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Need help now please!

599 views 13 replies 10 participants last post by  Lillian J 
#1 ·
Ok, today my son is home and tommorow I want to withdraw him from public school and start homeschooling. I have given this a lot of thought and so has he. He is considered gifted but since we have moved here, there has been no accomadation for that. He tells me that he tries to pay attention but is so bored that his mind drifts and he ends up having to teach himself from the book anyway. He is given three to four worksheets per class per day and is frustrated with busy work and not really learning anything. HIs highschool is academically unacceptable.

Point is, I need help developing a curriculum. Any websites with examples or personal stories of where you got yours would be greatly appreciated!! Im in Texas (if that matters) and his is in ninth grade.

Thank you!
 
#3 ·
Also check out Sonlight's website: ?sonlight.com for ideas of reading/topic books for his age, would also suggest Rebecca Rupp's book for ideas of loads of resources.

Head off to the library to get started, do some science experients (try googling Krampf science for fun science experiments). Play some games, chess, battleship, sudoku.

This is just to get you started whilst you make more plans. Good luck, let us know how it is going xxxxxx
 
#4 ·
First thing would be to get Grace Llewellyn's exellent books! You can "look inside" them on the Amazon site by clicking on a link underneath the picture of the cover.

The Teenage Liberation Handbook
Guerrilla Learning

But, unless her recommendations have been revised, she suggests Saxon math - and that kind of dull and repetitive program could drive a bright student like your son nuts. I'd look into Harold Jacobs absolutely wonderful and delicious books if he wants to pursue math at this point in a structured or even unstructured way:

--Mathematics, A Human Endeavor
--Elementary Algebra
--Geometry: Seeing, Doing, Understanding

But it's absolutely essential to allow for plenty of decompression/deschooling time. Here's a whole MDC thread with information on that - decompression/deschooling - with links to some very good articles about it. Even though your son has been bored in school and wants things he can get his teeth into, there's still a need to spend time in this transition. It doesn't mean he wouldn't necessarily be reading and pursuing his interests - he might - but it might be a time when he actually feels the need to be a couch potato for a while, which is fine and normal. He won't get behind anything. To jump right into a curriculum could just make it a difficult time for both of you.

He'll find all sorts of interesting websites he'd enjoy browsing within this set of annotated links: Homeschooling Gateway to the Internet. I was careful to choose sites that don't barrage you with lots of ads and loud, flashy, glitz, or annoying drills.

This is one of the sections to be sure to bookmark: Teen Years, Homeschooling High School, College & Career Information

Enjoy - he'll be able to soar outside of school.
Lillian
 
#5 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by AuntLavender View Post
With a child you son's age just ask him what he wants to learn about and help him find information! My oldest will be 10 next month so I still find things for him or suggest things most of the time. Don't forget to check your local library!
Yes, I would agree with that too!
Lillian
 
#7 ·
Anglyn go for it!
My oldest is also only 10 so I cant give much help in the highschool area, but I 2nd the other suggestions. This year we just moved to AZ & things are different here for homeschooling (we moved from Cali). So Im having to find things for us to do. Since this is our 5th year tho Im not at a total loss. Just do some googling to find websites, find things he's interested in. You'll find ways of incorporatig math writing reading history science into your lives. If you want to make sure he's learning "the right stuff" check out your local superintendent website (I think that's it). They should have a list of what "every ninth grader should know" or something along dem lines. If you arent worried about following it to a "T" then go with what he is interested in. Find something to research then write a paper on it if he likes writing (some do some dont). He can even type it.

Well I hope this helped a little bit. Oh another thing........find a local HS group. They will have info too & maybe you all can meet up with some other HS families for various projects, activites parties whatever! Having a local support group is a big help too. Try looking in FIND YOUR TRIBE. There should be local HS forums in there.

Good luck!


Mom to 3 boys
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#9 ·
Check out this link from Hoagies gifted:
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/online_hs.htm
A collection of free online high school resources. There are also plenty of online high schools if you want the more structured route (k12, apex, keystone, etc.). Personally I'd follow his interests and then once he has an idea of what college or degree he may be interested in you can make sure he has the courses he needs for that goal.
You might also check out some of the free online classes from MIT, etc. http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/index.htm
Good luck and have fun!
 
#10 ·
Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School by Rebecca Rupp might be good because since he's gifted you can look at what kids are learning in ps year by year and decide what grade level fits your own child.

The Complete Home Learning Source Book: The Essential Resource Guide for Homeschoolers, Parents, and Educators Covering Every Subject from Arithmetic to Zoology by Rebecca Rupp, also very popular but I've actually never looked through it.
 
#11 ·
Depending upon your son's interests, you might also take a look at The Well-Trained Mind (skipping directly to the high school section!) - or perhaps your son might like to read it himself. The authors have long lists of resources and recommendations for just about every subject and even a few that your son likely wouldn't have access to in an institutional setting. History, literature, and logic are all highly stressed, most in the form of primary sources.

