Re: OT homeschooling

[Guest guest]

I am homeschooling my 5 year old NT son. Although we

don't have any experience with ASD homeschooling (yet)

we are finding that it is a great decision for us.

You can get involved with homeschooling support groups

and go on field trips with them. That helps with the

dreaded " socialization " that everyone is so worried

about. This is our first year, and Andy is in

kindergarten. The great thing about homeschooling is

that you can do it at your own child's learning pace.

Andy is a genius, and we live in a very small town, so

our local school district wouldn't be able to

accomodate him. We live an hour from KC, so that's

too far to have to drive him to a special school. I

have the freedom to teach him the things that the

other children in this town don't learn until 4th

grade. Vise versa, if you have a slow learner, you've

got that one-on-one ratio that will work for his

benefit, and you don't have to worry about them

falling through the educational cracks. Most people

are worried about socialization, but to be perfectly

honest, I don't care for my children to socialize with

the kids at our elementary school. Andy went to the

district's early childhood program last year, and it

was a real eye opener as to how so many of the

children have parents that really don't care about

them, and the childrens' attitudes and behaviors

reflect that. Remember that if you make the choice to

homeschool, everyone will bombard you with, " They're

not going to get socialization " , when maybe that kind

of socialization is not what you want after all. As

for preparing them for the real world, I anticipate

that my children will be more prepared, because I can

teach him life skills as part of our schooling that he

wouldn't learn in public school. We can do

experiments with the stock market, manage money, learn

to do laundry, cook, visit places of business on field

trips, etc. I expect that by the time he reaches 14

or 15 years old, Andy will be ready to at least audit

some college classes with me, because we will be at

the point that I would need help (no chemistry lab at

home, biology lab, etc.), so he will be eased into a

college environment. Sorry I couldn't help with the

ASD aspect, but our time will come in a few years.

=====

__________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

> I don't want to start a debate as I am pretty new to this list and

> don't know if there have been past issues with this topic.

> I am just curious about WHY those of you who homeschool choose to do

> so.

I am AS and I was treated like trash in public school. I will NOT

allow that to happen to my children. I also do not like the

adversarial IEP process [not always adversarial, but often so]. Plus

I do not agree with much of the public school curriculum and

philosophy, I am more " back to basics " in my approach, plus I am

Christian.

> Have you been happy?

Absolutely, it is the best thing for all four of my kids, in my

opinion.

> Do you worry about decreased socialization?

When I was in public school, my socialization consisted of being

severely mistreated and tortured. I became depressed and suicidal. I

needed that socialization like I needed a hole in my head. I make

socialization opportunities for my son [and all my children] even tho

he is homeschooled. We get together with smaller groups of kids, who

understand my son, and who can all be better-supervised than in a

large school setting. We do this about 3 days per week. Also the

current public school philosophy is to leave the children alone on the

playground so they can " learn to work out their difficulties " .

Obviously this does not work for an AS child who has very little

social concept.

> If you homeschool are your kids more severe on the ASD?

My son was very low functioning before diet, at age 3-1/2 he tested at

developmental level 0-3 months. Now after diet and a few supplements,

he is basically NT, he is age 5-1/2 and acts like a typical 2-1/2 yo

child, so still delayed but no autistic behaviors etc.

Did you have

> any special training to learn how to help your ASD child?

I read Maurice's book and her manual. I started with ABA,

then moved to DTT-NET, now I just treat him like a typical 2-1/2 yo

child, with extra emphasis on language because it is his weak area.

>

> Jane starts public school in Nov., and I have been reading with

> interest some of your posts about homeschooling. I really don't

think

> I would have the patience to teach her,

You can start now and see if you would still feel this way in

November. There is no law that says you cannot change your mind

either way, and if you decide on public school, it has to accept her,

it cannot say " we are full now " or " you decided against public

school " . But if you do find you do not have the patience, then you

can either 1. send her to public school knowing you believe it is best

for her, or 2. continue to homeschool her either thru public IEP or

thru private therapists. You can make all the plans/IEP and

everything, but then inform your school in November whether or not you

will be sending her. This cannot be a problem until your child is

compulsory age. After that, there are other laws depending on your

state. But in all states, you can educate your own child. You can go

here for more information on legal issues.

http://www.hslda.org/

and I worry about her not

> being around other ppl as much as she would in school(I am a pretty

> quiet, homebody myself).

Being around too many other people, in my opinion, is not a good

thing. I believe smaller and less-frequent interactions are best for

all children, even AS ones.

I also worry that homeschooling her wouldn't

> prepare her for the real world.

I was treated worse in " school " than I was ever treated after I

graduated high school. For me, school was NOT real world. Plus there

are many ways you can integrate your child into the " real world " while

keeping her home.

Here is my site section on homeschooling, I have many links here that

may help you decide, including several listservs especially for

homeschooling children with special needs.

http://home.pacbell.net/cscomp/parentin.htm#homeschool

Those are my(personal) main

> concerns. Understand of course, I am the queen of worry about what

> will happen in the public schools, don't get me wrong. Just want

some

> opinions. Want to explore all my options....

Always a good thing.

You can email me

> privately if you want to.

> Janelle

Good luck to you in your decision.

Dana

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 11/21/01 8:58:32 PM Pacific Standard Time,

adsampson76@... writes:

<<

I know this is OT for this list, but I am looking for

a used Saxon Math 2 curriculum if anyone has one that

they want to sell.

>>

I have the Algebra 1 & 2 but not the Math. Saxon is the best!

Best wishes,

Miriam