I was an in-and-out homeschooling mom (we sent some of the kids to school for some of the grades). What you describe doesn't sound very satisfactory to me.

My DS home schooled her son one year, he had to go in for testing at the end of the year...so that part doesn't sound right to me. Neither does the amount of hours spent on it. I don't think there is a number of hours set in a day that have to be worked on but it doesn't sound right at all the way she is doing it.
Doesn't Haley home school? I hope someone that does bops in here.

The child needs a more structured education. As a librarian, I saw a lot of home-schooled children, and they were the brightest, most curious, and best-behaved children I encountered. Your friends' grandson doesn't sound as if he is in this category. There isn't much you can do, except gently counsel the grandparents to take a hand with their daughter and get the child into a more structured program. Public school at this point would be a disaster for him--he's eleven and can barely read and write, so he would be tested and put into remedial programs. He needs help, and someone better give it to him soon.

What State does he live in where he can be "home schooled"
without State guidelines and requirements, and where
an 11-year old can go deer hunting? Does he have
any supervision at all?

Don't mean to be mean sounding - but this blows my mind.

We homeschool. This situation doesn't sound typical to me.

There are a trillion reasons for homeschooling, and about as many methods of going about it. And homeschooled kids may be delayed, gifted or anywhere in between.

For us, we don't do testing, and we don't send any notes to the school board or anything like that. We do belong to a homeschooling group that gets together in a rented facility for "gym day" once a week. This takes the place of our regular work at home on that day. They break into groups by age levels and play organized games in the gym, have a craft or a science lesson (run by the parents) or something like that. It varies week to week. I'd guess there are about 100 kids (of all ages) in the group. On top of that, each family is required to organize a field trip once per year. Some are educational (art galleries, museums, factory tours, theatre, zoo, farms, etc.), others not so much (amusement parks, etc.) These trips are all optional, so you just participate in the ones that are age appropriate and of interest to your family.

I'm very involved in the work that Sophie and Benjamin do, explaining things to them, helping them, etc. However, Sophie's been doing a little more on her own the past few weeks since Oliver was born. Our schedule is very flexible.... It has to be. It's working well. Claude is starting to do French with them on a semi-regular basis.

We have a finished basement, and we've turned it into a fun classroom. I'll post some pictures later. It's a very neat space, set up with different "stations" (Art, Math, Music, English, Geography, Science....) Sophie just turned 6 (would be in grade 1), and is doing Math, English, Social Studies and Science at a grade 3 level for the most part. Her reading is at a grade 5 or 6 level - she reads everything she can get her hands on. She has a crazy imagination and loves to write stories about just about everything. Benjamin (just turned 3) is doing Senior Kindergarten stuff, and is an excellent little reader - he can read the simple Dr. Seuss books on his own, for example. I don't push the kids - we all love that they can work at their own pace, focus more on what interests them personally, and take breaks when they feel like it. Ben probably does an hour of structured stuff per day, and Sophie about 3. She also takes Chinese (Mandarin) lessons once a week, Piano and music theory (with my mom) once a week, ORFF (music) once a week, and Musical Theatre once a week. She'll be getting back into soccer and swimming on the weekends in the new year. It sounds like a lot, listed like that, but it's not. She still has loads and loads of play time and chill time.

A lot of people seem to think that homeschooled kids are deprived socially. This SO isn't the case, not around here anyhow. My kids are very outgoing and have tons of friends, some homeschooled, some not. Sophie goes to Girl Guides and to a church club weekly. Ben will start next year (not Girl Guides) :)

All that said, if I were the mom you're talking about, there's no possible way I could handle homeschooling. I can't imagine being able to put enough of myself into it if I were a working, single mom. I imagine she must have a reason that she feels is important enough to attempt it, though, whatever it may be. I hope it all works out okay for her and the boy.

My step-daughter home-schooled all three of their kids. They are all bright, outgoing and happy. They lived in PA for most of the time the kids were little and PA has very strict home-school rules. I remember she had to keep books of samples of their work and they were tested every year. They also belonged to a home-school network of parents, like Nicole. They had regular get-togethers to share ideas or take field trips, which was very helpful to her. The kids were involved in t-ball, softball, soccer and other sports. Don't know if they were ever into scouting. They are a very religious family and that's the main reason they home school.

