how to homeschool curriculum decide?

Question:
I just took my 13 year old son out of public school, he has been in "special education" since kindergarten, he has ADHD. He gets good grades, and has passed every grade level, but the way special education works is to work with the student on whatever level they are on, so they may be on their grade level for math, but on a much lower level for reading. He should have gone into the 8th grade this year, and I am looking to buy a complete curriculum program, preferably one that uses the computer, but I don't know what grade level to purchase, these tend to run in the $250 range so I can't afford to buy 2 grade levels if I make a mistake. I have been looking at this one http://curriculum.crosswalk.com/publisher/1,3076,27~2,00.htm?stkn=390... This one is for 8th grade, they have one for all the grade levels.

My question is, how do I go about finding out what level he is on? Is there some place on the net that does testing? Or a book or any other way I can go about finding this out?

Answer:
-You should be able to get an idea of where your son's strengths and weaknesses are by referring to the standardized test he has been given by the school. These test might be the ITBS or CTBS or SAT. Each subject area is scored separately. These tests are generally required by the school districts at certain grades. As well, you can refer to your copy of the IEP. That may tell you what grade level your son was and what they intended to do to remediate him. The IEP should break things down by area of study and by life skills. As well, additional testing may have been done to determine the effectiveness of the plan established by the IEP.

My son is labeled LD by the school district. (He is also gifted.) We took my son out of public school half way through 7th grade (for a number of reasons). He was reading at a 5th grade level. We remediated him with an audio tape program called Fast Track Action Reading. (Cost about $150 from Mega Systems 800-732-8899.) We brought him up to grade level in a semester. Going in to 9th grade, he is reading at grade level.

His entire program that we have put together for him builds on his strengths and attempts to help him with his weaknesses. We do a lot of things on the computer. He use lots of video and audio tapes. And it seems to be working for him. We have ended up using a very un-schooling approach. That is, we use child lead learning. By this I mean, that if something interests him or is working for him, we go with it instead of rigidly adhering to a packaged curriculum. For example, we used a lot of National Geographic Magazines last year for Social Studies and Science. The magazine articles were current, full of information, well written, and shorter than a book so they weren't overwhelming. We also used them for oral reading practice as well. (At the beginning of the year, he mostly read the captions under the pictures and I read the article out loud. Later, he would read part of the article to me. finally, he would grab the National Geographic when it came in the mail, disappear into his room, inhale the issue, and then come tell me about what he he read.)

In PA, we can use the text books from the school that our son would normally attend. We get those each year and use them as a starting point and as a reference point. sometimes, we use the entire text. Sometimes we don't use any of it.

I have found that The Back Pack at www.thebackpack.com phone 252-244-0728 Eastern Time can put together a custom package for you for between $250 and $300. You don't have to buy two or more complete curriculums to get the range you need. You figure out what you need and tell them. They have sets of used text books which include a student text and the teacher's edition for about $45. They have new materials as well. I have been very pleased with each order I have placed with them.

You didn't say what state you are in. Sometimes you have to do additional things to meet the requirements for home schooling a special needs child. In PA, we have to get a pre-approval letter from an evaluator of our choice to include with the annual affidavit that we submit. Rules for home schooling vary greatly with locality. Here are some sites that deal with various state laws:

http://www.homeschoolzone.com/yp/

http://www.hslda.org

http://www.home-ed-magazine.com/HSRSC/hsrsc_laws.ms.html

If these links don't work, let me know since I typed them instead of copying them....

Information about LD kids who are gifted:

http://www.bctf.bc.ca/PDAs/AEGTCCBC/GCWLD.html

http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/ go to Characteristics OR go to Visual-Spatial Learner. -Based on what I've read here, you've almost answered your own question in the very first paragraph. It sounds like the chances that your son is performing at exactly one grade level in every subject are pretty slim (as they are for most kids, public, private, or homeschooled).

If I were you I would not be looking at a particular curriculum package, and would instead be developing my own. Perhaps you and your son could sit down together and figure out what it is that interests him enough to keep his attention so that he can learn, then develop ideas and methods that work to help him to learn these things.

Also, have you looked at the Core Curriculum books (available at any bookstore)? They are geared for grades 1-6, but looking at, for example, the 6th grade book may give you a good idea of how to develop your own curriculum that will work for your family. There are also scads and scads of books on creating a curriculum, and web sites galore on the same stuff. Jon's Homeschool Resource page is a superb place to find all sorts of info about curriculum and curriculum development, the url is http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/ .

A lot of kids who are first coming out of the public school system have a bit of 'shell shock', ranging from moderate to severe, and this can make the first year or two of homeschooling, well, difficult. By trying to fit him into a box again (You are in 8th grade, this is the work you will do), you may discover that your son will balk and rebel. In your position, I would take some time to slowly get into the swing of homeschooling, work with the materials from your local library and bookstore, enjoy frequent field trips to museums and aquariums, and encourage him to do the best that he can, whatever that may be.

Another thing, if using the computer is a biggy for him and for you, a couple of hours at Yahoo and yahooligans, searching for things like 'homeschool' 'math', 'science', and so forth, will yield an absolute bonanza of sites that will be of immense help in capturing and holding his interest and learning hunger. My 8 year old uses many many web sites in her daily homeschooling. She visits them, uses the activities, and then she writes about what she did, and we work out ways to adapt the activities to home use. Just a thought.