How do you approach the topic of Homeschooling?

Our son is ten years old, and was officially identified as twice exceptional in between first and second grade. Since 2nd grade he has participated in our public school's gifted program which encompasses math and reading instruction. (His greatest passion is science) Our older son (not 2e) traveled the same gifted class route so we are familiar with both the teachers and the expectations. Our 2e is dyslexic and dysgraphic (which we now understand since our visit with Bobbi Gilman and Linda Silverman at the Gifted Development Center.) He is at grade level in reading, struggles a great deal with writing and is most troubled with spelling. We will be traveling to 3D Learner in Boca Raton in a few weeks to learn some strategies that will hopefully help him with some of his difficulties. It will not be a good fit for him in our public school next year. We are committing to homeschooling for a variety of reasons: It will give us a chance to reclaim his joy in learning without so much stress. It will afford us the opportunity to practice the interventions we will learn in addition to doing vision therapy by making them a natural part of the day instead of cramming them into after school hours. It will be fun to explore his areas of giftedness and interests that are never addressed in the ps curriculum. Our big hang up at the moment is in how to approach this radical change with him. He was very downtrodden during the 2nd semester of school this year, but since the close of school his eternal optomism has sprung back to life. He has glossed over his unhappiness. Does anyone have thoughts on how to approach this topic or could you share your own experience?

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Permalink Reply by Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide on July 4, 2009 at 8:10am

You could mention that some of the most innovative and creative thinkers in the world have been homeschooled at least at some part in their schooling. It gave them more time to discover and develop their talents - and many later look back to that time and one of the most formative times in their lives. There are lots of sites with names of famous homeschoolers. Visit our video gallery too - so many people there had a different schooling experience because their parents recognized that conventional school wasn't a good fit for them. : )

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Permalink Reply by Stacy Frank on July 4, 2009 at 10:19am

Thanks for the input-Happy 4th of July!

Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide said:

You could mention that some of the most innovative and creative thinkers in the world have been homeschooled at least at some part in their schooling. It gave them more time to discover and develop their talents - and many later look back to that time and one of the most formative times in their lives. There are lots of sites with names of famous homeschoolers. Visit our video gallery too - so many people there had a different schooling experience because their parents recognized that conventional school wasn't a good fit for them. : )

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Permalink Reply by Sarah/Jewl on July 5, 2009 at 12:17am

Hmmm At the momint I go to an online school at home. So I'm still tecknikley a publike school studint. But I have never seen my school bilding or meet most of my class mates face to face. But it is still all at home and it feels about the same. Just I have to folow what the school says still. (So looking at what your wonting to do. An E school whued not werk.)

4 years ago about this time. My mom I geuss had been thinking about the E school. Just like you and home schooling she was looking at all the prows and cons. I guss she sole more prows thin cons. Finoley I just sorda woled by her wile she was woching TV and she stoped me and asked me how I whued feel about going to an online school. Now I'm not gana lie it sorda scared me and at frest I thout she was jokeing. But I need some time to think about it as well. And I did come back saying that it sowned like a good idea.

Leets see I'm 17 now so I was 14 thin. The best way you cued aproch this in my book whued be asking him how he whued feel about doing that. But dont try to tolke him into it. Leet him ask you the questuns about it. Dont make it sowned like your trying to tolke him into it. Leet him feel like hes makeing the desishun to try it. Most likley he will come to the same desishun you have.

At age 7, Thomas Edison was labeled “Retarded” and taken out of public school because he couldn’t read. His mother knew he was very bright, so she began home-schooling him, using strategies that played to his strengths. He grew up to become one of the most prolific and successful inventors of all time.

This informashun came from
www.specialkidstoday.com

The pichor came from www.hartransom.org

~*~Sarah~*~

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Permalink Reply by Sarah/Jewl on July 5, 2009 at 12:21am

Something you shued know! Most Book stors have sepshol cards you can get just for home schoolers. This card alows you to get a discownt as loing as you chiled will be useing it fr edducashunol usis... Thay will take it off iney thaing evein reguler chapter books you whued normoley read for injoymint. Just say he is going to do a book report. I belef some uther stors will have simuler programs for home schoolers. Like music stors. ^.^ Just ask at the frunt desk.