That said, I sure as heck wouldn't want to do it. It's a lot of work and responsibility!

In New York State, the SED has strict guidelines regarding home-schooling. There is curriculum and standards to adhere to, along with reporting guidelines. Parents who wish to home-school need to coordinate their efforts through the local school district. It's not a walk in the park.

We live in Indiana. He has a license to hunt for someone that asked. He's not supervised in any of his studies. She does send some papers in somewhere but there not actually his work. Like i said, she corrects it and that's as far as it goes. He's around other children very little. He's always been around mostly adults and he's always talked like an adult. He's very bad at interrupting while we're talking and telling his mom she's wrong. He lives for fishing. Her parents built onto there house years ago to make a mil addition and she has since pass, so the daughter and this boy now lives in that part of the house.
We have there for dinner when the boy starts whining he wants to go fishing, they tell him no not till he does his homework and he continues whining till they say just go. There's a pond/stream about half a mile down the road where he goes. I have asked the grandmother about it a couple of times and she says oh with the kind of home schooling he's taking he doesn't have to be tested. They say he's smart, well he is about guns and fishing lures but not so in other things. I just think someday the boys going to have trouble, there not a lot of hunting and fishing jobs out there.

I scanned this site and it might answer some of your questions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Indiana Home School Help Sheet

How sad. That mother is derelict in her duties as a mother. She is not preparing her child to learn to be an independent, self supporting individual or family member. What grief this child will have in his life!

I work in the children's department at our public library, and I see many home-schoolers. A lot of the parents are doing a wonderful job of it, and the kids are thriving.

On the other hand, I also see a lot of kids who would be a lot better off in public school. Some of the parents have no idea what they're doing, and seem to be doing it for all the wrong reasons. I see a lot of kids who are WAY behind where they should be, and parents who seem to be basically lazy and not wanting to bother getting them up in the morning and off to school.

If states don't want to have home-schooling guidelines any better than Indiana, they ought to ban it. I read gadgets post and that's atrocious. Here in FL a parent can be arrested if a child misses "X" number of school days. I'm from Indiana and I'm astounded they don't have any better guidlines or proof of learning than they do. That poor kid!!

nicole Ont,

How did you find such a wonderful program? I'm impressed.

Gayle

Requirements for homeschooling vary from state to state. Like debbyga, I know kids who are thriving and doing very well, and kids who just fill out a few worksheets and call it school.

Calif has guidelines also and where I use to live the District was real strict. In fact, one of my friends would have lost her girls, because she refused to cooperate. The district had a regular HS teacher that visited each family once a week and checked the work. The families had get togethers with other families, and some even took the children to public schools to participate in certain activities that they could not provide at home. In our area it was distance that was a problem
I am sorry, this mom should be reported to the school district. She is not doing her son a service.

My DD homeschools her two children and does an excellent job. She follows a curriculum set up for homeschooling and sometimes combines things she likes from one and other things from another.

The children have friends and are involved in lots of extracurricular activities. Her DD takes violin lessons, and DS plays drums. I think his Dad is his main instructor right now as he was a drummer in a band. She has portfolios for both with samples of all their work, keeps a notebook with all the assignments they do daily, and how many hours they put in.

She is very similiar to Nicole. Belongs to homeschooling groups and takes the kids on field trips, etc.

Mo. doesn't require any testing but does have certain guidelines and how many hours of instruction

2) As evidence that a child is receiving regular instruction, the parent shall, except as otherwise provided in this subsection:

(a) Maintain the following records:

a. A plan book, diary, or other written record indicating subjects taught and activities engaged in; and

b. A portfolio of samples of the child's academic work; and

c. A record of evaluations of the child's academic progress; or

d. Other written, or credible evidence equivalent to subparagraphs a., b. and c.; and

(b) Offer at least one thousand hours of instruction, at least six hundred hours of which will be in reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies and science or academic courses that are related to the aforementioned subject areas and consonant with the pupil's age and ability. At least four hundred of the six hundred hours shall occur at the regular home school location