[Jaycobsmom620]

Hi everyone, I am thinking of homeschooling my 6 year old son as of next school year and am looking for any advice. We have given it some serious thought for about the past 2 months and I think I am going to do it but am very nervous that I will somehow fail him. He was transferred from his school right after Christmas and it seems like we have had problems ever since then. He was making good grades and doing well in school at his previous school and it seemed like they were VERY organized in teaching the kids and now its SO stressful because they just send home stacks of papers and I NEVER know what is homework and what is not and another thing that REALLY bothers me is that we get 6 week grade checks and he got a D in Language Arts but Not ONCE have they sent home any graded papers or anything showing his work and WHY he is doing so poorly. I have talked with his teacher several times and nothing seems to change so I feel like this is where I need to step in and change things for him. Another reason we are considering it is that he has just recently become very afraid of certain things that he shouldnt be afraid of such as going to the restroom alone at home or out in public, he crys and crys and says hes scared so I have to take him to the ladies room or go with him at home and it is VERY unlike him. We have talked to him about his fears and he hasnt said anything about it other than being scared. He is a VERY outgoing, social child and is in many activities outside of school so he would still get to interact with other children on a daily basis. Im sorry this is so long but thank you in advance for any insight or advice on this.

[ahermitt]

my advice is, if you feel this strongly, then you should homeschool him. Don't second guess yourself. Start reading everything you can get your hand on about homeschooling. Start here: http://homeschooling.families.com/bl...og-at-a-glance

[Alejandros Mommy]

I'll this up for you Nikki...I hope you can get the answers you need


Just thought I would add...Alejandro is the same age as Jaycob....he did the same thing...it turned out that the toilet overflowed at my moms house and my sis made a HUGE deal of it and freaked out in front of him...it took him a whole year to get over it...he still does not want to go to public toilets...esp the self flushing ones.
It could be he has developed a phobia because something happend to him while in the bathroom....I found that if I forced Alejandro to go to a public bathroom he only got worse...I had to go out of my way to find a "toliet" that he would go in and then let him out of the stall before flushing it....

I hope he can tell you what happend Nikki...HugZ to the both of you.

[AKAMyAlias]

The being afraid of going to the bathroom thing would be alarming to me. Maybe he's getting hassled by some bigger kids in there -- or worse.

[twinzplus3]

I agree with Andrea--go for it! I am personally of hte mindset that it is really, really hard to fail your kids when you are homeschooling. Individual attention is the best when you're trying to learn something. I have yet to meet someone who takes the responsibility to homeschool seriously and hasn't done well by their kids. That would include, btw, unschooling families as well. In any case, feel free to ask away!

[Jaycobsmom620]

Thank you all for the info! I am thinking VERY seriously about doing it. I have some information coming in the mail to read up on so hopefully that will help along with the link that was provided. And as far as the bathroom situation goes I hope that it is just something small like the toilet overflowing or a noise or something simple, my mom is really worried about it as well and she has mentioned several times about something maybe happening while he was in there, but Jaycob has Never said anything about it and I dont want to keep pressing the issue so Im not really sure how to handle that one, HOWEVER we have been dealing with a Bully recently and I am so not ready for that kind of stuff. It just seems like kids are getting more vicious, I dont remember them being so darn mean when I was going to school. Jaycob came home in tears one day because some kid told him all kinds of stuff about dying and death and this and that and said Not to worry about stuff and be a crybaby because he would be dead in 50 years anyway! Oh man was I Pissed off!!! Maybe I shelter my kids or something but that just doesnt seem like something a normal 6 year old would come up with. ANd he will not take his lunch anymore, the poor kid will go hungry because the same kid made fun of his lunch box ( its a Black lunch box with Lightning McQeen from cars on it, so it wasnt like barbie or anything) but he REFUSES to take it, he will leave it in the car or hide it in his room , just ANYTHING not to have to take it. So I feel like homeschooling him will not only help him with academics because he would be getting more time in the areas he is struggling but also getting him away from the mean kids and situations that go on so he has more time to focus. Im just not ready for all of the negative comments by people about how Im pulling him out of school because some kid was mean to him and how he needs to experience that and all that garbage. Oh well huh, thats just life. Again Thank you all for the info and Im sorry this is so long again, I seem to go off on tangents about it. lol

[twinzplus3]

Andrea has actually blogged on this, but I too have commented on how one of the benefits of homeschooling is that my kids get to see me deal with difficult people rather than having to figure it out themselves.

One reason that I think homeschooled kids tend to be very well socialized is that they get all that parental interaction. I don't look at it as sheltering but rather than setting a foundation. My 8yo recently had to deal with someone who was pretty obnoxious. The girl accused my daughter of 'showing off' bc she was making her tap shoes click. It hurt her feelings a little (bc if you knew my daughter that accusation is laughable--it's just not in her) so she kind of looked at the girl and said, well, I'm sorry you feel that way, and then kept right on clicking. She wasn't rude or pretentious. . .but just felt comfortable neither being rude nor being walked on.