[Jm2310]

So from what I've read here, a lot of us have kids. Do any parents with bipolar homeschool their kids? I can find info on homeschool a kid with bipolar or other mental health issues but not so much when the parent has it.

[cashart10]

Originally Posted by Jm2310

So from what I've read here, a lot of us have kids. Do any parents with bipolar homeschool their kids? I can find info on homeschool a kid with bipolar or other mental health issues but not so much when the parent has it.

That was our intention to homeschool our kids all the way through. I started with preschool, homeschooling my daughter, niece, and a good froend’s daughter who is the same age as them. It went very well and I was able to give them exelerated learning while making sure they could still be kids. We decided that once kindergarten began, I would only be schooling my own daughter so I stopped teaching and watching the other kids. However, sometime while I was homeschooling the three of them (and caring for 2 toddlers), I became very, very manic. My behavior was completely absurd. Everything from reading the Bible and praying numerous times a day to calling my friends husband and asking him if he was parked on the street in front of my house watching me care for his child. And that was before I became psychotic. The problem was, I had been so well for so long, and my husband had never known anything other than his VERY sane and together wife. I was the epitome of boring and together. Then boom, I’m super Christian, super mom, super wife, super citizen. Anyway the whole point of this story is this: that episode of mania, the longest in my life, lasted at least 6 months and when I crashed, I crashed hard. It was then the worst and turned into the longest depression I have ever had. I’m embarrassed to say that just a few months into teaching my daughter kindergarten, I became bed, well actually “couch” ridden and what little she learned was almost always from the couch and often through tears. Thank God she is a naturally very intelligent child and caught up in the blink of an eye, but I will tell you it was horrible. That’s just my experience though. It didn’t work for us then and we have no plans to try it again. That said, if all of the options were too bleak, I wouldn’t be totally opposed to trying again, or maybe even paying someone close to me to do it.

[Victoria'smom]

I’ve homeschooled my son straight through he’s in 11th grade now. We went through spurts.

K-2 we used time4learning, explode the code, and singapore math
3-4 Singapore math, daily grams, magic tree house, noeo science
5-6 Life of fred, free reading, time4learning, netflix, Noeo science
7-10 Hell: Florida virtual school (If I could go back I’d never do that again.)
2nd 10- 2nd 12 Dual enrollment at local college

He currently has a 1240 SAT which qualifies him for massive tuition deduction and he needs 1290 for the state to give him free tuition and books.

My son has MI concerns too. Our community co-op has been great. We don’t tell anyone any of us has mental illness. One of the reasons my son is doing dual enrollment is just incase he doesn’t move on after highschool to college. One time I dropped my medication in a co-op my son was young he screamed out ”Mom, you dropped your head boo-boo medication” It was silent. Unti one of the mom’s goes “hey we all take medication”. Then the day went by like nothing. Do you have a co-op near you? I use to have to travel an hour for a good one. Then I moved and we have 3+ in a 30 min radius, We’re secular so most co-ops we can’t go to. If you notice it was a lot of hands off from me so we could keep the same schedule no matter my own mood. If I had lots of money I would have done Moving Beyond the pages.

I’m willing to just chat. I don’t think many of us come out of hiding. I’m part of a chronic illness facebook page as well as a couple other facebook groups. He's also had a therapist from 8+ to process anything going on.

[~Christina]

I personally think homeschool is ok at young young ages but to be well rounded socially I think kids need a regular school environment. I taught my daughter more than regular school requires too.

I know many teachers that wind up getting a homeschooled kid in 3-4-5 grade etc and they are just not where they should be academically.

My having undiagnosed Bipolar has nothing to do with my decision for regular school.

Of course this is just my opinion.

[MJLouise]

We homeschool on and off. I take it one year at a time and adjust as needed. We homeschooled one kid in k-3 and the other was in school for special need services. Then when the one in svhool started coming home angry and upset all the time we pulled him out and homeschooled him too. Then when we moved to WA we found a cheap little private school with50 kids in the whole school. They used classical education many of the same books I was using as a homeschooler so I put them both in. The classes ability grouped and moved kids back and forth as needed which was great for my special needs kid who was behind in writing and spelling but two grades ahead in math.

Then we moved to Germany and the government DODEA public school curriculum sucks but the school itself and teachers are fantastic so my kids go part tim and homeschool part time.

I’ve never had. Problem homeschooling. If it’s a bad hard day I’ve surrounded myself with good friends who homeschool by joining homeschool groups and I say I’m sick can we schedule a play date or I just take it easy with the kids at home and tell them they get a day off.

If I’m depress and tired for weeks I find I have them do more independent learning througbonline programs that self correct and teach. We used a bit of time 4 learning but my kids didn’t like it. They do like khan academy now as older kids. They loved math games like brain pop etc.

We historically have used Singapore math and Math U See and even though their different styles spiral vs mastery methods they both worked well for my kids. Singapore has more review.

Susan Wise Bauer is our go to for language art over grade 4.
Love Kuman books for under grade 4, over they stink.
We liked to k12 virtual academy and their phonics program for grade k-3 but didn’t like their other classes.
We are very eclectic when they homeschool. We do tons of reading and they can read easy books for fun but school books are always a bit harder so it pushed them to read more difficult material.

I’m an artist too and taught art at their private school and when we homeschool we do a lot of projects that combine art, researching, writing, history or science etc.

Homeschooling is also a quicker day which allows them to have time for their instruments without having to sacrifice fun afterschool hours.
Anyway I think we’ve been pretty successful.

Next year my son will go to the high school full time.