Home school question.?

Question

My sister let her Husband take their Daughter out of school because the school told them she needed special ed classes. Her Dad does not work with her but a couple times a week for about thirty min. at a time.For reading they make her read from the Bible. There are things you have to do to home school your kids and they are not doing it. What can I do and who can I call about this?I dont want to cause Family problems but I dont think they see how they are s******g with her education.

Answer 1

Every school or state has requirements I know in Colorado they test every other year to see if the children are on schedule ask them if they think she will test appropriately to move to the next grade level and see what she needs to do so

Answer 2

Check www.hslda.org for the laws of the state your sister resides in. They may be doing just fine.

Also, I would wonder how it is that you know everything that is being taught to this child?

Answer 3

Hmm, there are as many (legitimate) ways to home educate as there are families who home educate. Whatever you believe or have heard, there are no single set of "things you have to do to home school your kids". I'd love to know what you believe your sister and her family "should" be doing.

Home education can include such concepts as unschooling and deschooling. For instance my siblings and I are all unschooled. It would probably be easy for you to look at what we do on a typical day and decide we're not being properly homeschooled either...but my two eldest siblings are currently studying BSc (Hons) degrees; my brother passed exams meant for 18 year olds (and scored all 'A' grades) just a couple of days after his 15th birthday; and, at 14, I already have a provisional place at University. Maybe your sister and her dh HAVE done their research and feel that your niece is in need of some time to deschool before she is ready to get back into fulltime education (education not school).  

PS Good on her if she is reading the Bible - that's far from the easiest book to read and there's heaps in there whether you're Christian or not. It's still recognised as being one of the Classics in English Literature and having heaps to say about how the world and society operated 2,000 years ago.

Answer 4

I have public homeschooling. I go to school once a week. I have an actual teacher so there's no trouble with home learning. They assign weekely assignments and grade you weekly. I would make them look into that. There's not many people who you can call and complain about this without cause some tension

Answer 5

Before you condemn your sister and her family to the trash pile for how they're raising THEIR child, read this article.  It's very enlightening (and, no, it's not a hoax).

http://www.tulsakids.com/editors-choice/...

Answer 6

It sounds like you may not have had a very good relationship with your sister prior to this incident.  Perhaps I am misreading this, but you sound rather judgemental and confrontational.  If you approach her in that tone, you will assure a bad outcome.  She will be defensive and exclude you from the situation.  But, maybe your opinions are based on hours of observation and conversation and much independent investigation into your state's homeschooling laws and your niece's special needs.  If so, then I am "all wet."  

If I am all wrong, and you have a very close, supportive and loving relationship, you may want to take your sister out for coffee somewhere private and share your concerns with her.  Find out what they are doing and how they feel.  Are they feeling confident in their choice or do they feel overwhelmed? Ask them exactly what you can do to help. Offer to be of assistance and help share their burden.   Don't take control of the situation.....as the others have pointed out...this is NOT your child.   Ask your sister how SHE is doing.  It is usually quite a shock to have a school official tell you that your daughter need special ed. classes.  You may need to be her strength right now.  If you are people of faith, you may offer to pray with her and be there for her in any way she sees fit.  Summarily....this is not your situation to control.  

If I do read your relationship with your sister correctly and you have a rather adversarial relationship, you may want to share your concerns first with someone your sister trusts and feels close to and see what they think is best.  Then ask that they follow up with her and check back with them to see how things went.   But you need to have confidence that if your sister asked them not to share private information with you, then you need to accept her wishes and be respectful.

Either way, it does not sound like you have enough information about your sister's educational plan, your niece's condition, or homeschooling in general to make a unilateral decision to file a report with the school, the school board or CPS.  If you do not, and you act without fully understanding the consequences of your own actions, you can pretty much guarantee that you will not be a part of their lives in the future.

Answer 7

Well, depending on where you live, there is probably nothing illegal about what they are doing. Your opinion is that they are s******g her up, but the fact is when we started schooling at home, it took less than two hours a day to do all four of my children's schoolwork. Even then it took less than four months to finish an entire year's worth of schoolwork.  

Public school wastes so much time on discipline and group instruction, and when you bring it home and you're working with one child, all of that is extraneous and not necessary, therefore taking less time. It really would not surprise me if it took less than two hours a week to teach her everything she needs to know, especially if she's not in high school yet. In high school it would probably take less than two hours a day to get to college level.

