Reluctant Learner Commiseration Board

[MomofWildFerns]

As someone who is not on social media, I'm just throwing myself out here...hoping to find other homeschool parents that have reluctant learners in the house. Maybe a place to share off- the-beaten-path lessons, tips that work, how your day looks, or even share wacky/engaging/fun resources for the antischooliest of children. 

[Rosie_0801]

Welcome to the forum. 🙂

 

Whenever my daughter has been reluctant, it has been inappropriate expectations on my part. Something she was not developmentally ready for, either a matter of maturity or something about her learning difficulties I hadn't figured out yet. Or she hadn't drunk enough water or eaten enough protein.

[Green Bean]

welcome to The Hive!

My neurotypical 13 yr old dd has been this way ever since she taught herself to read at 4. What has worked here is staying the course and being firm in my expectations. I’m not going to lie, there have been “days”. I think we finally found our groove, though, with a mix of Mom directed and independent work.

Also, depending on your challenges, you might try hopping over to the Learning Challenges board.

Edited February 28, 2022 by Green Bean

[Insertcreativenamehere]

My daughter falls into this category. She's 12 and was recently diagnosed with ADHD - inattentive. Her brothers were much easier to homeschool. I've had to adapt my teaching style and do a lot orally and in a more interactive way. I've also taken more of an interest-led approach, using her interest in animals to get her more engaged. I let her study animals in her own way as her science (she also gets some light science at our co-op.) Instead of using a curriculum where book choices are made for you, I choose books that I believe will especially interest her (mostly about animals.) I've signed her up for Outschool classes that are focused on literature about horses. 

Trying to keep her engaged is exhausting, though, and this will be our last year of homeschooling. She wants to go to school next year and we've found a great private school that I think will be a good fit and a positive environment. I believe she will work much harder for other teachers than for me and I'm ready to just be mom rather than fighting with her as her teacher, too. 

Edited February 28, 2022 by Insertcreativenamehere

[smfmommy]

If you decide to join Facebook, the Blue Collar Homeschool group is great for parents of kids who aren't taking the typical college prep road.

 

[ScoutTN]

I have one of those. He’s in school bc homeschooling is too hard on our relationship. He thrives in school with not-mom as teachers.
 

[Clemsondana]

I have one who is very smart and capable but struggles with the idea of struggle.  it affects everything - academics, athletics, music.  After excessive frustration and multiple math programs that kid refused to do, they are happily working on Khan Academy.  They'll likely be taking math at co-op next year because without seeing other kids doing the same work they insist that I'm unreasonable.  I tried a fun approach to science this year and they can't get motivated to do anything with it - we were doing to do a food-based garden and cooking science, with planting, growing, cooking, videos, non-textbooks, and journaling/drawing.  The stuff from the first few weeks is great and then kid said that they didn't want to be a farmer and started fighting it.  Last week they were surprised when a friend asked about something and I did a bit of a sciencey explanation and friend thought it was cool, since normally my own kid complains that I insist on making everything into school.  Kid asks for hands-on kits and then says that they are too much work or boring.  I hate it, but what works best for this kid is a bare-bones approach.  We've used more workbooks and things like that because kid can easiliy see what a lesson is so there's less arguing.