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My daughter, who is halfway through her junior year, now says she wants to homeschool. She hasn't ever been that happy at her high school, but I'm not sure if sending her to another school would be a more positive experience for her (a previous 2-month stint at a private school in her sophomore year confirmed this).
The problems seem to be primarily social in nature, but she also feels stressed over grades (though she does well). And truthfully, I think the school day starts ridiculously early in the morning, so she's chronically sleep-deprived. That reason alone makes me consider homeschooling.
Have any parents out there chosen to pull their child/children out of school during the high school years to pursue a homeschooling program? If so, why? How did you get started, and what have been the outcomes? Is it at all possible to do this if both her father and I work full-time? Do you regret your decision, or is there anything you would have done differently?
Thanks so much for any ideas and/or opinions anyone cares to offer.
My daughter, who is halfway through her junior year, now says she wants to homeschool. She hasn't ever been that happy at her high school, but I'm not sure if sending her to another school would be a more positive experience for her (a previous 2-month stint at a private school in her sophomore year confirmed this).
The problems seem to be primarily social in nature, but she also feels stressed over grades (though she does well). And truthfully, I think the school day starts ridiculously early in the morning, so she's chronically sleep-deprived. That reason alone makes me consider homeschooling.
Have any parents out there chosen to pull their child/children out of school during the high school years to pursue a homeschooling program? If so, why? How did you get started, and what have been the outcomes? Is it at all possible to do this if both her father and I work full-time? Do you regret your decision, or is there anything you would have done differently?
Thanks so much for any ideas and/or opinions anyone cares to offer.
My main question is why is she sleep chronically deprived?
Is she working at a fast food joint where she closes at midnight? If yes, then she needs to change her work hours.
Is she up late playing video games, surfing th net or talking to friends? If yes, then she needs to change those bad habits.
Is she up too late doing homework? If yes, why can't she do homework in the afternoon or evening?
Do you serve your family dinner at 9 PM? Perhaps your daughter needs to fix her own meal and eat it earlier in the evening.
Does she stay out very, very late on the weekends? Perhaps, she needs to get to bed earlier every night.
Is she in too many extra curricular activities? Perhaps, she need to cut down on some so that she can start her homework earlier to go to bed earlier.
Does her bus come very early? Could she get a ride with someone instead? Maybe there is a way that she can rework her high school schedule to have 1st period study hall and come in at a later time.
BTW Are you telling her that HS starts "ridiculously early" or is she telling you that?
Last edited by germaine2626; 01-05-2014 at 10:58 AM..
Warning bells go off for me at a 16-year-old who is half-way through her junior year wanting to homeschool. If I were in your shoes, I'd start some serious sleuthing. What could have precipitated all this?
Warning bells go off for me at a 16-year-old who is half-way through her junior year wanting to homeschool. If I were in your shoes, I'd start some serious sleuthing. What could have precipitated all this?
This and the fact that she was at a whole different school sophomore year = red flag.
If her problems are primarily social, do you feel like it's going to be better or worse to completely remove her from social interaction with her peers?
This isn't to say that homeschoolers can't have social interaction--many parents work hard to foster relationships with other homeschoolers, activities, etc, where they interact with other kids. But since she's older, that may be harder. Do you feel like she's the type where she just needs to be around a different sort and that might fix things? Or do you feel like if given the opportunity, she will hole up in her room and rarely come out? Is this a temporary fix to ease the pressure until she starts college, or is she going to lose even more confidence and just withdraw more?
I don't think there's any answer that is right for every child. I will say, sometimes the whole high school mentality can be such a drag (works for some kids, not for others), and a lot of that seems to go away once you get to college. Suddenly instead of a 14-17 age group, you're looking at 18-22, and a lot of 23-30 too with the intermixing of grad students. So if she's a sort of "old soul" type who doesn't fit in, maybe that's better for her. I wonder if it might be better to stick this year out, take some summer school classes and think about doing a half day as a senior, and a half day of community college courses... or something?
Others raised good points about making sure she's getting enough sleep every night, trying to alter schedules, etc. Around here, most high schools don't start until 8:30 or 9:00. What time does yours start?
That's not terribly unusual. First bell at our local high school rings at 7:10. The bus picks up at 6:20, and it's an eight minute walk to the stop. That makes for very early mornings. It's very rough on the kids.
My daughter's school day begins at 7:25. She now drives herself most days, but she still has to be out of the house before 7am to avoid rushing.
Yeah, that's really early. Is she getting to bed early enough? Is she possibly in too many activities outside of the school day so she's having to stay up late to get homework done? I would assume with that early of a start she's probably out by 3:00, unless she's there that early because of a zero hour class or something (which would be the first thing I'd drop, if that's the case.) Can you move dinner up so the house starts winding down sooner?
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