I think reporting them to CPS will get you two things. Either they will step in a take a child away because CPS has very little training in this kind of situation, or they will completely ignore you and you are ruining a family relationship with no cause. Step back and realize that she's not your daughter, that your sister and her husband love this child and would not purposefully s***w her up, to use your idiom. They are doing what they think is best, and that's a lot better than most parents do when they mindlessly send them to public school for 13 years.

Take some time to figure out what they are doing, observe your niece and see what she is learning. When you first come out of school, it takes several months to recover or  'deschool' (esp if you've been labeled special ed) from the stress and operant conditioning that public school requires for you to be successful. It's kind of like when kids graduate at 18 and go completely nuts with the partying and drinking.

Answer 8

Visit hslda.com and find the laws for your state! But yes I can see they do not Properly teach her!

Answer 9

Unfortunately, I don't know that there is anything you can do.

I know someone who homeschools and she spends most of her day shopping, attending "girly" functions and I often wonder how she is able to effectively educate her children.

However, at the end of the day, there's nothing that anyone can say. It's my understanding that her children are meeting the necessary requirements for her district. The same may be the case for your sister.

Answer 10

I gotta say, I agree with alot of the previous posts regarding how much you actually learn in public school. Being a public school student in southern California myself, I really dont learn much in a day, even though im attentive and I do the work.

  

A day of school is 95 percent mindless busy work, totally not engaging or interesting. The things we do 'learn' are usually really, really silly and pointless, alot of totally useless garbage (the exeption being if you take advanced placement or honors classes, I learned ALOT in 3 weeks of AP world history).

Its pretty sad, really, how it trickles down from teacher to students. When the teacher dosent care, it passes on to students that dont care. And vise- versa, if a teacher is energetic and does his\her best to make the class interesting and engaging of the mind, the better the kids will do and the more they will learn.

My point being, maybe thats all she wants her kids to know. There are a whole lot of really uninspired teachers out there, id probably learn more if I read from the bible every day than what I learn going to school for 7 hours a day.

Answer 11

First of all, depending on where they are living, there may or may not be requirements. A lot of people think there are requirements, but they are usually not at all what is assumed. Are you sure you know the laws where you live?

Secondly, many people follow unschooling, with a few requirements built in. They may be following this method.

Third, an education is fixable later on; the often destroyed character caused by special ed classes is not.

Fourth, many people of the past learned to read by only reading the Bible. There's nothing wrong with that.

Fifth, you haven't said how old the daughter is.

Sixth, you aren't at home with them, are you? How do you know she isn't learning other stuff? You don't have to be sitting down, reading books and other typical school stuff to be learning.

Inform yourself well of the laws where you live as well as properly inform yourself as to how they homeschool. Be a support rather than a critic.

Answer 12

Call the Board of Education and ask them how to file a notice that someone took their child out of school and is not educating them at home.  Most cities will take your information in this office, sometimes they will direct your call to another insititution.  This should be your LAST resort, as some states take this very seriously and may send the child into foster care for a short period.

If you want to help your sister order her a catalog off of this website, don't ask her to do it or she will never get around to it.  Go to http://www.homeschoolmarketplace.com/pro...

Elijah company is the best by far.  They will help her understand how her child learns and what she can use to help her daughter learn the best way possible.  This resource always has a lot of information and you can buy books, games, videos, everything you need for homeschooling from this catalog.  Plus the writers always put personal stories and comments on each product.  

This is THE resource for new homeschoolers.  

Here is a website for the laws in each state on homeschooling, most states require you to register the child with the school board. http://www.hslda.org/laws/default.asp

HSLDA is well respected in the homeschool community and is another great resource.  Let us know what you end up doing.

Answer 13

Are you positive that the only reason your sister took your niece out of school was because she needed special education classes?  If she was in special education classes, were the classes helping her?  I would venture to say that you don't know the whole story.

It is great that her father works with her for 30 minutes at a time; perhaps her special needs require that she have shorter time periods for lessons.  Reading the Bible as part of one's education is a good thing; I believe the Bible is written on a higher grade level than many books.  Additionally, her mother may also be helping with the schooling on different days.  

