Homeschooler...

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2007 : June : 9

Homeschooler...
By Bethany

Right after Hurricane Katrina, I got a student who had been homeschooled all his life and his parents decided to put him and his 4 other brothers and sisters in school for the very first time.

I am a fourth grade
teacher and he was on a Pre-primer Reading level, did not know how to do basic math, but he did have a wealth of knowledge in Science and Social Studies.

After meeting with his mother, she confessed that she had not taught ANY of her children anything for the past 2 years. She said that she would sit books and they had the Internet to teach themselves.:eek: I guess that is why he

was so knowledgable in Science and Social Studies because he was teaching himself things that he was interested in.

To me, that is abuse. He did work very hard to catch up...I stayed a lot of afternoons with him to try to get him where he needed to be for the year. He has now completed 5th grade, and he is on level. It makes me wonder how he would be if he did go to school before 4th grade...he might have been in gifted.

So, the point of me writing this is that you do not know where he will be grade level-wise. Unfortunately, you don't know what he has been taught or for how long his schooling was each day (if he was getting taught each day.) My homeschooled student was very motivated and worked very hard, so hopefully you will get someone like that.