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Moms View Message Board: Parenting Children with Special Needs: Any Homeschoolers here?
I was hoping there might be someone here that homeschools that I could talk with. I hope I dont start a debate about this or anything. I have been seriously considering this for a few months. My child has actually asked to be homeschooled many times. We have talked in great length about it, read several books on it, researched til I am blue in the face
I homeschool my 10 year old part time. We do language and math at home, and she goes for the afternoon subjects. We've been doing it for almost a year, and her overall marks have really improved.
Conni also at momtomom.com Christine is still there with her homeschool board. I have to say that it does seem with special needs kids homeschooling just might be easier!
Thanks Marcia and Kaye!
If you post questions at M2M, you'll get some good answers.
Thanks MArcia! I will look into the books you mentioned above. They sound interesting.
Hi Connie! I homeschool my 8 year old ADHD son as well. We began our adventure November 2003. I haven't purchased a curriculum to date, we use the library and the internet a lot to do our studies, I have purchased a few workbooks and friends have given us some extras but I like this fly by the seat of your pants way of life. I was wondering where you're from, sounds like you have a wonderful support network to turn to and I can't say that I have been so fortunate. There is an active group here in GA but they want a statement of faith signed by my son and myself and he has a long way to go on his spiritual journey yet. Name of the group you are dealing with might help us locate a local chapter. Thanks so much.
I am a homeschooling Mom. I did not plan to be one, though. I worked as a preschool teacher off and on for 15 years and then when I was expecting, I imagined I would just put my baby in the nursery where I worked. Well, surprise, surprise!! My daughter was a "premie" so nursery care was NOT an option and I resigned and became a "stay at home" Mom. Well, I imagined that when my daughter was three and started preschool, I would go back to work, but surprise!!surprise!! again. When she was two years old, my daughter picked up "Dr.Suess's ABC's" and began to read. My husband and I couldn't believe it and we began to hand her different books and she read them. Being proud parents, we videotaped it. So we have proof. I did enroll her in preschool at our local church and they were extremely kind to her but she was "leaps and bounds" intellectually with the other children. She attended that preschool until she was five while I researched schools. I looked into public schools but that did not look like an option, then I looked into private schools(I visited several private schools) who said they were not equipped to have a "special needs" child. My daughter's IQ is unusually high and once the school sees her test results they usually use the "we don't have the facilities to meet her needs" excuse. I was feeling pretty desperate and then I attended a homeschooling convention and found other gifted kids there!! One was a 7 year old who plays piano for her church, one was an 8 year old who could do algebra, lots and lots of kids playing chess....just a lot of kids who did not fit the "norm". So, after a year of researching and attending conferences and "taking what I can and leaving the rest" I began to homeschool my daughter. She is now 7 years old, we have been officially homeschooling for 2 years and in April 2004 she finished a fourth grade cirriculum. She has lots of friends and she loves being a homeschooler! I do not want to debate either. I believe every child is different and I am SO GRATEFUL that as a parent in America I have choices. Some kids are perfect for public school, some love and need the structure of private school, my daughter just happens to need homeschool. My second daughter is a delight and is very bright. She just turned four and I asked her if she wanted to go to the preschool at our Church and she does and she will--I recently told another homeschooling Mom that my second daughter wants to attend public school when she is five and as long as it is a good school, I will let her attend. So, to me, how we educate our children is a personal decision based on the child as an individual and aren't we lucky that we have so many choices? We are blessed!
Dondi, our family works the same way. I homeschool one child only, for special ed reasons. I can offer so much more than the school can. She still goes half days, but I would like that to end after this year. She'll be going into grade 6, and I know it will be a real struggle. I hate watching her struggle with meaningless work, when there's real life stuff I can be teaching her right here. I don't mean that everything in school is meaningless, but learning about simple machines for 8 years in a row is doing nothing for her. Just one small example. I can do hands on teaching, and that's what works best for her.
Yes, until I started homeschooling, I thought an "incline plane" was an airplane preparing for take off at the airport and an "axle" was something you use to chop down a tree! (just kidding)
Dmom
A Total Curriculum Guide to Teach Your Child at Home
Thanks!
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and are looking at curriculums now. Of course this is my 6th grader I am talking about homescholing. He attended his first home school mtg last week and had an absolute blast. He met several boys his age and there were about 60 other kids there! They sign up for classes and attend classes together. He signed up for Basketball, Field Hockey, and Chess.