You should not call anyone about how your sister and her husband are homeschooling their daughter.  Keep in mind that this is their daughter whom they love and want the best for.  You could offer to help them with whatever they are trying to do.  Also, know that your interference will cause family problems.  Homeschoolers for the most part fare better than their public school counterparts, so homeschooling your niece will not interfere with her education.

Please do not disrupt/intervene in this family's efforts.  It is not your job/responsibility to make judgment calls in this matter.

Answer 14

Whats wrong with what they are doing?  You say that her dad only works with her a couple of times a week, but how about her mom?  Also, how do you know she is not learning.  Whats wrong with reading the Bible for reading?  The Bible IS a book after all.    Depending on the version it is usually somewhere between the 5th and 12th grade levels, with most common versions being at about the 10th grade level, so its not like they are having her sit around reading Baby Books.

I support homeschooling.  Most homeschoolers do better academically than Public School kids do.  Now, without more information I can't say for sure that your niece is getting a quality education, but I also can't say she isn't.

In the end though, as long as they are in compliance with the law, there is nothing you can (or should) do.  She is their daughter, not yours, unless her parents are breaking the law, you have no right to do anything.

If you want more information on the laws about homeschooling, and about homeschooling in general, go to http://www.hslda.org

Answer 15

This is their child not yours.  And it isn't your business.  If you interfere or try to cause problems for the family, you will be ostracized from them. Is that what you want? Many people who do not understand the concepts of homeschooling disapprove.  That's ok.  It is legal.  And parents do have the right to see to the care and upbringing of their child.  Leave them alone.  If you are worried them pray. But stay out of it or they will cut off relationship with you.

And I want to assure you that if you complain to child welfare or the truant officer or whoever, HSLDA will protect this family. They will not loose their child if they have decent legal protection. Homeschooling is legal.  And WHEN they find out it was you, you risk the chance of being sued from malicious libel.

Answer 16

What makes you think the SCHOOL will do any better.

I have heard VOLUMES here from people with 14 year old kids who read at 3rd grade levels who are IN SCHOOLS and PASSED from grade to grade.

Reading is reading.

I have been told by TEACHERS that it is illegal to put a child into "special" classes.  This comes from the RACIAL thing.

So, what does a teacher do.  They have to explain an F so instead they give a poor reader a D which they don't have to epxlain and then that kid who gets SOLID Ds in all classes, expect maybe art where they get a B or A, moves on to the next grade.

You only stay in a grade when you get a few Fs

And a Teacher has to explain an F

Not a D

So the teach says, this kid has problems , we can't solve them because the Blacks and Hispanics made it illegal, so just give her a D and move her on.

That is the SCHOOL approach.

It's no better.

And you can thank BLACKS and HISPANICS and the ACLU for this, because it didn't happen in the 1950s

It happens because a BLACK kid says

I BE DOING THIS

That is IMPROPER GRAMMAR

TO PUT THAT CHILD IN A REMEDIAL CLASS is racist.

And that is why Johnny and Susan can't read, write or do math

You have a problem with it, go up aginst the BLACKS and HISPANICS who got the ACLU to win a few court cases and STOP multi level class structures.

REMEMBER BLACK STUDENTS wanted the RIGHT to do MASTERS AND DOCTORIAL THESIS in EBONICS

They lost at the college level.

They wanted to write their DOCTORIALS

I be findin this and dat out.

They LOST that one!

This is the DEMISE of the AMERICAN educational system.

When ENGLISH is no longer allowed to be the PROPER struictured language.

So, to play it safe, whatever grammar comes out of a kids mouth or pen gets a D

That's SAFE GRADE

It's SAFE for the TEACHER, SAFE for the SCHOOL, SAFE for the system and it keeps the ACLU from going to the SUPREME COURT

WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THE SCHOOL WILL TEACH HER ANYTHING!

Schools aren't in the TEACING business, they are in the SURVIVAL business.

Answer 17

Even IF they only work with her 30 minutes at a time 3x a week they are probably doing more with her then any special ed program in any school.

However, this is not your child.  I have a feeling you don't really know everything that is going on.  

You say you don't want to cause problems but that's exactly what you'll be doing.  I don't think you want to go there.

I have special needs kids and it's amazing just how much they can learn in a one on one situation.  Maybe she gets overloaded if she's pressured with too many things at once.