Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments New, looking for some BTDT advice on deschooling

*Edited for brevity*

We have suddenly pulled DS out of school. I am just getting started in my research and am reading that a period of "deschooling" or detoxing from school might be in order. I am wondering if anyone has experience with this and if so, what did it look like? How long did it last? I am in the process of assembling some kind of curriculum for him for the rest of this academic year, but am nowhere near ready to jump into anything straight away, so for my own reasons deschooling is appealing for at least the short term. I'm afraid, however, that he will feel he no longer "needs" school if I don't get something going quickly. Really any btdt insight would be helpful! TIA!

If I recall the rule of thumb is one week of deschooling for each year the child has been in school? Deschooling being a time of self-directed, fun-for-this-particular-kid activities which may be educational or not particularly so. Science projects, building models, reading up on a favorite subject, visits to museums and libraries, categorizing a rock, seashell, or stamp collection, creating a sketch journal, devoting time to a hobby are a few ideas. This can be a time to establish direction for delving into homeschooling or transitioning through a less formal educational environment of unschooling.

As you begin to seek curriculum, you may wish to check Gifted Homeschooler Forum ( GHF ) and resources on the Davidson Database such as this book of over a thousand free resources.

It can really depend on the kid. We pulled DS9 out of school towards the end of the school year, so we used the summer for deschooling. I'm not sure it was enough, and in retrospect I would have started our school year more slowly. His school experience, especially that final year, was pretty bad, and I still feel he is recovering, nearly 2 years later.

DD7, on the other hand, only needed a long weekend before she was ready to dive into homeschooling earlier this year. (Although technically she, too, had the summer for deschooling, as she was only in school for about a week before she left). Her school experience had been much more positive.

Since we were all new to homeschooling, I wanted to talk to DS about the different styles of homeschooling and different options for some subjects. When he first left school, he was unwilling to discuss this with me at all (and was quite belligerent, in fact). By the end of the summer (about 3 months later), he was more open to talking about homeschooling. I know I wouldn't have been able to do anything "formal" before that point.

Could you get a tour of your main branch public library? Could detox just look like a big bag of books from the library, time to play, tinker with broken stuff (supervised...use you tube for help), how about cleaning out his room? What about exploring new things like a yoga for kids DVD and nature trails and centers in the spring....for now he could research places to go in the spring...in my area we have botanical gardens, nature parks with programming, state parks, pioneer villages, forts, other historical sites, lots of theater, museums, etc. just select some and see if they have free days or discount days or special deals.

My one son is all about research.