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knowloveserve
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I'm going to be homeschooling my youngest brother... from my own home which is 5 hours from his. Various circumstances have contributed to my mother being unable to do it and my father has poor health and is somewhat unsure of HOW to do it.
All parties are thrilled with the idea that I could be a sort of liason. He practically flunked out of 6th grade last year; but this is more the school's fault than his IMO. He is a very bright kid and I KNOW he will flourish in a homeschooling environment.
What I could use from you gracious ladies are any tips or ideas you might have to help facilitate this arrangement. My parents asked me to design a curriculum which I'm starting slowly to do. I'm mostly to keep him accountable and to grade papers and guide him through any questions he may have... Dad will do what he can taking him on field trips and discussing things with him but they're leaving the curriculum up to me.
Since my oldest son is not even 5 yet, I don't have a lot of experience with various things and I was hoping I could give a brief rundown of John's personality and gain some suggestions.
-He is very hands-on. Likes to figure out how things work and craft things on his own.
-He enjoys reading only if he can relate to the characters.
-He is very social... thrives on being included in things and being around people (He has communiity activities and things he'll continue to be involved in)
-He gets distracted easily.
-If he doesn't see the point in something, he loses interest.
-He excels at math, especially if it's hands-on.
-He loathes writing.
So there John is in a nutshell. He'll be in 7th grade this year... any great ideas for smoothing out this transition would be appreciated.
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Ellie
The Bleeding Pelican
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Rachel May
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One thing I would suggest would be to have your parents explicity tell him that you are the school authority. What you assign, he must do to his best ability etc. Even if he's excited to have you homeschool him, having basic ground rules drawn will help when you need him to do work he doesn't want to do.
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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Sarah
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He's just like my John in every way.
This year I'm using ideas from Bravewriter and although I don't endorse all her books and cultural ideas, I like her style for those kids who hate writing.
It might be a very good place to start.
I know there are people on this forum who can suggest more that I can.
My biggest advice is to make it a positive thing right off the bat, so don't load him down. Sometimes we try to mimick the instutional "school" at home, which may not be a good thing.
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Six boys ages 16, 14, 11, 7, 5, 2 and one girl age 9
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Lillian
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I would recommend Mother of Divine Grace. Only because you mentioned not having too much experience and this would be quick and yet flexible.
You could get the syllabus to give you an idea of workload/structure and how much to do each day. But then you could always substitute any math, English, etc. to your liking.
Here's a link to the booklist and syllabi for Mother of Divine Grace. And Emmanuel Books sells most of the curriculum suggested by MODG.
I've used MODG since my youngest was in Kinder. She is now starting 4th grade and I love the guidance it provides. I sometimes substitute but not much.
Just thought I'd through out a "set curriculum" in case you were in a rush and/or needed ideas. If he likes to read he will really love this program. There is alot of writing but not in every subject. Laura Berquist is wonderful at requiring the right amount of writing necessary for later years, but DOES NOT assign busy work.
Hope that helps. Good luck! I'll keep you and your brother in my prayers.
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Lillian
Isabelle 9, Anna 7, Sophia 5, Kolbe 4, Catherine 2
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Erin
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Ellie
What a lovely experience for you all. I have also hsed most of my siblings at various times whilst they lived with me. It creates a strong bond, they don't forget 
Mmm so your oldest is 5 and John is 12. Firstly relax, it really doesn't sound like John is going to be the type of child who will stress if you don't have all his curriculmn organised to start with. You sound like you know and understand your brother very well, you can do it. Mostly considering that he 'flunked' grade 6 you may have to look at confidence building and you want to work on that first. IMO I would leave writing alone at first, encourage some creativity with Bravewriter (you can join their group to get ideas and support)but I wouldn't be expecting papers at this stage.
He sounds like a strong willed child, I know about that  my oldest particularly is strong. There is no way you are going to make him learn 'your way'if he is very strong, flunking school may well show that, it is easier to learn his way. As he matures you may be able to make more 'suggestions' but not yet.
Work with his interests, as he likes reading go with what he would like to read about but make sure that the literature he chooses is of a high standard. From that he may go deeper more in depth.
As for maths I would find a strong program that you are happy with, my favourite is Singapore Maths but I believe Math U See is also very good and hands on. (If you do a search here that has been plenty of discussion on maths programs)
For any Language Arts that you do I would keep it toshort lessons. I design my own program, which I can explain if you like but if you want to buy I'm sure you'll get some great recommendations here.
I would seriously consider doing some hands on projects for your brother as from your description he would learn well that way and it would become meaningful to him.
(Sorry have baby in arms and can't link for you)
Oh and plan to do some lovely read alouds, great memories, my brother 19, was talking only the other day about when he was 9 and I read Swiss Family Robinson to him.
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Erin
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lapazfarm
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Hmmm. Your brother sounds a lot like my son.
Do I understand it correctly that you will be schooling him from a distance? That is a tough one, but I am sure you will find a way to make it work.
Because I am who I am, I am going to suggest something a bit different.
Middle school, to me is a very interesting time in a boy's life. By now he has likely learned all of the basics, but isn't ready for intense high-school level work. I think it is a magical time, a period of grace and self-discovery. It is a perfect time for letting a kid follow interests, build things, experiment, create, and work with hands and heart in tune. Projects are perfect for this type of learning.
Also, since you will be schooling from afar, it will be difficult to oversee daily work.
I suggest you find some longer term projects that your brother can work on independently, and that dad can oversee and lend a hand when needed.
