Tough one. What city/state are u in? Are u home during the day? Would homeschooling be a possibility? Would u qualify for a scholarship to a private school? How long have u lived there? Is moving an option?

Hmm. Think u can try the teacher thing, but as a teacher I can tell u that there is no time to run interference. Certainly the teacher can try to help but chances are most of the kids are coming from a bad home environment and there is a limit as to how much the teacher can do. I am sure there are already rules set up in the classroom but that will not help outside of class. If your financial situation is poor u may be able to get help with tuition someplace else. I have a foster child and she is able to go to the best daycare in the county. I also would suggest trying to move to a more rural area where things are cheaper.

I agree that homeschooling is still a possibility. There are also a lot of “cyber schools” out there now set up for just this reason. He learns at home via computer which can be provided by the school and they do have school get togethers and such. U can always involve him with other kids with something like karate, etc. temporarily until your situation improves.

See Caliva.org or Connectionsacademy.com for how some of these Cyber schools work.

When you homeschool a child, you do not have to do the whole thing by yourself. You are articulate, use good grammar and spelling — your son could do a lot worse than to learn what you have to teach him.

But the important thing is, homeschooling is not something you do by yourself. There are programs that can provide the curriculum, there are books and on-line workshops that take the child step by step along the learning curve. And there is usually an association of home-schooling parents, who meet at intervals and plan social events for their homeschooled children.

Post a query in the ‘home schooling’ section of yahoo to find out where the nearest homeschooling center is.

Good luck to you!

Unfortunately bullying seems to be a world wide problem.

You are already teaching your son, you`ve taught him to be kind and thoughtful, you teach him everyday, everytime you answer a question, show him something you`re teaching, you dont have to be Einstein. I`m not but I`m home educating my two children, if he`s not happy he wont be learning anything, only how much he hates school.

I have friends who have five children and they home ed.

Can you get help from friends or family?

All you need to teach him is that if he wants he can do just about anything….

Good luck with everything, I really hope things work out for you.

All the best Helen, England.

What about signing him up for other activities to give him a little more confidence. Boy scouts, sports, karate, something he can do that is enjoyable but will help him with the life skills and confidence he’s going to need to help him in the future. He can also make friends, and maybe, find kids doing these activities that he goes to school with. He will find his way and his circle of friends, but in the pursuit of that the WORST thing that could happen is that he loses his confidence before he even gets the chance to make friends.

I feel so terrible for him because this must be a really hard time in his life. And it must be even harder for you because there is really nothing you can do when it comes to other cold hearted kids. All you can do is make sure he has confidence in other areas of his life to help brace himself against the things in life that will try to get him down. It is horrible, but some little kids can be very cruel when it comes to others, but this is all a learning process. Just keep reminding him that it is NOT him, it is them. Keep both your heads up =)

Talk to his teacher about it- if there’s anything that can be done it’s probably the teacher who needs to show the kids more than just how to do their ABCs and 123s. They also need to show about making friends and how to be nice. It is especially important that kids understand these emotions early.

I praise your willingness to resolve the problem. If the teacher doesn’t work, keep going up the list until you get to the principal. If not, try and see if you can go to other county schools but I would try that as a last resort option.

I hope everything goes well for your son. Best of luck!

Talk to the school. Both the principal and the teachers. They need to be aware of any bullying. Also, try to teach your kids how to make the best out of a bad situation. Switching schools will only teach them that when things get tough, you can just up and leave.

I would try my hardest to move from the rough area you live in.i did! We also lived in a tough area, and our kids, like yours were not brought up to spiteful, and were not streetwise. Do you live in council authority housing? if so, put in for an exchange, or a transfer. We did an exchange to Cornwall, to the most beautiful village imagineable, I still cannot believe my luck, 13 years on. Our children went to the village school, with 38 pupils, and then on to the local secondary school, and grew up happily and safely. If you want it bad enough, you can make it happen. Even if you do not live in local authority housing, try to get away from the area, you owe it to your kids…….. Sorry I have just realised you are in America.

I can tell you, from experience, that homeschooling early elementary is one of the easiest times – the curriculum is literally scripted out and bolded for you, and it’s all planned out. There are several great curriculum choices, both Christian and secular, that literally tell you what to do, word for word. If you can read the teacher’s manual, you can teach him the skills.

