Homeschooling

[Guest guest]

Hi Tricia,

Thank you for sharing all that information. We are having such a difficult time with our school district that we keeping thinking more and more about homeschooling. My son has been suspended 5 times already this year, the last two times for being disruptive and refusing to do his work.

Anyway, I don't know if we could pull this off. My son has always done so well when he is home because he's been suspended. He gets all his school work done and it is much neater and he puts more effort into it. The only thing is that both my husband and I work. My husband is in the military and I have to work to help make ends meet. When my son stays home alone all day he does much better academically and obviously I'm not getting the e-mails or phone calls but he gets so lonely that he gets more depressed. He is already on zoloft for depression.

Is there anyone else out there that homeschools or has homeschooled and worked full time at the same time?ne

From: Tricia <bright4homeschool@...>Subject: ( ) Re: Homeschooling Date: Saturday, December 11, 2010, 10:32 AM

Dear Jolene,

I have homeschooled for the past 16 years. My 19 year Aspie spent a grand total of 6 weeks in the preschool handicapped program when I decided enough is enough. We pulled In six weeks I was called into school no less than 2 dozen times because my son was "uncontrollable." The last straw was when the district informed me they were transferring my 3 year old to a residental school for multiple handicapped students.

We beginning in grade 3 we used Switched-On Schoolhouse a computer based curriculum for the majority of his schoolwork.

http://www.aophomeschooling.com/switched-on-schoolhouse/overview.php

He could work at his own pace. And the curriculum took care of all the planning, record keeping and grading for me. Your child receives immediate feedback when they answer their questions. They know if their answer is correct and have 2 additional tries to answer correctly when they miss a question. It taught wonderful independent study skills and my son was very successful with this curriculum. It also helped him because he also has dygraphia and doing the work on the computer took away the handwriting component that was time consuming, painful and tedious.

You can attend a free Webinar to learn more about SOS

Beginning 12/20.

http://www.aophomeschooling.com/switched-on-schoolhouse/webinars.php

He preferred Teaching Textbooks for Math.

This curriculum was developed for homeschoolers by two homeschooled brothers who are Harvard graduates. One is a Harvard Math professor, the other a Math Tutor at Harvard. This curriculum comes with instructional CDs, Solution CDs (at least for upper level math--can't recall the early grades). The elementary level students do their assignments on the computer and like SOS it grades the work and maintains your grades for you.

http://teachingtextbooks.com/

If your son is a more hands-on math student, you may want to look into Math U SEE. I use this with my second son, now 16. (ADD/LD). This is another great Math curriculum developed my a Math teacher and father of a special needs child. Comes with an instructional DVD, manipulatives, and work book.

http://www.mathusee.com/

We supplement with a lot of educational videos such as Drive Thru History, reading Historical fiction and biographies. We use Sonlight Curriculum as a reading guide. Sonlight is a literature based curriculum that teaches the content areas through literature.

http://www.sonlight.com/

I Although we don't purchase the curriculum, I get a catalog and use the suggested books to get ideas for wonderful books that enhance my children's SOS curriculum. Most of the Sonlight books are available at your public library.

My 19 year old graduated in June and enrolled in a Technical Institute in July studying Computer Technology, Networking and Information Systems. We never informed the school of his AS and thus far is doing excellent in all his classes. He scored the highest score in years on their entrance exam. And placed in the top 10 on their scholarship exam, earning an automatic scholarship. He has a 4.0 GPA and is one of the top 3 students in his class. He as already applied for, taken and earned 2 Microsoft Certifications. He earned a perfect score on his Last Cert and and 700/800 on his first Cert. He's on graduating with all 6 certs necessary be certified as a Micrsoft Certified Systems Administrator and is already self studying to sit for the additional 3 exams to be certified as a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer.

I truly believe he owes this success in his early adult life to his homeschool environment where he could learn study skills in a safe, loving environment. He was never treated as a "special needs" student and learned to interact with all the "normal" kids in our homeschool coop where he participated in countless trips, activities, and weekly play days in the park with kids of all ages and skill levels. He is an Eagle Scout and even served as a Den Chief for 3 helping young cub scouts learn scout skills, earn their Arrow of Light and Crossover from Cub Scouts into Boy Scouts when he was 13-16 years old.

