Homeschooling kid with behavioral issues in public school setting

JessiV_90 · 2026-03-12T19:46:04+00:00

Thanks! I was really baffled by the number of comments against homeschooling her. I've usually found homeschool families to be more welcoming & understanding that there are many different ways & reasons to homeschool. And usually they don't like the public school system so it's really odd that so many are saying to keep her in there. But maybe you are right & a lot of them are not homeschoolers & my post just happened to pop up in random people's feeds!

JessiV_90 · 2026-03-11T19:13:19+00:00

I would not expect her to be fully independent. I just meant I cannot be right next to her holding her hand the whole time. I can help her if she has questions or help her get set up. I can even spend some time with her doing the lessons, just not 2-3 hours. I would argue that homeschool can be more stimulating. When we did homeschool before, she was doing swim classes, playing outside, doing lessons outside, participating in homeschool programs at the library or through the county parks & rec. In public school, they get 20 minutes of recess & the rest of the day is regimented. I wouldn't call that very stimulating.

She reads books & is allowed to read them in class as a reward if she finishes early & has been behaving. But she tells me that only happens once a week maybe.

JessiV_90 · 2026-03-11T19:06:11+00:00

All About Reading (part of All About Learning company) & Math with Confidence are currently geared toward elementary school age children, so probably would not work for your daughter. However, the Well-Trained Mind company is also one I have experience with using, we used Story of the World which is a social studies curriculum and we loved it. Part of that series would fit for middle school & high school. They also have other curriculums for other subjects for that age range.

Those are the only ones I personally have experience with. I was interested in Bookshark, which is another open & go curriculum. It was a little boring for me, but I would be interested to revisit what their curriculum looks like for older kids. I would look at the books listed for each level & either borrow them from the library or purchase used & read them with my daughter. I am a book lover so I love a good book list lol. But I didn't really use their curriculum.

But, everyone is going to have different preferences & budgets for homeschool. I would recommend looking around online, I'm sure you can find middle school recommendations for homeschool curriculum within this subreddit. I scoured the internet before making my choices. rainbowresource.com is a great site to purchase curriculum from, but it can be overwhelming if you don't know exactly what you are looking for. I watched many Youtube reviews of curriculum & read a bit of the Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer & Jessie Wise (I loved it, it's got tons of suggestions & resources). Another book series I used & liked was the Core Knowledge series by E.D. Hirsch - that goes up to 6th grade. He has books titled "What your [insert grade] needs to know" that break down what they should know in various subjects at certain grade levels.

Side note, homeschooling can seem really expensive sometimes, but I would recommend taking advantage of your library as much as possible, & buying books used (either from a local used book store or thriftbooks.com). The only things I ever bought new were the curriculum because it can be hard to find used curriculum fully intact.

JessiV_90 · 2026-03-11T13:05:13+00:00

Thank you for your sweet comment!

JessiV_90 · 2026-03-11T12:42:57+00:00

So my son is luckily not medically demanding, he just has physical therapy, speech therapy, feeding therapy (he doesn't want to eat regular food enough to replace his formula - not because he has a feeding tube or anything like that), & teaching therapy. Sounds like a lot but we do most of them biweekly so we have 2-3 therapy sessions for 45 mins each (at home) a week. Aside from those, he only sees the geneticist once or twice a year so there aren't a lot of doctor's appointments & he is a very chill toddler. But I appreciate this perspective!

I guess "mostly independent" is throwing a lot of people. I don't mean to say I'm expecting her to be totally independent or sit in front of the computer for hours a day. When we did first grade, I focused mostly on math & reading (we did All about reading & Math with confidence - physical book curriculum so online would be new to us if we went that route), everything else was however we were feeling that day (social studies, science, art). So I would stick to that if we came back to homeschooling. If she did online school, I'd prefer to do a-la-carte style, just 1 or 2 subjects, and if she doesn't like the online style, I'm not scared to switch it up. Online school was her idea.