One word of advice about the book: ignore the included schedules. The authors are on record as not really encouraging timetables of the sort, but were pressured by their publishers to put them in. And, they include sections pertaining to religious education, but these are easily skipped if they do not apply to your life.

If he is strongly oriented toward classics and/or literature, he may also want to look at A Thomas Jefferson Education (the copy I read came through interlibrary loan).

Finally, depending upon where you live, he may be able to direct enroll into the local community college - especially in the subjects for which he feels a real affinity. Some parents, although I can't speak with direct experience in this area, uses community college classes in both high school "transcripts" and for college credit if the child goes on to higher ed.
 
#12 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Benji'sMom View Post
The Complete Home Learning Source Book: The Essential Resource Guide for Homeschoolers, Parents, and Educators Covering Every Subject from Arithmetic to Zoology by Rebecca Rupp, also very popular but I've actually never looked through it.

I've owned it - wonderful resource. It hasn't been updated, so some website URLs will no longer be good, but you could Google the names of the resources for the new ones. Here's a squished down version of a review I wrote about it years ago - this is in the FUN-Books website on their "homeschooling books" page. FUN-Books is a fabulous resource too.

The Complete Home Learning Source Book by Rebecca Rupp is a delight - and a huge delight at that. With 865 pages, this book is 8 ½" by 11" and almost 2" thick! The subtitle sums up its content: The Essential Resource Guide for Homeschoolers, Parents, and Educators, Covering Every Subject from Arithmetic to Zoology.

The book is beautifully organized into subjects of study, with subject titles printed at the page edges in dark blocks that show even with the pages closed. Each entry is tagged with the age group the resource is intended for, and symbols are used to identify whether the resource is audio, game, on-line resource, hands-on activity, curriculum, kit, video, book, software, magazine, or catalog. This is a huge reference resource for long term use.

A few of the vast number of subjects thoroughly covered are reading, writing, math, history, mythology, foreign language resources, the arts, sciences, journalism, research, libraries, ethics, religion, economics, philosophy, and life skills. The format consists of well-annotated lists of books, on-line resources, CD-ROM's, tapes, catalogs, games, hands-on materials, and videos, along with Rebecca's comments, insightful observations, and delightful, thought-provoking stories about her family's own experiences.

This is one of the best resources to ever grace the home education market!
Lillian
 
#13 ·
Oh wow, thank you all so much for your input! (And keep it coming!) I now have to go click on all those wonderful links! I actually just bought one of the Rebecca Rupp books today! I just went to my local half price books and browsed the homeschool section. I bought that one and "the complete idiots guide to homeschooling" which had a section about "deschooling"/decompressing and I was really relieved to read it, because everyone (my mom, my ex) seems to think he WONT do anything at homeschool because right now he's not doing anything at school. Well, so how is he worse off? My ex is for the cracking down approach, take the tv, the computer and his friends away, lock him in the house, force him to do the schoolwork. I said yeah, that worked so well for you, (he hated school and dropped out) and dont you think if youre mom had been able to fine tune your education around your interested, your temperment and your learning style, you might have finished? He said yes, but is still pushing for ds to at least finish this semester. But I truly dont see the point. DS has already expressed an interest in learning about Buddism (which could lead to also studying cultrue and history and political systems as well as the religion itself) and has asked for a specific CD for learning spanish.

Funny side note: my three year old had begged and begged to "go to school" when ds started back this year and finally we enrolled her, three hours a day, in preschool. She loved it. For two weeks, until one day she chose not to color at coloring time. For the next three days, at snack time she was put at a seperate table and given the coloring sheet and told she had to color in order to get snack. On the fourth day, she refused to go to school and I unenrolled her. When she announced that she wasnt going back, fil told her, "not now, you'll go next year" and she yelled "NO IM NOT"! ANyway, today ds asked her if he could stay home too and they got into a conversation and ds said, "we will both stay home now" and dd said, "Yeah, because we dont like to color" which is funny, because she likes coloring just fine at home.

Anyway, I figure there has to be a better way. This is ds's second year in Algebra and he still cant get it...and math use to be his best subject. You know, I was telling my mom today, the same kid can need extra challenge in one area and extra help in another and you will never get that kind of individualized education in a public school.

Thanks again for all the really good info and the support! (most people I know irl think Im nuts). I've already decided to homeschool my little ones. It is a bit scary starting with a highschooler, but the more info I find, the more excited Im getting. I didnt think I'd be creative enough to homeschool, but Ive already got tons of ideas!
 
#14 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Anglyn View Post
This is ds's second year in Algebra and he still cant get it...and math use to be his best subject. You know, I was telling my mom today, the same kid can need extra challenge in one area and extra help in another and you will never get that kind of individualized education in a public school.
This might be a good investment - a pre-algebra program that makes it more concrete and game-like with a placemat that has a picture of a balance, some dice, and some pawns: Hands-On Equations. He doesn't need to know it was created for students in grades 3-8
. The website even mentions that it's:
"A program which may be used at the high school or college level, or in adult education, with students who have not previously experienced success with algebraic concepts."
-Lillian
 
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