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Permalink Reply by Stacy Frank on July 5, 2009 at 5:57am

Thanks for your thoughts, Sarah. It helps to have input from the student side. Did you see my reply to your post about the online audio books? You can get them free for this year. The tip about the book store is also a good one. I will look into it because we sure get a lot of books!

Sarah/Jewl said:

Something you shued know! Most Book stors have sepshol cards you can get just for home schoolers. This card alows you to get a discownt as loing as you chiled will be useing it fr edducashunol usis... Thay will take it off iney thaing evein reguler chapter books you whued normoley read for injoymint. Just say he is going to do a book report. I belef some uther stors will have simuler programs for home schoolers. Like music stors. ^.^ Just ask at the frunt desk.

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Permalink Reply by Stacy Frank on July 5, 2009 at 6:00am

I took your advice about checking out lists of famous homeschoolers. Just for fun, I cross checked how many of the same names would appear on the famous dyslexics list. Many! It will also help to see the names of the scientists and inventors he so respects. Thanks.

Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide said:

You could mention that some of the most innovative and creative thinkers in the world have been homeschooled at least at some part in their schooling. It gave them more time to discover and develop their talents - and many later look back to that time and one of the most formative times in their lives. There are lots of sites with names of famous homeschoolers. Visit our video gallery too - so many people there had a different schooling experience because their parents recognized that conventional school wasn't a good fit for them. : )

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Permalink Reply by Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide on July 5, 2009 at 4:07pm

Totally. I'll attach a slide from one of our gifted dyslexics talks. Because some of the gifts (e.g. spatial) find little time in conventional school curricula (even most private schools), homeschooling is often the best fit of all for schooling. Because dyslexia also often runs in the family (along with the dyslexic gifts), parents and extended family may be especially well-suited to be the teachers too.

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Permalink Reply by Stacy Frank on July 6, 2009 at 8:58am

I think I saw this slide when I attended your webinar recently (which was awesome by the way.) The slide shocked me then and continues to do so now. This is such a disappointing diconnect in the ps system.

I'm trying to put together a plan of study for this fall and got much helpful information from a phone consult with Kathi Kearney last week. She suggested the Math U See series, but I'm seriously stuck on where to start him from Alpha to Zeta. He doesn't have retention of his basic facts (hoping 3D Learner will help with that when we travel there in a couple of weeks.) While we were at GDC in January, math proved to have quite a performance/ability gap with his concepts at 9th grade +. Linda S. and Bobbie G. had recommended teaching him at his conceptual level, but I'm not sure how to accomplish this with this series given his inconsistant foundation . Any thoughts? That you.

Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide said:

Totally. I'll attach a slide from one of our gifted dyslexics talks. Because some of the gifts (e.g. spatial) find little time in conventional school curricula (even most private schools), homeschooling is often the best fit of all for schooling. Because dyslexia also often runs in the family (along with the dyslexic gifts), parents and extended family may be especially well-suited to be the teachers too.

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Permalink Reply by MMK on July 6, 2009 at 4:42pm

Stacy,

I have five kiddos, 3 are 2e, one with dyslexia, one with dysgraphia, and one with dyscalculia and our family has homeschooled for 12 years. Math U See is a great hands on program that focuses on master of a subject. I have used the program through Episolon. I would recommend starting with Alpha simply because it starts with basic addition through several digit addition. The vast majority of public school math curriculum is done on a spiral approach. This means they learn a basic level of addition, subtraction, measuring, graphs etc the first year. The next year they do a short review and then learn two or three digit addition, subtraction and basic level multiplication. Your son may find Math U See easy at first but as he gets into the large addition problems he will be learning new concepts. Even if he buzzes quickly through Math U See Alpha he can start Math U See Beta mid way through the year. Also, Math U See teaches a concept and then has five days of practice problems. If after completing one page you realize your son already understands the concept you can simply skip to the next lesson with out completing all the week's assignments. Usually the last two or three days assignments also have review problems for previous lessons so you may want him to simply do part of those problems. If during a quiz he is missing to many problems then go back and have him complete the pages he skipped. The textbook is a tool for you to use and it is totally acceptable to choose what he needs to cover.

