Homeschooling support during the summer?

C

cmfout

Guest
Last year I enrolled difficult child in the public school for a whole 5 weeks. It was an absolute nightmare! As a formerly abused child with separation anxiety, ODD, ADHD, and PTSD - touching him is the biggest mistake the adults around him can make. Guess what? The middle school teachers didn't care - every time he'd have an outburst, they'd touch him. When that made him react instead of "putting him under control" as they like to say, they'd punish him. 5 weeks and we were both ready to be done with them!
This past year we homeschooled. He did amazingly well - actually looking for ways to learn about what interests him. We've had very few arguments and absolutely no melt downs about learning. We've both decided that we'll continue homeschooling through what would be his high school career.
What we need now is some support and ideas to continue his learning through the summer. There's a great program here called Home Connections that provides ideas and opportunities for homeschooling, but they shut down during the summer months. I haven't been able to find anything like it that keeps going through the summer.
Any ideas? Money's very tight for us, so many of the "normal" summer things - camp, etc - are out of the question for us. Thanks in advance!
 

seriously

New Member
Depending on the state you live in you may be able to get free access to on-line schooling - if that's something that would work for your kiddo.

I homeschooled my twins for 2 years and there were so many resources available I got kind of overwhelmed.

Does your state require you to register or report attendance or ?

Is there a statewide homeschooling organization?

If your difficult child is 15 he may be able to find some kind of internship or volunteer work - if you and he think he can handle it. Perhaps something working with animals?

Does the program you referred to have classes or something like that?
 

LittleDudesMom

Well-Known Member
I would definitely start searching the internet. I know we have a huge homeschooling population in my town and linking up with other parents would be key.

I also agree with seriously, I would look into some kind of volunteer work you believe he can handle.

Sharon
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I have (and am) homeschooling very different ages/grades. With difficult child it was grades three and four, J was the first few months of first grade and grades six through probably 12 (in 10 now), and thank you never so far. Our approach has been to evaluate it every semester to see if it is still the right approach for that specific child. J's first gr homeschooling was because there was a group of boys in her kdg class that were working together, in an organized manner, to pull a girl into the coatroom while the teacher and aide were busy handling some of the boys fighting or misbehaving in other ways. They molested the first girl they managed it with - and the school found there was little they could do because they couldn't expel kids that young even though they had no IEP or other plans making accommodations for them. That was at the end of kdg, and no way was she going into a class with them and just a teacher - no aide - the next year.

If you search online for homeschooling resources you will find a TON of things that are for all sorts of ages, and range from free to expensive. I have used kwiznet,com quite a lot with Jess. She likes being able to do as many problems as she needs, or as few as ten problems, to make sure she grasps a concept in math. We used the math and reading programs, and are going to get a few others set up in a week or two.
 
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