Prayer request and question

[LynnH]

This has been our most challenging homeschool year for various reasons, but the newest one has me a bit more stressed. My ds received a concussion last week from of all things hitting his head on his head board during his sleep. We ended up taking several days off school to try and rest his brain. Yesterday and today we spread one day out into 2 and plan on doing that a few days next week also. The plan is then to go back up to full speed, but it may be wishful thinking. He still has a pretty severe headache all day, every day. He does ok with history, bible, and even lit. Math and Chemistry however cause his headache to increase. Chemistry which is challenging for him when he doesn't have a concussion is really a struggle. We have had to break the 10 remaining review questions he had left down into 3 or 4 days. I worked the schedule where right now we aren't behind, but once he is up to trying to do full days we may end up falling behind. He will do math over the summer, but I don't want to make him do Chemistry over the summer. So my question is- Does he have to finish the entire book for it to count as a credit? I know ps kids never finish a book. He isn't going into a stem career.

If anyone has dealt with health issues with their dc during the school year I would love to hear how you made things work. If next year wasn't his senior year we could maybe slow things down and just not worry about it, but we don't have any room to do that.

I would also appreciate prayers for complete healing for him. He is already dealing with CP, so now to have his brain injured in a different way is challenging and hard on my heart.

[countrymom]

I will put your son on my prayer list. I am so sorry. I am a member of HSLDA and went to their site and here are couple of things that might help:
- 120-180 hours for 1 credit
- every question, assignment, and page does not need to be read. 75% is often considered credit worthy, so you could pick and choose areas to skimp on

Also, what about doing a unit in 5 days instead of 4 once he is kind of getting on his feet. That will not put you as behind. I just read a post from Carrie about how the senior year is planned to be lighter, so maybe if you fell somewhat behind you would still be able to get the senior year in. Just some thoughts for now. We are not there yet, so I don't have a lot of advice, but I'll keep you in my prayers.

[momtofive]

Oh no! I can't speak to the requirements on his course, but I will be praying for him to recover fully, and soon!

[Carrie]

Oh Lynn!

I am so sorry for you and for your son! For now, I would stay away from those subjects that make his headache worse. From what you've shared, it sounds like Math and Chemistry would be shelved for awhile. It is so important that he rest his brain. In school situations, students with injuries are given a lot of grace. The same has to be true at home. It is often true that only 75% of a text needs to completed in order for credit to be counted. In my mind, I reserve the 75% rule for cases just like this.

With that in mind, I would set Chemistry aside for now and not pick it back up again until the headache is diminished or gone. This may be quite some time! When you do pick it back up, start where you left off and just go until the end of the year and call it good. There are a tremendous amount of labs in the Chemistry program, so you should be fine counting lab credit wherever you stop in the Chemistry text. Since your son is not entering a STEM career, he has more leeway in the science area coverage-wise.

As far as math goes, I would be inclined to set that aside for now as well. Then, pick that back up when the headache is much improved. You can go through the summer with math if desired, or you could just continue with the math into the next school year instead and then do a shortened, lighter version of whatever math you had planned next for him.

Just keep telling yourself that healing is the most important thing, and stressing the brain makes healing take longer. I had a car accident which resulted in a concussion, whiplash, and various injuries when I was 17, and it is important to let the brain rest! I will pray for you and your family.

Blessings,
Carrie

[LynnH]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the prayers. I think I will sit down this weekend and figure out where 75% of the Chemistry would be. I think taking a break from that might be the smart thing to do. As far as the math, he is doing mathhelp.com college algebra and the lessons are really short. He and I will talk some about this. We are already behind in math since we switched math programs a few months into the year. I had hoped for him to not have to do math next year, but I will have to look at that. I will really look at how much that subject stresses his brain. I can read things aloud to him as needed as far as the other subjects so I think we can make those work.

[Carrie]

Lynn,

It sounds like you have a plan coming together. We did College Algebra through math help with my oldest son and are currently doing College Algebra through math help with my second oldest son, so I wanted to mention that the lessons get quite a bit longer and more difficult the last half of the year. The lessons are still very well done and doable, but they ramp up from the much shorter opening lessons. If you did have to carry math over into the next school year, it would be fine to do so since it is College Algebra. My oldest son took the ALEKS test upon completing College Algebra through math help and was able to pass out of College Algebra quickly that way. The credit for ALEKS is through ACE. My second oldest son will likely do the same. So that may be an option you can consider if your college accepts ACE for math credit. Many colleges do. Here is a website about ACE that is helpful: http://www2.acenet.edu/credit/?fuseaction=browse.main

Blessings,
Carrie

[LynnH]

Thanks Carrie that is very helpful information about mathhelp.com. He is really liking it. We are seeing the lessons get a bit longer already. I haven't been making him do the worksheets, but if he struggles I may change that. I am taking problems from the worksheets and making them into a test just because he isn't doing any other subjects that have tests. We can carry it into next year, it just messes up my plans a bit on what subjects I was going to have him do. I'm trying to cater to his interests with his electives, but I was hoping to not have math to give him a bit more time. We are dropping our Friday co-op so that will help. The community college he will most likely go to told me they don't accept the Ace testing, they give the accuplacer test. I'm still hoping he can test out of College Algebra on that.

Praise is this weekend his headache has lessened a bit.

[Lynn3ggb]

Hello Lynn,

I just have a moment, but I wanted to let you know I understand your concern. My daughter has health issues which caused her to get behind during her 10th grade year. She actually spent a few days in the hospital and it was quite some time before we could get a full day of school done with any regularity. The bad thing for us was she was enrolled in an online christian academy and we ended up having to purchase an extension and push harder than I would have liked to keep her grades up. If we had been using our own curriculum, we would have had much more flexibility in giving her more time to recover and heal.

I am sure things will work out for the best. My prayers are with you and your son for a speedy recovery.

Letha

[jenn in nc]

Lynn,

I'm so sorry... we'll be praying here. ((hugs))

Jenn

[LynnH]

Thanks for the prayers. We tried to do just a little bit of school each day this week, but his headache would increase at times so we are back to brain rest and he has a neurologist appointment next week. It is pretty stressful for me to fall so far behind in the guide (just finished week 21), but getting him healthy has to take priority right now.