My husband knows I’ve always thought about homeschooling. My autistic son has been getting services from public school and now is in a small class (7 children), in a small school ( 16 children) with the support of a behavioral therapist. We fought very hard to get my son in into the school because of the class size and the teacher. I just found out his teacher is getting a pink slip, due to budget cuts, and the school may only have one teacher in the Fall. This came up last year, right after we won our appeal to get our son in the school. They decided to keep both teachers and pay for it out of a savings account. The saving account is dwindling. Even if they keep both teachers another year, there’s little chance of them keeping both teachers beyond the end of next year. So the choice has practically been made for me.
I had already decided that the school may not work out for my older son who is very obviously gifted but has hidden disabilities his teacher doesn’t want to acknowledge.
I hadn’t mentioned my thinking more about homeschooling to my husband until last night. I hadn’t wanted to say anything until I had done my research and had a plan. I told him about the teacher’s getting pink slipped and that I wasn’t worried about it because I could homeschool and he seemed pretty relaxed about it. Yeah! I know he is hesitant to do something that he considers “alternative” with our children. I need to do my homework to be able to show him 1) all the good reasons to homeschool, 2) documentation of the positive results of homeschooling, 3) the future of homeschooled children regarding obtaining university degrees and 4) what homeschooling will look like for our family.
Any resources or experiences you can share to help with my homework would be greatly appreciated. Best homeschooling information books, articles and research… best curriculum, best experiences, etc…
Re: Making a homeschool choice.
Try googling
benefits homeschooling
You should get myriad hits.
I’ve got some specific links for homeschooling students wtih LD on my site (link below - there’s a tab for homeschooling).
IMO based on a dozen or so years in the schools, I wouldn’t *want* the ‘socialization’ that happens in those later years for the marginalized subgroups. I’m sure *some* people homeschool in a manner that impedes social skills, but I just can’t grasp why it’s such a big issue; I t hink people have some bizarre mystical image of “school” that one traipse through the halls will demolish pretty quickly. And if social skills are a special challenge, then about the last thing I’d want is to toss that kiddo into a milieu and hope he figured things out on his own, even though that works for most of us.
homeschooling
I just happened to know many people who homeschooled. I live in Louisiana my local chapter of homeschool moms referred me to the Chef organization. I think they are http://chef.org It is a christian based organization. Your local chapter can help you with any local resources for homeschooling moms. Mine referred me to some helpful web sites. Even if you aren’t a Christian or have the same belief system you may be able to use this resource. Our local chapter has organized sports, social groups, moms that just want to help you/support you emotionally and any way they can. I also went to my State Board of Education web site. They had lots of helpful information on college scholarships/ Tops program and more. I know many succesfull homeschooled people that have gone on to college. It is all about the moms and dads motivating the child. Getting them the resources to achieve their goals. Don’t worry, God didn’t give you your child if he didn’t think you could handle it. He only gives us what we can handle each day. Somtimes our descion to add to it is what gets us. I hope this helped you in some way.
home schooling is wonderful. It is the best thing you could do for your children if you have the patience for it. I have four children, three of which are schooling. One in third grade, one in first, and one in k-5. Plus I have a 3 month old. The one thing most people use against us homeschoolers is they don’t think the kids get enough socialization. But thats not true in most cases. My children are the most social kids I have ever seen. But I get them involved in things like swim lessons at the ymca and gymnastics. there is also the homeschool network where homeschool moms get together and take their kids on field trips and things. Home schooling isn’t for everyone though. It takes a lot of patience, time and hard work. Kids have a natural resistance to have mom teach them anything so it’s a little more of a struggle for us. you have to be prepared to have your kids under your feet 24-7. There is no more mommy time. If you have a doc. app. they go with you. A hair app. they go. Every where you go they go too. Unless of course you are one of the lucky ones with an on call babysitter in which case can I have her number :D . Not to mention the house stays messier cause the kids are in it all day long. But if you can do it you won’t regret it. The results are wonderful. You develop a strong bond with your children and really get to know them and they you. They also get a better education and better morals cause they aren’t faced with all the drugs and violence on a day to day basis. I just love it. Well I hope this helped.
Frazzled mom