Homeschooling programs?

So, we live in Texas, and the virus is still bad out here, and most of the schools are either closed or not accepting many students. Regardless his BM is still hesitant on allowing them to go to actual schooling.

Not to judge parenting before I came along, but it seems these kids were failed when it came to school. SS10 was sheltered because his mom has a few mental issues and was afraid to put him in school because of her past trauma. He was put online school but was never actually taught anything. Asking him basic math questions like even numbers or basic multiplication he is terribly slow. Hes 10 years old and still in third grade which I guess is common but coming from someone who graduated high school 3 years early after having a hell of a childhood, I feel like as a stepparent I'd be failing him and SS4 if i didn't do my best to help him out.

Alot of you will tell me it's not my job and that his father should handle it, but he works 13 hour shifts 6 days a week and I want to be able to take care of this for him, with his input of course. His mother pretends to care and because of the court papers even though he is here 7 days a week only to go home at night on some days with very little ability to have a face-to-face conversation with him, she has control of what happens with him.

Online schooling isn't working for him. He doesn't pay attention, gets distracted, ignores the teacher and isn't learning anything. Hes passing as far as Cs and Bs, but he isn't retaining any of it. Hes going to get worse when it hits high school and he's struggling, and I can see how hard it is for him.

I have gone to college for child education and got my degree, but because of covid and the boys I've been waiting to go anywhere with it. I have sat a few hours with him before and have been able to get through to him with a little time.

I want to homeschool him until Covid blows through and I thought summer would be the best time to give it a dry run. I'm taking a break from my college classes anyway and he is grounded from the videogames or his iPad because of something between him and his dad, so he has nothing to do during the summer if his friends are busy and after I clean the house and make the meals, I don't have much to do either besides writing.

Does anyone know of any good homeschooling programs that are either cheap or free?

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I think a lot of us will warn

I think a lot of us will warn you on this... no good deed goes unpunished...lol. you may knock yourself out for the benefit of the kids and they will resent you for it and their bio parents will take their side when they think you are being too hard on them.

But... if you are bound and determined to follow this route... You should probably call the school system to see if there are any programs they recommend.. and perhaps there are free programs they can offer up.

You could try joining a homeschool group on facebook for example.. they might be a good resource in your area too.

My YSD used the "K12" online school program.. it wasnt free for what she did but I think they may have some free options too... if they work with a school district.

If BM doesn't want him going

If BM doesn't want him going to in-person school, why can't she home school him?

Because she doesn't care

Because she doesn't care enough to watch her kids and take care of them, so she puts that on me. No instead she would rather play mom and yell at them for a couple of hours a week and make all decisions pertaining to them, she doesn't want to parent, just pretend she is by not letting me and my husband make actual decisions

I'm not going to tell you if

I'm not going to tell you if you should or shouldn't do it. I have weird opinions about taking on responsibilities for skids that sometimes align with the majority here and sometimes don't and I think so much of it is situational. There is on "one right answer" in stepland, IMHO. You are the only one in your life. You do what you think will be most peaceful for your house and/or you conscience. Sometimes, these two things don't match and you create more chaos but you've got a clear conscience. Sometimes the opposite. And sometimes, whatever you thought was "the best idea" at the time turns out to be a big fat terrible decision but... other times, you get a crazy hair-brained idea and you go with it and it's met with great success. I'm not judging.

I'm homeschooling my steps right now and if I would've come here and talked about it, I'm pretty sure I would've been told DON'T DO IT!! For reasons that are all "technically" true: the skids aren't my responsibility, they already have two parents, I can't care more than the parents, blah blah blah. Again, all true. But it wasn't going to sit right with me and I decided to homeschool them, even somewhat against DH's better judgment.

It is not for the faint of heart, and I have some pretty great stepkids. We have full custody and do not need to consult BM when making decisions about the skids' education and she was not deeply involved in their schooling, even when they were in traditional school. DH does not help. He cannot teach and does not want to. So, it's literally just me doing this, with good stepkids who listen and treat me with respect (at least 90% of the time -- they are kids after all) and it is still really, really hard. It's been an excellent choice for my skids' -- SD15 is ending the year with three HS classes ahead of where she'd be if she were in traditional/virtual school and SD10 is much happier, but DAYUM, it's a lot of work.

