I'm thinking about home schooling my struggling high school son. Does anyone have any experiences or advice?

Question

I'm thinking about home schooling my struggling high school son. Does anyone have any experiences or advice?

Answer 1

Homeschool is easier and less expensive than your son sitting in classes all day and then coming home to tutoring, either by you or someone who charges $20.00 plus an hour.

We stopped wasting time when our son started 8th grade.  We kept waiting for the day to come that he would be able to learn in a classroom situation but it never happened.  (Example of doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results.)

Homeschool has worked for us.  He is learning.  He has confidence that he can learn.  It will probably never be someone who enjoys reading for the sake or reading, but he has found out that the word 'education' does not mean 'torture'.  (smile)

Answer 2

You didn't say what grade or if the problem was social or academic. I can share my experience with you and if it helps great!

I have a daughter we started home schooling in the 6th grade. The reasoning was that she could not stand the bad behavior of the other kids and that there was no discipline given for that behavior. She became withdrawn and depressed. My initial plan was to home school for one year to let her grow up a little then put her back in. We kept one class, Spanish, at the school and did the rest at home. I sat in one day at the school during Spanish and it was a nightmare! I really thought my daughter had been exaggerating but it was an awful experience. There was NO respect given to the teacher or to the fact there was a visitor to the room. We withdrew her and never looked back.

My daughter grew leaps and bounds academically and socially after we pulled her out. She socializes regularly with a variety of people, not just a bunch of kids her own age. She is a leader on a high school swim team she participates on as well as in our Youth group at church. She has time to pursue her interests and volunteer. Our relationship has grown because she doesn't feel the need to distance herself from me to fit in with other kids. My house is the "cool house" to hang out at. She has many friends, both home schooled and public schooled as well as adult and college age. Speaking of college, her plan is to graduate High school with an AA degree from the Dual enrollment program here in Fl. We have had several home school kids do this in our area and it’s a great option!

Any other questions, feel free to email!

Answer 3

DO IT. If I had it to do over again my children wouldn't set a foot in a public school. And I am a school teacher.

It just takes discipline to stick with it every day. Set up a regular schedule and follow it without fail. Make sure your son gets socialization with others his age. There are many organizations where home schoolers can get together regularly.

My experience has been they are way ahead of students in the public scholols. Good Luck

Answer 4

I've known several neighbor kids in my mother's area that have been home schooled.  That is a rural area and different than being in the city.

Student no.1.    Isolated, not able to interact with other children, rude, unable to speak on the telephone without rudeness.  Grew up to have a couple of failed marriages and lives in a mobile home surrounded my his various junk cars.

Student no. 2. and 3.   Ultra religious parents took these boys out of public school.  Both isolated from kids their own age and only contact with the outside world was their church and occasional working for the neighbors.    The older boy faired better as he'd been in public school lower than his younger brother, no. 3.    Both were very shy and backward, sometimes impolite because they were never taught.  Student no. 3, the younger brother was more isolated and rarely around boys his own age.  Result, he has never been in a situation in which he has to realize that there are fish in the pond bigger than he is.   No. 3 became arrogant, rude, argumentative and while quick to tease someone else, unable to take a simple joke.  Also, due to the lack of interaction with girls, may have become g*y.   Both can hardly read and unable to find work other than odd jobs.

Students 4,5,6 and 7.      Another neigbhor family, different church, not an almost cultist type church of students 2 and 3.    Larger church with interaction of other children their own ages.  Active participation by parents at the Y and more interaction with children of their own ages and learning how to play games, win, loose  and that the world does not revolve around them.

Of this family, students 4,5,6 and 7 very polite and well mannered, possibly due to parents and social interaction.   Student 5, inteligent but hates book learning.     These may be sucess stories but they are too young yet to know.

On the whole, home schooling is a failure.    Most of the parents in this true example were unwilling to take the time to properly school their children and didnot have the proper skills to do so.  

These children who are no young adults have had a hard time of interacting with adults or those of their own age.     Student 3, will probably die because of playing with electricity and not taking advise on proper grounding or other safety measures.   A 14 y/o boy should not be allowed to weld on a machine that he has taken apart while it was plugged in, with a can of gasoline within three feet, on a wet gravel floor, with the cord hard-wired into the wall because they ran over the plug and unsupervised.    

The latter children, because of their caring parents and interaction with the outside world appears to have produced children that can properly interact with others their own age and hopefully go on to college or fruitful lives.

Answer 5

Homeschool can be a good experience for kids struggling academically.  If your son is super smart and motivated but bored at school, it might also be more pleasant for him to work at his own pace.