One thought, as much as I like Math U See it is not a fit for every student. Some students like variety and are bored with the mastery approach. A year of addition or a year of subtraction is an irritant for some. Some students actually learn better learning more concepts and are stimulated to learn by the new challenge. If after a few months you find that MUS is not a fit don't be afraid to look for something different. If your son is an auditory learner who likes learning with computers you might also consider looking at Teaching Textbooks.

Math can be learned in many ways. You might enjoy looking at the following website:

www.livingmath.net

You will find numerous games, books etc that can teach both mathematics and arithmetic. Arithmetic is different from mathematics. Arithmetic deals with basic addition, subtraction multiplication etc. Mathematics is the study of numbers. The livingmath.com website will help you find age appropriate books that will help to maintain your sons interest in mathematics while he works on mastering his math facts.

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Permalink Reply by MMK on July 6, 2009 at 6:36pm

Rereading you original question I realize now your son is older than I thought. Alpha will probably be to easy for him unless you feel like he has some gaps in addition. How comfortable is he with multiplication? Does he understand the steps for multiplication and long division and simply struggles with the basic facts or does he have problems remembering the steps to complete the problems? Math U See teaches carrying the multiplication under the problem instead of above it. I taught my oldest the traditional method with carrying above the problem and then taught my other four the MUS way of carrying underneath the problem using graph paper to keep the problem aligned. They found this method much easier. If your son has struggled with multiplication then gamma might be a better book to start with. If he struggles with long division then delta would be good book to start with.

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Permalink Reply by Kathy Weinert on July 8, 2009 at 6:40pm

He might really love the idea especially you can bring up all the fun things you will get to do! Talk about the topics, the field trips, maybe even find a co-op in your area and show him a schedule of your day. If he sees that there is more time for some of the fun stuff he likes to do if he gets his work done, he might be really excited. Also many homeschool groups meet over the summer to socialize. When we started, we hopped around meeting several different groups and people. Our son quickly saw how well he got on with homeschool kids. We have homeschooled our 10 year 2E for parts of 3 years (and we might yet do it again). Luckily for us they have allowed dual enrollment in our school district. You can do it!! All of you!

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Permalink Reply by Stacy Frank on July 9, 2009 at 4:03pm

Thanks for the words of encouragement, Kathy. I have been checking out some summer opportunities in our area including a visit to a bat farm and an architectural walking series downtown this summer. We will likely talk to him about the whole thing this weekend. That way we can finally talk and plan openly. He really needed the time to destress from the school year before we approached something so new. He's a very sensitive kid and was already on overload. I'm reading like crazy, and (I think) am gaining confidence that we will be ok this year. I really needed to embrace this myself in order to deliver it honestly and enthusiastically to him. I keep looking at the Eides statastic above that 53% of gifted dyslexic kids are homeschooled. We aren't alone in finding that the system isn't working for us right now. I keep repeating that we will join the majority if we make the move! Go figure!

Kathy Weinert said:

He might really love the idea especially you can bring up all the fun things you will get to do! Talk about the topics, the field trips, maybe even find a co-op in your area and show him a schedule of your day. If he sees that there is more time for some of the fun stuff he likes to do if he gets his work done, he might be really excited. Also many homeschool groups meet over the summer to socialize. When we started, we hopped around meeting several different groups and people. Our son quickly saw how well he got on with homeschool kids. We have homeschooled our 10 year 2E for parts of 3 years (and we might yet do it again). Luckily for us they have allowed dual enrollment in our school district. You can do it!! All of you!