Will you please give me advice on Home Schooling?

Question

My 13 year old nephew has moved in with my parents next door to me. He's a wonderful child who has not had a healthy role model. He was in many fights in school and is below his level in academics. He does NOT do well in public schools at all! It's due to the way my sister raised him. But, now he is here (next door) and we (my mother and I) have decided to both home school him. My mom ordered all the materials and I will be teaching him Math, Computer Skills, Typing and Reading. Yesterday was a very difficult day. It was our first day with Math. He is definately behind but I was positive through the whole experience. It took him 3 hours to understand the Periods of a number. You know... ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, etc. At this rate we are not going to get through the material to keep him on track. I've taught adults to read in the past and have trained many adults for work purposes. But, this is new to me. Can anyone please help me with teaching skills

Answer 1

I think that you and your mother have made a wonderful decision and someday your nephew will thank you! Don't get discouraged too easily and ignore the remarks made by those who don't know what they are talking. The beauty of home education is that you work at his pace and that his teacher loves him and has more to gain than a paycheck. Don't spend 3 hours on something, put it down and come back to it later. He probably started to feel frustrated (and dumb) because he wasn't "getting it" and it was so simple for you. Be patient with him and give him lots of praise for a job well done (no matter how small it seems to you). Your praise and love are what he needs more than any schooling right now. Spend some time at first with some hands on educational stuff like going to the museum or walking in the woods. Make learning an adventure and relationship building time. Remember that since you are working one on one with him, you have plenty of time to make up for what some would call lost time. Good Luck and God Bless your homeschool! P~

Answer 2

I think three hours is too long to stay on one subject or concept. At that point you're just both going to get frustrated and he's going to be feeling pretty bad about himself for not "getting it" yet. It's likely at that point that his brain has really shut down and no progress will be make anyway.

**Set a time for each subject and more or less stick with it. He'd never have 3 hours of a subject at public school. There's a reason why they go from one subject to another during the day.

**Allow his brain rest time to wrap itself around new concepts. Sometimes I'm concerned because my son doesn't seem to be getting a certain idea but then the next day when we turn to that again all of the sudden he has it down. The brain works on things subconsciously while resting. Let it do it's thing.

**If he's behind academically the materials you ordered may be too advanced for him. There may be basic gaps in his knowledge that makes the higher concepts you're trying to teach him difficult or even impossible to get. Consider having him tested to see what level he's at.

**As someone else suggested he may have a learning disability, though I think there are more basic things you can try before you have him evaluated for learning disabilities. At 13 being suspected of a learning disability could be pretty difficult.

**Motivation. Let him know why these concepts matter to him. how does this help him. Relate it to money (pennies, dimes, $1, $10, $100) chances are at 13 he knows he'd rather have $100 than a penny. ;-) Can this help him in playing video games, understanding sports scores, board games, etc. Figure out what motivates him and relate as much as possible back to that.

**Manipulables are really important in earlier levels of math. These might help him. You could use money to represent the place values or cubes, rods of 10 cubes, sheets of 10 rods, and large cubes of 10 sheets. If you don't have these supplies you could use something else like candy, action figures, etc.

While the two of you find your groove things won't go wonderfully. Try to stay calm while this happens. Don't make major decisions about it until you've done a few weeks of it and really understand what's going to be happening.

Answer 3

I want to commend both your mother and you for taking on such a loving task. 13 is a rough age and if he ha had a rough homelife that is not going to help either. There is a method called Deschooling and it is used for a variety of reasons but usually done for a month or two after removing a child from the public school system. Sort of a vacation for your mind after you been working and need to recharge. Here is one site to look at:http://sandradodd.com/deschooling
If you type in deschooling into google lots of sites will come up.

I wouldn't stress about school work right now. Let him decompress a little first, he has had a lot of change. Hook up with a local homeschool group and get him some friends and activities to do besides the 3 R's.

Answer 4

You ARE doing a great job, and your love for your nephew is evident.
Ignore the bad remarks, some people make a sport of tearing others down, but it means nothing.
Without knowing the full situation, I'm sure it safe to say that he is going to be rebelling some, he's probably afraid and insecure. I'm sure also that he knows he's behind.
The advice to get out of him what he already knows is key. If you have to back up some, then that is completely ok. Even if he was on target for the math materials you have, it would be difficult to finish the entire book at this point in the year, so don't sweat that.
(I'm assuming that you live in a state that is pretty free when it comes to homeschooling, and you don't have to prove anything to the state)
So, find out where he is, then expand on that.
You can supplement with online stuff. There are free downloads for worksheet generators, things like that.
When you hit a snag (in math) then simply stop, go to a different concept, then come back to it later.
You'll probably find that he excels in some concepts and has trouble in others.
Also, I would suggest you find a support group, perhaps an online one (yahoo groups has some) where you can ask questions and receive true encouragement for what you are doing.
You know what? you are making an impact on the future. You are giving this child a second chance. Never forget that. It will carry you through the rough times.
Best wishes to you.