If you have the desire and ability to homeschool your child...my recommendation is GO FOR IT!

You've seen our pros. 1:1 instruction, self paced, safe, non-threatening environment, choose curriculum that is best for your student's learning style, determine your child's course of study based upon his interests not just the state regs.

As for the Cons some days may be hard.

You will have to "de-school" your child if he has had a bad experience and re-develop his love for learning.

On particularly rough days, you are there 24/7. You can't put your child on the bus and say, wow, now I have a 6 hour break to rejuvenate myself. To cope, find yourself a support system. Join a local homeschool group where you have adults to talk with and share with. Get out and go to those play dates. Where you can sit in the park and talk with an adult. You'll be surprised to find there will probably be others in the group wearing similar moccasins and will understand where you are coming from. They pulled their kids out of school for the same or similar reasons as you. This time will refresh you and allow your child time to get out, run around and hopefully make a friend or two.

Though some days may be long and hard, the rewards are well worth it. My Aspie and I have a wonderful relationship because of all the extra time I had to spend with him. It's been great for my other children too. And I can see the fruits of his school successes in his young adult life and higher education. He knows how to set goals for his own live and reach for the stars.

Blessings,

Tricia

--------------original message-------------

Posted by: "Jolene "

Hello,I never post anything but am at the end of my rope. Because of issues that areReoccurring at my son's school, we are thinking of homeschooling him. DoesAnyone else homeschool their aspie child? If so what are some of the pros andCons you have found in your experience? Also, do you have any particularCurriculum that you would recommend? My son is at or above (mostly above) hisGrade level. (He is in fourth grade.) He has trouble only in math. AnyThoughts or input you might have would be tremendously appreciated. Thanks.

[Guest guest]

Wow Tricia! Thank you so much for sharing all of that information. I really appreciate the links! I've been homeschooling my 7 year-old son ever since he was a toddler and was fascinated with his ability to quickly absorb and retain information. I had no idea he was an Aspie then; just got the diagnosis in January. Anyway, I did attempt to put him in preschool when he was 4 and quickly puled him out after 3 weeks. He too, started to hate learning based on his school experience. When I saw that, I said no way are they going to kill the joy of learning my son already possessed. We belong to a homeschooling community here in land and he loves it. We too, go on field trips, to parks and classes with children of all ages and they love and

treat him with respect, even when they think something is a bit different with him. :-) My son is happy, creative, has a great imagination and has lots of fun. He just started hugging and kissing me this year.We were able to get his reading flowing with www.headsprout.com, an online reading program offering interactive reading lessons and we are now exploring the homeschool curriculum with www.time4learning.com. Time4learning has quite a bit of free demo classes and games to explore. We are also checking out www.mathusee.com, haven't signed up yet. Mathusee.com has a free drill page that some find very useful.Tricia, thanks again for sharing the success of homeschooling your children. I needed that encouragement right about now. Recently, I've been

questioned about my decision to homeschool him; doctors and some friends (whose children are in school) are trying to tell me he would gain so much more if I would put he in a school tailored for children with autism. I am so thankful to belong to a strong homeschooling community, so I was able to receive reassurance and guidance from another mom who has been homeschooling her 16 year-old Aspie son. You echoed just about everything she shared with me. She's also so proud of her son. I appreciate the inspirational stories from you both.AmaFrom: susanne hansen <s_hansen34@...> Sent: Sat, December 11, 2010 3:53:17 PMSubject: Re: ( ) Re: Homeschooling

Hi Tricia,

Thank you for sharing all that information. We are having such a difficult time with our school district that we keeping thinking more and more about homeschooling. My son has been suspended 5 times already this year, the last two times for being disruptive and refusing to do his work.

Anyway, I don't know if we could pull this off. My son has always done so well when he is home because he's been suspended. He gets all his school work done and it is much neater and he puts more effort into it. The only thing is that both my husband and I work. My husband is in the military and I have to work to help make ends meet. When my son stays home alone all day he does much better academically and obviously I'm not getting the e-mails or phone calls but he gets so lonely that he gets more depressed. He is already on zoloft for depression.