I'm going to overwhelm you with options. Ready? lol

Time4Learning is supposed to be a very low-cost comprehensive homeschool program that is mainly online. I don't use it but it might be work looking into.

Evan-Moor Publishers Teacher File Box for Language Arts. $13/mo and gives you access to a ton of worksheets. Very close to what they do in school, but it's a bit boring.

Brave Writer Literature Singles are fantastic. Both my skids love them, but it's a more unconventional approach to LA. The singles are usually around $15 per lesson/book... though you also have to get the book, which you may be able to find at a library. We read a few chapters of the story, aloud, taking turns on if skids/me reading a page or chapter. Then we do the lesson that discusses the topic (nouns, verbs, dialogue, whatever). There is very, very little written work which can be awesome if your kid is resistant to "school at home" but because there is so much conversation about the lesson, you can tell if your kid is getting it or not.

Beautiful Feet is the most expensive program I use and it's mainly for history and character building, though as the grade levels move up, it gets more into science and philosophy. It is awesome if you can swing it. It is Charlotte Mason style, so it involves a ton of reading (which we do together, aloud) and just a little bit of written work. I do think the written work increases a bit as they get older, but I'm using it for SD10 so I can't speak to the older grades. Does have some religious leanings so... either include that or skip over it based on your preference.

Generation Genius for science. I paid $99 for the year. It's mainly video based with one worksheet per lesson and a "lab" experiment. Only goes to 8th grade. My SD10 thinks it's so fun and loves to watch the videos. Great production quality.

Beast Academy for math. They have three ways of learning: comic book style textbooks, online lessons, and workbooks. If you just do the online videos, it's $15/mo. However, I sprung for the workbooks because math is the one place my SD10 really lost her knowledge during the shutdown and I knew she needed more practice. It gives all the answers and the solutions in the workbook and online so there's no guessing for me! Haha. (Turns out there's quite a lot of math I have forgotten and what I can remember, I don't actually teach well, so this has been a great program for me to understand how to teach SD10 math in the same way the program does.)

Outschool.com: Ohhhh, Outschool.com is ahhh-mazing. I use it mainly for art but my skids have taken math classes, writing classes, history classes, science classes, PE classes. It is great. It gives me a break from teaching and gives them a break from listening to me (because as we are still pretty shutdown here, we spend waaaayyyy too much time together). Also allows them to learn things that I would have to learn first myself in order to teach them. Prices vary greatly. I've paid as little as $10 for a class and as much as $50 for a class. Classes usually have set times (everything else I've recommended is done at your own pace) and can be one time only classes or ongoing classes. My high school SD took a 16 week class that was pricey because I had to pay for all 16 weeks upfront, but I wouldn't do such a long class for SD10.

Subscription boxes. These can be a bit pricey (I'd say around $30-$40 for one month per box, on average) but they are awesome because kids can learn with their hands! It can also be an excellent reward for completing the "boring" work. Kiwi Co is probably the best known and has at least 10 different lines based on your kids' age and interests, but there are so many: Open Road Learning, Kidstir, Let's Bake, 2 Crafty Mamas, iSprout, Raddish Kids, Eat2Explore, Crafty School Crates. I can't even list all the ones I've read about. (I have only used Crafty School Crates and Atlas Crate from Kiwi Co but the others are on my wishlist.) Might be worth a splurge if you can swing it.

Well-Planned Gal education planner. It has been a savior in tracking their work, keeping them on schedule, and making sure I'm not skipping subjects or focusing too heavily on on subject. Has a place for grades. Love it. Don't know what I'd do without it.

Join as many homeschool Facebook groups as you can because there are always parents exchanging materials and talking about the different curricula that are available for their kids and you will find stuff you didn't know about.

Best of luck!! I'm not on here as often as I used to be, but send me a message if you want to chat.

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