I'm an experienced homeschooler. My two kids have been in and out of public school depending on what was best for them their whole lives. The daughter I'm writing about homeschooled K-1 grade, awesome school experience 2nd grade, homeschool 3rd grade, awesome school 4th grade, and homeschool 5th and 6th. She's in 7th grade this year and has been in school so far the whole year. And mostly she has thrived. But part of the irregularity has been that she is a kiddo with serious chronic health conditions and 50+ hospitalizations. Because of this (understandably, I'd say) she struggles with depression and anxiety. She has missed the last month of school with a pretty serious flare up. She's well enough to go to school now. But she's missed so much she's unsure about going back and we are again debating what is best for her. As we again examine homeschooling, here are a few of the problems that I am wrestling with that I wasn't before. This kid - 13 year old 7th grader - is brilliant. Like scary smart. They were planning to send her to the high school for 9th grade advanced biology next year. Her English teacher has said she is almost impossible to challenge. And on and on. So I'm very unsure about curriculum. And it doesn't help that my budget is fairly small. Big History Project maybe? But otherwise I'm clueless. Also one of the biggest things her teachers say is that she is a natural leader. How can I facilitate that and help her continue to grow? We don't have a homeschooling group and I can't really travel to one (resources again) although we do live a block away from one of the best public universities in the state. Maybe there are options there? And she already feels fairly isolated because of her health issues; I'm afraid this will make it worse. (This is not a lack of socialization fear - in fact her peers at public school are not necessarily the best support system for what she's going through but she's already so lonely and again I feel limited in my resources.) My last concern is that she loves playing cello in the middle school orchestra. She could continue to go to school for just orchestra in our school system but I don't know that I can manage that. How can I continue to facilitate that love and help her with it? She currently takes lessons once a week. This feels overwhelming and I desperately want to do right for my girl. She's been through so much and her thirst for learning is huge and her need for challenge is just so high. Thank you for any advice. I'm so grateful.

Hmmm. This is so discouraging. I wish there were a way to outsource that wasn't so stressful. She really does respond better with someone besides me to answer to and school is way too much stimulation for her. I feel stuck.

No. But I think she would respond well to them based on her personality.

No she hasn't but I'm at a loss for good, structured online classes that aren't so rigorous. I looked at the syllabi and thought she could do the work fine. The pressure might scare her though.

So here is my plan that I would like feedback on. As I've described here before (a while back) my oldest is smart and sensitive. She is easily overstimulated, frustrated by pressure, and anxious when asked about her future plans. I would not be at all surprised if she were a slow launcher, living at home into her 20's. She isn't really interested in college as an idea - though we literally live next door to one of the best state schools in Ohio. She is interested in horses, birds, and the environment. She does not take instruction from me well - I'm going to try and outsource all her classes this year. So I'm thinking that a slightly laidback high school layout that will be adequate for college admissions but not overachieving might be the way to go? That way the college door is open to her but she doesn't have to take that route if she doesn't want to. I was thinking WTMA Saxon Algebra, Ancient History, Ancient Lit, and Latin 1. Maybe Preparing for Rhetoric Writing (or whatever the class is that smashes all WWS into one). I thought for science I would sign her up for Cornell Lab's in depth bird biology course and add on some things that will make it enough for a science credit - bird banding, feeder watch, science project. Is that reasonable? Am I allowed to give a science credit for that? My fall back would be WTMA Biology. Thoughts? Advice? Please? I don't know how I got to high school already. It kind of snuck up on me.

Wow. That is all I have to say. Wow. Thank you! I'll check this stuff out!

I LOVE the equine science idea. Perhaps I could use some kind of study of the Lord of the Rings books to help with LA. She adores those. In fact right now she's busy teaching herself (with laminated flashcards no less) how to speak Elvish. Anyone know of any good book studies on LotR that might help with some of our LA issues?

Nope. All of that is fine. It's just amount/volume that intimidates her.

We used Memoria Press Latin in 5th. And she loves all science hands on or not. In her early years we used AAS for spelling. She was so resistant in 5th grade that I tried a "pick 10 words" approach and it failed miserably.

Good question. She loved Memoria Press Latin. Also Memoria Press Science. She despised copywork.

I have no idea. I tried to find out and was told it was a collection of worksheets. Not super helpful

Yes. In 6th grade when she really started struggling. Nothing. I've thought about finding another one. But all the professionals seem in agreement about what's going on.

YAY for ideas! She's had so many. OT evals - three of them - all showing sensory processing disorder. She struggles with overstimulation of any kind be it hot, cold, loud, whatever. She's also been evaluated by counselor/psychiatry - she has an anxiety disorder which isn't surprising since it runs in my family. The theories are that the sensory and anxiety kind of feed off each other. She's also had several speech and language evals to check her for issues comprehending, processing, and expressing. When the evaluator/therapist is calm and low key they find nothing wrong but say she's gifted in language etc. With evaluators who aren't so focused on making her comfortable she still tests that there is nothing wrong but the quality of what she is doing is way lower.

So here's some history. She's not self motivated. She's a raging introvert who requires a lot of "downtime" consisting of watching Netflix, listening to audio books, playing with her cats or dog. Her great (and fairly new) love is horse riding. She rides three times a week and volunteers at the barn every time she has the chance. She is a farm girl at heart. She adores nature. Her education history is this: Homeschooled from K-3rd Awesome public school experience for 4th grade Homeschool 5th grade Public school 6th & 7th grades with lots of accommodations for her anxiety and sensory issues She is quite smart but very easily overwhelmed. She made A's and B's in school but the amount of crazy input from other kids and teachers was literally destroying her mental health and she had to be treated at the hospital for how anxious school was making her. So I suspect we are going to be homeschooling for the duration now. I want her to get a well rounded education without drowning her. Her spelling is abysmal and she has a hard time writing much more than a half a page because she gets so overwhelmed. She does love Latin though but I have no idea where to put her or what to use. She did Latin in 5th grade at home and then was taking Latin 1 for high school credit this year and loving it. She's learned more about grammar from Latin than anything else. So I want to do Latin for her somehow. She also adores science. Reading is hard for her but she will read anything if she can listen to the audiobook while she reads along with it. Which could be a problem in the long run. She doesn't have language issues - she's been tested several times. Rather I think it's her sensory input struggles. I'm not sure this girl is college bound and I'm okay with that. She's just not that motivated. I suspect she will end up training horses or small scale farming. But I want her to have the option. So well trained mind as is at the 8th grade level is too intense and I have no idea what to do with her. All I've got so far is a leaning toward Saxon math that I'll use the pretest to place her with. Anyone wanna have a go at designing a curriculum for my amazing, doesn't-fit-the-mold girl? Cause I'm kind of overwhelmed and lost. Thanks for any help anyone has for me!

I think I'm going to do the Big History Project with my almost 12 year old. Looking for supplements especially for the big bang? Anyone have any good resources for this? Or advice or anything? Thanks!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk