7th grader's first homeschooling year

[rmamacarr]

Dianna suggested I tell about my son for a little help in our first year homeschooling.

My son and I are doing this homeschooling thing for the first time year. This will be his 3rd try at 7th grade. So I really do not want to mess it up. We had him tested in his middle school last year and he tested WELL above average, so that is not the problem. He is a very creative writer so I want to build on that. He has a very active imagination and is into japanamation. He is very weak in math. His idea of excercise only involves his thumbs. (video games) He wants to learn to play his drums he got last Christmas and Japanese.

I am having trouble finding actual grammer lessons for him and do they still do spelling test in the 7th grade? I can't find that either.

Any help would be great
thanks,
robin

[Dianna]

Robin,

If you don't mind going into a little more detail, why did he fail 7th grade twice? If he's a strong reader and writer, and only weak in math, you may want to consider moving him up to 9th grade. I know that it sounds like I'm telling you to "cheat" or something, but I've found that many times it's just one subject that causes a child to fail a grade (or the inability to take standardized tests). Holding them back doesn't do any good (if it did, this wouldn't be his 3rd round in 7th grade). The beauty of homeschooling is that you can put them in the grade they belong, and focus on developing their strong areas, while working on bringing their weak areas up to par.

If you would like more information and advice about moving him back up to 9th grade, as well as recommendations for high school-level resources, let me know. If not, I'll comment more about 7th-grade materials for him.

Dianna

[hh_spring]

Hi Robin,

I just had to put my two cents in here!!! My son who is 13 and 8th grade level wise is strong in Math and an expert with his thumbs(gamecube & puter games)!
Reading Level is on track if its a game manual....give him a book...and he struggles. If he repeated the 7th grade twice...I just have to say...he did not fail. The school system failed him!! I agree with Dianna in that I would call your son a ninth grader and start with math that he can do and work forward from there. My accountability association provides testing for a small fee. They are not standardized tests but placement. So you can tell where they are and what you need to strengthen. Many of the curriculum providers also have free downloads for placement also. I know that Alpha Omega has placement tests. www.aop.com (http://www.aop.com/) home page. http://www.aop.com/Cultures/en-US/HomeSchooling/HSDiagnosticTesting/DiagnosticTesting.htm?MenuSelection=Diagnostic%20T esting Diagnostic Test for Math & Language. So if the links don't work let me know and I will email....first time adding a link!!:lol:

I took my son out of public school in 5th grade due to Learning Disabilities and the failure of the system to help him move forward. We spent the remainder of 5th grade Deschooling him. We did what we wanted to do...Unit study on Flying it happened to be the 100th Anniversary of The Wright Brothers that year!...reading books together(as I said he is weak in reading). Field trips and just Math sheets from web generators. I can give you links to some Math web sites, there are so many that are great with games and all the answers to any Math weakness you may have. I was awful in Math myself, but have come to realize, no one ever taught to me! My son has taught me more about Math and he loves beating me to the answer!! My son kept telling everybody he wasn't going to school anymore! I had done such a good job of unschooling him...he didn't realize he was still learning.:biggrin2:

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result! So you are FREE now to TEACH your son Math and Japanese if he wants....I even have links for Japanese learning sites....as my son has told me that is what he wants to learn. I have already talked to a native Japanese lady who is happy to help. We are not actively pursuing the Japanese yet, but we will be, because we CAN!!!!

Come join the High School Forum and we can all benefit from helping you navigate the morass of choices for Homeschooling your wonderful teenager!!

:wave: Harriet

[rmamacarr]

Dianna,

Getting him back on trrack was my original intention. Starting him on a 9th grade level would make he and I happy but if something happened and he had to go back to public school would they accept it. I am not planning on ever sending him back to public school but I want all my bases to be covered just in case.

I would most definatly like some resources for 9th grade material. It took me weeks to try and find 7th grade materials. I am not really happy with it but did not know what would be the best ofr him since we had never done this before. I know that we can afford to by a whole new curriculum this year but maybe I can try to get him back on track after we finsish up what I have already bought. We are using stuff I got off of the homeschool center (dot) com.

I am not sure why he REAlly failed the first time around but last year he did nothing in school. NOTHING, he did homework but would not turn it in. He would not do and turn in classwork and he scored in single digits on quizes and test. Allen his a VERY smart boy. He is a self addmitted a lazy boy. I always tease him and tell him that he always has been. He never ever crawled he sat on his little but until he was 18 months and then stood up and started walking. I told him it was like he said to himself that crawling was not something he would be doing long so he just skipped and waited to do the one he would be doing the rest of his life. I am not saying that laziness failed him but I think it was pattern he got himself into and could not get out of as the year progressed.

Thanks for all of your help I really am very grateful.
Robin

[chrispeters]

Esp books offer an online worksheet membership for $59.oo per year. They are divided by subject and grade and you can decide which level to use with your child. It also has some extras like tests and a Spanish section. You could use different grade levels for different subjects. I also like the Teach and Test math workbooks. I buy those from the Education Express outlet in Gaffney but they also have a website. These workbooks are a great way to study basic skills and help your child learn to take standardized tests. You way want to take a look at the Worldbook typical course of study to get an idea of what typical grade levels cover. Try not to worry about your approach being perfect and covering everything(although I think every parent does those first few years). You will get more comfortable as you and your son find your niche with homeschool. Hope this is somewhat helpful.
Chris

http://www.espworksheets.com/
http://www.educationexpressonline.com/
http://www.worldbook.com/wc/browse?id=pa/tcs

[Dianna]

Robin, if you move him into public school, it's up to them what they accept and what they don't. However, how would it hurt him or the school for him to be doing 9th-grade work instead of 7th-grade work, even if you do have to put him back in? You would just tell them what you've accomplished, and they would put him where he fits. At least this would give him a chance to be enrolled at the high school level if he were to return to school. Otherwise, you'd just be repeating their mistakes.

You talked about your son's laziness. When I worked in the school system, complete boredom of bright children was often mistaken as laziness. I wonder if your son is really lazy, or if he just knew he wasn't doing anything worthwhile and refused to participate (maybe subconsciously)?

If you're sure you want to go ahead and put him in the 9th grade, join our High School Homeschooling special interest group here in the forums (scroll down a little) and we'll get a tentative transcript/course of study going for him. :smile2:

Dianna

[SChomemomof3]

As far as spelling with my 7th grader. I have books from lower grades and I go thru them and call every word for several units and the words she misses is what I use as the spelling words. That way we don't waste time on words she knows and we do work on the words she needs too.

[kimmeeangel]

I have had the same problem with my 10th grader -- he was labeled as lazy instead of bored. He is now taking Junior honors classes and is the youngest kid in most of his classes he is 14 in classes with Junior and seniors. He is the same way with computers and video games. He is a great writer as well as wants to persue drawing anime and such. He loves Latin class and now finds hisself wanting to do work and learn and turn things in. Just the change in attitude came when he was finding something fun and worthwile.

Personalities between teachers and students can be a big part of the failure of the school system... some teachers just don't care enough about each student the way we can.

My suggestion would be to find what interests your son and builkd from that. I actually looked at the state requirements for graduation and my son in the 10th grade could have graduated from High School already at 14... If you are planning to continue to homeschool then do what is good for your family and your son and have fun... remember when school was fun :)