Is there anyone else out there that homeschools or has homeschooled and worked full time at the same time?ne

From: Tricia <bright4homeschool@...>Subject: ( ) Re: Homeschooling Date: Saturday, December 11, 2010, 10:32 AM

Dear Jolene,

I have homeschooled for the past 16 years. My 19 year Aspie spent a grand total of 6 weeks in the preschool handicapped program when I decided enough is enough. We pulled In six weeks I was called into school no less than 2 dozen times because my son was "uncontrollable." The last straw was when the district informed me they were transferring my 3 year old to a residental school for multiple handicapped students.

We beginning in grade 3 we used Switched-On Schoolhouse a computer based curriculum for the majority of his schoolwork.

http://www.aophomeschooling.com/switched-on-schoolhouse/overview.php

He could work at his own pace. And the curriculum took care of all the planning, record keeping and grading for me. Your child receives immediate feedback when they answer their questions. They know if their answer is correct and have 2 additional tries to answer correctly when they miss a question. It taught wonderful independent study skills and my son was very successful with this curriculum. It also helped him because he also has dygraphia and doing the work on the computer took away the handwriting component that was time consuming, painful and tedious.

You can attend a free Webinar to learn more about SOS

Beginning 12/20.

http://www.aophomeschooling.com/switched-on-schoolhouse/webinars.php

He preferred Teaching Textbooks for Math.

This curriculum was developed for homeschoolers by two homeschooled brothers who are Harvard graduates. One is a Harvard Math professor, the other a Math Tutor at Harvard. This curriculum comes with instructional CDs, Solution CDs (at least for upper level math--can't recall the early grades). The elementary level students do their assignments on the computer and like SOS it grades the work and maintains your grades for you.

http://teachingtextbooks.com/

If your son is a more hands-on math student, you may want to look into Math U SEE. I use this with my second son, now 16. (ADD/LD). This is another great Math curriculum developed my a Math teacher and father of a special needs child. Comes with an instructional DVD, manipulatives, and work book.

http://www.mathusee.com/

We supplement with a lot of educational videos such as Drive Thru History, reading Historical fiction and biographies. We use Sonlight Curriculum as a reading guide. Sonlight is a literature based curriculum that teaches the content areas through literature.

http://www.sonlight.com/

I Although we don't purchase the curriculum, I get a catalog and use the suggested books to get ideas for wonderful books that enhance my children's SOS curriculum. Most of the Sonlight books are available at your public library.

My 19 year old graduated in June and enrolled in a Technical Institute in July studying Computer Technology, Networking and Information Systems. We never informed the school of his AS and thus far is doing excellent in all his classes. He scored the highest score in years on their entrance exam. And placed in the top 10 on their scholarship exam, earning an automatic scholarship. He has a 4.0 GPA and is one of the top 3 students in his class. He as already applied for, taken and earned 2 Microsoft Certifications. He earned a perfect score on his Last Cert and and 700/800 on his first Cert. He's on graduating with all 6 certs necessary be certified as a Micrsoft Certified Systems Administrator and is already self studying to sit for the additional 3 exams to be certified as a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer.

I truly believe he owes this success in his early adult life to his homeschool environment where he could learn study skills in a safe, loving environment. He was never treated as a "special needs" student and learned to interact with all the "normal" kids in our homeschool coop where he participated in countless trips, activities, and weekly play days in the park with kids of all ages and skill levels. He is an Eagle Scout and even served as a Den Chief for 3 helping young cub scouts learn scout skills, earn their Arrow of Light and Crossover from Cub Scouts into Boy Scouts when he was 13-16 years old.

If you have the desire and ability to homeschool your child...my recommendation is GO FOR IT!

You've seen our pros. 1:1 instruction, self paced, safe, non-threatening environment, choose curriculum that is best for your student's learning style, determine your child's course of study based upon his interests not just the state regs.

As for the Cons some days may be hard.

