Sunday, April 15, 2007
Forced into homeschooling?
Possibly. For 5 weeks, anyway. I don't really know what to do, since the teacher that taught my child 1st-3rd grade has refused to take him "for his own good." Essentially, she's afraid he won't get much out of the time. Or doesn't want to bother. I don't think he'll get much out of the last 5 weeks anyway--what child does? I just want him to be enrolled somewhere so he isn't regarded as having too many absences. I'm not sure what the public schools' policies are with regard to readmitting students who were homeschooled for all or part of a year, but I doubt if they're pretty. I don't want him to start summer early, because that's sending a bad message. But I'm afraid of him being mistreated by his Catholic school teacher who gave homework over Easter. And of course, there is pride involved--mine. And I've got a lot of it. But I'm no more equipped to figure out what to have him do for the last 5 weeks--not to mention buying the supplies--than I am to take college Calculus! Ugh! On the other hand, this would mean about $450 more in my pocket (that I could use to buy supplies for 5 weeks) and someone to watch the baby while I took a bath so I could try to get out of the house more to attend meetings. We could call it--what term do they use in Montessori? "practical life"? Still, this means a lot of anxiety. But more than if he stayed in school??
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5 comments:
Absolutely you're qualified to instruct him! You're a smart person, and so is he.
Search around for the local homeschooling group. They may be able to offer you some support and some practical advice for the next few weeks (and some grade-level school books as well!). Find a Saxon Math book in his grade level. (I have a copy of Saxon 54 -- come on down and I'll lend it to you!)
What does one learn in the last five weeks of school that you can't do at home? If he loves to read, you could offer him a steady supply of good literature and books on subjects he's interested in, and then have him narrate them back to you so that you know he's retaining the salient points.
Also, you've got some time for teaching some good life skills. Can he do a load of laundry? Boil an egg? Does he want voice lessons? He'll have a lot more time to study up on subjects he's really interested in.
Thanks, Mrs. D! Good suggestions and pep talk! It's not my qualifications I doubt; it's my will & patience! I also feel like I'm opening a can of worms that I don't even want to deal with. It goes back to all that negativity regarding homeschool that I expressed on your blog. My feelings about homeschooling are, "O.K. for those who want to, but not for me AT ALL!" :( Of course, it's only 5 weeks, but isn't that how the ball gets rolling? Maybe I'm afraid of being "sucked in"! (Clearly, I have unresolved homeschooling issues.)
It's my theory that between fourth and eighth grade a smart kid could not do any school work for any two given years and still not be noticably behind when starting high school. (Yeah, so I have a bad attitude towards conventional schooling...)
Five weeks?
Well, if you have to pull him out, I'd say do this:
But one of those computer math drill programs and have him do it for 30min a day so you know he's not getting behind in that.
Then do a history/lit unit study on some topic he's interested in. Civil War, Samuri, WWII (okay, very boyist list of interests, but hey) pick one and then do some library/Amazon collecting around it.
Maybe have him write up a 3-5 page report on it if you want to have something to show for it all.
Since you'll be switching schools for next year anyway, it's not like you'd have continuity between grades regardless. And honestly, there's very little that's essential or life-changing that gets introduced in any given five week period of elementary ed.
Afraid of getting sucked in?
LOL.
I have a tendency to be overly-encouraging when talking to people about homeschooling (my husband pointed that out to me--he said it comes off like I'm telling them what to do).
It sounds like you just don't even want to consider homeschooling and that's ok. But if you want to open that can of worms and shake out the bad ones, I'd be more than happy to share what I think.
Entropy,
I have personal issues with homeschooling that I touched on on the Darwin Catholic blog. Messy family stuff. It has to do with level of commitment. I'm all for raising one's own kids, directing their learning, etc., so I should be open to homeschooling, right? But I'm not. It's because, really, the structure of school is O.K. with me, and I don't see replicating that at home as possible or ideal, if one is really interested in doing the "something different" that homeschooling implies. After all, I'm a college educator; I'm committed to that structure, which starts on earlier levels. Montessori was even feeling too loose for at the end because I wasn't getting any concrete sense of what he was learning. And yet I argue with the grading too, and often feel like to put a letter grade on everything is self-defeating. And I resent having students value only the letter and not the educational experience (it's particularly bad where I teach). So I want the results of homeschooling without the process, I think. But my own opinions on schooling are the product of my own experiences with public education. And I believe that the parents and child(ren) can make the best of most educational situations with a little motivation.
Thanks for the suggestions, Darwin. And I do agree that a couple of years off (much less a couple of weeks) wouldn't really do any lasting damage. But in the interest of having something to show to explain why he missed so much school so that he doesn't get held back, I have been considering some of the things you mention. I also don't want my son to feel like there was a triumph involved for him in the fact that his parents and his school had irreconcilable differences. He had a brief--woo hoo! early summer! moment earlier today that I quelled.
And Entropy, feel free to tell me your homeschooling ideas! I'm always interested & willing to listen to others' educational philosophies! After all, that kind of sharing is also a learning opportunity! Thanks for chiming in on this!
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