Hello All, I am extremely new to homeschool! I pulled my nephew, 7, of out of school last Friday. I should mention that I am his legal guardian as of December, my sister willingly gave me custody of him and she has visitation. Anyway, he has struggled in school from day one! He understands things very quickly and gets bored so he acts out. He also started school 2 weeks after he turned 5. So he is young. For the last 3 months I have done everything the school has asked of me and it was not helping at all. Because he is so young and has behavior problems they told me to put him back in 1st grade, so I did. They told me he has special needs (because of behavior) so they wanted to test him, so I said ok. He had a para for part of the day but was still getting in trouble. So, they would call me to pick him up. I often felt like whatever I said was not valued and my suggestions were not taken serious, even then though I was the only one there who really knew him. The school wanted me to participate in home education with him, which in our district means a teacher comes to your house for 45 minutes each day. I decided that I might as well homeschool if he has to be home all day anyway. So anyway, now I am here with a 7 year old and a little lost. I have been researching homeschool since he moved in with me and I wanted to wait until next year. So my question is, how much "school" should we do each day. Any any advice for a really really newbie! Natasha
Unless the laws of your state require a set amount of hours (mine does), then how much you do should be up to him.. sort of. I don't mean let him decide, I mean take cues from what he can handle. Usually, for a 7 yo, you only work a couple of hours a day.
Each state has rules on how many hours per day you must teach. I believe the standard is 4 hours. That doesn't mean it all has to be sit down worksheets though. You can play educational board games, computer games, etc during that time. If you are starting without being prepared at all you may want to start out with an online program like time4learning.com while you research curriculums. I'm sure it will seem overwhelming in the beginning, especially since you were not counting on starting yet. Be sure you jump on here whenever you need advice, a chance to vent, or some support. Sounds like you are ready to do whatever it takes to help me succeed. He is very lucky to have you in his life.
I have never had to do this, because I plan to homeschool before I had my daughter, but most people who pull children out of school strongly suggest some de-schooling time. I think it is sound advice to not jump into formal lesson at home right after pulling him out of school and just give both of you a little time to adjust to the idea by starting out informally with some trips to the library, museums, zoo, etc, if you can.
Thank-you! My state does not have a specific amount of time or days that you have to do work. I suppose that is good, but right now it would be nice for some guidelines! But I am sure in the long run I will be have for "lack" of structure they give.
I agree I pulled my youngest out at that age and been homeschooling ever since and yes do de-schooling first, like seekingmylord said trips they can be educational. To give you time to get things ready. There are tons and tons of free website out there to download worksheet to help through the rest of the year. If you have a Sam's club they have wonderful books there with all the subject in and they will tell you what to do each day, I think they are like 12.00 a book and they also tell you what books to get to go with those subject that is what I used to help me get started.. just remember don't be hard on yourself it will all come together.
The most important advice is to know your state laws.. sounds like maybe you already do. Now take some time to deschool the boy. This is a time when you don't do any real lessons, just read books, play games, watch movies, to to museums/parks/etc. Get the look of school out of your heads..yes both of you... and use this time to decide which direction you plan on taking... and then plan for that plan to backfire and the need to change to arise many times When you start back up, start 1 subject and then each week add one more to your schedule. Remember education and school are two different things, and don't have to look alike Also remember that you don't have to use a curriculum for it to be educational. Some of our favorite things have been things I have pieced together on my own.
Sounds like he's the opposite of what the school was suggesting. He's a fast learner, he's young, and he has behavior problems. They're relating the three things in the wrong way. He's a fast learner? So why put him back a grade? He should be allowed to move at his own pace, which would probably mean moving ahead a grade. He's young. So what? Age isn't an excuse. It's just something public schools use when they don't have an answer. Do all babies get teeth at the same time? Heck, no! Why should all 7 year olds be put in the same class simply because they're 7? Of course they're not going to have the same behavior skills. Being bored is probably the main reason for the behavior issue anyway. I doubt age has as much to do with it as they're saying. Since your state doesn't have time requirements or whatever, I suggest you follow his lead. Spend the next several months getting to know him on an educational basis. Every morning when he gets up, ask him what he wants to learn that day. If he says he wants to learn about elephants, you can learn about elephants all day if you want to. Read books about elephants. Sing songs about them. Use the computer. Watch Dumbo (and talk about which animals can/can't fly, or talk about character development & behavior). Make an elephant craft. Tomorrow, if he gets up wanting to learn about elephants again, dig a little deeper. Teach him a new word (pachyderm). Talk about where elephants live, the different types, what they eat, how they're alike/different in africa vs. asia, and so on. You could spend a whole week on just one topic and never run out of things to do. He'll learn that learning is fun, AND he'll learn "how" to learn. He'll learn how to find information, how to dig deeper, how to ask questions, and so on. At some point, you'll need to do a little testing to figure out where he really stands. I suggest D.O.R.A. and D.O.M.A. online reading & math tests. They're fun, cheap, and you don't even have to tell him it's a test. He'll think you've found a cool website to play with. You'll find out exactly what he does/doesn't know, and you'll be better able to choose an appropriate curriculum next year. You're going to feel overwhelmed at first, but you'll have a lot of fun and be in a groove next Fall! I'd say the actual "school work" part of the day will take an hour or less, but if you make learning fun, he'll beg for a lot more than an hour.
You have been given great advice regarding deschooling. I also second the idea of fun field trips for now. And read, read, read! What I did at that age and still do sometimes is print out a coloring pages that goes with the story I am reading and I let her color while I read aloud. Keeps little hands busy and she pays better attention. We just did this last week when I read Rapunzel. I do the coloring sheets mostly with fairy tales.
I agree absolutely with 2LittleBoys. The kid learns quickly, so he's bored waiting for everyone else to catch up. You can't expect an active little guy to sit there listening to the teacher say something he already knows all day long! Of course, he's going to find SOMETHING to relieve the boredom, and chances are that something will not be considered "appropriate" by his teacher! (My little brother tested "genius" and "hyper" 40 years ago. He drove his teachers UP THE WALL, because he was so bored in class!) Anyway, once you find out what the state mandates, I would ask him what he WANTS to learn. Take his lead, and let him explore the topics that interests him, at least for the rest of this year. Read aloud to him good literature. One GREAT "boy book" is "The Mad Scientists' Club" (http://www.purplehousepress.com/msc.htm) Any precocious little guy would LOVE it! You might have to get it InterLibrary Loan, because it's an older book and many libraries don't carry it. Have him read you. One good way to determine his reading level is the "Five Finger Test". Pick up the book, turn to the middle, and have him read the page. Put up a finger for every word he reads wrong. If he only makes one or two mistakes, he can probably read it independently. If he makes 3-4 mistakes, it's probably at his "instructional level". If he makes 5+ mistakes, it's too hard for him right now.
I don't really have any advice, as I'm still on day 2 of homeschooling, but I just pulled my DD for the same reasons!!
You have been given some great advice. Maybe while you are deschooling you can talk with him about what types of things he would like to study too. He may give you some great ideas about topics he would be happy to learn about. Working with my girls is a lot easier when they are excited about what we are about to study.
