pull?

Guided reading methods will certainly help his reading comprehension and likely his spelling, but wondering if he'd take well to it given that it would be a "together" thing.

For math, I might actually go back to the beginning of his book and make sure he has some foundations in place. It would also be (presumably) easier for him to do if he actually learned these things--which might help him feel a bit more secure overall. And since there would be (hopefully) less teaching/reteaching these things--you can ease into the role of YOU being the teacher. If it's review, then really, he's teaching you what he knows. If he's more demonstrating knowledge than acquiring it, you're building a relationship in learning that isn't automatically you vs. him with you as the authority (which from your other thread sounds like he may have a hard time with).

Take the work assignments from his school and just go backward as far as you can and start from "back there". If he's clearly obtained the learning, you can skip through. And it would give him a much needed mental health break while still making education a part of your routine.

Not sure that helps at all. Just sounds like he's dealing with an awful lot right now (as you all are)

[Madame Pomfrey]

A great addition to your day would be BBC Skillswise; we used them in math when my eldest was in middle school. They give a one-page review of each basic concept, then a game or workpage, then a quiz, and they're easy. They have Maths and Language Arts.

On the other hand, I would recommend finding something to read together out loud in the evenings - like the Alex Rider books or the Lightning Thief series. That will take him away from problems for awhile, but at the same time help his comprehension. Reading aloud together has been a great bond for our whole family - my 14 yr old and I still share a book this way every couple of months.

Wishing you all brighter tomorrows,

Lucie

[tireesix]

My other 3 children are like ickle and we are just doing the learning through play until they hit 6 (I have a 1 year old, 4 year old and 5 year old).

All we have been given for him work wise is literally a few questions and a few hand outs and that is it literally.

Apparently the school isn't too bothered about him doing any of it as long as we can improve his behaviour????

Well, as far as I can see, his behaviour in school is down to a) his peers (don't get me wrong, Z also has responsibility but he is in with a bad crowd and they seem to egg each other on) but most importantly b) he is hardly able to read or write or do anything. His spelling is AWFUL. He hardly reads anything except for books too young for him (I am talking about the books being aimed for 4-8 year olds) and he has problems reading them. He is totally in awe of my reading ability, especially when I told him I had a reading age of 16+ at the age of 8. So, how is a 13 year old boy supposed to behave in class when he simply doesn't comprehend the work he is being given.

He is not a stupid kid, I don't understand why the school thinks he is at an acceptable education level, Zs mum blames Z for his inability to learn.

What do I do?

I thought we would get him down here and go through the work but its simply not possible.

Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!