You will have to "de-school" your child if he has had a bad experience and re-develop his love for learning.

On particularly rough days, you are there 24/7. You can't put your child on the bus and say, wow, now I have a 6 hour break to rejuvenate myself. To cope, find yourself a support system. Join a local homeschool group where you have adults to talk with and share with. Get out and go to those play dates. Where you can sit in the park and talk with an adult. You'll be surprised to find there will probably be others in the group wearing similar moccasins and will understand where you are coming from. They pulled their kids out of school for the same or similar reasons as you. This time will refresh you and allow your child time to get out, run around and hopefully make a friend or two.

Though some days may be long and hard, the rewards are well worth it. My Aspie and I have a wonderful relationship because of all the extra time I had to spend with him. It's been great for my other children too. And I can see the fruits of his school successes in his young adult life and higher education. He knows how to set goals for his own live and reach for the stars.

Blessings,

Tricia

--------------original message-------------

Posted by: "Jolene "

Hello,I never post anything but am at the end of my rope. Because of issues that areReoccurring at my son's school, we are thinking of homeschooling him. DoesAnyone else homeschool their aspie child? If so what are some of the pros andCons you have found in your experience? Also, do you have any particularCurriculum that you would recommend? My son is at or above (mostly above) hisGrade level. (He is in fourth grade.) He has trouble only in math. AnyThoughts or input you might have would be tremendously appreciated. Thanks.

[Guest guest]

I'm another mom who is finding that homeschooling is working beautifully for my

14 year old Aspie daughter.

We pulled her out of school halfway through her 7th grade year, because of

bullying, lack of understanding and support from school staff, and health

problems my daughter started having which may or may not have been related to

her stress level. One of our big concerns was that D had started to hate school

so much that the social dynamic was eliminating her interest in learning. She

wanted to avoid anything to do with " school. " So we used the balance of the

year to homeschool, although our main focus was D's health and getting her

healthy, and having a flexible situation. We were not worried about her

academic progress as she was far ahead of her peers in the classroom setting.

So we transitioned to homeschooling, allowing her to choose her reading and

writing subject matter and then having her work with a teacher tutor for math

and science.

Our goal was pretty limited: to have school be " tolerable " and to get her health

issues under control.

For 8th grade, D's health was much improved and we thought that perhaps outside

of a clasroom setting she could relax and follow her intelligence. We enrolled

my daughter in Stanford's online high school program, EPGY ( " Education Program

for Gifted Youth. " D's academics have always been extremely high and we hoped

that the virtual classroom would be a good compromise between homeschooling and

having peer and teacher interaction, albeit in live-time online classes. Her

academics were fine, and the program was flexible so that when she did have

health issues, she could miss and all classes were recorded so she could watch

later. But we found that given D's anti-school mindset, she still had a HUGe

amount of anxiety about school and schoolwork, and the accelerated pace of the

EPGY program was not right for her emotionally.

So, we transitioned to homeschooling and have had great success. I realized

that one of the issues that causes D a lot of stress is juggling so many

subjects at one time. So we agreed she would do a year's worth of English and

math in one semester but just focusing on English, math, and foreign language,

and then after the holidays she will do science and history and continue with

foreign language. Having fewer subjects to juggle, even while she's still doing

the same overall quantity of work, has been MUCH better.

We have used Teaching Textbooks Geometry and it's been excellent. She watches a

20 minute DVD lesson which is incredibly clear, and then does a problem set.

THe instruction really is clear and amazing. The same lesson is set out in the

book, so you can assess whether your child learns better from hearing/seeing or

reading the lesson.

There are many online groups for homeschooling where you can get ideas and

reviews of packaged curriculum materials, or how to create your own curriculum.

I have come to realize that homeschooling an older kid is like being a general

contractor -- you hire subcontractors for each subject, whether it's a tutor, a

packaged curriculum, etc. So you can mix and match to suit your and your

child's need. I would imagine that homeschooling a younger child would involve

much more mom-led teaching.

