My son recently received a leukemia diagnosis, so I may have to homeschool him this upcoming school year. He’ll be in 4th grade and I was wondering where I need to start. Suggestions?
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So sorry! I don’t have any experience with a health related issue & home schooling so I won’t chime in on that, I just hope the best for you and your family and am sorry you are going through this.
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I prayed this morning for you, your son and your family. I will keep you in mind. Blessings.
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That’s a tough situation, I’ll be praying for you.
If you are planning to send him back to public school afterwards then I would just try to make sure he doesn’t miss out on what his current class mates will experience. So try talking to the school about which books, areas of history (most states have a standard social studies program) and science projects are usually done in forth grade.
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I homeschool an 11 year old with ESRD - End Stage Renal Disease. Please consider tailoring your schedule to how your son feels each day, not to what you feel needs to be completed. You will be amazed how much smoother school goes, how much better you both feel and how much better the whole medical situation goes.
We have been doing this since preschool and it is so much better and so much less stress.
My son does participate in the local dance studio - ballet and Irish - they know, understand and can work around our craziness. If you can find a dance group, musical group or sports group that can work with your craziness, that too will help.
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Our daughter has fought (and beat) cancer, lost both kidneys, survived with dialysis treatments for over 2 years, had a kidney transplant, and has visual issues.
You’ll need to accept that you’ll have good days and bad. You’ll have days where you’ll be in clinic all day long, and probably be admitted often as well. Your plans will have to change and be flexible daily.
If you are planning on returning to traditional school, I would try to get a scope and sequence to be covered from the school system. You could also use a traditional curriculum.
Christian traditional curriculum - BJU Press or Abeka.
Secular - ?maybe someone else could chime in?
Also consider online options - Time4Learning, Monarch,…
If you’re okay with keeping him at home, I would recommend starting with a packaged curriculum that will provide you with schedules and almost everything you’ll need. Check out :
- Sonlight (Bookshark is the secular version)
- Heart of Dakota
- My Fathers World
Also, talk to the child life team and the hospital staff. If he needs to be hospitalized a lot, the hospital might offer schooling options. Our hospital works with local schools to keep students on track. They offer teachers that work directly with the kids in the hospital.
Best of luck to you and your family. I hope you’re able to find a solution that works well for you.
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I am so sorry to hear of your sons illness. I will continue paryers your way❤
As for curriculum The Good &The Beautiful. It is a Christ centered curriculum that offers tons of leeway, short days, it is also easy on the pocket book and excellent in academics. I’m so sorry but I am not familar with secular curricula. Though any curricula can be secular by not covering things Christ or Bible related.
Blessings,
Wendy
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So sorry you’re having to go through that. I’ve never experienced what you’re going through, but the advice I usually give to new homeschoolers I think still applies.
First, find out what your state laws on homeschooling are, so you can make sure you’re in compliance. If you are on facebook I would also look for local homeschool facebook groups (sort of like forums like this). People there can direct you to resources specifically for your state.
Next, research curriculum. I really suggest the book 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum by Cathy Duffy (she has several versions…there’s a 101 and 102 Top Pics as well, all good). It not only has suggestions for good curriculum, but also a guide that helps you figure out how your child learns best and the homeschooling style that would be best for you, and helps match you up with curriculum based on that. It’s a Christian resource, but includes some secular curriculum as well and I’ve heard of secular homeschoolers who still used it for the reasons I mentioned.
If you want her to stay alligned with what the public school is doing I suggest asking the school about their scope and sequence (most states have some sort of general guideline teachers follow for what needs to be covered…though in homeschool you usually don’t have to follow what the schools are doing, though they may have minimum standards or subjects you need to cover).
Your local school may be willing to lend you their textbooks or you may find a copy at your local library, and that can be helpful, especially for math and science, where it’s sometimes easier to see what they’re doing (one of my oldest wanted to try homeschooling for a year, and when I looked at the the state standards for math I could not figure out what he was supposed to be learning…but I was able to order the same textbook and workbook that the school used online, and just flipping through that made things more clear. We just flipped through the the book until we got to material he hadn’t covered the previous year and started there. )
I HIGHLY suggest using something different than the school textbook for History, though, because generally there are so many better, more interesting options (I just compared what I’m using with my homeschool kiddo with what my kiddo in public school is using, and his history is so dry and lifeless compared to what we were using at home…boggles my mind how they can take something so interesting and make it so boring.).
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