The later years do get a bit more difficult, but not overly…as he gets older, there are co op situations where experts and degreed teachers teach the kids in classroom settings. There are also computer programs like Switched On Schoolhouse, or DVD programs like Bob Jones University Press, A Beka, and Math U See that teach everything for you.

(I can teach my son whatever he needs to know in Language Arts, History, and Foreign Languages, but math and science are my weak points. He has a DVD curriculum for math that is very comprehensive and easy to work with, and starting in the spring his science curriculum will have CDRom and MP3 supplements to go along with everything. I learn right along with him, and love it.)

Homeschooling isn’t for everyone, and I’m not trying to convince you to do it or anything, but please don’t think you can’t. To teach a classroom, you need to be able to lesson plan and teach a concept to a group of varied children. To teach your own child, you need to be able to see what your individual child needs, get the curriculum for it, and work with them till they get it. In first grade, it’s actually really pretty easy (with your own child).

I would suggest you get in touch with some homeschool groups in your area. CA has some great groups and co ops, and the people and teachers in these groups can answer any questions you have, and help you find curriculum choices that will work for you.

If you can read, write, and work through first grade math, you can teach your son these things. If you are willing to spend the time with him (1-2 hours a day generally does it for “seat work” in the first grade, the rest is discovery, read-alouds, and playtime), you can teach him what he needs to know.

It doesn’t sound like the school your son is in is going to be able to do much of anything – they probably have way too much on their hands to begin with.

Is there just one child in his class whom you consider a nice person for your son to play with? If there were just one child, perhaps, you could invite the child to your home, after school. If the two children play well together at your home, they may begin to play together at school.

If it were me, I’d do whatever it took to move some place that has good schools, even if it meant selling what I owned to get there. Might mean taking a loss, or making sacrifices, but where there’s a good will, there will always be a way to do it.

I’d do some research into what exactly is required to teach at home, even if it’s only temporally, and take my son out of school until I could move, 1st grade can’t be that difficult to teach, my dear, It can’t be as difficult as teaching middle school or high school might be- it’s only first grade. Simple arithmetic and ABC’s, learning to write in cursive,things you’ve probably already been teaching him.

To think this is only 1st grade, and it is this bad at school already, it can only get worse. Consider what the long term affects might be for him,and what you would be willing to sacrifice to prevent it so he’ll learn to build strong confidence in himself, and learn good things.

Developing healthy social skills and a positive self-esteem will take him a lonnng way. To me, it wouldn’t be worth taking the risk another week or another month in that environment.

I know it’s hard when you don’t have much money, I’ve been there, being a single parent is hard,especially at first, but it gets easier with time. But sometimes you just gotta be willing to do what’s most difficult in our adult lives,ourselves, in order to make things easier for our child’s lives.

I did without alot of things just so my children could have a better quality of life than I had growing up. WHATEVER it took for them to have a happier life, whatever it meant loosing or doing without to get it, because I knew I could always have those things later on. Now that they are grown, it’s my turn. lol

School is supposed to be fun at that age, not depressing and painful! Some of the most important things we can give our children as parents, are free.

Things that shape and mold their characters and values, are priceless!! He’s asking you to help him, if you leave him in there and he forms a resentment against you later for it, think of the bad attitudes and things he’ll start picking up from other kids that are there. It could totally change him-it did me. I was a totally outgoing, happy go lucky, always happy and smiling child until my parents moved me to that school in the 2nd grade. It totally changed me, being bullied so much. It doesn’t matter how much self-esteem a child has, it only takes one bully to rip it all apart.

The most valuable lessons children learn, are from how are parents handled a crisis. How your son sees himself in your eyes is what matters, because the way you choose to respond to this, will tell him how he will decide to think about himself. I felt betrayed by my parents when they switched me to another school with alot of bullies in it. Especially when I asked them to take me out of that school,and they didn’t. You don’t want him to start resenting you or hating his life.

That happened when I was growing up and I was forced to go there, I resented my parents for making me go there, I totally withdrew myself and stopped talking, and grew up believing the world was against me. Then I grew up and married a “bully” for a husband. Twice!

I would really be concerned about what message keeping him there will be sending him, since he has already told you how he feels about it and that he doesn’t want to be there.