I'm going to go look at this workbook and see. I was looking at Trail Guide to History and the geo pack. It has Eat Your Way Around the World. I was also looking at a book that was called Geography through Art that I thought might be fun. In school, writing was an area he struggled with. And I was thinking a WTM approach would benefit him a lot when it comes to that, but instead he just dug in his heels. So I'm going to bakc off a lot and listen to what he wants. When we first started WTM with my girls, years ago and they were elementary aged, I took them to the library with a "shopping list" for books. They had to pick at least one book from each category on the list. Then I was home with them all the time so I could make sure they were doing everything. But with him maybe just following his interest and building up will be better for both of us.

He works full time, but he goes in in the afternoon. So during the day he's doing things around the house or working on things that need to be done for work. He's about to be laid off for a few weeks over the next three months (which is where the budget issue is coming in) as his company is ahead of schedule and things are slow. During that time he will be doing some projects around the house and maybe they can work on that together or go hunting or something. IDK just have to talk to him and see what he can work in.

Right now he's interested in programming, welding, and art. I teach programming and career exploration so I have him working on the same stuff my students work on. And this is the part he loves. We've been building websites together on the weekend. I've been keeping him supplied with art books from the library, and that's what he's been doing all this week and last week instead of school work. I'm trying to find somewhere he can get welding lessons so he can try that out and see if he likes it as much as he thinks he will. I talked to a friend recently that used to do some welding, but that's long drive. Maybe next week when we're out of school we can do that and if he still likes it I'll find something local. Right now, I'm looking into moving so that we can be in the right county to enroll him in early college high school next year if he's ready to go back to school. There's a lot of 'ifs' involved in this. But then if he is still interested any of those three things, he can get a diploma and associates degree at the same time.

Thank you for these suggestions! That's probably what we both need at the moment. And with me pushing deadlines for grades at the end of the 9 weeks and wanting his terms to match the schools in case he wants to go back, I wasn't even considering that he would need to deschool. With his anxiety he was getting physically ill over having to go to school every day, so yeah. Now that you say that, he probably really needs that time.

He does have supervision during the day, but co-parent does not help with school work (or well, helps like you would help with homework, but will not do any of the teaching part). He gets social time with friends from school. This week he didn't get to see his friends because he didn't do his work. If we continue this, I want to find other ways for him to socialize. I know an online class would be beneficial, but I don't have access right now. As far as consequences go, I'm opened to suggestions here. His counselor is working with him and she says give this a little while to see if it works. Short of physically making him go to school (which I can't do) I'm at a loss. I can ground him from things he likes, but if that doesn't improve his behavior, what's left?

Hi, I just started homeschooling my son 3 weeks ago. We have several challenges to overcome and I need some guidance. I am a middle school vocational teacher at a school where I work 43 hours a week, not counting all the meetings and having to stay late for grading or prep or whatever we have going on. I have a long commute; I leave home at 6:15 in the morning, and it's often 5:30, or 6, or even 7 when I get home. When I get home, I'm so done. And we live in a rural area where there is no internet, so we are homeschooling strictly with books and paper. The reason we are homeschooling is because he lost the desire to go to school. He's been bored with school for quite some time. Middle of last year, he started claiming to be sick every day. He started it again this year. We have taken him to several types of doctors where they all said he was healthy. He may have anxiety, so he's going to counseling now to see if that helps. The only thing he was passionate about was football, but his coach was really tough on him and there were a few times the coach refused to let him have his inhaler and complained about needing to treat his "asthma" (air quotes) problem. This killed football for ds and he stopped wanting to go to that also. I am trying to work with him in the evenings and on the weekend. I ask him to do some things that can be done independently while I'm gone then the hard stuff we do together. I wanted to use a WTM type of curriculum with him and I'm familiar with it from many years ago when my girls were younger, but I had to throw this together fast and on a budget. He's doing the same thing my students do for technology, we just have to go to the library on Saturday's for that. I had some Latin and Greek material already. He loves that! I have him doing MEP y8. For science CK12's chemistry with lab's once a week. Struggling to get going with history and feeling the pressure. Here 8th graders do 1 semester of world history and then 1 semester of state history. They are half a high school credit each. The first week of homeschool was great! He did all his work, he cleaned his room without being asked. Blew my mind! Then it started going down hill. He started fighting me on doing any assignments except the ones he wanted to do (building a website, reading books, and art). Last week he refused to do anything. This week he is slowly is making up what was left from last week but the struggle is real. I sat down and had a long talk with him and he says he's just bored with doing the type of work we're doing and what he was doing in public school. I asked him what he wants school to look like and he's says he wants to do things that are very hands on...things like learning to weld, art, following other interests like that. With my time and budget constraints, there's only so much hands on I can fit in. I've also noticed that he begins showing resistance when the assignment is outside his comfort zone, and he shuts down on me. Like highest common factor in math, or asking him to write anything (he believes from school that he's a bad writer). Then he starts complaining that it's just too much work. What I'm seeing is that any work at all is too much unless it's interesting and he's in the mood. I've thought about just trying to follow his interests for a while and seeing where it goes, but I don't want him getting behind or getting into a funk and being lazy.

Good morning! I am homeschooling my 14yo son this year and we have some big challenges ahead of us due to his anxiety and my working full time. I'm here to get some support on this exciting new journey.