For example, the book Backyard Ballistics has some great projects db could get into. In doing them he will learn so much about physics, history, measurement,how to use tools, and so much more. You can enrich the projects by providing historical background reading, related literature selections, DVD's, etc. And Backyard Ballistics is not the only fun project book out there. If that one doesn't interest him (it could happen, LOL!)I am sure you can find one that will.
Keep a blog (privately) for the two of you to communicate. He can post daily or weekly updates on his progress and you can post comments suggesting improvements, links for further research, pose questions for him to think about, and you can discuss the literature selections, the science concepts, the history, etc behind the projects. This will not only facilitate teaching and oversight, but it will give him some writing practice in a non-threatening format.
For math there are many online options as well as DVD courses. My son (same age as your db) will be doing the High School Basic Math from the Teaching Company. It is a perfect pre-algebra prep, reviewing everything from addition and subtraction, on up through fractions and decimals, geometry, and some beginning algebra. This way anything he missed he will have a chance to pick up before heading on to Algebra.
So now you have math, science, history, literature, and writing covered. EASY!LOL!
Anyway, that's what I would do.
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us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
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knowloveserve
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Thanks for these ideas; I'm soaking them in!
(Lillian, I was a teacher for MODG so I know about that but I think it may be too bookish for John. I really want to focus on HIS strengths this year... allowing him to fall in love with learning. MODG CAN provide that for some kids... but not this one I think.)
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Ellie
The Bleeding Pelican
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vmalott
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Ellie,
Be sure to look at all the learning ideas that Theresa has written about on her blog. They are simply amazing and sooo hands-on.
Personally, I think just being out of the school atmosphere will do wonders for your brother and he will fall in love with learning...in his own way.
Will he have the opportunity to "deschool" a bit?
Valerie
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Valerie
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Erin
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Ellie
Is John living with you or with your parents? I'm not sure I read it correctly. 
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Erin
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knowloveserve
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He lives w/ my parents; I live on the other side of the state.
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CatholicMommy
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When I was pregnant with my now 3 1/2 year old son, I homeschooled my then 8th grade sister, partially from a distance (she stayed with me off and on).
The first thing we did was locate a good guide on learning styles (Discovering your child's learning styles, I think the one we used was called). I took the inventory as well, so we could better see where my teaching style was going to come into play.
She sounds quite a bit like your brother and ended up appreciating a lot of projects of her choice. We'd discuss what the end goal was, how to get there, what supplies were needed, various steps along the way (checkpoints). She had to work to each checkpoint before making any major changes to the project (she could however contact me at any time if something really wasn't working, but we tried to keep the checkpoints close enough together that this was rare), and at each checkpoint we'd evaluate how it's all going and adjust from there.
Since she wanted to return to public school for high school, we really focused on confidence builders, study habits and such. I did have her take a standardized test, at home, so that she could see where she truly fell on the continuum - she did EXCELLENT.
It wasn't a perfect situation and her stepmother passed away during that time as well (she and I have different fathers) - I think homeschooling was the only thing that really got her through really - to have missed that many public school days would have held her back a year. The one thing I would NOT do again is sign up with a curriculum too early on - we did that and had to ditch it as it was just too soon to jump into something like that. I think we would have worked into it if we homeschooled more than a year.
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nicole-amdg
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I homeschooled my SIL in the summer after her eighth grade due to personal reasons and school transitions, plus I'm a planner, so I had loads of ideas just reading your post--ideas but no positively relevant experience! Still, I thought that some of them might be useful, if you haven't thought of them already....
knowloveserve wrote:
-He is very hands-on. Likes to figure out how things work and craft things on his own. |
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I think some of the books in Elizabeth's booklist are very good for encouraging or tapping into this. Maybe the One Small Square books or The New Way Things Work stuff. Plus I'm a junkie for "educational toys" catalogs--they're good for ideas and sometimes products too.
knowloveserve wrote:
-He enjoys reading only if he can relate to the characters. |
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He should be reading, right? Booklists are convenient for giving him choices for excellent literature. There are lots of good booklists out there. Let him pick from them. Kolbe Academy has a booklist available for purchase, there are booklists in book form (e.g. Books That Build Character), there are some good ones on the web.
knowloveserve wrote:
-He is very social... thrives on being included in things and being around people (He has communiity activities and things he'll continue to be involved in) |
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Maybe work the rabbit trails backwards. Look for opportunities he has to get involved, and see what you can relate to it. (If I had examples of what he does now I'd have suggestions!)
knowloveserve wrote:
-He gets distracted easily.
-If he doesn't see the point in something, he loses interest. |
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Tough one. That may be a (self-)discipline issue in the end, which will have to be up to his parents. Maybe just make him as involved as possible in determining goals/projects/activities, so he is less likely to lose interest?
knowloveserve wrote:
-He excels at math, especially if it's hands-on. |
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Math-U-See? I think most programs have placement aids. I know Math-U-See and Saxon do. Plus, this may help--I think I originally found the link here but I can't find the thread.
Does he like to e-mail? Can he have a blog? Maybe you could communicate this way--he could record some of his work by journaling about it to you. It might be a fun way just to get him putting thoughts in written form.
A few more thoughts. I would say, definitely have a general plan to cover history (I like the chronological approach of classical education) but also definitely keep a Book of Centuries--no matter what you're studying, you can probably add something from it to his Book. And for a boy his age who likes to figure things out on his own but loses interest if he doesn't see the point, it sounds to me as if projects with rabbit trails are something to consider seriously. They're' hands-on, create relationships between ideas, and can be very independent-work friendly.
I hope my thoughts aren't too truncated to make sense of!
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Nicole
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: an odd situation