I was homeschooled for 3 years in middle school because I was bored with school and miles ahead of other kids academically, but the school refused to move me ahead.  My mother was not familiar with some of the subjects but I easily taught myself from books when we were out of her range of education.  I LIKED being homeschooled but to be honest I stagnated socially.  I withdrew from other people and was scared to try new things.  I was miserable going back to school later and dealing with bullying, both for being the new kid and being poor.  There were some experiences in high school later that were good for me, though--and teachers who knew much more about the subjects than my mom did, or that I could learn from a book.

So here's an idea:  If your son is having difficulty in some subjects but has lots of social outlets outside school (sports teams, clubs, etc.), I think it would be fine to homeschool to help him catch up.  This will take up a lot of your time, especially if your son isn't very self-motivated, so be aware of that.  You need to prepare like a teacher would and provide structure as well as help.

If your son is just worried about bullies or doesn't have many friends, homeschooling isn't the answer.  It will just cause him to withdraw more.  A therapist might be a better investment.

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

highschool is a time of social growth for alot of kids, you have dances proms football games and other sportng events they have first dates and first break ups and even if they shouldnt sometimes first beers and first parties they learn how to interact with girls and guys and how to handle responsibilities. struggling in highschool happened, i was no einstien, and i managed to get through it, i even had to take summer school class because i failed an algerbra class. The most important thing i learned in highschool was just life and how to deal with it. i made some good and some bad choices and when i came to college those expierences made me be able to live on my own and be able to handle it. let him grow up with other kids his age it might mean gettin a tutor or doing it yourself but let him stay in high school!

Answer 7

i'm against home schooling. I don't care how much a kid struggles socially or academically..it is rediculous that they can be taught by their parents or a homeschool teacher while everyone else has to go to public school or pay for rediculously expensive private school. I'm against private school too....I had a hard time in high school with lots of issues and now college is even more challenging, but allowing a child to become an exception to the rule is rediculous.

And I'm not saying that homeschooled kids don't do work or sleep in or whatever but they have it easier for the sheer fact that they are at home and not physically at school. It's easier scially because they are at home and it is a load of c**p that they don't have to endure what other kids do (I.E. speeches, lunch lines, gym class, etc). And asking this question in a home-schooling forum is obviously going to return biased answers since most of these people support homeschooling no matter what other people think because they were homeschooled. It's not that I am against those people who were homeschooled, I am against the system only. So no hate comments please.

ps. Learning at your own pace is easier compared to other people who have to deal with the fast pace reality of public education.....total bullshit

Answer 8

I found this information about homeschooling struggling learners on the Home School Legal Defense Association website, and I hope it is helpful to you.

http://www.hslda.org/strugglinglearner/d...

Answer 9

I loved homeshooling because it gave me a chance to learn at my own pace, and to focus on what interested me. I didn't just learn science  - I learned science as it related to something that I was passionate about: the space program.  

My parents spent untold hours doing science experiments with me and my brothers, taking us to museums and reenactments and historical sites (including numerous trips to the local NASA center), as well as grading homework.  

We were members of a local homeschool organization, so we had lots of events during the year, besides hanging out with the children from other families.  We had geography potlucks where each family cooked food and created a display for another country, and science days where the dads organized interactive experiments and games to encourage a love of science.  We had a writing club with quarterly newspapers, and a book club where everyone gathered to discuss a book.  One of the moms in the group was a biologist, so we used to go to her house and dissect clams and earthworms and frogs.  

Every afternoon after school we'd meet up with our homeschooled friends and chase each other and run around - we really got a chance to be kids.   My little brother is now in the army, and when he wrote from bootcamp, he said that some of his fondest memories were of doing science experiments with our dad.

It's not for everybody, and it really, really requires a lot of work on the parents' part (as I'm realizing more and more as I get older), but it was an amazing experience.  It also required a lot of sacrifice, because my mom didn't work when we were young, so my dad had to support the family on his own.  We drove old junkers and lived in a house with interior design that hasn't changed since the 70's, but this didn't really bug us when we were running around outside screaming ;)

I think Rann Georgia will be happy to know that his doom and gloom statements about homeschooling are blown out of proportion, and would caution him against making such a blanket statement based on such a small subject size in an isolated area.  I loved homeschooling, and I may be biased, but I don't think I was ruined by it ;)  I am very blessed to be working at my dream job as a NASA contractor, and the hard work of my parents gave me the tools I needed to get here.  Oh yeah - and I'm not actually an antisocial hermit, believe it or not ;)

Good luck with whatever you decide

Engineer Chick