Homeschooling question

[horseshowmom]

I think I read somewhere that there were quite a few homeschoolers on the Families board. If I'm mistaken, feel free to ignore me, but if you can help, I'd appreciate it.

I had someone contact me tonight for homeschooling information. I homeschooled our DD (who is now in pharmacy school) and used A Beka (was very pleased with it). In fact, I recently recommended it to a family who asked for a suggestion. However, I've always felt that A Beka was better suited to a student who was at least average to high average. I've taught public school and felt it was about a year ahead of most of the public school subjects I taught.

In this case, the student would be considered special needs. He is adopted but was abused by his biological parents which resulted in several learning problems. He is a personable young man, but he's not making much progress in his current school environment. His mother is interested in homeschooling and would like some options. I don't think A Beka would be in his best interest.

Has anybody had any experience with any homeschool programs that you think would be well suited to this situation? Feel free to PM me if you aren't comfortable sharing on the discussion board.

Thanks very much!

 

[momofbuzzfan]

We are homeschooling and using Abeka also. I like it for us...but like you said it can be kind of intense and has a lot of paperwork. How old is the boy? A lot of people where we live use Sonlight. It is a reading based curriculum and has a lot more reading than worksheets. My friend really loves this curriculum.

 

[noodleknitter]

How old is he?

 

[horseshowmom]

He's 14. They've had him since he was a toddler, and his mother is a teacher. He just hasn't progressed well in the special ed setting in his school (no disrespect intened toward anybody involved in special ed in any way, it just isn't working for him). Reading is one of his shortfalls. His parents have provided him with books and magazines that he's interested in to encourage his reading, but he still struggles. I wonder if that would exclude Sonlight?

 

[noodleknitter]

That's a hard age. Def. not Abeka, I would agree.

One of my gf's sons seems to have some similar charactoristics. I'm not sure what she uses, but I will check with her, and let you know. I do know that she continues to struggle, though.

I do know that she has had better luck using non-fiction manual type reading material, even though it often means learning the lingo. Her son is interested in wood working, and has advanced academically in his pursuit to learn all he can about this subject.

 

[horseshowmom]

That's a hard age. Def. not Abeka, I would agree.

One of my gf's sons seems to have some similar charactoristics. I'm not sure what she uses, but I will check with her, and let you know. I do know that she continues to struggle, though.

I do know that she has had better luck using non-fiction manual type reading material, even though it often means learning the lingo. Her son is interested in wood working, and has advanced academically in his pursuit to learn all he can about this subject.

Thanks for checking! He generally reads non-fiction type materials too (that are related to his interests).

 

[disney-super-mom]

Your friend's son may do better with an unschooling type program or a complete homeschooling program like Oak Meadow, where he gets to pick what type of assignment he wants to do on a subject. For example, lets say in social studies he's learning about slavery. Of course there's some reading involved, but he can pick assignments on the subject from a list. He could write a few paragraphs pertaining to his own personal feelings about slavery, or he could write a poem, or he could listen and learn about some of the songs that slaves would sing together, or he could give and record an oral report to his family about a particular person or place, or he could paint a picture, or he could watch a video or movie about slavery and then write down how it made him feel (or he could record an oral report about how it made him feel), and.....his options are endless.

The important thing here is he learns in the best way possible for "him".

He may never be a great reader, but don't let that affect how and what he learns. There are other ways of learning too, and that's what I like about Oak Meadow. You can check them out at www.Oakmeadow.com if you or your friend wants to. I'm sure there is other options out there as well, but this is just a place for your friend to start her research.

 

[mamatojon]

I'm new to homeschooling, Jon is only in 1st grade and this is our first year using an actual curriculum (sonlight) but I was going to suggest Oak Meadow too.

If there are a lot of homeschoolers on this board I may just have to make it my new DIS home!

 

[noodleknitter]

OakMeadow sounds interesting. When I talked with my friend last night, she said that she has just made up her own curriculum with objectives and goals. None that they had tried were accomplishing what she wanted to accomplish. So, they worked together to decide what he wanted to get out of this year and they are taking that step by step. The academic is allowing the technical to flourish. So far so good. Forward progression for her, but sadly not a big help for your friend, OP. i'm sorry.

 

[horseshowmom]

Oak Meadow does sound interesting. I looked at their site, and it looked pretty good.

There's also that possibility of creating her own curriculum, but I think she'd feel much more comfortable with a curriculum to follow.

Thanks for the help!

 

[wewantmore]

Don't have time to read, but subscribing so I can come back to this.