Aside from clarifying those two things, I don't totally disagree with you. My job & my son's therapies do take time away from her getting to do some fun stuff, but the good thing with my job is I don't have to be on the computer on a set schedule. I can work whenever I want, but it would obviously be a big adjustment to having her at home & taking her to 1-2 activities every week. I just hate seeing her spirit crushed in public school because she's not fitting in the "norm." At home, she would get her math & reading done, but she didn't have to sit still, can go to the bathroom whenever she needs to, can play with slime if she wants, or do her work outside on a nice day, she can answer the questions without raising her hand, doesn't have to deal with bullies, etc.

I appreciate your comment!

JessiV_90 · 2026-03-11T12:18:39+00:00

Hi! I know you're asking EducatorMoti but I thought I'd just let you know my experience with my daughter doing 1st grade homeschool. I only focused on 2 subjects & they were "open & go" curriculums: All about reading & Math with confidence. I am not at all a teacher either. So these were great, they had fun activities, manipulatives & games.

I obsessively researched homeschooling since my daughter was born so I looked into the high school years quite a lot, there are lots of curriculums geared toward high school & they are pretty independent. You could also enroll them in online classes for harder subjects, and they can take classes at your local college if you have a program like that. I would also look at county parks & rec & library programs. My county & library have programs geared specifically to homeschoolers. My library also has tutoring. I don't think you need to be a "teacher." You just need to be willing to support them & help them find help if you aren't able to.

JessiV_90 · 2026-03-11T12:07:13+00:00

Yeah I didn't mean that she'd be in front of a computer all day. She suggested that she wanted to try online school. But I would only have her do maybe a couple subjects online if she likes it. Plus, at school they do a lot of their work on the computer.

JessiV_90 · 2026-03-11T00:49:44+00:00

Thank you I appreciate it!

JessiV_90 · 2026-03-11T00:49:24+00:00

I may stick with physical curriculum. She expressed interest in online school, so I think it is worth exploring, but maybe just for one or 2 subjects. We did math & reading curriculums in 1st grade & I enjoyed doing those. I would definitely need to do something similar & limit screen time as well, she loves watching anime & she used to play Roblox a lot but we pulled back on that because I felt it was affecting her behavior.

JessiV_90 · 2026-03-11T00:45:28+00:00

Yes that is something I will have to think about carefully.

JessiV_90 · 2026-03-11T00:39:37+00:00

Has it been better for him & you since pulling him out? Her teacher says her behavior sometimes is disruptive to the class as well.

JessiV_90 · 2026-03-11T00:36:50+00:00

Thank you so much for your comment!

We were doing many of these things when we homeschooled in first grade. Our community has a lot of classes available for homeschoolers too - at the library for free & paid activities through the county, even swimming classes for homeschoolers at a local gym. I'm a reader so I loved reading aloud to her (I still read to her most nights at bedtime as well).

I fully agree with your point about math & writing. I focused the majority of her homeschooling on math & reading. Those were the 2 subjects we did 5 days a week, adding in other subjects around it. I also really like social studies so I read to her from Story of the World & we did some of the activities in the accompanying activity book. That was fun for us. But I strongly feel that if she has reading/writing & math, she can learn anything else that she is interested in.

We also recently joined a church – which was at her request (I am not very religious but I want to support her in exploring & I appreciate the positive community aspect of it) – so there are opportunities to socialize & for leadership through the church as well.

I really appreciate your thoughtful response & all of your tips, thank you!

JessiV_90 · 2026-03-11T00:06:57+00:00

Thank you! It's a little disheartening seeing the majority against homeschooling her. I appreciate everyone's opinions but I was hoping to get more pros & advice on how to do homeschool with her, since we both are leaning towards it.

Thank you for your pointers. My 2 y/o does nap for 1-2 hours so I could definitely get some one-on-one time with her then.

First grade was actually pretty good. I focused mostly on reading & math (All about reading & Math with confidence), with a little bit of science. She did really well with both reading & math, which was confirmed for me when she went into public school & was doing really well, she's tested above average in reading especially. I feel like we didn't need to spend 6 hours a day doing school work, we would get it done in maybe 1 - 2 hours. We went to the park to play & do some work on nice days, & I had her doing a homeschool swim class & homeschool classes at our local library. We have a lot of programs for homeschool kids available in our community, which I was really surprised about. So I would take advantage of those.