Answer 5

It sounds like you are both doing a really good trying of trying to work with the situation and based on what you said you did yesterday things are going ok. Remember that one of the advantages of homeschooling is flexiblity. If he needs 3 hours to understand something than thats ok. But also make sure he's not overloaded and he gets breaks and free time as well. It sounds like a lot of intense work may just overload him and frusterate him which would just cause him to shut down. I also recommend that he gets plenty of social time. You could find groups of other homeschoolers in your area. Let him play sports or join a music group or a club with them. This may help him with some positve influence or role model too. Good luck

Answer 6

First, why are you making him fit an agenda! You sound like a public school. You got 20 weeks to pack 9th grade and if a student gets more than 2 days behind, too bad, they lose!

Homeschooling is supposed to DEFEATE that whole concept of "If it's Tuesday, this must be Beligum!"

Schooling is NOT, I repeat, NOT A Carnival Cruise ship! Blink your eyes and you missed Cancun!

Also, the problem my not be with the student but with the teacher, no offense but there are ALWAYS more than one way to approach a subject.

If you literally take a look at some hard core "delinquents" you will notice that why they get Cs and Ds and Fs in solid classes, they are also stealing 3 beam scales from the chem lab, cutting meth and cocaine with "buffers" and measuring out accurate packages for sale on the streets.

In short they are doing A level work in Chemistry, even though it's illegal chemistry.

They know what a gram is, what a grain is, they know how the "cut" stuff down and they know how to make a profit. The know how to test stuff for purity and not get burned in a big sale. They are quite smart at what they do, even though it's illegal.

These deliquents are quite street smart!

Hence you need to look beyond the normal PC realm of teaching.

So, you make a student relate on their level intially. Xbox scores, that'll teach you numbers.

Levels.

Like here at Y/A you need X points to be level 4.

You're trying to fit them into your box instead of thinking outside the box.

And you're trying to make them fit into a program in a given amount of "study hours" which is NOT what homeschooling is about and not what schooling is about.

100 hours in a subject and you pass. No. You must MASTER the subject to pass and if that requires 500 hours you invest the time.

Once a student catches on they may do 100 hours worth of work in 60 hours, so you make it up later on in time.

Answer 7

You don't have to teach him go on your computer and type in (flvs.net) it stands for Florida Virtual School. you enroll your nephew and after you do that go to your email account or the account you put into the info and when you go to the account you will see a message giving you his username and password after you get in with the password and username you pick out the classes he will take when you do that you will see a list of the courses you or him picked there will be x's in a box they will all be in a row called (CourseRequested) before that row there will be a row called course go down to every course next to the name of the course it will say 2 things DROP COUSE and REQUEST COURSE click on REQUEST COURSE than the x in the row of the course u clicked on will go under a row called Course Request Complete after that you are done.

ps they also give you or his gurdian who ever is taking over a account in the email they will give you a username and password so you can see what he is working on what grade he is maintaining the teachers give out mounthly progress reports you can call or email his teachers.

do not forget to go to flvs.net click on apply admissions wich is under username and password the people in charge will go into further details so you can understand it better im do flvs and its very cool and im only 12 but im enjoying it cause u can do the work when you have the time but its hard work at the same time u really have to stay focused.

Bye any qestions u can IM me

Answer 8

Patience! It is easy to want to learn so much on the first day, but the fact is that he is starting behind. Work at his level and keep progressing. Encourage, but do not push to the point of frustrationn. Make it a fun, relaxed atmosphere. He will get it eventually. Once he begins to make progress and tastes a bit of success, he will work better and begin to progress at a faster rate.

My youngest has learning disabilities and was behind because of the school not helping her. So I took her out to homeschool her. it was a bit slow at first, and we kept trucking on AT HER PACE. Then it started to click in her brain. That was 2nd grade. She is now an honor student at the university and has no problems keeping up!

Be patient and keep a positive, loving environment for him. It will come in time.

God Bless!
Sue

Answer 9

I've taught public school and I've home schooled my daughter and I've worked in sales. It's all in how you present the material.

First, you have to know the material yourself, like a good salesman knows his product. THen you find the places where the student needs your help. Ask questions. Ask questions. Don't preach "This is the way to do it..." won't help.

The best teachers (and the best salesmen) can reduce the most complex to the mundane and make it understandable.

Take as an example, your work with "decimal places". Reduce it where the student understands. Can't work on paper? Get out some matchsticks. Lay them in piles. Ask the student how to get them to look right when we number them. Use something mundane to make the subject come alive in thier hands. (For my daughter who loved math, I would come up with tasks for her to work on. We went on trips and I let her compile all the receipts and give me a total of how much we spent on gas, food, even taxes.)

Lastly, if it's taking you 3 hours to teach a student something, you're beating your head against a wall. Get a tutor! For science, had my daughter read a text book chapter by chapter and then tell me all about it as she went. I let HER teach ME.

Home schooling should only be 4 hours a day. (This is a national suggestion due to the heavy focus of one on one teaching, but get with y our local school district and find out the rules there.) Too much schooling will only push the student away.

If you're in over your head (and you've already pointed out where you may be having trouble) get with a home school group so you can get more constant feedback.

Answer 10

My philosophy: A child's mind is not an empty vessel to be filled.
You need to also draw out from him what he already knows and expand on that. At times, don't use any text book at all, use communicative style teaching. Be patient. You are doing a great Job. I think you and your mother have made the right decision and in years to come he will appreciate all your effort and you will become his 'healthy role models'. all the best