Also, you might take some time to read online about " unschooling. " Kids who

have had bad school experiences may need some transition time and if they are

allowed to follow their own interests, it may help them gradually remember that

learning can be fun. We didn't adopt a true unschooling approach, but I have

found the philosophy about allowing your child's interests and talents to shape

where educational opportunities go to be a very helpful one.

After three really miserable school years for my daughter, this has been so much

better. She recently asked if she could participate in the NaNoWriMo ( " National

Novel Writing Month " ) project for her English work in November. I was so

thrilled that she initiated something connected to school -- AND she actually

wrote a 50,000 word draft of a novel in a month. Because she chose this on her

own, she worked FAR harder and spent far more time than I would have asked her

to on her English work during that period. So I consider that a huge, huge

success.

Good luck and don't hesitate to ask a lot of questions if you are interested in

homeschooling. It may prove to be a great alternative for your child AND allow

you to put your energy into direct interaction with your child instead of into

fighting with the school!

Diane & #9830;

[Guest guest]

My son was being bullied too: verbally, physically, and with sick little games

of " you can't sit at this lunch table " . He took martial arts for a while and

was quite good at it. But he would never defend himself in school, and we all

tried to persuade him to defend himself, including his psychologist.

Oddly, there was a girl with Downs syndrome in some of his classes. From what

he saw, she was indeed treated better than he was. As a society, we need to get

past breaking out groups that shouldn't be bullied. No one should be.

It's so great to have my kid sleeping again, eating breakfast without fear of

throwing it up again from stress. I sincerely doubt we're sending him back to

school again until he's old enough for community college.

Bronwyn

>

> Breaks my heart u could be describing my ten year old son.

> Re: ( ) Homeschooling

>

> Well, it seems there are so many issues. He is bullied, because the other

kids know he is different.

[Guest guest]

I envy people like you whose kid is self-motivated. Mine are totally opposite that. My ds (HFA) has no desire to learn. He doesn't hate learning by any means. But he is not driven to learn or self-motivated, curious - nor does he have the ability to focus long enough to complete things on his own. I keep trying different things here to try to get him to work more on his own but it isn't happening. I really wanted him to join a program where he could take college classes in lieu of high school classes for credit in both high school and college (and high school pays the fees) but I can't picture him sitting still long enough to do the work. I hate to sign him up and have him unable to do it. Ugh. I keep saying, "I want to work on having you do more things independently" and he says, "You said that last year, mom." lol. ahhh, yeah. We live in hope. lol.

Roxanna

"I

predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." - Jefferson

( ) Re: Homeschooling

That is exactly how my 19 year old progressed all through high school. He found he could focus much better if he worked in blocks. He would choose one subject and work through the grade at his own pace. Sometimes he choose to do a unit in science, take the unit test, then take a break from Science and move on to History for a unit or two. I allowed him the freedom to choose how he completed the work. I just required that he complete a min of 4 hours of school work per day, and complete a grade level by the end of the school year while maintaining a particular GPA. The rest was up to him. Many times I would get up at 7 am to find he had already completed 2 hours of schoolwork while I slept. He has never required a lot of sleep and if he woke at 5 am he would just log into school and do his work while the household slept. He said he could focus more before the rest of the family was up and about.

He graduated with 27 credits and only needed 21 but chose to do as many History electives as he could.

It's amazing how much and how well our children can do when we offer guidelines while giving them some control of their classes.

Best wishes.

Tricia

------original message-------

Posted by: "dphock" dphock@... Sat Dec 11, 2010 7:30 PM (PST)

I'm another mom who is finding that homeschooling is working beautifully for my 14 year old Aspie daughter.

I realized that one of the issues that causes D a lot of stress is juggling so many subjects at one time. So we agreed she would do a year's worth of English and math in one semester but just focusing on English, math, and foreign language, and then after the holidays she will do science and history and continue with foreign language. Having fewer subjects to juggle, even while she's still doing the same overall quantity of work, has been MUCH better.

[Guest guest]

Oh my! If I waited to send to school until he could tell me when

something was wrong or someone hurt him, he'd be 18 and still at home.

