[adel]

We adopted two kids a year ago. My son is having a hard time in school. He is on an IEP and in a "self contained" class. He does fine at home without his medication but he is an absolute devil without them at school. I want to home-school him but dont kow how to start or if it would be a good idea. My daughter is doing fine in school and I see no reason to home shool her yet. Could this cause tension between the two kids?

[lucyjoy]

It depends on your daughter whether homeschooling one will cause tension or not. One of my kids couldn't stand one being home with me while he was gone. The rest of them were fine with it. (I do have most at home now, but not because of tension)

I think homeschooling is a good idea, but it could be difficult if your son is resistant to learning. I use lots of hands on stuff.

If you type homeschool into your search engine, you'll get lots of info. I build my own curriculums according to what my son needs.
Lots of areas have homeschool networks. The first thing you need to know are your state's homeschool laws.

[Linny]

As I usually do......I agree with Lucy. However, I'll also add that I believe in many cases, homeschooling is one of the best ways to help with bonding w/in a family....as well as helping a child academically.
I homeschooled our first two children for six years. Three others were homeschooled for a total of 2.5yrs. Two of those three (I know this sounds confusing)....are now back into public school. Though our area has an excellent special ed. network......we aren't thrilled with what we are seeing in the way that one son is too much a follower and seemingly 'destined' to get into trouble. We have seriously considered homeschooling----or at least, private, Christian schooling for next year. It's a tough call. And........we, too, have considered the aspect of having one in public school, and the other in Christian school, or homeschooled.

Sincerely,

Linny

[JeannineW]

I'm just starting my homeschool journey. I've wanted to homeschool since long before I had kids. Now I finally have 3 kids, two of which living at home, a 15 yo stepdaughter in public school and a 3 yo that I plan to homeschool. We plan to add several more little ones to our family. As I look at our future, if I'm homeschooling, I want to homeschool all my little kids. Homeschooling gives you so much freedom to do things when you want to do them without regard to the school system's schedule. Having one or more children in public or private school would really tie you down. It would make field trips and activities harder since you'd want to be home for your child at the end of the school day and you would have to plan your vacations around the school's schedule.

Since I want to be home for my older daughter when she gets home from school, I feel like my "productive" day ends at 2:30. I usually don't run errands once she gets home and doing "school" stuff is difficult since Katie is so excited to have her big sister home.

I think having all of your children homeschooled would give you much more freedom. That said, you obviously have to do what's right for each individual child.

Jeannine

[texasislander]

We homeschool our oldest daughter. We adopted her when she was 9.5 and she was WAY behind her peers in all subjects. Homeschooling was the best thing we could have done for all of us. It can be very difficult emotionally because you are always together and tempers can flare even when they shouldn't, but don't let that stop you. Our daughter has caught up with her peers in just 2 years and is really shining. There are so many opportunities for homeschool families to build an education far beyond the books in a classroom.....field trips, interaction with other adults, public speaking, etc....

I highly recommend it but also recommend connecting with a good local support group.

[ModernMother]

He will need some serious "detox" time. Let him lounge around and do nothing for a while. After a while he'll get bored and start looking for something interesting to do. Homeschooling is definately only as difficult as you make it, it can be really simple. My boys are well ahead of their peers and I've not done much formal schooling at all. They just love to learn! After being in school (which usually quenches the natural love of learning) it takes some time at home doing nothing before it comes back again.

Jeannine! So excited to see you are a homeschooler too!