Child's Disability or Special Needs
Asperger's
Age/Grade of Child When You Switched to Homeschooling
3 1/2
How Long You've Been Homeschooling
almost five years
Why Did You Choose Homeschooling?
Our town peer modeling preschool program determined that our son was not performing successfully and their answer was more services, additional days. This left our Boy melting down and withdrawn by the fourth day.
How Are You Homeschooling?
We have tried multiple methods but are happily using an eclectic approach based on a classical learning style (from Living Books and Charlotte Mason) with some Montessori, self-directed unit studies around the edges. We have added a community applied theater performance this year and continue piano lessons. He has also joined the children's choir at our church and tried an applied basketball group last week and loved it. I ordered preK curriculum from Calvert and used portions of it all the way through 1st grade. We tried itallics, which is supposed to be easier but it seemed to confuse his writing style and so we've returned to traditional ball/stick writing. I have previously had an actual classroom in our home and we recited the Pledge of Allegiance each morning... then this gave way to a year of unschooling before our son asked for his classroom back. Lastly, we have joined a very large homeschool group that has provided a rich backdrop of field trips, YMCA/ice-skating, phys ed activities, holiday programs and great friends.
Advice
- Homeschooling can be the perfect avenue to adapt learning to suit your child's needs. It is God's gift to create this path to a customized education that instills the life-long joy that learning should produce.... together. You'll know when you've hit on what works, when you've identified your child's learning style (visual, auditory, tactile, etc..) and feel thrilled to see them discover their world around you! Be confident and continue to grow with your children... It's worth it!