Unfortunately not all of our children will ever be able to communicate to

that level. However, I can tell you because I am his mom and I know him

best, when he is upset, or something is not right. Takes me a while

sometimes to figure something out because his communication is not the best

but eventually I am able to make the adjustments needed. Good luck with

your decision. It is tough letting go enough for them to be independent of

us.

Dawn - Mom to 18

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf

Of Cheryl TRAVIS

Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2011 3:24 PM

; Amy Helmericks

Subject: Re: Re: homeschooling

thanks so much for replying yes I do want her here a bit longer, with the

other children I had them til they were at least 5 years old! I knew they

would tell me if something wasn't right or if someone hurt them. I don't

have that so far with .

From: Amy Helmericks <snow.ffairy@... <mailto:snow.ffairy%40gmail.com>

>

Subject: Re: homeschooling

<mailto:%40>

Date: Thursday, October 27, 2011, 11:39 AM

I can't speak from specialized parenting (I'm the one who wrote in earlier

asking about picture book ideas), but I chose to homeschool my average kids

and I think a great way to start for any kid is with lots of reading aloud

and (if you have the energy) Montessori-style approaches.

A resource that talks about bringing those techniques home is the book

*Mommy

Teach Me* by Barbara Curtis. She is a Montessori-trained mother of four

boys with Down syndrome (three adopted) and has talked about the usefulness

of these hands-on activities for them.

(She's got other kids too, and a rather political blog, but even if you're

not interested in that stuff this book is great for looking at early

education at home.)

If your heart wants to hang on to your baby, don't ignore it. There's

plenty of time for you to " let her go " when you're ready.

I will admit my primary reason for keeping my kids home (at first) was the

very one Mrs. Curtis articulates in that book: I didn't want some other

woman stealing their hearts. I enjoyed being my kids' " sun and moon " and

wasn't ready to share that. Now that we're all older that's less of an

issue, but I'm still not ashamed of it. I'm glad I " listened to my heart. "

No regrets.

--Amy Jane

[Guest guest]

Oh I know I have to let go, so that she learns to be independent I am just

thinking three is too young for that to happen! in the area that I live, i have

not heard very good things about the special needs school til I get to the third

or fourth grade (I know that teacher) so yeah it does scare me. I am also told

that I can go to her class with E. in the mean time and she will work with us on

the different areas. so that she is not behind on what they think she should be

at. So far she is 15 months and coming in at 13 months on a lot of the levels.

Not saying she will stay that way, I just want to make sure she will have a way

of letting me know if something is not right. My daughter in high school has

told me that she has heard the teachers literally yelling at the special needs

kids there. One that they were yelling at the other day to get on the bus was

D/S. so that really caught her attention. 

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ok/county/muskogee/cemeteries/ceml_list.htm

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mysurnameresearches/sanbernard\

ino.htm

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~unioniowa/

From: Amy Helmericks <snow.ffairy@... <mailto:snow.ffairy%40gmail.com>

>

Subject: Re: homeschooling

<mailto:%40>

Date: Thursday, October 27, 2011, 11:39 AM

I can't speak from specialized parenting (I'm the one who wrote in earlier

asking about picture book ideas), but I chose to homeschool my average kids

and I think a great way to start for any kid is with lots of reading aloud

and (if you have the energy) Montessori-style approaches.

A resource that talks about bringing those techniques home is the book

*Mommy

Teach Me* by Barbara Curtis.  She is a Montessori-trained mother of four

boys with Down syndrome (three adopted) and has talked about the usefulness

of these hands-on activities for them.

(She's got other kids too, and a rather political blog, but even if you're

not interested in that stuff this book is great for looking at early

education at home.)

If your heart wants to hang on to your baby, don't ignore it.  There's

plenty of time for you to " let her go " when you're ready.

I will admit my primary reason for keeping my kids home (at first) was the

very one Mrs. Curtis articulates in that book: I didn't want some other

woman stealing their hearts.  I enjoyed being my kids' " sun and moon " and

wasn't ready to share that.  Now that we're all older that's less of an

issue, but I'm still not ashamed of it.  I'm glad I " listened to my heart. "

No regrets.

--Amy Jane