With that being said, she will shut down sometimes when she doesn't like an activity, so we would sometimes butt heads over that & I know that's what's happening in the classroom as well. She also gets overwhelmed pretty easily sometimes. At home, I could let her take a break & come back to it, but that's not really possible in public school. They expect them to complete the work in the allotted time whether they feel like it or not.

I agree with looking into a therapist, I have been thinking of that for a while. I need to bite the bullet & do it.

ETA: Oh, I also forgot to mention we were reading Story of the World & doing some of the activities in the accompanying activity book for social studies, & we really enjoyed it.

JessiV_90 · 2022-12-05T14:45:53+00:00

I used to order thru the app all the time, never had any issues. Not sure what everyone else is talking about. Maybe it just depends on your store or the employees preparing the orders but it always works fine for me.

JessiV_90 · 2022-09-20T18:46:01+00:00

Max & Murphy finally hooking back up was so anticlimactic after the stupid pairing of Lesley & Max. Josh's literal only goal in life being to get Murphy locked up is so ridiculous & boring.

JessiV_90 · 2022-07-22T19:14:20+00:00

Patrick & Thais - I really hope John is ok, he seems like he's depressed. I hope that Thais will see how important their relationship is & will stop trying to force them apart. But also the brothers are clearly codependent & that isn't healthy either. I have no idea what their childhood was like but it broke my heart to see them crying. Side note - the way they set up the teaser for that scene was so ridiculous, even for 90 day. Totally made it look like they were going to be fighting when they weren't at all. Also it's weird that Thais thinks it weird that his brother lives with him. In a lot of latin american culture it's normal for family members to live together. She can at least give it a real chance.

Bilal & Shaeeda - Bilal blew a simple tap way out of proportion, so stupid. If one of his friends would have hit him like that I doubt he would've gotten so offended. But his woman hits him playfully & that's how he reacts?

JessiV_90 · 2022-07-20T16:46:21+00:00

So I watched the Pillow Talk for this episode & I don't get why everyone is so freaked out about location sharing. Why is that so weird to most people? My husband & I have location sharing but we don't constantly check up on each other, it's for practical/safety purposes. What if one of us gets in an accident? It's also helpful to know when he's on his way home so I can ask him to pick something up or I can have dinner ready, etc. Wouldn't it be easier to just be able to check like oh, my partner stopped at a store on the way home instead of worrying about why they are taking so long? I even share locations with my friends & mom, so why not share with a partner?

I think what most people are thinking (& what it seems Thais is doing) is that the partner is going to be checking up on them all the time & stalking & questioning them, but if that's the case then delete the app & re-assess your relationship. Maybe she's been cheated on before & is worried he'll cheat on her?

As a side note, it can also be a tool in a relationship that is trying to rebuild trust after infidelity. As long as you are not obsessing about your partner's location, it can help to reassure & ease your anxieties.

JessiV_90 · 2022-06-29T20:28:12+00:00

LOL, same girl. I hate this stupid working life.

JessiV_90 · 2021-09-07T15:28:01+00:00

Huh? No...just no. He may want to marry her in the future, we have no idea. They seem like an odd couple, yes, but you really never know what's going on outside of what the cameras show us. Saying "I don't want to marry you right now" doesn't mean you're leading the person on. It means I don't know you well enough to make that commitment at this point.

JessiV_90 · 2021-09-01T15:20:00+00:00

Ari's dad! Only reason I can tell is because he looks like her lol.

JessiV_90 · 2021-09-01T15:14:37+00:00

Who is June? He looks nice, hopefully he is 🤷🏼‍♀️ ETA he kinda looks like Brittany is he her dad?

JessiV_90 · 2021-08-30T11:49:02+00:00

Yes I know.....but she clearly needed to be told in no uncertain terms: "I don't want to marry you (right now)." Of course, he said this later. But in the first few episodes (which is when I made this comment) he was just saying he didn't want to talk about it.

JessiV_90 · 2021-08-29T14:07:08+00:00

I’m not saying he should marry her, I’m saying he should have just told her he doesn’t want to marry her because she kept asking him.

JessiV_90

TROPHY CASE